Content Type: Gaming Guides
Welcome to the Elemental Shaman DPS guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing an Elemental Shaman in a raid. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.
Talent Tree
4 Talents marked with blue are replaceable.
Spend those 4 talent points depending on the raid, your gear, and the encounter. Sometimes you need to instantly go into the Spirit Wolf form to avoid damage. Sometimes, when you can get hit by AoE damage it’s best to take Elemental Warding. Improved Fire Nova is taken more when you have BiS gear, for maximizing your damage.
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
Gems
Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.
- Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
- Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
- Yellow: Potent Ametrine
- Blue: Glowing Dreadstone
Also if you lack Hit rating or Haste, use these: Veiled Ametrine & Reckless Ametrine
Enchants
- Head – Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
- Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Storm
- Cloak – Greater Speed
- Chest – Powerful Stats
- Bracers – Superior Spellpower
- Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
- Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
- Legs – Sapphire Spellthread
- Boots – Icewalker
- Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Black Magic or Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower
- Shield – Greater Intellect
Rotation
Flame Shock -> Lava Burst -> Elemental Mastery -> Lightning Bolt
Everything else is used when cooldown goes off. If needed, use also Chain Lightning
Stat Priority
Hit -> Spell Power -> Haste -> Critical Strike Rating -> Intellect
Elemental Shaman requires 17% of spell hit to always hit the target. 3% can be gained from the Elemental Precision talent, additionally 1% from Draenei racial aura. Target debuffs like Misery and Improved faerie fire reduce the requirement by another 3%.
Spell Power is the most reliable stat for Elemental Shamans as it increases the effectiveness of all spells. Stack it as much as possible. Haste is another vital stat for this spec. Ideally, the target is to reduce the casting time of both Chain Lightning, and Lava burst down to 1 second. We can reduce the cooldown to 1 second by getting 33.67% of Haste (or 1100 haste rating, while buffed).
Critical Strike Rating is a secondary stat that should be received mainly from gear. The soft cap for crit is 40%, and the maximum amount of crit that can be achieved without sacrificing too much from other stats is roughly 70%. Intellect is our core stat which increases our overall mana pool, mana regeneration and is partially converted into spell crit.
What about the totems? Which one should we use?
These 4 will cover most circumstances:
Imo, the fun of totems (and shamans) is their flexibility and ability to “fill in the gaps” for a raid/group, so these will always be changing depending on your raid composition and fight requirements.
For raid composition examples, you could be lacking dk horn but you have a paly prot aura, you can do strength of earth instead of stoneskin, or if you or others are ooming pop mana tot, and if there’s not a enh sham and there’s already another ele or resto in the group, then you can be kind to melee and drop windfury instead. remember that mana and healing tots only affect your 5-man party, even when in a raid in 3.3.5.
Other times that one of the top 4 may be switched out are if a fight calls for tremor or cleansing totem, as those can both be very powerful tools in particular fights. rarely will you have to drop resist totems but they certainly can be called for if needed.
oh, also, don’t forget that magma or fire ele tot + fire nova can do decent aoe damage if you’re able to approach and not get slapped, especially if glyphed with totem of wrath.
hope some of that helps!
Hey
What should I cast when Elemental Mastery is on Cooldown?
Spam lightning bolt and use earth shock while the flame shock dot is active but lava burst isnt ready
by saying to use earth shock i can arleady tell you have no idea about ele shamans rotation
fail
could put a rotation for beginner levels I have difficulty about which ability to use in sequence. can be up to level 30 to 60. And an explanation of how to play initially with the classes would be really cool and thanks for the site he is incredible and his work is great.
Hi!
For leveling, I suggest increasing mana sustainability where it’s possible, start with maxing on Convection [Tier 1]. Shamans don’t really have that much of a variety in spells so here are some quick notes
Flametongue Weapon; maintain Water Shield.
Lightning Bolt (with a Glyph) + Flame Shock is the basic combo for solo targets;
Chain Lightning + Fire Nova totem for AoE damage;
Defense-wise, use Stoneclaw totem (with a Glyph) is great for solo leveling.
One of the problems for Shamans is Mana, so Intellect (increased mana pool) is vital. I’d also go to dungeons as a healer to get better gear (with Intellect, Spell Damage, Spirit, Crit etc). Nothing worse than an undergeared caster.
Sadly, Lava Burst is only at level 75.
Overall, Elemental Shaman doesn’t need that much changes to the build that’s mentioned above (mainly because ele takes almost evey talent in the tree haha)
Good luck!
BiS list,or which stats does my armor need to have.
“Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.”
but what are the caps? whats the hit cap? does haste has cap? how mych crit is enough?
Hi,
Added in the Stat Priority section
do you know the soft cap for haste? is there one?
thanks for the guide … but can u add some profession and gear tips ?