Home World of Warcraft Classes Shaman «Elemental»

An Elemental Shaman uses the power of Fire, Earth, Air and Water in various forms to overcome difficulties on their way. They can also bind Elementals’ will and use it to fight enemies.

Introduction

Basic information on the spec:

Elemental Shaman damages from a distance. Just like Enhancement Shamans, they use 2 types of resources: Maelstrom as the main damaging resource, and Mana for auxiliary abilities.

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

  • Good single target damage
  • Strong AOE
  • A standard build lets not to lose dps while moving
  • Average survivability
  • A great variety of useful talents

Disadvantages:

  • Depends a lot on azerite traits
  • No immune
  • No uniqueness of the class. It is easy to replace it

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Earthen Rage. Additional passive Nature damage.
  • Echo of the Elements. Lava Burst has 2 charges now, and now your Lava Surge generates a new charge instead of simply canceling the restoring time.
  • Elemental Blast. Once every 12 secs it lets you cast a 2-sec spell that deals nice elemental magic damage on a target and entitles you to a 10-sec buff – increasing the rating of your Crit, Haste or Mastery by 2000.

Igneous Potential traits make Echo of the Elements the best choice. Without those traits Earthen Rage is the way to go.

 

Tier 2. Lvl 30.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Call the Thunder. Your maximum Maelstrom increased by 30 the Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock and  Earthquake are reduced by 10.
  • Totem Mastery. Summons 3 totems for 2 mins. The totems increase the Haste rating by 2%, increase the Flame Shock ‘s damage by 10%, the chance of Mastery kicking in on Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning is 5% higher. It also generates 1 Maelstrom per sec. If you go over 40m away from the totem, you stop receiving these bonuses.

* The choice depends on the fight type. Totem Mastery is used on a single target fight and at raids encounters. To maximize AOE damage you should use Aftershock which is especially good in mythic +. Call the Thunder is not used.

 

Tier 3. Lvl 45.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Spirit Wolf. While transformed in Ghost wolf, you gain 5% increased movement speed and 5% damage reduction every 1 se, stacking up to 4 times.  
  • Earth Shield. Protect the target with earthen shield, increasing your healing on them by 10% healing them when they take damage. Has 9 charges. This effect can only occur once every few seconds.  Earth shield can only be placed on one target at a time.
  • Static Charge. Reduces the cooldown of Capacitor totem  by 5 sec for each enemy it stuns. (up to 20 sec) .

* You should use Spirit Wolf,  because it is the most effective survivability and moving talent. In the open world Earth Shield could be better. In dungeons you might need to stun enemies so Static Charge could work.

 

Tier 4. Lvl 60.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Master of the Elements. “Lava Burst” increases the damage of your next Nature,  Physical or frost spell by 20%.
  • Storm Elemental. Replaces your  Fire Elemental for Storm elemental that deals range damage. While the elemental is active, each time you cast Lightning bolt or Chain lightning, the cast time of these spells is reduced by 3%, stacking up to 20 times.   
  • Liquid Magma Totem. Install a totem within the 40m range around you that would deal for 15 secs Fire damage to all your enemies within the 8m range.

* Master of the elementals currently is the best choice for almost all situations. Storm elemental could work to maximise bursting AOE but only combining with Primal Elementalist which does not suit standart Lava build. Liquid Magma Totem not useable at current state.

 

Tier 5. Lvl 75.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Nature’s Guardian. When your health is brought below 35%, you instantly heal for 20% of your maximum health. Cannot occur more than once every 45 sec. 
  • Ancestral Guidance. Allows you, within 10 secs, to restore the lacking Health to the 3 closest members of the group or a raid as of 20% of the damage you deal or the healing you do. CD 2 min.
  • Wind Rush Totem. Install a totem in a selected area within a 40m radius. The totem will exist for 15 secs and have the active area of 10m. Any Ally within that area increase their Haste by 60% for 5 secs. The effect is renewed when they enter the area for the next time. CD 2 min.

* Your choice by standard is – Nature’s Guardian. If  your group or raid needs sprint then take Wind Rush Totem. Ancestral Guidance could be used if  your group or raid lacks healing, used in keys a lot while bursting damage.

 

Tier 60. Lvl 90.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Surge of Power. Earth Shock empowers your next spell for 15 sec: Flame shock also applies to 1 additional target within 8 yards. Lightning bolt will cause additional 1 -3  Elemental Overloads. Lava Burst reduces the cooldown of your storm elemental.  Frost Shock freezes the target for 6 sec.
  • Primal Elementalist. Your elementals become 80% more powerful  and you gain direct control over them. Fire elemental gets an ability  Meteor,and storm elemental gets 2 abilities:  Eye of the storm and Thunderstorm.
  • Icefury. Hurls frigid ice at the target dealing Frost damage and causing your next 4 “Frost Shock”  to deal increased damage and generate 8 Maelstroms. Generates 25 Maelstroms. Can cause “Mastery: Elemental Overload”.

* Currently there are 2 options in this tier. Icefury is used on all not AOE encounters.  It is also very useful on encounters where you need to move a lot. Primal Elementalist is used on AOE and multiDoT encounters because you have no time to use frost fury during spam of Chain Lightning and  Earthquake, and additionally you can make your elemental to  use Meteor on pack. Surge of Power has no advantages.

 

Tier 7. Lvl 100.

Shaman «Elemental»

  • Ascendance. Allows you to transform into a Fire Ascendant for 15 secs. In this form, your Chain Lightning becomes Lava Beam, and your Lava Burst has no CD and deals extra damage equal to the probability of your critical hit. CD 3 min.
  • Unlimited Power. When your spells cause “Mastery: Elemental Overload”, you gain 2% for 10 sec. Gaining a stack does not refresh the duration.
  • Stormkeeper. Charge yourself with lightning, causing your next 2 Lightning bolts to deal 150% more damage and also causes your next 2   Lightning bolts or Chain lightnings be be instant cast and trigger an Elemental overload on every target.

* For any  situation only one talent is currently good – Stormkeeper. The rest talents are weak.

So, we can boil it all down to the following builds:

1-3 targets (raid):

  1. Echo of the Elements
  2. Totem Mastery
  3. Your choice
  4. Master of the Elements
  5. Your choice
  6. Icefury / Primal Elementalist for multi-target fights
  7. Stormkeeper

АоЕ (Mythic+):

  1. Echo of hte Elements
  2. Aftershock
  3. Your choice
  4. Master of the Elements
  5. Your choice
  6. Primal Elementalist
  7. Stormkeepr

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Azerite traits

Azerite traits are additional improvements for your character that are available as 3 special azerite armor pieces – helmet, chest and shoulders. In Battle for Azeroth you will not find other amor with such slots.

Current shaman build depends on 3 traits  Igneous Potential. But there are 3 other free slots that could be equipped with class traits like:

  • Natural Harmony – best trait for any figths
  • Ancestral Resonance – it simulates high, but the value of this trait depends on the lenth of the fight. As shorter it is than better tre trait.
  • Lava Shock – extremly good for multiDoT encounters, where you need to nuke priority target with your Earth Shock.
  • Tectonic Thunder is only usable at mythic+ for better AoE perfomance.

The most interesting minor traits are: Overwhelming Power, Unstable Flames, Gutripper and Heed My Call.

We recommend to use Herodamage and  AzeritePowerWeight addon. Import the addon command from the site and you can easily compare your azerite in the game.  

( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":7:262: 457=10, 193=7.38, 575=6.98, 416=6.91, 196=6.46, 562=6.05, 526=5.80, 522=5.66, 82=5.35, 479=4.52, 501=4.41, 504=4.37, 478=4.33, 157=4.32, 192=4.30, 486=4.27, 492=4.27, 483=4.26, 488=4.10, 494=4.10, 485=3.95, 195=3.91, 489=3.84, 495=3.84, 178=3.83, 194=3.78, 482=3.75, 523=3.57, 480=3.53, 448=3.53, 521=3.43, 447=3.40, 30=3.36, 561=3.13, 222=2.86, 498=2.73, 156=2.60, 459=2.60, 500=2.41, 481=2.08, 505=2.07, 31=2.05, 22=1.92, 560=1.76, 21=1.76, 499=1.74, 38=1.66, 576=1.45, 541=1.41, 461=1.35, 491=1.32, 497=1.32, 490=1.30, 496=1.30, 487=1.27, 493=1.27, 462=1.25, 18=0.84, 417=0.16: )

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Essences

These ratings are based on simulations, statistics of WarcraftLogs and players experience.

MAJOR

MINOR

  • Essence of the Focusing Iris (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) – cool option, if you can keep stacks of haste from main target
  • The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) – nice extra damage during the fight
  • Memory of Lucid Dreams (Source: Nazjatar questing) – can be used to provide more AoE at mythic+
  • Conflict and Strife (Source: Rated PvP) gives a good bonus to your versatility, which is very good by 2 points: increasing your single target dps with IF and also gives you more survivability
  • Vision of Perfection (Source: “Operation: Mechagon” drop) usable with Strom elemental for more often AoE burst

 

Rotation

 

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Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics for different builds is as follows:

Single target (with Icefury):

Versatility > Crit >Haste >>> Mastery > Intellect 

АоЕ / Mythic+:

Crit> Versatility = Haste >>> Mastery > Intellect 

*Haste also becomes very valuable stat at multiDoT encounters, because you need to get more Lava Surge procs

Mastery: Elemental Overload basically gives you 15% chance of hitting a target with the cast spell twice. The second charge would do 85% damage as of the original one, and creates 75% Maelstrom of that of the original one.

This is just the basic priority. But when you earn more of a characteristic, be prepared to see a picture where the stats that you have in lesser proportions are more valuable. This may slightly alter the basic proportion. That’s why is recommended, once you receive new equipment, you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is no way to get a more precise answer to which stat to focus on first, but through a simulation.

Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals. Mostly, you’ll have to choose between Haste and Crit.

  1. Gems:
  1. Chants:
  1. Food:
  1. Flasks and Potions

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Macros

Kick with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one. You can make a macro like this for your Purge.

/stopcasting
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][]Wind Shear

 

Fire Elemental or Storm Elemental macro

#showtooltip
/cast Элементаль огня
/cast Элементаль бури
/cast Призыв молнии
/cast [talent:6/2] Око шторма
/cast [talent:6/2] Метеорит

 

Earthquake by cursor position:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Earthquake

 

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What’s next?

 

  1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
  2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
  3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.

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