Well, last night was my 2nd night raiding on my shaman, or well, 2nd night raiding as my main and I'm looking for critiques.
*EDIT* I can't post links to logs...... or armory... stupid... If you are reading this and bored, my toon is on US server Area 52, Shambamheal. Logs are on same server the guild is VEX and the logs with my shaman are the last one posted, Team THW in our logs page.
Any help on builds and rotation, it was an ugly night I feel, but we still killed stuff (everyone outgears the content by a bit, I know....) So any critiques would be wonderful. Ele is not a spec I have played often... Like.. probably my 3rd time in ele spec, period. So really want help in ele rotation and advice for that, of course resto help is great too, I've played resto pretty much solely and feel a bit more comfortable with it over ele.
Also, reforging strat. I heal with a disc and hpally. I can hit the 25% breakpoint with +5% raid buff, I have haste at 21% right now, is that extra % able to overcome the server lag not allowing for that extra tick problem? Is it really worth having so much haste or are stats useful in other areas being who I am healing with?
First off, I've been playing an Ele Shaman as my main since 5.1 and it can be a LOT of fun if you enjoy being a hybrid type player. If you're looking to top the meters on almost every fight then you're playing the wrong class! But if you enjoy being helpful to your raid with your totems/heals, then you're on the right track!
ROTATION
Always make sure that at the very least your current target has Flame Shock (FS) on it and reapply when the timer is under 3 seconds.
Lava Burst (LvB) is always your top priority outside of reapplying FS! Lava Surge procs are where it's at so any time there is more than one target you need to attempt to keep FS up on them as well. But never attempt to keep more than 3 targets going on a FS rotation.
Next up is your Earth Shock (ES) with Fulmination. I personally believe it is best to precast ES with 5 or 6 Lightning Shield (LS) stacks when you're above ~50% mastery. All too often in the past have I waited for a 7 stack only to run into a CD issue with my shock when needing to reapply FS or had a Lightning Bolt (LB) proc Mastery and over stack LS, which is just a waste in my opinion. I would also recommend using ES no matter how many stacks when your main target's FS debuff is at 7 seconds remaining, just for good measure and to prevent fully stacking your LS while waiting for your FS to tick down to 3 seconds remaining, otherwise you end up having to cast several LBs with a 7 stack LS while waiting for the CD on your shocks to come up before you finally get to cast your ES that has been sitting at 7 stacks for ~10 seconds. The biggest point I'm trying to make here is DON'T BE WASTEFUL!
Finally, your filler spell and a major part of your arsenal is Lightning Bolt. Since they bake the glyph into this spell you can always cast it while moving and it should always be loading up on your cast bar when all of the above spells/factors are not available.
Other notable spells are Chain Lightning (CL). This is technically the bread and butter of Ele Shaman. Any time there is more than one target to be attacked, you should replace LB with CL. Be careful when using this on 2-3 targets as it will drain your mana fairly quickly and you should be very liberal with your use of Thunderstorm to regain mana as it will become an issue if you don't pay attention to it. Your fire totems are also very important and in this section I'll cover Searing Totem (ST) and Magma Totem (MT). Searing Totem should be kept down at all times during a single target dps situation. Refreshing it DOES NOT take priority over LvB or a 5-7 stacked ES, but it is important to keep it down as often as possible. MT is the same priority and can be used in any situation where you know it will hit 2+ targets over an extended period of time. Earthquake is the final spell I'll mention here, but it is not used very often. From what I understand it is only a dps increase if it is going to affect 10+ targets over it's full duration. Otherwise just completely ignore this spell.
COOLDOWN USAGE
Never, and I mean NEVER macro your Spiritwalker's Grace (SG) or your Stormlash totem to your Ascendance! SG is an extremely useful utility spell that is much more useful outside of your Ascendance more often than not. Don't get me wrong, if you know you will have to move during your Ascendance then by all means, use it! But DO NOT BIND THEM TOGETHER. You WILL get lazy if you do, and it will not be used as it should be. With how the CD is on Stormlash you will miss out on a second Stormlash in your fight if you do not have it on it's own bind. Also be mindful that Stormlash Totems do not stack, so if there is another Shaman in your raid then make sure you coordinate with them on when you both will be casting it so that you do not overlap them. In most cases your Fire Elemental should be used on CD. I have found it best to not use the glyph and let him wail on the boss for the full minute at two separate occasions. Bloodlust/Heroism is pretty self explanatory as it should only ever be used when your raid leader calls for it. It is usually best to coordinate this with other Shamans/Mages so that only one goes on CD in case someone is Battle Resed after the fact and can benefit from Lust/Hero again.
UTILITY TOTEMS
Always be mindful of when your utility totems will be useful. You have at your disposal some rather potent utility totems that can literally change the course of a fight and mean the difference between a progression kill or 10-20 more progression attempts! I'll do a quick rundown of the utility totems and their uses just for fun. Earthbind Totem = AOE slow. Tremor Totem = AOE Fear/Charm/Sleep removal. Grounding Totem = can draw the damage from some boss spells and can potentially negate some (but not many). Healing Stream Totem = constant smart heal to your raid (can be helpful to your healers in high raid damage situations). And my personal favorite, Capacitor Totem = AOE stun (works great on pesky add packs)!
ADDONS
I currently run ElvUI, but I don't think it's any better than other UI setups. If you want to get the hang of the general Elemental rotation then I highly recommend an addon called Elementarist. It will literally tell you which spell to cast next in your rotation. Although I think it is a little off in some aspects, it is still very helpful for beginner Ele Shamans. I still use it mainly to track my FS and as a secondary notice if I don't have my ST down. Weak Auras is a must for everyone, although I only run one real WA String right now and it is for tracking my ES. Other than that all my other addons are based around other aspects of the game.
MACROS
1. Mouseover Macro that I use for FS and LvB. It is very helpful when you want to keep a FS on a boss while throwing Lava Surge LvBs at him and using CL on a group of adds. Also allows you to keep multiple FSs up much more easily.
2. I tend to run Totemic Projection at all times and this is the cast sequence macro I use to throw my utility totems when they are needed in other places. You can just edit the totem name on this one for other totems.
3. This is an easy stop cast for your Wind Shear so that you don't miss an interrupt due to a spell cast.
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast Wind Shear
4. Finally a little cast sequence macro for your Flametongue Weapon and Lightning Shield. I use this any time that I die to recast both so my Flametongue never accidentally runs out and so I know for certain my LS is on.
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