Elemental Shaman Guide: 5.4 Edition

[Kav]

I had a quick question about are t16 2pc. With it, does our burst opener change at all? Should I be waiting for 7 charges, then use fulmination, followed by our regular burst opener? I'm not sure if delaying ascendance at the start is a good thing or not. I know 7 charges is 15secs of 4% more damage and ascendance lasting 15secs seems like it makes sense to wait for 7 charges, but not knowing how long it will take to get those 7 charges and possibly missing out on an extra ascendance has me confused.

[Roseby]

i just have a 2 questions:

i've been looking at logs for galakras and not many seem to be casting earthquake. is earthquake ever worth casting except for helping to kite when glyphed? the front page of the guide suggests its worth it on 5+ targets, but i don't see many logs with it being used.

when not talented for unleashed elements, when is it a good idea to use it? i've seen people say its useful for the opener, but i've also seen some top parsing logs where people used it 10 or more times during an encounter even when not talented for it.

As far as the Earthquake question, that is assuming a best case scenario. With the fact that adds move and you are losing a cast of chain lightning by putting down your Earthquake, the best you can hope to do is break even with a very incremental game. Earthquake is moreso for an absolute ton of adds I.E. Immerseus.

As for unleashed elements, its good to use in the opener to proc the meta for bonus flame shock ticks which could very well translate into bonus LvB.

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I had a quick question about are t16 2pc. With it, does our burst opener change at all? Should I be waiting for 7 charges, then use fulmination, followed by our regular burst opener? I'm not sure if delaying ascendance at the start is a good thing or not. I know 7 charges is 15secs of 4% more damage and ascendance lasting 15secs seems like it makes sense to wait for 7 charges, but not knowing how long it will take to get those 7 charges and possibly missing out on an extra ascendance has me confused.

I had the same notion as you did but you have to remember that Flame Shock - > LvB -> GCD -> GCD (Partial) -> Earth Shock -> Ascend.

You could just transition from that LvB into an ascend or whatever your particular opener is. So essentially you are wasting 3 GCD's of TRINKET TIME/PRE-POT whereas that could be used for Lava Burst. With this notion that you are on the clock to maximize your trinkets, you want to get into ascendance as quick as feasibly possible. Waiting to Earth Shock is thus definitively a DPS loss.

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Hmm what about mastery over haste has anyone here tried that ?

This is the preference of Leeds from Method and Myself as well. Mastery is better at lower iLvl's. When you get a good amp trinket and gear haste becomes continually more viable at which point you can go haste (but staying mastery is wholly viable as well).

[Deleted]

I'm ilvl 552 at the moment and I still prefer mastery over haste I can not put links in this command yet because of the lack of posts but if you search Windclaw on armory I'm the top troll shaman to come out from the search if you could say what u think of my gemming and such it would be helpfull thanks in advance

I'm in a 10 man raid team 13/14 normal atm

[Deleted]

With 2pc t16 and 7 stacks Fulmination is it worth it delaying LvB (with and without Lava Surge procc) if the debuff isn't up?

[Roseby]

With 2pc t16 and 7 stacks Fulmination is it worth it delaying LvB (with and without Lava Surge procc) if the debuff isn't up?

No. Don't delay LvB.

[Galaen]

Heya
I just looted the belt from heroic dark shamans with spirit crit. The belt i have equipped is from megaera with spirit mastery. I am really hesitant to swap to the new belt due to the amount of haste/mastery I'll lose. Am I being ridiculous and should I swap for the increased ilvl or keep rocking the old belt?
Thankies

[fearom]

is earthquake ever worth casting except for helping to kite when glyphed?

when not talented for unleashed elements, when is it a good idea to use it?

Earthquake is absolutely worth it if you can precast it without a dps loss, as an example on galakras if you're smashing through the adds and have free uptime drop the earthquake when nothing is around. No reason not to use it.

UE is worth while popping as a filler when moving OR if you have a flame shock/lvb refresh. E.g. sub 3 seconds left on flame shock, you have a lavasurge proc. Hit UE then Lvb then reapply flame shock at the same time, both the lvb and flame shock are effected by the UE (like a mage FB to Icelance shatter).

One example where I found it very useful was during kite phases on heroic siegecrafter. You can flame shock the boss and an add, then hit UE into lavasurge proc'd lvb when you're making your way back to the boss.

[Epistate]

Hey guys, quick question.

I have Cha'ye's and Wush upgraded to 530 and picked up the LFR version of the bindings (my other trinket is the multistrike upgraded to 561). I decided to replace Cha'ye's (and subsequently Wush) assuming the static increase of stats would alone be an upgrade, as well as the proc being 20 seconds instead of 10.

1) Am I wrong in doing this?

2) Should I upgrade the LFR bindings? I have 790 valor left over for the week and am leaning towards stockpiling it for more appropriate upgrades.

Epistate on US - Mal'Ganis (I cannot post links yet)

I aim to keep around 35% haste buffed and dump the rest into mastery for pure QoL, however I am not sure how much I enjoy the feel of the LFR binding. I am in the middle of simming this decision to see how much my dps is being affected atm. My guild is only 9/14 at this time and because I have the LFR version of the bindings, I am last in line for the normal / wf / heroic version.

[Tickle]

Yes, upgrade it and use it. Even the LFR version of Bindings is going to be superior to just about every other trinket, at least on single target (Frenzied Crystal wins on aoe).

[Hypasonic]

Hi there, I read through the initial guide and noted the trinket "priority" but was just wondering because tonight I managed to roll the Purified Bindings trinket from immerseus (normal), and I also acquired the Prismatic prison of Pride from Sha on flex mode. I've heard that's the 2nd bis item for Ele's but I'm skeptical, (I simmed it but it resulted in a rough 10k DPS LOSS, I know the proc doesn't work as ELE, but I'm no expert with simcraft as my main is a healer :P ) my other trinkets are HC TF Cha-Ye and HC Breath both 2/2 upgraded, my question is this: Is it worth using the Flex Pride trinket over the 2 ToT trinket's, and if so...which 1 would be best to replace?

If you need, this is my shamans armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...upabolt/simple

As a note, I'm going all out mastery, testing it out.

Cheers

[Galaen]

Hey Tickle,

I read your post on totemspot and you suggest that Haste is the way to go this tier when running in BiS. I wonder though why some top shamans suggest running a mastery build though. They must've seen the sims you made. Is the mastery build more suited for 25man where adds live longer and thus 10mans should go haste? Can you shed some light on this?

[Intrepid1]

The sim is in Full BiS gear and it's also based on single target damage. We won't be in BiS gear for a couple months yet. A lot of fights in SoO are AoE based as you know and that's where mastery comes into play. The dps difference between haste and mastery is so small for single target, yet when you take cleave fights into account mastery dominates. Best thing is to do reforge plots and see what is the best stat for you every time you get upgrades. At this point for me (565 ilvl) Mastery still comes out on top if I maintain a 35% haste level.

[Deleted]

great guide (im spamming, need 10 posts to get links to get some advice)

[Recom]

I've got a question for theorycrafters. With a mastery heavy build, UF pulls ahead of EB and PE and the rotations suggests using it on cooldown. Does that mean that you'd cast it DURING Ascendance ? I'm guessing you'd use it unless you can replace it with a last LvB before Ascendance wears off, is that right ?

PS : I quickly checked the latests pages but couldn't find the answer, I'm sorry if the question was already asked and replied to.

[madokbro]

Yes you should cast it during the asc as well, it's an instant cast anyway and it will amplify your next lava burst.

[Tickle]

I also acquired the Prismatic prison of Pride from Sha on flex mode. I've heard that's the 2nd bis item for Ele's but I'm skeptical

As you should be. I'm not sure where you heard the healer amp is our 2nd BiS, aside from old ptr threads speculating that it might be, but it is NOT. Aside from Purified Bindings, you want either Black Blood or Kardris for single target, and Frenzied Crystal for AOE. The healer amp comes after all of those, and even lower depending on what you're considering replacing.

[Deleted]

Elemental shaman ilvl 555 with mastery focused build
Would you guys choose UF over EB or as ele just stick with EB?

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One more thing what do you ppl think the BiS trinqs are for an ele shaman?

[Satori]

i just have a 2 questions:

i've been looking at logs for galakras and not many seem to be casting earthquake. is earthquake ever worth casting except for helping to kite when glyphed? the front page of the guide suggests its worth it on 5+ targets, but i don't see many logs with it being used.

when not talented for unleashed elements, when is it a good idea to use it? i've seen people say its useful for the opener, but i've also seen some top parsing logs where people used it 10 or more times during an encounter even when not talented for it.

One of the greatest quotes from Totemspot: "Pre-cast Rain of Frogs. Far better use of a key bind than Earthquake has ever been."

[Intrepid1]

Elemental shaman ilvl 555 with mastery focused build
Would you guys choose UF over EB or as ele just stick with EB?

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One more thing what do you ppl think the BiS trinqs are for an ele shaman?

Your going to use all 3 lvl 90 talents depending on the fight. As far as BiS trinkets it's Bindings of Immersius and Kardris for single target and sub Kardris for frenzied heart crystal for AoE fights.

[Deleted]

Does the "rule" still stand that if i pick PE i also need to pick the 5spellhaste/10meleehaste lvl60 talent? Or can i go with EotE + PE? I mean i CAN go but is it optimal?