Binkenstein's Elemental Shaman Guide: 4.0.3

[binkenstein]

Out of date

[Xiaz89]

I wouldn't completly dismiss the FIre Ele glyph like that, if the fight is long enough for you to utilize 2 fire elementals (a lot of fights are) the glyph is still considered very good.

Chain Lightning, while having a high mana cost, each of the targets hit can also give you fulmination procs, and also return mana, so even when spamming it on a fight with 2 or more targets, you won't oom as fast as you'd think.

Not getting Lava Surge as a talent seems like a bad idea, although it makes your rotation unreliable, it does increase your dps by a decent amount, enough for it to be superior to most other options.

I myself am using the glyph of Lightning Shield, but i will not consider it mandatory, since you're casting lightning bolts/chain lightning all the time, your shield SHOULD never fall off anyway. The reason i use it is if i take direct damage just after using earth shock, my lightning shield will fall down to 2 charges, and cause me a dps loss.

After getting full epic gear, your mana problems will fade, since you get more mana returned from every % based regen effect (rolling thunder, replenishment(?)) atleast mine did, so you can stop casting Thunderstorm at all in most situations, and after gaining higher ilvl gear, we might also be able to spec 1 or 2 points out of Convection.

Overall a very nice guide.

[Deleted]

Nice guide.

I'd love to see tha math on Lava Surge not being *required*.

[XVI]

Few things that I would like to comment on for those that might like another opinion on a few things...

1) Lava Surge is absolutely required. I can't believe you even suggest it being optional, based on the logic that you prefer not to be reactive? That's basically saying don't take it if you know you are bad, not to mention there are addons that can help display when the cooldown goes up (power auras for instance). This talent is a pure dps upgrade, and there is no better option to throw it in.

2) As noted above, glyph of fire elemental is a very solid 3rd glyph choice on 7 min+ fights, may even be the highest dps. If you don't mind spending the gold for individual fights it's a great choice.

3) Until 4.06 hits, I don't wouldn't necessarily recommend the chaotic meta. Not only is it a marginal dps gain (if any) over an ember shadowspirit (+54int +2% mana) and proper gemming currently, once the 4.06 patch you will need to re-gem entirely because the requirements for the chaotic is changing to 3 red gems (same as the new meta we should be using instead). There's also the added bonus that at lower levels and mana regen is an issue, that 2% mana helps. For the next couple weeks until 4.06 hits, use an ember... afterwards there will be a new meta entirely called Burning Shadowspirit Diamond (+54 int +3% crit damage) which will require 3+ red gems.

4) With regards to the healing stream glyph, I'd consider it mandatory considering the lackluster options for major glyphs anyways. In 5 mans I'm sure there will not be a paly aura quite often, and even in 10-25 man raiding the group may split up on fights and not always be in range (nefarian phase 2, and al'akir phase 1 are good examples).

5) I'd also mirror the above comment that lightning shield is not a mandatory glyph. Lightning shield rarely if ever drops off in actual raid situations... I consider it to be more of a pvp glyph to be quite honest.

[Volitar]

Just some other quick questions i think would help not only myself but a lot of Elemental Shaman.

1. What would be the ideal way to start the pull? (right now im going with lb as the tank pulls>ele mastery/bf>lb>fs>lvb)

2. Is it worth recasting flame shock when you get a haste/spell power proc?

[pouljin]

This guide has some wrong info.

Talents:
Lava Surge is one of our best talents... not taking it would be foolish...
Convection for our single target rotation with no chain lightnings or earthquakes, skipping this is fine... but if you plan to do any raiding at all you will most likely be using CL and EQ... Having this is crucial if you plan to use EQ.
Totemic Reach this is not that important I would skip it.


Glyphs:
Fire Elemental - As suggested by some should not be so easily brushed off. Lots of fights for undergeared groups are lasting in the 7 to 8 minute range which is the range in which fire elly actually becomes your strongest glyph. (better than LvB and LB for certain... check the logs and do the math and you will see)


Rotation:
I think what you said is ok about Earth Shock, but to someone who doesn't understand the rotation might convey false information. 7 stacks of lightning shield is NOT the optimal time to do your earthshock. The optimal time is 9 stacks. Now that being said because you have to manage your Shock CD it is often beneficial to fire it early at as little as 7 stacks. The best thing to do is to use a mod (I use tell me when) that shows the number of lightning stacks you have right next to the remaining duration of your flame shock which is right next to your shock gcd. The point behind this is even if your stack is at 7 or 8 you may want to wait on that earth shock if your flame shock still has 15 or 16 seconds remaining. Remember that blowing your earth shock earlier then you need to can be a major dps loss.

All in all an ok guide, but it just has a few things that need to be fixed or cleaned up.

[pouljin]

Fs should always be your first damage spell followed by lava burst. Keeping your lava burst on cd (while only using it on flame shocked targets) is the most important thing about maximizing elly dps.

I like to open with el mastery (as well as racial dps cd and trinkets) then flame shock as the fs dot will get the bonus damage and haste from your el mastry and the lava burst cast will be instant getting your rotation set and giving you two instant cast spells worth of time to move into position.

[Volitar]

Fs should always be your first damage spell followed by lava burst. Keeping your lava burst on cd (while only using it on flame shocked targets) is the most important thing about maximizing elly dps.

I like to open with el mastery (as well as racial dps cd and trinkets) then flame shock as the fs dot will get the bonus damage and haste from your el mastry and the lava burst cast will be instant getting your rotation set and giving you two instant cast spells worth of time to move into position.

Not what I asked and searing totem should be prioritized first.

[taymatt]

Not what I asked and searing totem should be prioritized first.

I would hope that people understand to put their totems down first. Lol.

[pouljin]

Not what I asked and searing totem should be prioritized first.

You said opener. I assumed you had your totems down prior to the pull... It's like saying make sure your lightning shield is active and your flametongue weapon is on and don't forget flask and food... I took it as a given.

[Brosterr]

I'm have a new ele sham alt, and what you just hit on is something i never seem to see in guides. Would i be right to assume that you recast searing totem sometime within its final 10 seconds to replace a LB? I am obviously not asking about moving fights, i would think it obvious you would reposition after moving.

[Feronn]

What is a good pvp spec for ele?

[binkenstein]

Oh, this is here.

Sorry, this guide has become somewhat out of date.

[XVI]

You said opener. I assumed you had your totems down prior to the pull... It's like saying make sure your lightning shield is active and your flametongue weapon is on and don't forget flask and food... I took it as a given.

Although I'd tend to agree with that on most 5 man encounters, in raid type situations many times you don't have the luxury of being able to pre-drop totems in an optimal location for the raid. Nef for instance, you need to jump down and run a good distance. Here is typically do my opening.

- Pre-drop totems no matter what. Even if you need to re-drop them during the pull, at least you'll have the buffs for everyone while they run in and begin to dps.

- If you are re-dropping totems regardless, the beginning is a good time to blow all of your +damage/int cooldowns to maximize the initial buff on your searing totem and/or fire ele. If you are dropping fire ele, I tend to wait after my opening few attacks so that all cooldowns are used and I get a power torrent proc.

- I usually pop an EM LB while running in followed by FS > LvB > normal priority rotation.

- If there is a long run to position (and initial tank threat is not an issue), spiritwalker's grace can be considered as well.

[Narfwak]

Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem turned out to be quite useful for the last phase of heroic Chimeron (there's a raidwide DoT and you can't heal at all, so absorbs = yay). I'm not sure if that's worth putting in the guide, but hey, contributing~!

[Arpagio]

Only thing I'd like to say is that you didn't put very much info on unleash elements besides that is something that you are able to use while mobile. Didn't put any insight on whether to use it during rotations or if once you do use it, for a lava burst or a flame shock to be cast for higher overall damage.

But otherwise, nice work.

[Deleted]

What about Flame Shocking multiple targets for Lava Burst cooldown to reset more often?

[Rehea]

What about Flame Shocking multiple targets for Lava Burst cooldown to reset more often?

thats something probably worth doing in a fight where the targets you are flame shocking are meant do die but wont die within 27 seconds and you are not delaying a fulmination, a good example could see for this is theralion and valiona, specially if you can flame shock both before heroism and then get a streak of lava surge procs

[Xiaz89]

flame shocking 2 or 3 targets that are meant to die but will not die within the next 27 sec is indeed very effective, giving you extra dps and extra lava surge procs.

As major glyphs im currently using Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem, as we lack any other defensive CD, this has saved my life countless times.

Glyph of Elemental Mastery, makes your dps cooldown a defensive cooldown as well, i reglyphed to this because of conclave HC, where it fit nicely in on the frost boss aoe phase, i have not changed back since, its really nice.

Glyph of Lightning Shield, for the tiny dps gain.


Unleash Elements is usually not worth it unless you are moving, if most mathheads on elitistjerks are wrong, then it might be a tiny dps gain in certain situations, but the easy solution is to not use it when standing still. If the stars align, and you get a situation where:
Your LS charges are low, you are atleast 10 yards away from the boss, your FS has about 5-3sec left, your LvB just came off cooldown, and your UE isnt on cooldown, pop UE, cast LvB and immediately cast FS, this will apply the 30% buff to both the FS dot and the LvB, giving you a slight dps increase.

This is because how the UE buff works, the buff stays on yourself untill your LvB actually hits the target, but damage on the LvB is calculated as you finish the cast, when you then cast FS (which doesnt have travel time like LvB) your FS consumes the UE buff and is also affected by the damage buff.

About what spells i start with on pull:

pre-drop totems, period.

At pull, i use my orc SP racial > Flame shock boss, and re-drop Searing totem(since it doesnt pick a target by itself all the time, cuz its gay)

Then i pop ele mastery and throw an instant LvB, and start my normal rotation

After countless wipes on conclave25HC i really had time to try different ways, and this is the way i ended up with.

Also, when it comes to recasting searing totem or popping fire ele, in the last 10sec duration of your previous searing totem, see if you get any SP procs or have any to pop, pop them, and place your searing. Same thing goes for fire ele.

[Rehea]

i belive the casting totems while having spell power gains only works for fire elemental, because its the pet of the totem, while searing totem damage varies as shaman spell power does