What can I do to enjoy my Elemental Shaman more?

[Cåty]

Hello and good morning.

Recently due to a guild issue, I volunteered to raid with an Elemental Shaman. At this moment, after 2 raidweeks, she's at 355 itemlevel with respectable DPS. The only problem I'm facing. I'm not enjoying it enough. My main was a Destruction Warlock for over 5 years. I love that class, but I thought a chance after all those years could be welcome. Boy, was I wrong...
The 4 major concerns I have with this spec are:

- Rotation to simple
- Not enough utility during movement heavy fights (other than Spiritwalker's Grace everytime it's of CD)
- Low personal DPS compared to my Warlock
- Vague gearing choices (using healer gear, really?)

It boils down to this. If I go back to my Warlock, we would be missing Heroism, Spellpower increases (neither got 6% or 10%), and Mana Increase (Arcane Intellect), since we don't have a mage either. This all is happening in a 10 man raid setup.
My question to you guys. How can I solve this issue, either with our raidcomp, or with my personal likes and dislikes towards the Shaman class. Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way an Elemental Shaman is played?

Regards
Cåty

[Yourgrounded]

What is your group composition? One choice would be to play demonology on your warlock for the 10% sp. It would not solve your heroism/BL issues though, but maybe you could swap things around and get a resto shaman or a mage into the setup. I do not know where AI enters the picture since you will not be bringing that on your shaman anyway.

Also what bosses are you clearing on normal/hc? Hard modes require some synergy while normal modes really do not require anything but 1-2 tanks, 4-6 dps, 2-3 healers.

[shocktopuslol]

reroll

/10chars

[MightyMagey]

If you dont enjoy elemental you should'nt play it. There's no way to improve game experience when you dont enjoy it. I'd say you should do whatever you want, but seeing as you want your raid comp the way it is, maybe enhancement is an option? I dont know too much about enhancement at 85. But, i've been having a blast with enhancement. But, that would result in you having to grab all new gear and so on... Tbh, you should play whatever you enjoy, it's a game ment for enjoyment is'nt it?

[Pope]

It boils down to this. If I go back to my Warlock, we would be missing Heroism, Spellpower increases (neither got 6% or 10%), and Mana Increase (Arcane Intellect), since we don't have a mage either. This all is happening in a 10 man raid setup.
My question to you guys. How can I solve this issue, either with our raidcomp, or with my personal likes and dislikes towards the Shaman class. Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way an Elemental Shaman is played?

Regards
Cåty

Heroism can be brought by a hunter, if you have that. BM deals respectable DPS.
The 10% SP can be brought by you as a warlock if you spec Demo, and if you use a felhunter, you also have the mana-buff. (yeah I know, fel hunter isn't top dps pet.)

But on topic:
-rotation is better than it used to be, you have two procs and reduce a cooldown by casting LB. Much better then in wotlk.
-If you're moving, and SG is on cooldown, you can still cast shocks and UE
-Low DPS is a basic problem of Elemental (again). You have to wait for buffs.
-Using healing gear is awesome, because the spirit to hit conversion gives you flexible gearing and some healing gear for healing the daylie 5man.
The other option is having Mail-hit-gear, which would only be used by 1 spec. Something that blizz wants to avoid

[plasm]

- Vague gearing choices (using healer gear, really?)
this is normal for a hybrid classes gearing model in Cata, spirit = hit, same for SP and Boomkins iirc
haste is a good stat for both resto and ele so its all good

[Callypso]

I'm confused about what you define as 'healer gear'. What is bad about simultaneously gearing for 2 different specs?

For you as a shaman, if you are resto specced the spirit should read as 'mana regen'.
For you as a shaman, if you are elemental specced the spirit should read as 'hit'.
win/win? (obviously there is a small difference between how you would optimize the sets for each spec, but in general your dps set should be pretty good for healing and vice versa)

The same goes for boomkins and shadowpriests. For this simple reason we stopped distinguishing between 'healer' and 'dps' gear for those classes/specs when cataclysm hit.

When it comes to the other points, there is always the challenge of playing your character to your maxiumum capabilities, which doesnt always have to lead to the number 1 spot on the meters. Afterall, only 1 person in your raid can be first. Even though on your warlock you might be able to faceroll your way to a higher spot on the meters, as a shaman you provide way more utility for your raid. However, if your spot on the meter is really of that much importance to you, i'd suggest you find another class to play

EDIT: To clarify, with utility I mean being able to provide a large amount of buffs depending on what's missing, being able to offheal if neccesary (or completely respec if needed for a specific fight), being able to singlehandedly interrupt on several encounters where other classes need help from someone else, knockbacks, slows..... None of these thigns will improve your personal dps, but it may very well improve the overall success of your raid (a welltimed knockback on adds at Magmaw or Cho'gall can make major differences for example)

[Illunis]

Ele shaman is weak right now, compared to other classes, honestly if you want to play your lock, either reroll back to it, or join a different guild. I know 10 man raiding guilds are wildly popular right now, but honestly, I would join a 25 man guild if you don't want to be "forced" to play a specific class. Also if you're having to swap due to raid comp, easily fixable by being in a 25 man, 0 missing buffs there, if you can't get every single buff in a 25 man raid, its time to get recruiting.

My 2 cents, personally I can't stand the thought of raiding 10 man only, but some people enjoy it. Drama like that where you're asked/forced to reroll for a specific composition is pretty terrible, and makes me hate 10 mans even more.

TL;DR --- Play what you like, if other people have a problem with it, maybe its time to find new people.

[Dukenukem]

Ele Shammy has a lot of things to enjoy, my perspective might be biased as I play Shammy as main and have a Warlock alt

to ansver your concerns.
Rotation is really simple but if watched closely its not that easy, watching Lava surge proc, keeping eye on Shield stacks+flame shock (not leting FS fall off and not getting Charge stacks wasted). compared to destro lock I think they are about the same (Immolate keeping, Chaos + Conflagrate on CD, Incinerate spam).

Movement- moving while keeping DPS is hard one, but SpiritGrace is one of the best solutions that nullify movement penalty for 15secs, if its on CD we have instant wolf to move quick and start DPS quickly on the new position. Fights where you have to move just to dodge mechanics (Atramedes) are thankfully not that common.

Low DPS- High DPS is combination of all Skill and experience, when you have new Class+Spec you never played before its normal to suffer DPS loss, even if you have same gear and readed everything. If your DPS is not increasing to level of other geared DPS than it could be problem.

Gear - well, if you play Lock you have same limited choice (caster cloth without +SPI) so there is no difference. the right is to look on +SPI like on +hit while playing Ele, than its not healing but casterDPS mails , the upside is when you switch to healing spec you dont have to gear again, you can mostly use the same set (only switch wep for different enchant.

If your raidcomposition is lacking the +Spellpower increase and Heroism there is more global benefit if you play shammy like the old time (bring the Heroism, no need for skill), while your guild will look for a good mage (still cant imagine 10 man without Frostmage,on Nefar specially).
The bonuses you bring outweight your personal DPS loss greatly and if you play for a while you will get again in the top places on DPS.

[Yourgrounded]

Heroism can be brought by a hunter, if you have that. BM deals respectable DPS.

Respected by who? Check out Stateofdps if you really think so.

[Cåty]

To answer some of your questions:

- Raidcomp: http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000
At the moment, we play with me as a rerolled Elemental Shaman, and our Hunter as a Fire Mage.

Us two, don't enjoy playing these 2 classes and ideally wanna switch back to our mains. This leads to the following raidcomp:
http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000

- Raids: We clear 12/12 weekly with not having really looked at the HM's yet.

I know I probably shouldn't play a class I don't want to play, I just want the best for our raidteam while enjoying myself aswell. And I only seem to be doing that on a Warlock.
So far, I'd like to thank you for your valuable feed-back. Maybe someone else has some better solution based on the information I hereby provided.

[Pope]

Respected by who? Check out Stateofdps if you really think so.

BM is as good as SV. And can bring a ton of buffs.
Check out eltistjerks, simulationcraft and WoL for accurate DPS-comparison.


and Cåty, like I said:
If your hunter respecs to BM, and you'd respec to demo, you'd bring all the buffs you need, and could play your mains.
But unfortunately not the specs you desire

[Nekokami]

- Rotation to simple
- Not enough utility during movement heavy fights (other than Spiritwalker's Grace everytime it's of CD)
- Low personal DPS compared to my Warlock
- Vague gearing choices (using healer gear, really?)

Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way an Elemental Shaman is played?

1) There is no rotation, but the priority queue is "somewhat" short - yes. Good DPS vs Bad DPS depends on three factors:
a) Your reaction time for Lava Surge procs - not wasting procs due to LS already being off-CD.
b) You being able to manage your shock CDs - when to ES exactly to gain the maximum benefit from Fulmination while having FS up 100% of the time.
c) You being able to maximise your DPS while moving. This includes not moving at all by choosing better positions, anticipating your next required move and preparing for it.

Elemental is easy to learn, but hard to optimize.

2) "Movement-heavy fights" - Lets take Atramedes. Non-HC, you can push alot of additional DPS by not running the whole time during flight phase - i usually stand still and dps, unless something is heading my way - then its "GW->GTFO" if it's a fiery evil beam, and "UE/FS/ES/New Totem + sidestep" if it's just a sonic bomb or whatever you call that, don't remember.

Good Elementals manage their instants / SWG so that they loose less DPS than bad Elementals

3) Yes, compared to an equally-skilled and -geared Warlock, you deal less damage. This has mainly two reasons:
a) Hybrid Tax
b) Additional utility. You can interrupt every 5-6 seconds, which is, especially in 10man, incredibly usefull. In addition, you can - especially in 10man "suboptimal setups" like yours, provide a wide range of buffs.

If to you your personal dps matters, you're the "pure dps player type". If you are happy seeing your other casters deal more damage thanks to your buffs and contribute enough personal DPS so that your raid is successfull, then you're the "hybrid DPS player type". This is somewhat exagerated of course, but i guess you get the idea.

Elementals trade DPS for utility, compared to pure DPS classes.

4) I love my Elemental. You love your Warlock. The only thing you're doing "wrong" is that you don't play the class / spec you love.

[Kidies]

I was in a 10m guild, and was forced to play ele shaman since there're too many melees, already a DK and 2 rogues (yeah, two). What can I say, I hate playing ele shaman. Caster just isnt my strong suit, so although the progress is pretty nice, I'm not that happy =/
Recently our guild disband after 2 months not raiding and I joined a 25m guild instead. Back to enhance, and happier than ever =/

[Calenel]

respec to enhancement. its awesome fun.

failing that, go resto!

[Danii]

I'd say both you and hunter could play your respectives.. lock and hunter that is ..
Wouldn't hurt that much in your group

[Endus]

The rotation isn't really "simple". The basic idea is simple, but executing it properly while under fire while keeping in mind multiple shifting issues is not. Elemental played badly is boring, elemental played well takes a lot. Case in point is your complaint about mobility; if you're having to move so much you're running out of things to do, your positioning is off and/or you're not working your priority properly. I can go through most fights without ever having a GCD wasted.


All that said, enjoyment is really subjective. If you don't enjoy it, play what you enjoy. But by all means, check out the Elemental FAQ here; the class isn't really THAT simple, there's about as much going on as there is for a Feral druid.

[Shamanutra]

To answer some of your questions:

- Raidcomp: http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000
At the moment, we play with me as a rerolled Elemental Shaman, and our Hunter as a Fire Mage.

Us two, don't enjoy playing these 2 classes and ideally wanna switch back to our mains. This leads to the following raidcomp:
http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000

- Raids: We clear 12/12 weekly with not having really looked at the HM's yet.

I know I probably shouldn't play a class I don't want to play, I just want the best for our raidteam while enjoying myself aswell. And I only seem to be doing that on a Warlock.
So far, I'd like to thank you for your valuable feed-back. Maybe someone else has some better solution based on the information I hereby provided.

Well, with the raid comp that you would prefer, seems you both will still have to give a little. You'd most likely have to go Affliction and use your fel puppy for INT since replenishment is covered, and the hunter would have to spec BM for lust/hero. You both will be able to play the class you want to play, but maybe not the fun spec. Either way, you'd both be helping your raid in another way than playing a class that neither of you enjoy.

Another option, ditch the rogue for a mage or enhance shaman. Preferably an enhance shaman for the interrupts you'll need. The enhance shaman can either solo interrupt or rotate with the tank for boss fights that require them.