Elemental Shaman Raid Guide
Welcome to the Elemental Shaman Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
- Call of the Ancestors
- This is the whole mechanic for this Hero Tree. Whenever you summon an Ancestor you reduce the cooldown of your Fire Elemental or Storm Elemental by 5 seconds thanks to Offering from Beyond.
- These Ancestors cast spells depending on what you cast.
- If you cast any ST spell the Ancestor casts a Lava Burst on your target.
- If you cast any AoE spell the Ancestor casts a Chain Lightning on a random target in range.
- Ancestors spawn when you cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness, which is the capstone talent in the Hero Tree. Make sure you have Nature's Swiftness specced if you play this tree.
- Latent Wisdom or Ancient Fellowship
- Latent Wisdom
- Your Ancestor's spells are 20% more powerful.
- Ancient Fellowship
- Ancestors have a 20% chance to call another Ancestor for 6 sec when they despawn.
- Latent Wisdom
- Heed My Call or Routine Communication
- Heed My Call
- Ancestors last an additional 4 sec.
- Routine Communication
- Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, Chain Lightning, Icefury, and Frost Shock casts have a 5% chance to call an Ancestor to your side for 6 sec.
- Heed My Call
- When an Ancestor despawns they cast an Elemental Blast on a nearby target thanks to Final Calling. This Elemental Blast does give you the Critical strike, Haste or Mastery as well.
- The rest of this tree are passives that don't affect your gameplay much.
- Primordial Capacity
- Increases your maximum Maelstrom by 25.
- Maelstrom Supremacy
- Increases the damage of your spenders by 8%.
- Elemental Reverb
- Lava Burst gains 1 additional charge and deals 5% increased damage.
- Primordial Capacity
- Tempest
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- You spend 300 Maelstrom.
- You get 3 stacks of Awakening Storms.
- The main idea of this Hero Tree is to cycle through as much Maelstrom as possible and cast as many Tempest as possible.
- Your Lightning Bolt turns into Tempest after either
- Arc Discharge
- Tempest causes your 2 next Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning to be instant cast and deal 40% increased damage.
- Storm Swell or Supercharge
- Storm Swell
- Tempest grants you 9% Mastery for 6 sec.
- Supercharge
- Lightning Bolt, Tempest, and Chain Lightning have a 50% chance to cause an additional Overload
- Storm Swell
- Rolling Thunder
- Grants you 1 charge of Stormkeeper every 50 sec.
- Conductive Energy
- Casting Tempest applies Lightning Rod to your target.
- The rest of this tree are passives that wont effect your gameplay much.
- Unlimited Power
- Spending Maelstrom grants you Haste.
- Voltaic Surge
- Increases the damage of your Earthquake and Chain Lightning by 15%.
- Stormcaller
- Increases the critical strike chance and damage of your nature spells by 5%.
- Unlimited Power
Talents
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Storm Elemental
- Gives you Wind Gust stacks, which increases your Haste by 4%, stacking up to 4 times.
- Stormkeeper
- Empowers your next 2 Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
- Primordial Wave
- Together with Splintered Elements increases your Haste by up to 30%.
- Ascendance
- 3 min cooldown. Increases your Mastery: Elemental Overload damage by 150% and your spells proc 1 additional Mastery: Elemental Overload.
Class Tree
- Spiritwalker's Grace
- Allows you to cast while moving for 15 sec, which can save you a lot of DPS you might lose otherwise in certain scenarios.
- Nature's Swiftness
- Makes your next nature cast instant. When playing Farseer, it summons and Ancestor as well.
Hero Talents
- Arc Discharge
- Tempest causes your next 2 Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning to be instant cast and deal 40% increased damage.
- Awakening Storms
- Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning have a chance to deal extra damage, and every 3 times this occurs, your next Lightning Bolt is replaced by Tempest.
- Rolling Thunder
- Every 50 sec in combat, gain a stack of Stormkeeper.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Storm Elemental
- Gives you Wind Gust stacks, which increases your Haste by 4%, stacking up to 4 times.
- Stormkeeper
- Empowers your next 2 Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
- Primordial Wave
- Together with Splintered Elements increases your Haste by up to 30%.
- Ascendance
- 3 min cooldown. Increases your Mastery: Elemental Overload damage by 150% and your spells proc 1 additional Mastery: Elemental Overload.
Class Tree
- Spiritwalker's Grace
- Allows you to cast while moving for 15 sec, which can save you a lot of DPS you might lose otherwise in certain scenarios.
- Nature's Swiftness
- Makes your next nature cast instant. When playing Farseer, it summons and Ancestor as well.
Hero Talents
- Call of the Ancestors
- Primordial Wave now summons an Ancestor aswell.
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Replaces Nature's Swiftness, now summons an Ancestor.
- Offering from Beyond
- When you summon an Ancestor you reduce the cooldown of your Storm Elemental by 5 sec. This means you can use one in between your Ascendance uses.
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Earth Shock, Elemental Blast and Earthquake damage is increased by 25%.
- 4-Set: Spending Maelstrom grants you 5% increased critical strike chance and 10% increased critical strike damage.
Single-Target
Opener
- Your opener can change depending on your procs.
- With the new reworked Ascendance, you don't have infinite Lava Burst anymore, so you spread out your Lava Burst casts.
- You use Liquid Magma Totem to keep Flame Shock up, or hold it for upcoming AoE.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Storm Elemental on cooldown.
- Cast Stormkeeper on cooldown.
- Cast Ascendance on cooldown.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Cast Liquid Magma Totem if Flame Shock is close to falling off.
- Cast Lava Burst to consume Primordial Wave.
- Cast Elemental Blast.
- Cast Icefury.
- Cast Lava Burst.
- Cast Tempest.
- Cast Lightning Bolt.
- Cast Frost Shock only while moving.
Multi-Target
Opener
- Your opener can change depending on your procs.
- In the opener you are trying to cast as many Earthquake and Chain Lightning as possible, during Ascendance.
- With the new reworked Ascendance, you don't have infinite Lava Burst anymore, so you spread out your Lava Burst casts.
Multi-Target Priority List
- Cast Storm Elemental on cooldown.
- Cast Stormkeeper on cooldown.
- Cast Ascendance on cooldown.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Cast Lava Burst to consume Primordial Wave.
- Cast Earthquake.
- Cast Icefury.
- Cast Lava Burst.
- Cast Tempest.
- Cast Chain Lightning.
- Cast Frost Shock only while moving.
Deep Dive
Lightning Rod
Elemental Blast, Earth Shock, Earthquake, and Tempest applies Lightning Rod which duplicates a lot of you Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, and Tempest damage on to the targets affected by Lightning Rod.
Elemental Blast and Earth Shock will always apply Lightning Rod to your target.
Earthquake prioritizes your target, but if your target already has Lightning Rod, it will apply it to a nearby enemy instead.
Most of the time you don't have to care about Lightning Rod as on Single-Target it will just get applied to your target, while on AoE your Earthquake will automatically apply to other targets, however, on AoE you need to think about how you use Tempest. Whenever you cast it you want to try to cast in a target that doesn't have Lightning Rod or is about to fall off. If there's a priority target without Lightning Rod you can also try to apply it to that target.
Understanding Maelstrom
Maelstrom is an essential resource to play around. Due to our mastery, Mastery: Elemental Overload you will generate Maelstrom randomly and you have to be ready so that you don't overcap. This is why it's important to spend as soon as you can.
In some AoE scenarios, you will be playing Swelling Maelstrom which reduces the chance of overcapping.
When you are playing, try to think how much your spells will generate ahead of time and learn to understand how much you will have in one or two globals from now, so you can plan your rotation ahead of time.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem if you are targetted by Digestive Acid.
- You should be using Wind Rush Totem during Carnivorous Contest to help your raid run away.
- Towards the end of the intermission, you should hold Storm Elemental for when your raid finishes the Ready to Feed.
- If you are playing Spirit Walk, you can use it to break Stalker Netting, this only works on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
Boss Tips
- Spiritwalker's Grace is great to use if you are targetted by Grasp From Beyond.
- When Goresplatter is coming up, you should use Gust of Wind to get out or in. Try to see if there's a Demonic Gateway placed you can use as well.
- You want to make sure you have Liquid Magma Totem ready when you are soaking the Gruesome Disgorge, as there will be adds spawning after you go down.
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem whenever you are targetted by Decimate
Boss Tips
- You can use Earthbind Totem and Capacitor Totem to slow and stun the Infested Spawn before they reach players.
- Move out with Spinneret's Strands and place it to the sides.
- When the boss moves to a new position, drop Wind Rush Totem and move it with Totemic Projection if needed, to help out your raid.
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem if you are targeted by Experimental Dosage.
- You can use Thunderous Paws and Spirit Walk to cleanse Unstable Web yourself. Wind Rush Totem when specced into Jet Stream also works but watch out so you don't dispel others and cause them to root other nearby allies with Web Eruption.
- On each Experimental Dosage, some adds will spawn. Whenever Blood Parasites spawn, use Earthbind Totem to slow them, these need to be killed before they reach their fixate target.
- A Voracious Worm can also spawn which has to be interrupted. Shamans are great at this with your short cooldown on Wind Shear.
Boss Tips
- If you get targetted by Assassination, use a defensive just before it goes off as you will get Queensbane right after which shoots out waves. If you get hit by other players waves this can quickly become very deadly.
- Watch where the Nether Rift are placed as they pull you towards their location, if there are multiple ones on the same side, it might be a very strong pull so use Wind Rush Totem for your raid on this.
- During Starless Night is a great time to use Spiritwalker's Grace to optimize your damage.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem on Venomous Rain
- Use Wind Rush Totem on the Web Vortex to help players break the Binding Webs quickly.
- In P1, Skeinspinner Takazj, casts Poison Bolt on the current tank. Poison Cleansing Totem is a great tool to help your healers out.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
- In P3 you use Astral Shift and Stone Bulwark Totem reactively if you get Royal Condemnation.
- Earth Elemental should be used in P3 after using your other defensive to cover you for another minute.
Boss Tips
- You can use Spirit Walk to break yourself free from Silken Tomb. Evokers can help you by giving you Time Spiral.
- Wind Rush Totem Is very useful to help your raid dodge Web Blades and Acid Explosion.
- In P3 the boss spawns Gloom Hatchlings which you need to stop before they reach the boss. Capacitor Totem with Guardian's Cudgel is a great way as they do not go on stun DR at all. Thunderstorm can also help you out.
- Make sure you interrupt Summoned Acolytes Null Detonation as soon as you can as it does more damage each time the cast goes off.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as an Elemental Shaman. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Noetic of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan |
| Chest | Goresplattered Membrane | Bloodbound Horror |
| Wrist | Throne Defender's Bangles | Sikran |
| Gloves | Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Belt | Glyph-Etched Binding | Crafting |
| Legs | Sarong of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Boots | Rasha'nan's Grotesque Talons | Rasha'nan |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
| Ring 2 | Writhing Ringworm | Broodtwister Ovi'nax |
| Trinket 1 | Spymaster's Web | The Silken Court |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Weapon | Everforged Dagger | Crafting |
| Shield | Dragonkin Ward | Grim Batol |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Cryptbound Headpiece | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Wintersnap Shoulderguards | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Cloak | Anvilhide Cape | The Stonevault |
| Chest | Tri-Heart Chestguard | Siege of Boralus |
| Wrist | Penumbral Rimeguards | City of Threads |
| Gloves | Corpseleecher Grips | The Stonevault |
| Belt | Anchor Chain Girdle | Siege of Boralus |
| Legs | Entwined Chimeric Legguards | City of Threads |
| Boots | Red Scale Boots | Grim Batol |
| Ring 1 | Devout Zealot's Ring | The Dawnbreaker |
| Ring 2 | Circle of Bone | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 1 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj | The Dawnbreaker |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Weapon | Modgud's Blade | Grim Batol |
| Shield | Dragonkin Ward | Grim Batol |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Treacherous Transmitter
- You second best on use, but passive trinkets may perform better.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Very strong passive trinket.
- Gale of Shadows
- Strong passive trinket. Barely behind the better options.
- Candle Confidant
- Decent passive trinket.
- Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife
- Decent passive trinket.
Embellishments
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Writhing Armor Banding
- These two are your best embellishments to use.
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension has to go on your weapon.
- Writhing Armor Banding is best to put on your Belt, Boots or Wrists.
- These two are your best embellishments to use.
or
- Dawnthread Lining
- Strong embellishments for both Single-Target and AoE.
- The optimal slots to craft on are Belt, Boots or Wrists depending on your available gear.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 639 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Swiftness
- Flask of Tempered Mastery
- Flask of Tempered Aggression
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil -- default
- Flametongue Weapon if you are specced into Improved Flametongue Weapon.
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Quick Onyx
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Masterful Emerald
- Masterful Ruby
- Masterful Sapphire
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Sunset Spellthread |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
For min-maxing an Elemental Shaman in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong DPS racial on-use, lines up nicely with Ascendance.
- Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong DPS Racial on-use.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Elemental Shamans during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Cursor Macros
Earthquake -- Casts Earthquake on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] EarthquakeLiquid Magma Totem - Uses Liquid Magma Totem on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Liquid Magma TotemWind Rush Totem -- Casts Wind Rush Totem on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Wind Rush TotemTotemic Projection -- Casts Totemic Projection on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Totemic ProjectionMouseover Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Elemental Shaman, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0.5
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Q: Which Earthquake is recommended to pick?
Credits
Written By: Clickz
Reviewed By: Xerwo