So I was researching on wowhead and some of my other favorite WoW sites and starting thinking about what upgrades I will be trying to get when the patch hits. I am going to put together a list of some gear upgrades you should be looking to get your hands on once the patch hits.
Sunreaver Disciple's Blade - This should be the BiS weapon for elementals.
Misery's End - Another option.
Bastion of Purity - This will be the shield ele shaman and pallys are going for.
Boots of Tremoring Earth - Finally elemental boots with the correct itemization, after nothing from Uld this is a good sign.
Shroud of Displacement - Should be BiS.
Tier 9 Sets
Thrall's Helm of Conquest
Thrall's Shoulderpads of Conquest
Thrall's Hauberk of Conquest
Thrall's Kilt of Conquest
Thrall's Gloves of Conquest
Thrall's Helm of Triumph
Thrall's Shoulderpads of Triumph
I am working on the rest of the list and it should be done today. I will include the new Tier 9 items also.
Well with 3.2 around the corner I have been checking the patch notes to see if there have been anymore changes Shamans. For now it looks like the Totem Bar and Resto changes are the big things for this patch. Lets look at the current patch notes:
Shamans
A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems. The naming scheme of the spells to summon the different totem sets has been changed to make it less confusing for players:
A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems. The naming scheme of the spells to summon the different totem sets has been changed to make it less confusing for players:
Call of Fire (Totem Bar 1, the first one gained at level 30) is now named Call of the Elements.
Call of Water (Totem Bar 2) is now named Call of the Ancestors.
Call of Air (Totem Bar 3) is now named Call of the Spirits.
Call of Earth (the spell to recall all summoned totems) is now named Totemic Recall.
All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
Chain Heal: Jump distance increased by 25% to 12.5 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.
Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).
Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.
Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.
Talents
Enhancement
Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.
Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman's attack power, down from 30%.
Restoration
Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman's Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman's health.
Nature's Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman's maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
Nature's Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now
provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.
The totem bar is a welcome change as blowing 4 global cooldowns before even starting your rotation is such a waste of time and having to drop them every time you move is a major pain in the @#$. I have not had much time for testing this patch on the ptr but from speaking to some other shamans that have tried they love being able to drop 3 different sets of totems in one GCD.
As you can see there have been no real changes to the Elemental Spec this patch and I really don't expect there to be any announced before the patch comes out. The only real benefit will be the increased range on all shocks and the base stamina buff.
What would you have liked to see added to help Elementals this patch?
I know there have been many posts about this topic but since this is a new blog I have decided to touch on it one more time. I can not stress enough how important being hit capped is to maximizing your dps as an Elemental Shaman. It really is simple but so many people take it for granted they can skip a little on hit rating for spellpower, haste or crit. If you don't believe me take a look at the armory sometime when you are on the WOW shaman forums. If you do not understand why you should be hit capped before anything else think about it this way.
If you miss a cast then your dps will be less and stacking spellpower, haste or crit means nothing if you can't land a damage spell.
OK now we know why we should be hit capped then how do we get there and how much hit rating do you need? Well that depends on a couple factors and we will go over the scenarios and rating % you need for each one. The Hit Rating cap is 17% for shamans (16% for Dranaei because of Heroic Presence).
First and foremost you need to be talented with Elemental Precision. If you read my last couple posts on which talents to spec in then you already understand this talent but I am going to recap it. Elemental Presicion provides you with a base 3% hit rating. Ok now we have 3% base hit rating we need to get the rest from gear and/or other class talents. If you are a raider you should have a shadow priest and boomkin in your raid. If not get one right away. Each of those classes provide a spell/talent that will give you another 3% hit rating for a total of 6%. Now you need to get the remaining 11% from gear and gemming if needed. Again hit rating is more important than another stat a gem can provide.
Lets break down the numbers at level 80:
26.23 hit rating per 1% hit
289 hit rating for 11% hit - this is the number you should be aiming for
367 hit rating for 14% hit - this is the number you need without a spriest or boomkin
Through a mix of talents, gear, and other classes you shouldn't have a problem becoming hit capped. This is the first and most important stat to a dps caster something you should cap before you ever step into a heroic raid. Good luck and remember don't miss!!!
I recently posted about gear to fill out your hit rating you can read by clicking here.
In my last post I went over the elemental talents and why you should choose them. Today I will cover the remaining 14 talent points and where to use them. The rest of your talents will be sent in the Enhancement tree.
Ancestral Knowledge 5/5 Increases your intellect by 10%.
More mana equals more dps/healing.
Thundering Strikes 5/5 Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 5%.
A flat 5% crit across the board.
Shamanistic Focus 1/1 Reduces the mana cost of your shock spells by 45%.
Another talent that helps you to have no mana issues.
Elemental Weapons 3/3 Increased the damage caused by your windfury weapon effect by 40%, increases the spell damage on your flametongue weapon by 30% and increases the bonus healing on your earthliving weapon by 30%.
An additional 30% spell power from flametongue equals more dps.
The next thing we need to talk about are which glyphs to use and why we use them. As things stand right now in 3.1 the 3 glyphs we should be using are Glyph of Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Flame Shock, and Glyph of Totem of Wrath. The only minor glyph that I would say is a required glyph is Glyph of Water Shield. The other 2 minor glyph can be personal choice.
Glyph of Lightning Bolt Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt by 4%.
Since Lightning Bolt makes up about 50% of your damage it makes sense to glyph for more damage here.
Glyph of Flame Shock Increases the duration of your Flame Shock ability by 6 secs and it is not consumed by casting Lava Burst.
Very important glyph as it allows you to maintain the optimal dps rotation without having to refresh Flame Shock.
Glyph of Totem if Wrath When you cast Totem of Wrath you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power for 5 mins.
This glyph should be used until you have enough spell power to convert to Glyph of Lava Burst. Right now I am raiding at 2902 spell power and do some testing to see if it is worth the switch which I really doubt until maybe Tier 9 4 piece bonus.
Glyph of Water Shield Increases the number of charges in your Water Shield spell by 1.
Another way to make sure you do not have mana issues when raiding.
Well that covers the talent spec and glyphs you should be using in 3.1. With the next patch 3.2 coming out soon, I think 2 weeks before it goes live I will make any adjustments to these post as needed. Well get out there spec right, glyph right and show your fellow raiders the Ele Shamans can rock the charts.
Hak
Ancestral Knowledge 5/5 Increases your intellect by 10%.
More mana equals more dps/healing.
Thundering Strikes 5/5 Improves your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 5%.
A flat 5% crit across the board.
Shamanistic Focus 1/1 Reduces the mana cost of your shock spells by 45%.
Another talent that helps you to have no mana issues.
Elemental Weapons 3/3 Increased the damage caused by your windfury weapon effect by 40%, increases the spell damage on your flametongue weapon by 30% and increases the bonus healing on your earthliving weapon by 30%.
An additional 30% spell power from flametongue equals more dps.
The next thing we need to talk about are which glyphs to use and why we use them. As things stand right now in 3.1 the 3 glyphs we should be using are Glyph of Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Flame Shock, and Glyph of Totem of Wrath. The only minor glyph that I would say is a required glyph is Glyph of Water Shield. The other 2 minor glyph can be personal choice.
Glyph of Lightning Bolt Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt by 4%.
Since Lightning Bolt makes up about 50% of your damage it makes sense to glyph for more damage here.
Glyph of Flame Shock Increases the duration of your Flame Shock ability by 6 secs and it is not consumed by casting Lava Burst.
Very important glyph as it allows you to maintain the optimal dps rotation without having to refresh Flame Shock.
Glyph of Totem if Wrath When you cast Totem of Wrath you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power for 5 mins.
This glyph should be used until you have enough spell power to convert to Glyph of Lava Burst. Right now I am raiding at 2902 spell power and do some testing to see if it is worth the switch which I really doubt until maybe Tier 9 4 piece bonus.
Glyph of Water Shield Increases the number of charges in your Water Shield spell by 1.
Another way to make sure you do not have mana issues when raiding.
Well that covers the talent spec and glyphs you should be using in 3.1. With the next patch 3.2 coming out soon, I think 2 weeks before it goes live I will make any adjustments to these post as needed. Well get out there spec right, glyph right and show your fellow raiders the Ele Shamans can rock the charts.
Hak
Today we are going to go over the the Elemental Shaman spec and Glyphs. As the current state of our spec looks to be staying the same since there have not been any major changes announced in the upcoming patch, but we will discuss that at a later time.
You can change this talent spec around a little if you are having mana issues but as elemental you really shouldn't. The current talent spec I am using is 57/14. Lets start by going over the Elemental talents first.
Concussion - 5/5 Increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Thunderstorm, Lava Burst, and Shock spells by 5%.
5% more damage to all spells must have.
Convection - 2/5 Reduces the mana cost of your Shock, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst by 4%.
Again as an Elemental Shaman you shouldn't have mana issues.
Call of Flame - 3/3 Increases the damage done by your fire totems by 15%, and damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 6%.
Increased Magma and Searing damage will help you climb the dps charts, also anything that buffs our Lava Burst damage is needed.
Reverberation 3/5 Reduces the cool down of your Shock spells by 0.6 sec.
This talent helps when you need to interrupt bosses during raids but really you should be dpsing that is your role as most raids should have classes better suited to interrupt.
Elemental Focus 1/1 After landing a critical strike with a fire, frost, or nature damage spell, you enter a clearcasting state. The clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage or healing spells by 40%.
This talent helps you manage your mana to make sure you don't go oom and leads to 3 of the most important elemental talents.
Elemental Fury 5/5 Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Searing, Magma, and Fire Nova Totems and your fire, frost, and nature spells by 100%.
This talent is important since it buffs your critical damage across all spells and totems.
Eye of The Storm 3/3 Reduces the push back suffered by damaging attacks while casting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, and Hex spells by 70%.
Anything that keeps you casting and does not interrupt your rotation is good for your dps.
Elemental Reach 2/2 Increases the range of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst spells by 6 yards, increases the radius of your Thunderstorm spell by 20%, and increases the range of Flame Shock by 15 yards.
This is a must have talent as Ulduar involves a lot of movement in the boss fights.
Call of Thunder 1/1 Increases the critical stike chance of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst spells by an additional 5%.
5% crit on your 3 most used damage spells.
Unrelenting Storm 3/3 Regenerate mana equal to 12% of your intellect every 5 secs, even while casting.
Another talent that helps elemental shaman's not have to worry about mana.
Elemental Precision 3/3 Increases your chance to hit with Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 3%, and reduces threat caused by Fire, Frost, and Nature spells by 30%.
This is one of our most important talents since it provides 3% hit and reduces threat which will be needed when you are seeing huge lava burst crits. The 3% hit will be touched on in a future post about the importance of being hit capped.
Lightning Mastery 5/5 Reduces the cast time of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst spells by 0.5 sec.
This is very important when you are working on the correct rotation of spells to maximize dps.
Elemental Mastery 1/1 When activated your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell becomes an instant cast spell. In addition, your Fire, Frost, and Nature damage spells a 15% increased critical strike chance for 15 secs.
This talent has many uses in pve and pvp, but knowing when to use it and when not to separates the high end shaman from the rest. I usually save it for boss fights when I pop Blood Lust to maximize dps.
Storm, Earth and Fire 3/3 Reduces the cool down on your Chain Lightning spell by 2.5 sec, your Earth Bind Totem also has a 100% chance to root targets for 5 secs when cast and increases the periodic damage done by Flame Shock by 60%.
3 in one talent better cast times, better survivability, and better damage.
Booming Echos 2/2 Reduces the cool down of your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 2 secs, and increases the direct damage done by Flame Shock and Frost Shock by an additional 20%.
Straight forward talent less cast time on shocks and more damage.
Elemental Oath 2/2 Your spell critical strikes grant your party or raid members within 100 yards Elemental Oath, increasing spell critical chance by 5%. In addition while Clearcasting from Elemental Focus is active you deal 10% more spell damage. Lasts 15 secs.
Other classes can bring the 5% crit to raid but the 10% more spell damage makes this a must have talent.
Lightning Overload 3/3 Gives your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning a 33% chance to cast a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes half the damage and no threat.
Must have when combined with the Lightning Bolt Glyph give your most used damage spell maximum damage.
Totem of Wrath 1/1 Increases the spell power by 100 of all party and raid members and increases the critical strike chance of all attacks by 3% within 40 yards.
Many consider this your ticket into a raid, but how you play your class will determine if you are invited back. Really as things stand right now combining the totem with the glyph will make sure you are maximizing your dps.
Lava Flows 3/3 Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Lava Burst spell by an additional 24%, and when your flame shock spell is dispelled your spell casting speed is increased by 30% for 6 secs.
DPS, DPS, DPS
Shamanism 5/5 Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 10% and your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 20% of your bonus damage effects.
This is why we stack as much spell power as we can since it translates directly into dps through this talent.
Thunderstorm 1/1 You call down a bolt of lightning, energizing you and damaging nearby enemies within 10 yards. Restores 8% mana to you and deals 551 - 629 nature damage to all nearby enemies knocking then back 20 yards. Can be used when stunned.
Couple uses on this one, but more of a pvp talent than a raiding talent unless used for a mana battery.
Well that wraps up the elemental talents and why you should choose them. If you have questions/comments feel free to leave a comment below. I will go over the remaining talent points in my next post.
EDIT:
Reverberation 3/5 Reduces the cool down of your Shock spells by 0.6 sec.
This talent helps when you need to interrupt bosses during raids but really you should be dpsing that is your role as most raids should have classes better suited to interrupt.
With the changes to windshear this talent is no longer needed and the points can be placed in Convection 5/5.
I having been reading quite a few blogs this week while on vacation and decided after searching for Shaman blogs and specifically Elemental blogs that I wanted to add my take on the class.
First let me say I do not consider myself some kind of Shaman expert or a know it all. But I do know my class very well and consider the Shaman one of the more difficult caster dps classes to play if you are attempting to staying competitive on the dps charts.
I play a 80 Shaman on the Hakkar server in the guild Method. We have downed Yogg in 10 man and are 12/14 25 man. Currentlly working on Yogg and doing our hard modes to unlock Algalon.
I will try to provide insight into the Shaman class by covering specs, rotations, gear and discussions on what changes Blizzard makes positive or negative.
Please let comments as I would the the input from my readers.
