Elemental Shaman Guide

[branislav97]

Hello and welcome

This is my guide for Ele Shammy in 7.1.5 patch Legion.

First and for most this spec is fleshy and spells look quite amazing, this is not important but i wanna mention it since for me when i first saw it i was amazed so count on it as perk ... And now to actual guide it self..
As ele shammy you can do range dps and heal yourself or help out healers when its needed. What makes Elemental shammy different from rest of caster classes/specs is that your spells are on low cast time and we have one of best passives in game whic is Elemental overload. What does this passive do ? Well glad you asked Elemental overload is based on Mastery so roughly speaking more mastery you have more chanses that your Elemental overload will proc. Once Elemental overload procs what it will do it will simulate your spell that you casted and replicate it for bit less dmgthen normal, so if you fire lightning bolt, Chain lightning, Lava burst, those spells will fire one additional time if you Passive procs Isnt it OP .


If you are new to Elemental, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

In Legion Elemental shaman have Mana whic is not that important, and beside mana we also have Maelstrom. MAELSTORM is what is important to understand so here is bit more about it. Maelstrom is the primary resource of Elemental Shamans. Maelstrom is essentially a clone of the Rage resource Warriors use. It is generated by casting spells and using specific abilities, while other abilities covert Maelstrom into powerful damage. Maelstrom is generated and consumed fairly slowly for Elemental, which makes the rotational priority very easy to predict and contributes to a fluid state of play.

1.* Basic abilities for Elemental Shamy (These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose)

-Lightning bolt is your main filler. It deals weak damage and generates 8 Maelstrom.

- Lava Burst is your Maelstrom generating nuke. It deals strong damage, has a short cooldown and Lava Burst generates 10 Maelstrom.(more about this spell later)

- Earth Shock is your Maelstrom consuming nuke. It deals powerful instant damage, has no cast time and costs 60 Maelstrom or more (more is stronger dmg)


- Flame Shock is a damage over time spell you should keep applied to your primary target at all times. It deals weak damage over time but has an important interaction with your Lava burst (more about this later)

-Frost Shock is your filler spell during movement. It also slows the target by 50% for 6 seconds. It deals a moderate amount of damage but does not generate Maelstrom. You should only use this for movement, when you need the slow, or if you really need extra damage immediately.


-Chain Lightning is your main Maelstrom generating nuke for AoE/Cleave. It deals weak damage and generates 4 Maelstrom per target hit. It can chain to up to 5 targets.


-Earthquake is your main Maelstrom consuming nuke for AoE/Cleave. It deals good damage over 6 seconds in the targeted area, and can knock down enemies within.



1.1*Important Procs for Elemental Shaman

Another of Elemental shaman passives is Lava Surge. What Lava Surge does is next, Lava Surge is the main proc to watch out for. Your Flame Shock has a 15% chance to activate Lava Surge, which resets the cooldown of your Lava Burst and makes it an instant cast.

1.2* Important CDS for elemental shaman

Most Elemental DPS Cooldowns are gained through talents

Fire Elemental is a 2.5-minute cooldown that summons a powerful Fire Elemental for 30 seconds. You do not have control over it, but it deals significant damage and you usually want to pair it with BL/HERO/TW

what are BL/HERO
Bloodlust/Heroism is the signature shaman cooldown, increasing the haste of all your party and raid members by 30% for 40 seconds, with a 5-minute cooldown.

1.3* Defensive Abilities for Elemental Shaman

- Astral Shift is a 1.5-minute cooldown reducing your damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. It is your main defensive cooldown and you should use it often.


- Reincarnation is a passive ability allowing you to raise from the dead with 20% of your Health and Mana. This has a 30-minute cooldown which does not reset on wipe. This is an incredibly powerful ability when it is available.

- Now i will list Healing surge here because reasons Healing Surge heals for a moderate amount with a fast cast time. It costs 25% of your Mana pool. Do not hesitate to use it on yourself or others.


- Earth Elemental is a summon that is primarily used to help with tanking for 1 minute, It can and will Tount

1.4* Crowd Control Abilities for Elemental Shaman

- Wind Shear is your "kick". It is fairly unique in that its 30 yards range and 12-second cooldown are shorter than most other ranged characters. This makes Wind Shear one of the best interrupts in the game, and you should use it a lot.


- Hex is the shaman equivalent of Polymorph. This spell transforms 1 enemy into a frog for 60 seconds, preventing it from attacking or casting spells as long as you do not attack it.


- Earthbind Totem projects a totem that slows everything around it for 20 seconds. Very useful especially if you kite around the totem.


-Thunderstorm does very little damage but knocks away enemies around you and slows them by 40% for 5 seconds. Quite useful, especially when you use it to displace an enemy in a specific direction.( note this spell in not working on freakz it deals dmg but doesent knock back so yeah that suck)

1.5*Additional Utility abilities

- Ghost Wolf transforms you into a wolf, preventing you from casting but increasing your movement speed by 30% as long as you stay in this form. In addition, your movement speed cannot go below 100% while in this form.

- Purge remove 1 beneficial effect from an enemy target.


-Cleanse Spirit removes all curses from a friendly target.


-Ancestral Spirit allows you to resurrect allies after a very long cast. It is not usable in combat.


-Astral Recall is essentially a second Hearthstone on a 10-minute cooldown.


-Water Walking allows you or whoever you target to walk on water as long as no damage is taken.

THIS WILL BE END OF BREAF TALK ABOUT SHAMY IN GENERAL
AND MORE TALK ABOUT 3 INFAMOUS BUILDS

2* Elemental shaman builds

2.1* Ascendance build (Recomended for raiders that are not that high on skill set )

Ascendance build is Single target Nuke dmg in one period of time.This is rly common build for Elementals since it have some rly strong burst damage, easy rotation to learn, and its fun to play. Ascendance build is only good for raid or some dungeon bosses that must be dealt whit fast.


2.2* Talent tree (il try to make in as grid so its easy to understand )

15 Path of flame--------------Earthen Rage-----------Totem Mastery
30 Gust of Wind--------------Ancestral Guidance-----Wind Rush Totem
45 Lightning Surge Totem---Earthgrab Totem--------Voodoo Totem
60 Aftershock-----------------Ancestral Swiftness-----Elemental Mastery
75 Elemental Fusion----------Primal Elementalist-----Elemental balst
90 Liquid Magma Totem------Storm Elemental--------Eco of the Elements
100 Ascendance----------------Lightning Rod-----------Icefury


For Ascendance build its recomended to play:
15 Path of Flame
30 in this row you can chose what ever but its recommended to go whit Gust of Wind since whit it you will get more mobility whic is need for Raid
45 once again in this row you can chose whatever since this is shammys row of additional cc most common is Lightning Surge Totem
60 Ancestral Swiftness is way to go
75 Elemental Blast but you can also chose Elemental Fusion if you wanna meke your rotation bit more easy and secrefise some damage
90 Eco of the Elements is way to go
100 Ofcourse it Ascendance since this is Ascendance Build

2.3* Gear and stat priority

Since we are speaking about raids there is one rly importatn role to understand here and that is you are not looking for itemlevel (ilvl). If you are looking for ilvl only to get your self in raids that might work for PUG raids but if you are in progress guild you wont preform that well and it will probably result by kicking you from raid since no one love to boost and carry noobz .

For stat you Priority should be to get your Mastery around 86.5 if you are playing Elemental Blast. Now reason why to get it on 86.5 is once you fire your Elemental blast off you can get proc of Mastery whic will fill you mastery up to 100% and for that brief period of time you will be unstopable. Rest should be for Critical chanse > Haste > Versitality.

so long story short 86.5 Mastery not more then that > Crit >Haste >Versitality

i wont tell exsact numbers for crit and haste because they might be different for you so my advice is look for that sweet spot that is working well for you then swap to other stat only important is dont go above 86.5 Mastery

For Legendarys im going for Finger and belt tho if you dont have those you cn use Head if you have it but that is optional, and even if you dont have those use any you have but belt and finger are one that are best.

2.4* 2 types of rotation for Ascendance


-Opener:

Pre-Pull:
-3 sec. Cast Fire Elemental
-2 sec. Potion of Prolonged Power in to Lightning bolt
-0 sec. Cast Flameshock

In Combat:
1st Cast Lava Burst twice
2 Cast Elemental Blast
3 Re-apply Flame Shock to get its full duration
4 Cast Ascendance and racials/trinkets
5 Continuously cast Lava Burst during Ascendance , do not use EarthShock during Ascendance and you will need to use Elemental Blast one time during Ascendance
6 After Ascendance go in to normal rotation


-Normal Rotation

1 Cast Flame shock if :
-It's not on target
-it will expire 9 seconds or less, your Maelstrom is 20 or higher, or if you have stack of Elemental Focus
2 Cast Elemental Blast when available
3 Cast Earth Shock when your Maelstrom is 90 or above
4 Cast lightning bolt if Power of Maelstrom is active or Lava burst have less then 2 charges
5 Cast Earth Shock if your Maelstrom is above 90
6 Cast Stormkeeper and spend it on lightning bolt
7 Cast Lava burst , and fill it up whit lightning bolt


3* Lightning rod build

-Lightning rod build is best option to play in Mythic+ dungeons or Big aoe boss fights (for example botanist/Skorpyron)
Lightning rod it self is easiest build out of 3 and whit this one you will preform well. Now Enough of chet lets get in to it

3.1* Talent Tree

15 Path of flame--------------Earthen Rage-----------Totem Mastery
30 Gust of Wind--------------Ancestral Guidance-----Wind Rush Totem
45 Lightning Surge Totem---Earthgrab Totem--------Voodoo Totem
60 Aftershock-----------------Ancestral Swiftness-----Elemental Mastery
75 Elemental Fusion----------Primal Elementalist-----Elemental balst
90 Liquid Magma Totem------Storm Elemental--------Eco of the Elements
100 Ascendance----------------Lightning Rod-----------Icefury

-For Lightning Rod it's recommended to play :
15 Totem Mastery
30 Gust of Wind
45 Lightning Surge Totem
60 Ancestral Swiftness
75 Elemental Blast but for dungeons i would recommend Primal Elementalist
90 for Mythic plus dungeons or more AOE fights go for Liquid Magma Totem for more single target focus on Eco of the Elements
100 IS Lightning Rod since this is Lightning rod build

3.2* Gear and stat priority

Raiding : Critical Strike = Mastery >> Haste= Versatility
Dungeons : Haste > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility

And for Legendarys go whit Finger and Wrist

3.3* 2 Types of rotation for Lightning Rod build
This is so easy it cant be easier

-Opener:

Pre-Pull:

-3sec. Cast Fire Elemental
-2sec. Cast Potion of Prolonged Power followd by Elemental Blast
-0sec. Cast Flame Shock

In Combat:

1st Cast Lava Burst
2nd Cast Stormkeeper in to Lightning Bolt (Chain Lightning if its aoe fight)
3rd Cast Lightning bolt (Chain Lightning if its aoe fight)

4* Icefury build

-Icefury build is Hardest to play out of those 3 builds but in same time it deals most of DMG out of those 3 builds. Those who master this will get invites all day long so do your best to try and get in to build it self. More yyou play it easier it will be for you to understand it. This build will learn you how to menage your Maelstrom and when is best time to use some spells. Enough about it lets get in to it

4.1* Talent Tree

15 Path of flame--------------Earthen Rage-----------Totem Mastery
30 Gust of Wind--------------Ancestral Guidance-----Wind Rush Totem
45 Lightning Surge Totem---Earthgrab Totem--------Voodoo Totem
60 Aftershock-----------------Ancestral Swiftness-----Elemental Mastery
75 Elemental Fusion----------Primal Elementalist-----Elemental balst
90 Liquid Magma Totem------Storm Elemental--------Eco of the Elements
100 Ascendance----------------Lightning Rod-----------Icefury

-For Icefury are next :

15 Earthen Rage
30 Gust of Winds
45 Lightning Surge Totem
60 Ancestral Swiftness
75 Elemental Blast but for dungeons go whit Primal Elementalist
90 Eco of the Elements
100 This is Icefury build so it will be Icefury

4.2* Gear and stat priority

-For stat priority IceFury is identical as Ascendance Build whic means

Mastery > Critical Strike >Haste > Versatility

For Legendary's il go whit Finger and head/belt

4.3* Rotation for Icefury

-Before Combat:

-3sec. Fire Elemental
-2sec. Potion of Prolonged Power in to Elemental balst

-In Combat:

1st Cast Lava Burst Immediately upon entering combat
2nd Cast Flame Shock
3rd Cast Icefury
4th Cast Stormkeeper
5th Cast Lava Burst
6th Cast x3 Lightning bolt
7th Cast Elemental Blast
8th Cast x4 Frost Shock


-Normal Rotation/Spell priority:
1. Cast Flame Shock if :
-it is not on the target
-it will expire 9 seconds or less, your Maelstrom is 20 or higher, or if you have stack of Elemental Focus
2. Cast Elemental Blast when available
3. Cast Earth Shock if your Maelstrom is 90 or higher
4. Cast Icefury when it's available , but only if:
- you will not cap on your Maelstrom, by casting it (this means cast it only if you are bellow 76 Maelstrom
- you will be able to use all 4 stacks of Frost Shock before they expire
5. Cast Frost Shock once immediately following Icefury to avoid capping on Maelstrom
6. Cast Lava Burst When Lava Surge is active, or if you have more then 2 charges of Lava Burst
7. Cast Frost Shock if :
-your Maelstrom is higher then 20
-you have stack of Icefury
8. Cast Stormkeeper
9. Cast Lava Burst
10. Cast Lightning Bolt


For Relics Go for Lava Imbued That one is BIS for all 3 spec and it will bost your dps alot so try to farm all 3 of those.

Well it looks like im at end of this guide so i hope for those who are reading it that it healped you in your journey to become best Elemental Shaman on Freakz, if you have any question you can Mail me in Game Nick is Loisaire. That's all from me PIS...

[Denim]

Friendly tip: Try including more images instead of too much wall of text. Easier to read and follow.


Retired

[Irediel]

Greetings,

As Denim mentioned, try to include more images in your guides.

Big walls of text tend to lose the readers interest quickly, as nobody really wishes to read 5 pages of a guide to figure out how they need to cast their Lightning Bolt.

i.e, you could take a screenshot of the talent tree and simply mark the ones you suggest and then describe them in the guide. That would end up with less text, but the same outcome for your guide.
Also, giving your text more room to "breathe" also helps. It creates a thin red line throughout your entire guide, makes it easier to read in general and connects the guide together as long as you stay on topic.

I would also suggest using some of the tools that you have available, such as increasing the size of important text, underlining it, bolding it etc.
Give people something to look at.

If someone is looking for a specific topic within your guide, they'd simply need to look for the big text and not have to skim through your entire guide to find the spot they're looking for.

Otherwise, great information.

Best regards,

Irediel

Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

[branislav97]

Yeah tnx for your reply but I was at work and my PC there is not capable to do much so I did that was in my power but in general, I found this fun and looking forward in making more.

[pixcals]

I have been playing ele shammy for a while now and I feel that Elemental Blast > then 2 Lava burst should do fairly well in case you proc mastery and crit on your Elemental Blast Just a thought but all in all a nice guide.