What was ele like in previous expansions?

[Venziir]

I never played at a raiding capacity during vanilla, so what classes that I didn't play did was mostly a mystery to me, but as I understand it, during TBC, it was essentially Lightning Bolt spam. If you had the gear to supply the mana, I noticed some would also use Chain Lightning on cooldown (a cooldown which Elemental no longer has anymore). Flame Shock and Earth Shock weren't really worth it. Earth Shock was the Enhancement Shaman's baby, and near the end of the expansion, keeping Flame Shock up as Enhanncemeny was finally worth it (Back then, WITH Flame Shock, Enhancement was LITERALLY nothing but Flame Shock, Earth Shock and Storm Strike, but Storm Strike had to be timed perfectly to maximize double Windfury procs). Lava Burst didn't happen until the Wrath pre-patch, and that's when Flame Shock started being used.

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That's because Earthquake's been nothing more than lackluster ever since its implementation. It needs to have a decent boost in damage and the ridiculous cast time needs to be re-thought. It's a tragedy, really.

LvB was a lvl 74 spell :P

[Vulcanasm]

So as it goes now, I really enjoy the way the mastery works with Echo of the Elements.

I.E. Buy 1 Lava Burst get 2 FREE! like a telemarketer.

Just for the sake of knowing the roots of the spec I enjoy so much, what was it like in Vanilla, TBC, Wrath, Cata?

Vanilla: Most DPS Shaman ran a tri-spec build, more or less like this. Open with Elemental Mastery + Chain Lightning (Lightning Bolt vs. a single target), spam shocks, pray for Windfury procs and use a huge, slow two-hander. This was called the "suicide shaman" build. It was pretty awful in raids but great at PVP, especially before the axe from Scarlet Monastery got nerfed (infinite self-procs were hilarious). It wasn't really Elemental at all, but most of your points went into the Elemental tree.

True "Elemental" Shaman just spammed Lightning Bolt.

Burning Crusade: Again, spam Lightning Bolt, with the occasional Chain Lightning thrown in. I only played my Shaman as Resto during BC, but I think there was one raid tier where it was a good idea to work in shocks.

WOTLK: Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt. In some patches (3.2-3.3) it was good to work in the occasional Chain Lightning, even against single targets. Emphasis on Haste break points.

Cataclysm: Basically same as now.

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That's because Earthquake's been nothing more than lackluster ever since its implementation. It needs to have a decent boost in damage and the ridiculous cast time needs to be re-thought. It's a tragedy, really.

Agreed. We found exactly one meaningful use for earthquake, ever: Pre-casting right before Valks on H LK. At the time, Earthquake wasn't on the stun DR table, which could mean the difference between your bads blowing up the Valkyr and you dropping to your death.

[Topaz]

Let's not also forget totem twisting..

wowwiki.com/Totem_Twisting

[bladisha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGKE0Mjmfmk Sham's ele pvp video from Vanilla from a shaman on my server (no idea if he's still playing though), most shamans were enh in vanilla pvp, cus windfury was sick (and depended on luck ofc)

This is quite early in Vanilla, and you'll see he gets advantages from certain items he's carrying.

Easily the best ele pvp video from vanilla, really fun and entertaining to watch and one of the few pvp movies from that period without backpedaling Just compare that with another 'legendary' shaman pvp video (done by Unbreakable) and you will see the clear difference between really good player (Sham) and the OMFG WF enh (Unbreakable).

ps. Ah that damn Invulnerable Mail

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Vanilla: Most DPS Shaman ran a tri-spec build, more or less like this. Open with Elemental Mastery + Chain Lightning (Lightning Bolt vs. a single target), spam shocks, pray for Windfury procs and use a huge, slow two-hander. This was called the "suicide shaman" build. It was pretty awful in raids but great at PVP, especially before the axe from Scarlet Monastery got nerfed (infinite self-procs were hilarious). It wasn't really Elemental at all, but most of your points went into the Elemental tree.

Lol never seen any 'serious' ele or enh pvp with such build. The talent of choice was nature swiftnes, buried deep into the resto tree.

[Freshmint]

I personally only played resto in end game vanilla and BC, I do know THAT spec has come a long way. Literally 90% of my casts in BC was chain heal. It was cheap, our most effective, and it pushed out insane healing numbers. Back in those days ele and resto shammys pretty much used at most two main abilities, so I think the game is in a better place now than then, regarding that at least.

[Venziir]

Vanilla: Most DPS Shaman ran a tri-spec build, more or less like this. Open with Elemental Mastery + Chain Lightning (Lightning Bolt vs. a single target), spam shocks, pray for Windfury procs and use a huge, slow two-hander. This was called the "suicide shaman" build. It was pretty awful in raids but great at PVP, especially before the axe from Scarlet Monastery got nerfed (infinite self-procs were hilarious). It wasn't really Elemental at all, but most of your points went into the Elemental tree.

True "Elemental" Shaman just spammed Lightning Bolt.

Burning Crusade: Again, spam Lightning Bolt, with the occasional Chain Lightning thrown in. I only played my Shaman as Resto during BC, but I think there was one raid tier where it was a good idea to work in shocks.

WOTLK: Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt. In some patches (3.2-3.3) it was good to work in the occasional Chain Lightning, even against single targets. Emphasis on Haste break points.

Cataclysm: Basically same as now.

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Agreed. We found exactly one meaningful use for earthquake, ever: Pre-casting right before Valks on H LK. At the time, Earthquake wasn't on the stun DR table, which could mean the difference between your bads blowing up the Valkyr and you dropping to your death.

A; That's not a trip-spec, if it was it would've had points in each of the three trees, hence the name "tri-spec".
B; That spec is and was at that point terrible, all the melee oriented talents are utterly wasted, as you'd have to pick between melee efficient gear to do damage, which would hurt your spell capabilities, and vice versa.
C; That talent tree is from the pre-TBC patch, which is a bad one to use honestly, as it's not really Vanilla and not really TBC either.
D; Nature's Swiftness was much more favoured in Vanilla, before they actually fixed Elemental Mastery.

[Adhemar]

The ToC 4set had to be nerfed because PVP players were using it in Arena, Lava Burst was probably hitting harder than Choas bolt now with this set bonus

That set bonus got nerfed again when ICC was released, actually, because no Elemental shaman was going to give it up. It was the only thing keeping us competitive in T9 and when they took it away we fell right back down to the bottom quarter of the charts, which seems to be where Blizzard prefers to keep us.

I typed out some additional response to the OP and then realized it was just more of the bitching I've been doing about my poor, abused Elemental Shaman for the last five years. So, suffice it to say, OP, that Elemental has a long history of being treated like the red-headed step-child of damage dealers, and, while this expansion has been an improvement, I sincerely doubt Blizzard is finished applying band-aids and then ripping them off.