(Ele) How do you deal with....

[Vespian]

The range on Searing Totem

It's only recently that I've started to use Fire Elemental and Searing totem on bosses, due to the fact that my previous guild didn't have many Ele Shamans and no DP Locks. I find myself struggling to get the proper range for the Searing totem.

It says that it fires at mobs 20 yards away from it, but it seems to have a much lower agro range, so I actually have to move far closer to the boss before it starts firing. Is this a known issue? How do you deal with it?

For example: Marrowgar : His hitbox is huge. At the point where I can almost melee him, I placed a Searing totem..no dice! .. I had to nearly walk up to his red circle before the totem started firing.

On Saurfang, the range is also mighty annoying, because we have to take care of adds and they happen to require max range, unless you want to be kiting them all the time, which is a massive dps loss. The way I do it now, is, that I walk closer while firing Frost Shock..then I place the totem and I run back while firing Frost Shock. Rinse and repeat.

Also, the adds seem to target totems, so my Fire Elemental died within the first 10 seconds of release (and I still did 7.2K dps, without ToW, because the other Elemental Shammy forgot to place all of his totems (10man))

[Pokemaster]

You should stand in Marrowgar's hitbox anyway...

[Vespian]

You should stand in Marrowgar's hitbox anyway...

Thanks for your excellent reply.

Putting down totems is a loss of dps, so you want to make sure you can start casting as soon as you are inside the hitbox...right? So, I put down the totem before I'm in it.

Now please get back to the core of the issue.

[Lalleholm]

I'm amazed that no one noticed that he didn't put his totems down... If you saw it , you should of dropped ToW.

But I'm also experiencing problems with Searing Totem. Some times it is on ground for a long time before it decides to fire at boss/mobs.
I'm not raiding 25 man, so I don't know how fast adds spawn on Saurfang, but you should drop the elemental totem at start instead of in the fight.

[boneschaman]

once a ghost from lady deathwhisper killed my elemental after 5 seconds

I've got no problems with searing by the way. I place it 20 yards a way and after a short moment it starts firing.
On marrowgar if you place it in the middle of the room it can reach him nearly everywhere.

[Vespian]

I'm amazed that no one noticed that he didn't put his totems down... If you saw it , you should of dropped ToW.

But I'm also experiencing problems with Searing Totem. Some times it is on ground for a long time before it decides to fire at boss/mobs.
I'm not raiding 25 man, so I don't know how fast adds spawn on Saurfang, but you should drop the elemental totem at start instead of in the fight.

No, because you need as much spellpower as possible at the time of casting, which is midfight.

And I didn't put down Tow, because to me, that was an experimental run anyways It was a pug, so I try to get used to using Searing and Elemental as much as possible, before I join my new guild. It was especially frustrating to find that my totem didn't start firing even after 5 seconds on multiple occasions.

[Lalleholm]

No point casting it a max SP if it is going to die within seconds...

[Vespian]

No point casting it a max SP if it is going to die within seconds...

*Palms his face*

Do I even need to reply to this? I assume you can think for yourself right? The example with my Fire Elemental was just to show that too close wasn't good either.
Fire Elemental totem can actually be placed at quite the range and it will agro. So placing it somewhere in front of me at 35 yards will also work. It wasn't about the Fire Elemental.

[boneschaman]

The dmg of searing is recalculated on every firebolt. Recasting it before its end is always a dps loss.

[thrack18]

I've only experienced this problem if i dont hit the boss with a flame shock (or anything else for that matter) first. If you drop it before you do anything to the boss it doesnt know wtf to do

[Vespian]

I've only experienced this problem if i dont hit the boss with a flame shock (or anything else for that matter) first. If you drop it before you do anything to the boss it doesnt know wtf to do

This could indeed be part of the problem. I'll have to somehow work around that. I've been practicing a bit and it seems that the totem does indeed agro at around 20 yards as long as you are already in combat.

[fakestreet]

If you pre-drop Searing before combat starts, it won't fire on the boss.

What I do is drop it after FS when running in. That'll give you 2 gcds worth of movement.

Range on Saurfang shouldn't be a problem (at least for me). Target the one that spawned farthest away from you and it'll be dead before it reaches you (or it should be if people actually switch to them).

[Darcam]

As fakestreet - I too run in and FS as soon as im in range for it, and then drop my tots -inc searing when im within the 20 yd range for the searing. Dont think I have had much problems with it - except on Sindragosa 10man. If I drop a searing just before she takes of - or for some reason while shes in the air - it'll not attack her when she gets back down. I never leave combat here so I dont really get it why this happens.

About the fire ele... never really had any problems with it getting killed off premature. Always trying to drop it approxemately with 2 mins to go on the fight or in the beginning of a fight - to get the most of it. BQL is kinda easy, as in just drop it 2 mins before enrage. I aim at always useing it if its off CD ofc.

You are pre-dropping a ToW before you enter combat right? To get the 5 min SP buff from your glyph.

[Vespian]

You are pre-dropping a ToW before you enter combat right? To get the 5 min SP buff from your glyph.

Of course.

[squizle]

As i'm the only ele shaman in my guild and we have no real locks im always putting down ToW so i have little to no experience with searing totems so i got 2 questions:

- If you attack an add first and then put down searing it will attack that target. Now i wonder if you switch targets after it dies, will the totem switch too or will it stop?

- What is the dps increase of the searing and elemental totem? Is it like 1% or more to 10%? (taking a rather normal fight with max uptime of totems)

[Vespian]

For me, Fire Elemental is about 10-15% of my total damage in a fight of 5-8min.

I don't have exact numbers for Searing atm. I've had it on 2% to 8% so far.

[squizle]

That's a pretty nice dps increase. Now i wonder if i should drop dps totems in my 10man group.
Current setup is:
Tanks - Warrior and DK
DPS - Priest, Rogue, Feral, Enhancement and me
Healing - Pala, Shaman and Druid.

It benefits only 4 people cause i can do more without. And i got a resto shaman with me for flametongue totem so it's only 136 sp loss then.
How would you deal with this?

[boneschaman]

As i'm the only ele shaman in my guild and we have no real locks im always putting down ToW so i have little to no experience with searing totems so i got 2 questions:

- If you attack an add first and then put down searing it will attack that target. Now i wonder if you switch targets after it dies, will the totem switch too or will it stop?

- What is the dps increase of the searing and elemental totem? Is it like 1% or more to 10%? (taking a rather normal fight with max uptime of totems)

- It will attack whatever is nearest in range and in the most chases it will attack something else after the first target is dead. As describe above it sometimes stops to attack if the new target is fresh spawn or haven't been there while dropping or just because...
The northrend beasts are en example where you have to replace the totem with every spawning boss.

[Epar]

That's a pretty nice dps increase. Now i wonder if i should drop dps totems in my 10man group.
Current setup is:
Tanks - Warrior and DK
DPS - Priest, Rogue, Feral, Enhancement and me
Healing - Pala, Shaman and Druid.

It benefits only 4 people cause i can do more without. And i got a resto shaman with me for flametongue totem so it's only 136 sp loss then.
How would you deal with this?

Well 136 spell power is still a pretty substantial buff...Not to mention, correct me if I'm wrong, but theres no one else in that raid that brings the 3% crit debuff that ToW gives, so it's probably best just to stick with ToW.

[fakestreet]

Well 136 spell power is still a pretty substantial buff...Not to mention, correct me if I'm wrong, but theres no one else in that raid that brings the 3% crit debuff that ToW gives, so it's probably best just to stick with ToW.

Mut rogue does but that comp loses Savage Combat so not sure if it's higher rdps to run 3% crit or 4% physical.

re: BQL
You actually want to drop Fire Ele as soon as possible (less than 10s into the fight is the best). First air phase is at 2:10 so you want Ele to be up for the full time before she fears and have Searing Totem up while she's in the air. The reason you want to drop Ele early is because it's not affected by Essence but Searing is, so if you plan to get bitten at any point during the fight (and we're usually one of the last targets) then burning Ele ASAP and having Searing up with Essence is optimal.

Also, Ele dying is half luck and half melee/tank reaction time. It will stand in Swarming Darkness or Slime Puddle until it dies so if melee doesn't run out fast enough or the Abom/tank doesn't move fast enough, it will just stand there until it dies.