Elemental Shaman Guide: 5.2 Edition

[Kanariya]

• Critical Strike Rating: This stat increases our chance to deal additional (250% because of our passive Elemental Fury, and bumped up to 259% with the Chaotic meta gem) damage on every spell that we cast.

Evidence of this? Elemental Fury increases Critical Bonus damage by 50%, but the base spell crit bonus damage has always been 150% (except for Mages and Warlocks as of 4.0.1). There have been absolutely no patch notes documented or undocumented about the base spell critical strike damage bonus as an entirety being increased to 200%.

See: http://www.wowpedia.org/Elemental_Fury

[Faeglendir]

Evidence of this? Elemental Fury increases Critical Bonus damage by 50%, but the base spell crit bonus damage has always been 150% (except for Mages and Warlocks as of 4.0.1). There have been absolutely no patch notes documented or undocumented about the base spell critical strike damage bonus as an entirety being increased to 200%.

See: http://www.wowpedia.org/Elemental_Fury

All classes have base 200% critical damage, since Mists of Pandaria was released. Your link is outdated.

[Endus]

Evidence of this? Elemental Fury increases Critical Bonus damage by 50%, but the base spell crit bonus damage has always been 150% (except for Mages and Warlocks as of 4.0.1). There have been absolutely no patch notes documented or undocumented about the base spell critical strike damage bonus as an entirety being increased to 200%.

See: http://www.wowpedia.org/Elemental_Fury

All classes have base 200% critical damage, since Mists of Pandaria was released. Your link is outdated.

Just to provide the confirmation, the dev watercooler where this was explained;

All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline. There are a few exceptions where crits can get larger, but the default is x 2.0 for everyone.

Source

Not to mention, you can easily confirm this by running pretty much any kind of short test yourself in-game; the damage variation of a single cast is smaller than the difference we're talking about, so it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly whether the crit multiplier is 1.5x or 2.0x or 2.5x (confirming that the meta bumps it to 259% takes a bit more testing, but that didn't seem to be the dispute).

[Kanariya]

Just to provide the confirmation, the dev watercooler where this was explained;

All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline. There are a few exceptions where crits can get larger, but the default is x 2.0 for everyone.

Source

Not to mention, you can easily confirm this by running pretty much any kind of short test yourself in-game; the damage variation of a single cast is smaller than the difference we're talking about, so it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly whether the crit multiplier is 1.5x or 2.0x or 2.5x (confirming that the meta bumps it to 259% takes a bit more testing, but that didn't seem to be the dispute).

I see. Thanks for the info.

[thenagual]

Am I on the right path here?

What I have been doing is capping hit, then reforging anything I can to haste.

When reforge ALL to haste (simcraft), I get higher dps, when I do all to mastery it is just slightly under haste.

If it simply reforge so I am hit capped, and leave everything else alone, it is still lower than going all haste.

stacking haste: 84188.7
stacking mastery: 83905.3
stacking crit: 83117.6
capping hit, no other reforging: 83554.6

To make sure I am understanding: our stat weights will change. So is it a matter of running the sim after a new drop, and re-evaluating? I am questioning the 'don't stack any one stat', and want to make sure I am on the right path.

Note: this is with and EB rotation.

[psir]

What's better? Using the sha-gemmed staff from Lei Shi? Or using the Sha 1hander from Empress and shield?

Thanks.

[Spacepunch]

What's better? Using the sha-gemmed staff from Lei Shi? Or using the Sha 1hander from Empress and shield?

Thanks.

1h and shield or oh

[Saxonn]

What's better? Using the sha-gemmed staff from Lei Shi? Or using the Sha 1hander from Empress and shield?

Thanks.

Staff if shield is normal. Mace & Shield if shield is HC.

[Whydrood]

Nice guide, improved my DPS by about 15k while I was leveling. One thing you might want to add under macros though is:

#showtooltip Reincarnation

This macro if placed on your action bar will show you the remaining cool down on your reincarnation without having to look in your spell book.

[Saxonn]

Nice guide, improved my DPS by about 15k while I was leveling. One thing you might want to add under macros though is:

#showtooltip Reincarnation

This macro if placed on your action bar will show you the remaining cool down on your reincarnation without having to look in your spell book.

TotemTimers can be setup to display this without wasting an action bar slot if you would prefer that.

[Volitar]

If EM gets bumped down to 1min do you think it will push Orc ahead of Troll being able to use it with every other EM?


edit: 1.5 min cd now, dreams are crushed. Troll will probably stay better than Orc.

[binkenstein]

If EM gets bumped down to 1min do you think it will push Orc ahead of troll being able to use it with every other EM?

I'm not speculating on PTR changes in the guide, especially when it's just been changed to a 1.5 minute cooldown.

Additionally, Racial differences are very minor, and not worth focusing on.

[Michelangelo]

Quick simcraft question.

I imported myself for some testing without tinkering on rotation, just for getting stat weights. I got Haste > Mastery > Crit for single-target fight, which I expected, so I assume I did it correctly.

The confusing part is for any fight with more than 1 enemy. Simcraft gave my Crit huge weight for any fights with multiple enemies, even just 2 enemies, and my stat priority became Crit > Haste >> Mastery. I personally find this crazy, having always assumed Haste and Mastery are kings. Is Simcraft correct in saying that 150% critical damage heavily outweighs Haste/Mastery on spamming AoE?

EDIT: I imported Michelangelo from Hyjal-US

[psir]

Hey guys, I've been playing around with Elemental specc lately and I'm enhancement shaman originally.

I have a few questions:

AoE related:
Is it a dps gain to spam chain lightning (instead of LB on fights where there is 2-3 targets) instead of lightning bolt to proc fulmination more often?

Flameshock rotation?
In boss fights such as "The Stone Guards " in MSV or the first boss in Terrace, do I keep flameshock up on the secondary targets? Does this procc Lava burst more often, or not? Is it a dps gain? Should I prioritize keeping flameshock up on all 3 targets over using Fulmination?

Cancelling spell casts:
If I get the lava burst procc, do I always cancel LB and Elemental Blast? What are your thoughts on cancelling spells to use procc?

Mana Issues
It's hard to believe, I know... but sometimes I actually do die in a fight and have to use an ankh! The problem I've been experiencing is that I'm having serious mana issues after I'm dead. Even if I recast my lightning shield and use Thunderstorm when it's off cooldown. Any tips?

Any tricks of the trade? Share em' with me!

Thanks in advance guys!

[Michelangelo]

Hey guys, I've been playing around with Elemental specc lately and I'm enhancement shaman originally.

I have a few questions:

AoE related:
Is it a dps gain to spam chain lightning (instead of LB on fights where there is 2-3 targets) instead of lightning bolt to proc fulmination more often?

Flameshock rotation?
In boss fights such as "The Stone Guards " in MSV or the first boss in Terrace, do I keep flameshock up on the secondary targets? Does this procc Lava burst more often, or not? Is it a dps gain? Should I prioritize keeping flameshock up on all 3 targets over using Fulmination?

Cancelling spell casts:
If I get the lava burst procc, do I always cancel LB and Elemental Blast? What are your thoughts on cancelling spells to use procc?

Mana Issues
It's hard to believe, I know... but sometimes I actually do die in a fight and have to use an ankh! The problem I've been experiencing is that I'm having serious mana issues after I'm dead. Even if I recast my lightning shield and use Thunderstorm when it's off cooldown. Any tips?

Any tricks of the trade? Share em' with me!

Thanks in advance guys!

There are answers to each one of your questions in the first page, so look there

On the last note about mana problems, some fights you will have problems especially on a 2 target CL cleave. Outside of Lightning Bolt (w/ Lightning Shield up) and Thunderstorm on CD, your next best bet is to glyph TC for fights where mana will likely be an issue.

[binkenstein]

Hey guys, I've been playing around with Elemental specc lately and I'm enhancement shaman originally.

I have a few questions:

AoE related:
Is it a dps gain to spam chain lightning (instead of LB on fights where there is 2-3 targets) instead of lightning bolt to proc fulmination more often?

Re-read the guide, it should be in there.

Flameshock rotation?
In boss fights such as "The Stone Guards " in MSV or the first boss in Terrace, do I keep flameshock up on the secondary targets? Does this procc Lava burst more often, or not? Is it a dps gain? Should I prioritize keeping flameshock up on all 3 targets over using Fulmination?

Again, re-read the guide

Cancelling spell casts:
If I get the lava burst procc, do I always cancel LB and Elemental Blast? What are your thoughts on cancelling spells to use procc?

No, you should never cancel casts.

Mana Issues
It's hard to believe, I know... but sometimes I actually do die in a fight and have to use an ankh! The problem I've been experiencing is that I'm having serious mana issues after I'm dead. Even if I recast my lightning shield and use Thunderstorm when it's off cooldown. Any tips?

Any tricks of the trade? Share em' with me!

Thanks in advance guys!

There are no tips. If you die, your mana is very screwed. That said, single target DPS should be relatively mana neutral

[psir]

That's what I get for not reading the actuall guide... wow! Sorry guys, I asked those questions while drunk if that's an excuse! But I did get the answers I wanted, so ty for that

[Kigama]

Hi,

with my own guild i am still raiding in Heart of Fear. But tonight I was asked by some friends to help @Protectors of the Endless.
Is Glyph of Unleashed Lightning absolutely needed in the 10-raid version?

[Saxonn]

Hi,

with my own guild i am still raiding in Heart of Fear. But tonight I was asked by some friends to help @Protectors of the Endless.
Is Glyph of Unleashed Lightning absolutely needed in the 10-raid version?

It's pretty much a dps gain on every fight this tier, regardless of 10 or 25man.

[Dekadez]

It's pretty much a dps gain on every fight this tier, regardless of 10 or 25man.

And like the guide explicitly mentions, the DPS loss of using it in stationary fights is minor, while the DPS gain on movement fights that can't be completely covered with (glyphed) SWG is rather substantial.
Combined with the fact that there are no stationary fights and it smoothes out our rotation, in my opinion. It also helps newer players follow our ABC mantra better.

In short, I never swap it around anymore (used to though).