Welcome to the Elemental Shaman Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0! 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
- Farseer is the more ST focused tree and is the strongest option in raids, while Stormbringer is performing better on AoE fights.
- 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 when you consume Ancestral Swiftness, which is the capstone talent in the Hero Tree. Make sure you have Nature's Swiftness specced if you play this tree.
- There are 2 choice nodes that you change together most of the time. You either play
- Ancient Fellowship and Routine Communication or
- Latent Wisdom and Heed My Call.
- The first version is more raid focused as it encourages you to cast as many Lava Burst as possible to spawn as many Ancestors as possible.
- The second version is generally better for Mythic+ as here you want to pool Maelstrom for when you use Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness and cast as many AoE spells as possible to get as many extra Chain Lightning as you can.
- 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
- Storm Swell or Arc Discharge
- Choice node where Arc Discharge is the AoE talent, which makes your next 2 Chain Lightning instant cast and deal increased damage after Tempest hits 2 or more targets
- Storm Swell grants you 30 Maelstrom after your Tempest only hits 1 target. This is more of a Raid talent.
- Rolling Thunder
- Grants you 1 charge of Stormkeeper every 50 sec. This requires a WeakAura to properly play around.
- Conductive Energy
- Casting Tempest applies Lightning Rod to your target, which makes you target swap every now an then on an AoE pull.
- 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
- The whole build revolves around stacking up Wind Gust, which reduces your cast time of Lightning Bolt.
- Surge of Power
- Empowers your next cast of a few selected spells. Mostly used for Lightning Bolt on ST fights.
- Stormkeeper
- Empowers your next 2 Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
- Primordial Wave
- Together with Splintered Elements increases your Haste by up to 30%.
- Flash of Lightning
- Increases the crit chance of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 10%, and reduces the cooldown of all your nature spells whenever you cast either spell.
- Skybreaker's Fiery Demise
- Flame Shock critical strikes reduces the cooldown of Fire Elemental or Storm Elemental by 1 sec, and Flame Shock has a 50% increased crit chance.
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 aswell.
Hero Talents
- Latent Wisdom
- Main idea is to cast as many spells as possible while your Ancestors are active.
- Heed My Call
- Increases your Ancestor duration by 4 sec which enables you to have big Ancestor windows.
- Natural Harmony
- The best defensive choice on this node.
When to use this Spec
This build performs slightly below on ST but has more freedom movement wise as majority of your damage come from Lava Burst.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Fire Elemental
- Aftershock
- Icefury
- Fusion of Elements
- Improved Flametongue Weapon
- Ascendance
- PreeminenceDeeply Rooted Elements
- Mountains Will Fall
- Removed
- Storm Elemental
- Surge of Power
- Everlasting Elements
- Power of the Maelstrom
- Echo Chamber
- Stormkeeper
- Fury of the Storms
- Lightning Rod
Hero Talents
- Latent Wisdom
- Changed from Ancient Fellowship.
- Routine Communication
- Changed from Heed My Call.
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
- In the opener you are trying to cast as many spells as possible while your Ancestors are active, and stack up Wind Gust for your next Ancestors.
- The idea is to cast Lightning Bolt until you have enough to spend your Maelstrom on an Elemental Blast.
- You only cast Lava Burst to consume Primordial Wave, and when you have a Lava Surge proc. If Primordial Wave is about to run before you get Lava Surge, cast a Lava Burst.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Storm Elemental if it is not active.
- Cast Stormkeeper on cooldown.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Using Primordial Wave on cooldown should be enough to keep almost 100% Flame Shock uptime.
- Cast Lava Burst only if you have Lava Surge and Primordial Wave active.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Elemental Blast.
- Cast Lightning Bolt.
Opener
- In the opener you are trying to dump all your charges of Lava Burst before using Ascendance.
- The idea is to spend all of you Lava Burst charges before using Ascendance.
- You want to cast Elemental Blast when possible to get the Critical strike, Haste and Mastery buffs going.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Fire Elemental.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Elemental Blast if you are close to maximum Maelstrom.
- Cast Lava Burst.
- Cast Icefury.
- Cast Elemental Blast.
- Cast Frost Shock.
- Cast Lightning Bolt.
Multi-Target
Opener
- In the opener you are trying to cast as many spells as possible while your Ancestors are active, and stack up Wind Gust for your next Ancestors.
- The idea is to cast Lightning Bolt untill you have enough to spend your Maelstrom on an Earthquake.
- You only cast Lava Burst to consume Primordial Wave, and when you have a Lava Surge proac.
- On 3+ targets you cast Chain Lightning instead of Lightning Bolt.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
2+ Target Priority List
- Cast Storm Elemental if it is not active.
- Cast Stormkeeper on cooldown.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Using Primordial Wave on cooldown should be enough to keep almost 100% Flame Shock uptime.
- Cast Flame Shock on your secondary target.
- Cast Lava Burst only if you have Lava Surge and Primordial Wave active.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Earthquake.
- Cast Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power.
- Cast Chain Lightning.
Opener
- In the opener you are trying to dump all your charges of Lava Burst before using Ascendance.
- The idea is to spend all of you Lava Burst charges before using Ascendance.
- You want to cast Elemental Blast when possible to get the Critical strike, Haste and Mastery buffs going.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Fire Elemental if it's not active.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Flame Shock if it's not active on both targets.
- Cast Elemental Blast if you are close to maximum Maelstrom.
- Cast Lava Burst.
- Cast Icefury.
- Cast Elemental Blast.
- Cast Frost Shock.
- Cast Lightning Bolt.
AoE
Opener
- In the opener you are trying to cast as many spells as possible while your Ancestors are active, and stack up Wind Gust for your next Ancestors.
- The idea is to cast Lightning Bolt until you have enough to spend your Maelstrom on an Earthquake.
- You only cast Lava Burst to consume Primordial Wave, and when you have a Lava Surge proc.
- On 3+ targets you cast Chain Lightning instead of Lightning Bolt.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
Priority List
- Cast Storm Elemental if it is not active.
- Cast Stormkeeper on cooldown.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Using Primordial Wave on cooldown should be enough to keep almost 100% Flame Shock uptime.
- Cast Liquid Magma Totem on cooldown.
- Cast Lava Burst only if you have Lava Surge and Primordial Wave active.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Earthquake.
- Cast Chain Lightning.
Opener
- In the opener you are trying to dump all your charges of Lava Burst before using Ascendance.
- The idea is to spend all of your Lava Burst charges before using Ascendance.
- If you are fighting 5+ targets Flame Shock, also apply it to an extra target before using Ascendance.
- You want to cast Primordial Wave and Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown to summon Ancestors which are a big part of your damage.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Fire Elemental if it's not active.
- Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown.
- Cast Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown.
- Cast Liquid Magma Totem on cooldown.
- Cast Earthquake if you are close to maximum Maelstrom.
- Cast Lava Beam if you are in Ascendance.
- Cast Lava Burst if you have Lava Surge.
- Cast Earthquake.
- Cast Chain Lightning.
Deep Dive
Using Chain Lightning vs. Lightning Bolt
If you are hitting 3 targets you should always Chain Lightning, which means wasting your Surge of Power. If there's an important priority target you instead use your Surge of Power on a Lightning Bolt. This is a small overall loss but saves you time.
If you are hitting 2 targets there are a few rules you need to remember. If you have Surge of Power or Stormkeeper you use Lightning Bolt instead of Chain Lightning.
Storm Elemental and Wind Gust stacks.
Whenever you cast Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt while Storm Elemental is active, you gain one stack of Wind Gust stacks, stacking up to 10. This reduces the cast time of Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt by 3% per stack.
If you re-cast your Storm Elemental while your old one is still active, you lose your stacks of Wind Gust, so make sure you always use your 10 stacks for as long as possible before you summon a new elemental.
Whenever Storm Elemental despawns, you summon a Lesser Storm Elemental from Echo of the Elementals, which also gives you Wind Gust stacks. If you summon Storm Elemental it removes the stacks from your Lesser one, but it is nice to know for when Storm Elemental is on cooldown.
The elemental that spawns from Fury of the Storms does not give you stacks and does not affect anything from the above.
Echo of the Elementals when playing Fire Elemental
When Fire Elemental despawns and you are specced into Echo of the Elementals, you spawn a Lesser Fire Elemental. If you use Fire Elemental and you already have one active, it extends your current one which is bad for 2 reasons.
- It does not give you a Lesser Fire Elemental, which means you essentially lost free damage.
- Your active Fire Elemental does not get its Meteor reset.
If the argument is whether to extend your Fire Elemental or wait for it to despawn to gain a Lesser Fire elemental, it means you have 100% uptime on Fire Elemental either way so you are effectively just losing globals on pressing Fire Elemental while losing the damage from the Lesser Fire Elemental.
However, there is a scenario where you want to extend your Fire Elemental for as long as possible to have it up for the last phase of a boss. For example, Fyrakk on Mythic, if you can extend your Fire Elemental in P2 on the colossuses, and have a long one going into the last phase, where you lose your Fire Elemental at some point, it can be worth to extend it as much as possible while you have multiple targets.
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
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.
← 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.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- This is the only boss where I currently recommend playing the Fire version as it is stronger on spread out cleave.
- You can use Liquid Magma Totem to apply Flame Shock to the Shattershell Scarabs.
- 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.
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 | Final Meal's Horns | Ulgrax |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Concourse of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan |
| Chest | Vestments of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Wrist | Glyph-Etched Vambraces | Nexus-Princess |
| Gloves | Covenant of the Forgotten Reservoir | Tier / Catalyst |
| Belt | Accelerated Ascension Coil | 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 | Devout Zealot's Ring | The Dawnbreaker |
| Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket 2 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj | The Dawnbreaker |
| Weapon | Everforged Dagger | Crafting |
| Shield | Crest of the Caustic Despot | Queen Ansurek |
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 | Wildhammer Riding Helm | Grim Batol |
| Neck | Elder's Hemolymphal Periapt | City of Threads |
| Shoulder | Wintersnap Shoulderguards | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Cloak | Shroud of Dark Memories | Grim Batol |
| Chest | Goliath's Chitinous Chainmail | The Dawnbreaker |
| Wrist | Dread Captain's Irons | Siege of Boralus |
| Gloves | Claws of Tainted Ichor | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| 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 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket 2 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj | The Dawnbreaker |
| Weapon | Modgud's Blade | Grim Batol |
| Shield | Encrusted Canopic Lid | The Necrotic Wake |
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
- One of the strongest on-use trinkets currently. Lines up well if you are playing Ascendance
- Spymaster's Web
- Great on-use but as you don't have any big cooldowns to use it with it generally isn't great for Elemental Shamans.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
- Very strong passive trinket.
- Aberrant Spellforge
- Good option if you are playing the Fire build.
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 or Wrists.
- These two are your best embellishments to use.
or
- Dawnthread Lining
- Duskthread Lining
- Both of these are strong embellishments for both Single-Target and AoE, depending on what stats you currently need.
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots, or Waist 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 -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- 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 playing a Fire build and specced into Improved Flametongue Weapon.
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Deadly Emerald
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Quick Sapphire
- Quick Ruby
- Deadly Onyx
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 Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste 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 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Q: Which Earthquake is recommended to pick?
Q: When is Lightning/Fire better?
Credits
Written By: Clickz
Reviewed By: Xerwo