Elemental FAQ (updated for 4.3)

[Kesslar]

Hi guys, I don't normally post anything like this. But I feel I have to.

I feel that I am performing sub par on quite a few fights in HC DS at the minute. I've only been elemental a few weeks now.

Here is my armoury, http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...omentum/simple

And here are my logs for Ultraxion, http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=3404&e=3677
I was soaking, so had to save EM for when HoT was incoming.

I feel like I could, and should be pulling more on Ultraxion. And also on Yor'sahj and Zon'ozz, although I feel pretty comfortable DPS wise on Warmaster and Morchok.
I haven't been in for Spine/Madness yet.

But any advice at all anyone could give me would be well appreciated!

Regards,

Momentum

[Pope]

First thing I saw, as usual: Not enough Lava Bursts. You had an average 9s between each LvB. Even when soaking and considering Ultraxion, it should still be less.

[diablo85]

as ele, do we aim for the 2781 Flame shock haste tick with or without our 4pc bonus up? i reach 2550 haste with the 4pc bonus fully stacked, 1800 without.

or do we not aim for that haste rating at all till heroic gear?

sorry if its a nub question, just getting back to my ele sham after ~4 month break

[Endus]

You don't aim for Haste hitcaps at all, really. If you've got 4p Tier 13 (even LFR), and/or Dragonwrath, Mastery is probably about as good as Haste. If you've got both, Mastery is probably better. If you want anything more accurate, you'd need to run sims. There's no real advantage to trying to hit a Haste breakpoing; it only affects your Flame Shock DoT, while Haste continues to benefit cast times, and that effect tends to significantly outvalue the Flame Shock effect. Enough that we hit haste caps "backwards"; most classes see a decline in Haste value after hitting a breakpoint, we see an increase in value. Because hitting that breakpoint means a longer Flame Shock meaning more casts within that Flame Shock meaning the cast time reduction is a bigger boost. Binkenstein wrote an excellent blog post over at Totemspot about it here.

So hitting a cap doesn't mean you could ease off on Haste; it would mean you'd want even more. In practice, this still doesn't push it reliably above Mastery, so you should be simming yourself to figure out your exact stat weights.

[diablo85]

my sim results put haste valued at 0.4181 and mastery @ 0.4518 and after putting that into wowreforge, left me at 1638 haste and 2586 mastery. i was mainly asking because that puts me at a 1.69second LB cast with Wrath of Air totem down and felt like that was too slow.

Meallan @ The Scryers US is my armory

[Undefetter]

my sim results put haste valued at 0.4181 and mastery @ 0.4518 and after putting that into wowreforge, left me at 1638 haste and 2586 mastery. i was mainly asking because that puts me at a 1.69second LB cast with Wrath of Air totem down and felt like that was too slow.

Meallan @ The Scryers US is my armory

Even if it feels slow, if its mathematically more DPS, thats the one you pick.

[Weerra]

Values my be juggling around. Sim again with that reforge.

[tidus93]

This my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...orish/advanced,
Last wol : http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=6678&e=6930

My question is: For a fight like ultraxion, if i have my insignia of the corrupted mind proc + BL + prepull resto 4pc 30% haste buff. Should I bother to earth shock or should I just use lighting bolts/lava bursts?

[Endus]

A fully-stacked Fulmination is higher damage-per-cast-time than LB, you should still be using those charges where you can.

[TenDance]

I'm sorry to ask but I lost track over the years... our interrupt had been earth shock, then transmorphed to wind shock, nowadays it's called windshear. On which occasion during this journey stopped elemental reach to bring the range of our interrupt on par with every other ranged DPS spell in this game? Wind shear is, basically, still a shock. The wording had changed to decouple it from the shock-cooldown. But I can't find a logical reason why elemental shaman should approach their enemy to interrupt - especially in PvP since the class revolves to a certain extent around slows and kiting. Even mind flay got it's range buffed - because limiting the range of ranged DPS is somehow... weird.

[Pope]

TenDance, you do know that Wind Shear has a 25y range?
I'm not quite sure if elemental reach increases it to 40y...

[woopytywoop]

TenDance, you do know that Wind Shear has a 25y range?
I'm not quite sure if elemental reach increases it to 40y...

Elemental reach doesn't increase it (I can't shear at max range, although i can shock)
Only pvp gloves increases the range iirc (by 5yards).
base range on shear is 25y.

shocks are 25y, but now I am doubting, with pvp gloves and ER, this means shocks should work up to 45y but I haven't noticed yet that I can't use LB but still shock (40-45y range). I'll test this later.

[TenDance]

TenDance, you do know that Wind Shear has a 25y range?
I'm not quite sure if elemental reach increases it to 40y...

I'll answer that for you:
I KNOW that shear is limited to 25y - that's the sole reason for my question. Because, in past times, the range of our interrupt had been 40y, as expect for a ranged interrupt which is used by a ranged damage dealer. And no, elemental reach doesn't influence shear.

[Sarevokcz]

I'll answer that for you:
I KNOW that shear is limited to 25y - that's the sole reason for my question. Because, in past times, the range of our interrupt had been 40y, as expect for a ranged interrupt which is used by a ranged damage dealer. And no, elemental reach doesn't influence shear.

it was never 40y, shocks didnt have range boosting talent till LK (and i think it was FlS only), where we incidentally got Wind Shear.

And really, don't expect different answers than "classes are different" and "its shaman flavor." Sure, I would like to have 40 yard interrupt as ele, but I dont expect it anymore.

[kingbayne]

Your ele guid just keeps getting better

[Dekadez]

I've been Resto...well, all my life. Never ever had to go DPS, never ever invested in it. Now since I'm no longer raiding in progression guilds, I can finally give Elemental a try and I love it. The guide helped me clarify the parts I wasn't too sure of.

My Mage has always been my DPS toon, but I'm seriously considering of dropping that. Elemental is just so much more exciting than Fire (I hate Arcane).

[tidus93]

One short question about BiS weapon.
Tonight I got heroic Ti'tahk, I never had the chance to get dragonwrath and I'm wondering which one is better for heroic DS.
I know that for some classes Ti'tahk is superior to dragonwrath, I'm just not sure how it is for elemental shamans.

[Endus]

Ti'tahk isn't one of our better weapons. The buff is itemized around the raid buff portion, meaning the personal DPS contribution isn't quite as high. It's nice to have SOMEONE in the raid with one, but the ideal is that it's "anyone but you".

If you've got (H) Ti'tahk, though, and you haven't started the Dragonwrath stuff, it'll do fine. You may want to move to an (H) Vagaries or (H) Rathrak eventually. Dragonwrath is still BiS, but it's a grind that takes months if you're starting from scratch (and this is assuming you get all cinders/essences on every boss you're hitting, many PUGs have competition for these).

[Satori]

I have some basic questions regarding elemental (just leveled another one, this time a troll, for ele/resto lol):

1 - My Earth Elemental Totem won't attack Ultraxion. Is there something I'm missing? It just sits there and I've tried multiple spots and distances.
2 - At the start of the fight, what's best to consume the Elemental Mastery instant cast buff on? I'm using it on LvB, so it gets the increased % damage, but since LB has a longer cast time maybe it's best to use it with it?
3 - If I do the 4pc T13 resto trick, do I delay EM? From my understanding haste buffs are less beneficial when stacked, but there's the damage increase portion of EM to account for.
4 - Assuming I get a surge proc (can't remember the exact name, resets the CD on LvB) during a cast, is it beneficial to stop casting and use the proc?

Thanks in advance if someone responds.

[Teslaspule]

1) place it once you are in fight with ultraxion, works for me at least
2) Lightning Bolt, due to the longer cast time
3) Stack the Resto-4-set and EM. The Damage Bonus is too good and all your procs will be up.
4) Don't stop casting, that would be a DPS loss