Elemental shaman: haste/hit/Crit/spellpower

[Lummox]

Hey.

Since the release i've been playing ALOT, my main character is a lvl 80 elemental shm and i've got 2,1k (with wrathtotem and flametongue wep) spellpower with about 39% crit, 11% hit (still trying to cap), 5,4% haste.

The question i have regarding elemental shamans is:

What should we focus on to maximize our dps?

On a regular tank and spank fight i generally have 2,5k dps.

When i build my gear i focus on the follow:

1) Hit (get it to 14%, +3 from misery (shadowpriest buff) it's enough for 17% which is hitcap)
2) Spellpower (2,1k with wrath and flametongue)
3) Crit (39% including totem of wrath)
4) Haste (5,4%, without wrath of air)

The reason i aim for hate in the fourth place is because it messes up my spellcastchain.

We all know that elemental shamans scale like shit in wotlk-endgame. I would love to hear what you guys focus on and what your thoughts are on the diffrent attributes i just mentioned.

Regards Lummox

[Vaka]

Hey.

Since the release i've been playing ALOT, my main character is a lvl 80 elemental shm and i've got 2,1k (with wrathtotem and flametongue wep) spellpower with about 39% crit, 11% hit (still trying to cap), 5,4% haste.

The question i have regarding elemental shamans is:

What should we focus on to maximize our dps?

On a regular tank and spank fight i generally have 2,5k dps.

When i build my gear i focus on the follow:

1) Hit (get it to 14%, +3 from misery (shadowpriest buff) it's enough for 17% which is hitcap)
2) Spellpower (2,1k with wrath and flametongue)
3) Crit (39% including totem of wrath)
4) Haste (5,4%, without wrath of air)

The reason i aim for hate in the fourth place is because it messes up my spellcastchain.

We all know that elemental shamans scale like shit in wotlk-endgame. I would love to hear what you guys focus on and what your thoughts are on the diffrent attributes i just mentioned.

Regards Lummox

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 9% the new hit cap? Personally I'd shoot for 132 hit rating (theoretic cap with inherent self-buffs), then aim high in spell power, grabbing haste and crit as it comes with the spell power items, never leaning more towards one or the other.

[player404]

9% is the the hit cap for special (yellow) melée attacks.
17% is the hit cap for spells.
In a raid environment you only need 14% because there are various +3% hit debuffs coming from classes like a shadow priest.

Edit: I haven't tested it, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Lava Burst has a guaranteed crit upon landin on a target with Flame Shock instead of just increasing the crit chance by 100% (like warrior's Recklessness), thus it cannot miss.

Personally, I would first try to cap hit:
When putting aside the buffs you get from crit, which you get every 8 secs anyway:
+1% crit = +1% damage (with Elemental Fury).
+1% haste = +1% damage BUT it also effectively increases your mana cost because you cast more often.
+1% hit = +1% damage, unless when you miss Flame Shock, in which case you lose much more damage.

Try to view hit rating like this: it's like crit, but when you hit instead of crit you just miss a crit, but when you miss a Flame Shock, you miss a hit AND maybe a Lava Burst crit, which has 124% increased damage, and critting with a Lava Burst is 5% harder without the shock.

[Thotor]

1. You need to cap hit :
365~ when no SP/moonkin in raid
285~ with SP/moonkin

Remember that hit cap is now 17% and we only have 3% hit in our build.
I would advise to get trinket from violet hold so you can switch when you need more hit.

2. Spellpower the most important (?) :
I personally think this is our most important stat. (I'll explain on other)

3. Haste :
Haste is the second stat that we need. But too much haste means that flameshock will just get more in the way as you will get to a point where the GCD stops you.
Also Lava burst is on a 8 sec Cooldown but is part of our main dps. Haste is needed but not as much important as spellpower.

4. Crit :
Crit is propably the stat that we don't require that much anymore. Crit do not boost lava burst DPS.
Crit used to help us getting our buffs in but now with lava burst, they will always be up.
Either way, with 25% base crit, you will reach between 50-60% crit in raid environement.

I personally have 1700 spe with just flametongue up and between 2500-3000sp (depending on procs) in raid. Capped hit, 25% crit and 255 haste (had 350 before but needed to cap hit).
I also use the haste totem available through badges but I am not too sure of it's effectivness since we use a lot less LB now (and it only procs on LBs cast)

Edit: I haven't tested it, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Lava Burst has a guaranteed crit upon landin on a target with Flame Shock instead of just increasing the crit chance by 100% (like warrior's Recklessness), thus it cannot miss.

I would have to check this, but I have already missed a few lava burst. However it is possible that flameshock was not up

[Drakiru]

Lava Burst is not a gauranteed hit when flame shock is up. it's just 100% crit if it hits

[Amana]

Hi, don't dig old topics.

[Amanoginji]

wow, theres some nice advice. Outdated but nice.

Here is the scoop.

your spell hit cap is 14% yes, minus 3% from buffs or rather debuffs. 11%, if you are alliance 10%. You should really go check wowwiki though for the latest information just my 2 cents.

9% is not the yellow cap, the yellow cap is 8%

besides that i dont know you can follow what the others said, just giving you some info about hit that you have wrong.

[Mataus]

9% is the the hit cap for special (yellow) melée attacks.
17% is the hit cap for spells.
In a raid environment you only need 14% because there are various +3% hit debuffs coming from classes like a shadow priest.

Edit: I haven't tested it, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Lava Burst has a guaranteed crit upon landin on a target with Flame Shock instead of just increasing the crit chance by 100% (like warrior's Recklessness), thus it cannot miss.

Personally, I would first try to cap hit:
When putting aside the buffs you get from crit, which you get every 8 secs anyway:
+1% crit = +1% damage (with Elemental Fury).
+1% haste = +1% damage BUT it also effectively increases your mana cost because you cast more often.
+1% hit = +1% damage, unless when you miss Flame Shock, in which case you lose much more damage.

Try to view hit rating like this: it's like crit, but when you hit instead of crit you just miss a crit, but when you miss a Flame Shock, you miss a hit AND maybe a Lava Burst crit, which has 124% increased damage, and critting with a Lava Burst is 5% harder without the shock.

1% crit =/= 1% damage.

~80% of our damage can (can't) crit (if you have T8). If you don't have T8... it's more like 70% of our damage.

Lava Burst is 100% crit so +crit does nothing for it and this accounts for roughly 20% of our dps. Flame Shock dot is like 6% of our dps and without T8, it can't crit.

10 sp = 13 dps
10 haste = 11 dps
10 crit = 4 dps

It's roughly that kind of scale. hit to cap > sp > haste >>>> crit

Your crit is kind of way too high for your sp/haste. You should aim for hit cap, as much sp as possible (with current ulduar gear the max is about 3.3-3.2k), 520'ish haste (or a bit more to compensate for lag/movement), and then crit will automatically be where it should be.

[austeo]

First off hit cap yourself. Secondly get enough haste to perfect your rotation. Thirdly go to town stacking nothing but spellpower.

With my ftw, wrath totem , and an simple flask iam 3174 sp.

I do great dps and my rotation is near perfect.

[Devious009]

Hey.

Since the release i've been playing ALOT, my main character is a lvl 80 elemental shm and i've got 2,1k (with wrathtotem and flametongue wep) spellpower with about 39% crit, 11% hit (still trying to cap), 5,4% haste.

The question i have regarding elemental shamans is:

What should we focus on to maximize our dps?

On a regular tank and spank fight i generally have 2,5k dps.

When i build my gear i focus on the follow:

1) Hit (get it to 14%, +3 from misery (shadowpriest buff) it's enough for 17% which is hitcap)
2) Spellpower (2,1k with wrath and flametongue)
3) Crit (39% including totem of wrath)
4) Haste (5,4%, without wrath of air)

The reason i aim for hate in the fourth place is because it messes up my spellcastchain.

We all know that elemental shamans scale like shit in wotlk-endgame. I would love to hear what you guys focus on and what your thoughts are on the diffrent attributes i just mentioned.

Regards Lummox

I got a question for you, did you read the post made by tiimmy at the beginning of the topic list thats called " Elemental Shaman WOTLK FAQ (Updated for 3.1) " ? it should be the 5th ot 6th topic.

All your questions should be answered there.

[tacklebox]

Aim for 525 haste, be hit capped and pump the rest into spell power. Crit will come with high spell power gear.

[HidaRonin]

First off hit cap yourself. Secondly get enough haste to perfect your rotation. Thirdly go to town stacking nothing but spellpower.

With my ftw, wrath totem , and an simple flask iam 3174 sp.

I do great dps and my rotation is near perfect.

WOW GRATZ DUDE!!!!!!

[wannakill]

I got a question for you, did you read the post made by tiimmy at the beginning of the topic list thats called " Elemental Shaman WOTLK FAQ (Updated for 3.1) " ? it should be the 5th ot 6th topic.

All your questions should be answered there.

I have a question for you. have you seen the date of this post ? November 23, 2008

necromancy skills over 9000 for user Borntobe.

please let this thread die

[Devious009]

I blame Borntobe

Off with his head !

Anyway yea my bad not noticing the date of this thread should've been more careful, cheers m8.