Elemental Shaman - 3.2 updates / Things you Should Know!

Ahh yes, Elemental Shaman. If you have one you love them, if you don't, then you are /jealous of them.

I was talking with multiple people over the weekend (none that have a elemental shaman) and they were all saying how "over-powered" elemental shaman are blah, blah, blah.

"A newly dinged 80 can get some crafted gear and some item level 200 blues and do 3k dps"

First off, lies!

Second, you are just jealous because we have utility and we are a hybrid class. Just because we can spec to heal or melee, does not mean that a straight dps class (mage, hunter, rogue) should do more dps then us.

Wipe those tears tubby and get ready to learn a few things about lighting power, nature wielding, FROSTSHOCKIN Elemental Shamans.

Tier Gear and Bonuses - When to use them?

Tier 7

• 4-set bonus: The bonus critical strike damage of your Lava Burst is increased by 10%

Tier 8

• 2-set bonus: The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
• 4-set bonus: Your critical Strikes from Lightning Bolt cause the target to take nature damage equal to 8% of the Lightning Bolt’s damage over until cancelled sec.

Tier 9

• 2-set bonus: Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9 seconds
• 4-set bonus: Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%

Everyone in there mama is running heroics and raids to get there hands on conquest badges. You can buy anything with these badges, including your full tier 7 and 2 pieces of your tier 8.5.

When to switch from T7 to T8?

Your tier gear should be your first priority due to the bonus you get with them. As an Elemental Shaman, you want to be using your T7 four piece bonus until you get both T8.5 items from the badge vendor.

The 4 piece bonus from your T7 is not as good as your 2 piece bonus from T8. Going a little further in depth about it, the 4 piece T7 bonus roughly increases your output by ~30. While the 2 piece T8 bonus increases your output by around ~125.

Quite a huge difference. I have seen quite a few elemental shaman rolling around in Dalaran with one piece of T8 and it is breaking up their 4 piece bonus from T7. By doing this you might have a little more stats, but your dps overall is going to be much lower.

When to switch from T8 to T9?

The two piece set bonus for T9 is not that powerful. I saves you 1 global cooldown every 30 seconds, making it a small upgrade and only uping your output by ~60. Do not break up your T8 4 piece set for the 2 piece T9 unless the second item gives a 90-95 dps upgrade.

Surprised? I was too...but that last part was taken directly from the math guys over at Elitist Jerks.

So start collecting your T9 pieces. Just don't switch your 4 piece T8 until you have 4 pieces of the T9. Pretty weak, but it is what it is.

When you do get the 4 piece T9, that is where the money is at....I would love to create a shaman on the PTR to see what kind of dps I would be doing...I am sure its REDONKEYOUS!

Gems!

So now you are rocking your sexy 2 piece tier 8 bonus, but now you need to make sure you are gemming those suckas right.

[Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] is the only meta gem you should be using as a Elemental Shaman. If you are not using it, then you need to replace it ASAP if you care about making your toon the best it an possibly be.

Other then that, you should just be gemming for spell power. If you are having issues reaching the hit cap (368 for horde 342 for alliance) you should use the mix stat gem, [Vivid Eye of Zul] (+10 hit and 15 stamina)

Why you say? Well, it counts as a blue gem which is a requirement for the meta gem and it also allows you to stack more spell power gems like [Runed Cardinal Ruby]. It would be better then stacking the 12sp/15 stamina gem unless you are already hit capped. Then the 12sp/15 stamina gem would be the way to go to make the requirement for the meta gem.

Glyphs

I had to do some research on for this section. What I found was pretty cut and dry and that my friends is a good thing. We like to have things that are cut and dry. That way we don't confuse or over think ourselves.

• Glyph of Flame Shock - Required - It is a key part of our rotation, without it we wouldn't do the DPS that we do now. I mean not only does it save 1 global cooldown, it allows us to pew pew more!


• Glyph of Lightning Bolt - Required - It works out to be an additional 4% extra damage to lighting bolt.

The above two gylphs are the cut and dry part. There isn't any reason why you shouldn't have them in regards to PvE dps.

The glyphs below are the conditional ones, lets take a look.

• Glyph of Lava Burst - Your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 10% of your spell power

However, that 10% is a co-efficient bonus for Lava Burst. Also, because of the high use of our Lava Burst spell in our rotation, you should only get this when you are rocking the 4 piece set bonus for Tier 9. The 20% damage bonus (4 piece T9 bonus) further multiplies the additional spell power, which is just damn sexy!

So don't use this glyph unless you have the 4 piece tier bonus.

• Glyph of Totem of Wrath - When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power

This is what you should use until you have the four piece tier 9 bonus. An additional +84 spell power to all spells sounds like something we can all use!

Pew Pew Rotation!

Nothing has really changed since I wrote my article a few months back, but here it is again.

FS, LvB, CL/LB filler, LvB, CL/LB filler, and repeat.

Now you don't have to use chain lighting if you don't want to, but I use it for a few reasons.

1. It does more damage
2. It's are only reliable AoE spell

Some of the negatives about Chain Lighting is that is cost more mana then Lighting Bolt and it is on a cool down. So you just can't spam it.

I want to be clear on this though, you do not have to use it, it is optional in our rotation. Most of the time I do use it, but I also pretty good gear and can take the extra hit on the mana.

Earthshock please?

Alot of Shamans say that you need to use Earth Shock in your rotation. I don't incorporated into my rotation because ES only has a 25 yard range (with talents) and you need a glyph to make it even come close to putting it in our rotation.

I already went over glyphs and the [Glyph of Earth Shock] is not worth replacing any of the other ones I listed in that section.

OMG? The End?!?

Yup, that is all I got to say about Elemental Shamans at this point. Just make sure you are using the right gear and the correct rotation and you should be doing fine. Located on the right of my page, under Shaman, there are a few other guilds about Elemental Shamans you might find interesting.

Topics include stats, gear, and reaching the hit cap.

Until next time, I'm WTFout!