Elemental Shaman guide
Caster DPS. Elemental opens with Flame Shock, fills with Lightning Bolt and uses Chain Lightning on cooldown for cleave. Elemental Alacrity (tier 2) makes Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning faster and leads to Lightning Overload, Call of Thunder (tier 5) gives both 5% more crit chance, Elemental Fury (tier 6) doubles spell crit bonus, and Lightning Mastery (tier 7, after Call of Thunder) takes 0.5 sec off Lightning Bolt and removes Chain Lightning's cooldown for 15 sec. Call of Flame makes Flame Shock and your Fire totems hit harder.
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Stat priority
- Hit (to cap)
- Spell Power
- Critical Strike
- Intellect
- Mana per 5 sec
- Nature Damage
- Fire Damage
Opener
- Call of the Elements: Drop your preset totems (Mana Spring, Searing, etc.) in one cast
- Flame Shock: Apply first; Call of Flame makes it last longer
- Lightning Mastery: At the start of a boss fight: faster Lightning Bolts and no Chain Lightning cooldown for 15 sec
Single target
- Flame Shock: Keep the burn on the target
- Lightning Mastery: On cooldown on bosses and big pulls
- Chain Lightning: On cooldown if mana allows
- Lightning Bolt: Filler; downrank if mana is tight
- Earth Shock: Interrupt or when moving; shares cooldown with Flame Shock
Several targets
- Chain Lightning: On cooldown
- Magma Totem: Pulsing fire AoE around the totem
- Fire Nova: Detonate at your Fire totem
- Lightning Bolt: Filler between Chain Lightnings
Cooldowns
- Totemic Recall: Recall totems after a fight for a partial mana refund
- Mana Tide Totem: Restoration's tier 4 talent (level 25, after 15 Restoration points), so only hybrid builds reach it
- Grounding Totem: Absorb an incoming harmful spell
Key talents
- Elemental Fury
- Call of Flame
- Elemental Alacrity
- Lightning Mastery
- Lightning Overload
- Call of Thunder
- Convection
- Concussion
- Elemental Focus
- Eye of the Storm
- Reverberation
- Elemental Reach
What Forever changed
The 4 November build replaced Lava Burst, the tier 5 fire nuke of earlier builds, with Call of Thunder (5% more crit chance for Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning), so Elemental's fire damage now comes from Flame Shock, Fire Nova and your Fire totems. Blizzard swapped Elemental Alacrity and Elemental Fury, and the current client has Elemental Alacrity in tier 2 and Elemental Fury, now 5 ranks, in tier 6 behind Lightning Overload. Earthbound is a new tier 4 talent that makes Earthbind Totem root nearby targets for 5 sec. The same build replaced Elemental Mastery with Lightning Mastery, the tier 7 talent after Call of Thunder. Lightning Mastery cuts Lightning Bolt's cast by 0.5 sec and removes Chain Lightning's cooldown for 15 sec, on a 3 min cooldown. Totemic Recall refunds 25% of totem mana and the Call spells save globals.
Tips
- Flame Shock shares the Shock cooldown; do not waste it on Earth Shock unless you need an interrupt.
- Set up Call of the Elements for bosses and Call of the Ancestors for trash to swap totem sets quickly.
- Elemental Alacrity cuts Lightning Bolt cast time, making it a strong filler.
Other Shaman specs: Enhancement, Restoration
Data from the WoW Forever client, build 1.60.1.70938, extracted .