Seeking info in general on Elemental Shaman

[Deleted]

Hi guys, i took a break in 6.1 since not not enjoying WOD, join the club right? Anyway im going to lvl something ive never played before and thats a Elemental Shaman. IM basically looking for some information in general on how they are over all? pve, pvp, lvling ect? Ive always been a raider at heart and usually end up in a decent guild, not great but one that does clear content while its current. So any info you can give me would be great thanks.
cheers
-greg

[Blithe]

I've mained a Shaman since early Classic, but Elemental isn't really all that great this patch or expansion in any area. We have amazing area of effect damage but Hellfire Citadel lacks the fights for it to come of use, so we resort to single-target which is absolutely abysmal due to horrible single-target damage and the fact we're very bad on fights where we have to target switch a lot (Flame Shock, looking at you).

PvP is another story, we're still bad but with a REALLY good team you can still get Gladiator, it just requires a lot more skill and communication than other classes. You're not going to have any fun unless you have good teammates, we're really hindered on our own.

As for leveling, well, I main a Shaman but they're literally my least favourite class to level unless you specifically queue as a healer and dungeon grind. Elemental and Enhancement don't get any core mechanics until 60+ so until then it's very boring and frustrating.

For the sake of your sanity, don't play a Shaman unless you enjoy being really bad at almost everything. Every other class can do what we can but better. The only reason I've stuck with my Shaman for so long is because I've invested so much time into her, otherwise I'd probably have made the switch a long time ago.

I don't see us being fixed any time soon either, Blizzard shows they don't care at all about us and prove their incompetence after every patch by ignoring every bit of possible feedback we throw at them.

[middling]

I have played mine since 2005

I still think they are a great overall class.

I have 7 high level characters but I play the shaman the most.

I love the heals, I love soloing things

Its basically a mage wearing mail armor

[Tetramental]

www.icy-veins (dot) com/wow/elemental-shaman-pve-dps-guide

[Deleted]

I've mained a Shaman since early Classic, but Elemental isn't really all that great this patch or expansion in any area. We have amazing area of effect damage but Hellfire Citadel lacks the fights for it to come of use, so we resort to single-target which is absolutely abysmal due to horrible single-target damage and the fact we're very bad on fights where we have to target switch a lot (Flame Shock, looking at you).

PvP is another story, we're still bad but with a REALLY good team you can still get Gladiator, it just requires a lot more skill and communication than other classes. You're not going to have any fun unless you have good teammates, we're really hindered on our own.

As for leveling, well, I main a Shaman but they're literally my least favourite class to level unless you specifically queue as a healer and dungeon grind. Elemental and Enhancement don't get any core mechanics until 60+ so until then it's very boring and frustrating.

For the sake of your sanity, don't play a Shaman unless you enjoy being really bad at almost everything. Every other class can do what we can but better. The only reason I've stuck with my Shaman for so long is because I've invested so much time into her, otherwise I'd probably have made the switch a long time ago.

I don't see us being fixed any time soon either, Blizzard shows they don't care at all about us and prove their incompetence after every patch by ignoring every bit of possible feedback we throw at them.

Bloody hell thats totally put a downer on it for me lol. Are they really that bad in PVE? or always bottom of the pack.

[freddy090909]

Bloody hell thats totally put a downer on it for me lol. Are they really that bad in PVE? or always bottom of the pack.

Elemental's strength comes (for the most part) from how well it can utilize earthquake. That requires 3 targets near each other for at least some parts of the fight. Anywhere we can't use earthquake and anytime we have to move takes a huge hit on our DPS.

On fights where we can make good use of earthquake (Socrethar, assault, Iskar, Xhul'horak), we are extremely well off. On a fight like council (3 targets, but separated) or a fight like tyrant, we will do very poorly relative to other classes with better multi-target (the trinket may eventually help on these fights). On mostly single target (fel lord, iron reaver), we will be below average. And, on single target with heavy movement or heavy target swapping (kilrogg outside, gorefiend, mannoroth, archimonde), we will be right at the bottom.

The spread is just too wide, at the moment (at the very bottom on most fights, while having a few "saving grace" fights that we shine on). There's no reason we should be so low on single-target fights when they have minimal movement. Ideally, we'll see a single-target increase for our turret damage, and hopefully we'll see our shock CDs unlinked at some point (would go a long way for improving our tier and class trinket synergy - they could even attach it as a side benefit to one of them).

[Nebria]

I've mained a Shaman since early Classic, but Elemental isn't really all that great this patch or expansion in any area. We have amazing area of effect damage but Hellfire Citadel lacks the fights for it to come of use, so we resort to single-target which is absolutely abysmal due to horrible single-target damage and the fact we're very bad on fights where we have to target switch a lot (Flame Shock, looking at you).

PvP is another story, we're still bad but with a REALLY good team you can still get Gladiator, it just requires a lot more skill and communication than other classes. You're not going to have any fun unless you have good teammates, we're really hindered on our own.

As for leveling, well, I main a Shaman but they're literally my least favourite class to level unless you specifically queue as a healer and dungeon grind. Elemental and Enhancement don't get any core mechanics until 60+ so until then it's very boring and frustrating.

For the sake of your sanity, don't play a Shaman unless you enjoy being really bad at almost everything. Every other class can do what we can but better. The only reason I've stuck with my Shaman for so long is because I've invested so much time into her, otherwise I'd probably have made the switch a long time ago.

I don't see us being fixed any time soon either, Blizzard shows they don't care at all about us and prove their incompetence after every patch by ignoring every bit of possible feedback we throw at them.

good summary

[Antilurker77]

Bloody hell thats totally put a downer on it for me lol. Are they really that bad in PVE? or always bottom of the pack.

No. That whole paragraph is a gross exaggeration, and I expect better from the mods here. Our single target DPS is pretty much right in the middle right now.

[Nebria]

No. That whole paragraph is a gross exaggeration, and I expect better from the mods here. Our single target DPS is pretty much right in the middle right now.

in the middle of what?
when I look in logs we are bottom. pures always play the spec that is best at the moment and all other hybrid dds are better.
the only thing that saves the day is when you can cleave and eq.

[Deleted]

in the middle of what?
the only thing that saves the day is when you can cleave and eq.

That's a third of the fights in HFC though. And with archimonde trinket you become much better on 3-5 additional fights.

[woopytywoop]

I find it quite ironic that EQ is the thing that keeps us competitive.

They pushed EQ so hard in WoD while most ppl thought it should have been pruned in beta since no one ever liked it ever.

[Deleted]

No. That whole paragraph is a gross exaggeration, and I expect better from the mods here. Our single target DPS is pretty much right in the middle right now.

ST was fine as ele in brf, in hfc with higher ilvl (ele scales poorly compared to other classes) and after change to multistrike (5% more ms, 15% less bonus ms damage) ST for ele is really really low

i've mained ele in brf but for hfc i was asked by my raid leader to switch to balance because ele became so weak, and now as balance with ~5-6 less ilvls im beating our ele shamans on most fights, which is pretty sad actually ;x

[Nebria]

That's a third of the fights in HFC though. And with archimonde trinket you become much better on 3-5 additional fights.

the problem is you have to kill archimonde first and get the trinket...

[Aurora]

There will be balance patches in the next couple of weeks, silly to make a decision based on dps until those have passed. I wouldn't be particularly hopeful given their past emphasis on shaman specs as designed for the AoE niche and intended as lower half single target but these people seem to have little coherence in what they're doing so they may accidentally buff us somehow, who knows.
We do however still scale quite well and should proportionately benefit more from the legendary ring with our burst than most others, it may not be so grim in time but difficult to recommend anyone to roll ele right now on damage grounds. Though it's a bit redundant to have that conversation when anyone who wants to be a desirable dps with high damage and useful utility should be playing a Hunter or Mage in every expansion since they're seemingly guaranteed.

[Deleted]

We're pretty low on single target in PvE, which sucks for all of those single target encounters that there are nowadays.

We're a bit low on multi target encounters such as Council or Gorefiend but that's not our specialty, and the Archimonde trinket will help with those a bit. But if you're low on Hellfire Assault, Kormrok, Iskar, Socrethar, Xhul'horac, Mannoroth or Archimonde then that's pretty much a user issue. Being decent for half the encounters is perfectly fine.

[Deleted]

We're pretty low on single target in PvE, which sucks for all of those single target encounters that there are nowadays.

We're a bit low on multi target encounters such as Council or Gorefiend but that's not our specialty, and the Archimonde trinket will help with those a bit. But if you're low on Hellfire Assault, Kormrok, Iskar, Socrethar, Xhul'horac, Mannoroth or Archimonde then that's pretty much a user issue. Being decent for half the encounters is perfectly fine.

I partially agree with you but you are really wrong at some point.

We are not "a bit" low on coucil and gorefiend, we are just bottom. Archimonde trinket will really help on Council but not that much on Gorefiend.

On Kormrok your dps will be good only if your raid aoe sucks. We have 2 wars, 3 locks and 1 ret so hands don't stay for more than 3sec.

On Socrethar, you will be good only if you are assigned to aoe the ghosts.

And just how the f*ck can you say that if you are low Mannoroth or Archimonde you are a bad player. Have you even try these bosses ?

We are really good on Assault, Iskar, Xhul'horac, and Socrethar if on the ghosts, pretty good on Kormrok and just bottom on all other fights.

[FalcFalcFalc]

User error if you're low on mannoroth or archimonde... Lmfao.

[Jotaux]

Yeah I was going to ask what you were doing on Mannoroth? The adds die so fast I can barely get one EQ down.

[Deleted]

Mannoroth is just praying to get lucky CL bounces, same with archimonde dog phase (and perhaps infernal and on occasion doomfire spirit+hellcaller+boss but bleh), on average you'll get maybe like 3-5 earthquakes total unless you get lucky.

[Deleted]

There's a difference between being "really good" and "decent". It would be silly if we were topping meters on 7 encounters given that elemental shaman has always been a "middle of the road" kinda spec. To be really good on 4 encounters, pretty good on one or two, decent on one or two, and meh on four or five is a good place to be. You'll find most other specs are in the same place.

And inb4 we call out one or two specific specs that are OP. That's not our problem, that's a problem with those specs. Maybe Mannoroth is less than ideal, but climbing back up the meters to at least half way from phase 2.5 on Archimonde is easy.

It's really not that bad, everyone just loves to complain.