Enhancement Shamans and the Fire Elemental Totem

[Neerau 0]

Hey guys, I just finished reading your amazing guide on Enhancement Shamans in Cataclysm (http://www.icy-veins...haman-pve-guide) which I just began playing after a long hiatus from WoW.

I have a question, however. In the guide you say our only DPS cooldown is Feral Spirit. Is the Fire Elemental totem not a pretty good DPS cooldown aswell? I remember when it was introduced, way back in The Burning Crusade, and it was pretty cool then.

Is it at all worth giving up on the searing totem for the duration of the Fire Elemental? I mean, it's going to be at best two minutes without Searing Flames upping my Lava Lash damage.

What do you guys think?

Cheers

Neerau

[Damien 1,514]

Fire Elemental Totem is no longer a viable DPS cooldown for Enhancement Shamans. Using this totem has two main drawbacks:

• you lose the damage done by Searing Totem;
• your Lava Lash no longer has stacks of Searing Flames to consume (see the talent descriptions: Searing Flames and Improved Lava Lash).

Searing Totem does not do much damage by itself, so it's really the interaction with Lava Lash that makes this totem so important (hence why you should never be replacing it with Fire Elemental Totem).

[Neerau 0]

Alright, thank you. But were I to play Elemental, would it be a good dps cooldown then? :)

[Damien 1,514]

You're welcome! Yes it is a very good DPS cooldown as an Elemental Shaman (and so is Earth Elemental Totem, albeit not as important).

As an Elemental Shaman, the intuitive thing to do when you look at your various Fire Totems is to choose Flametongue Totem because it increases spell power for the entire raid. But Elemental Shamans have the Totemic Wrath talent, which causes all your Fire Totems to grant +10% spell power to the entire raid.

So, you should be using Searing Totem most of the time and Fire Elemental Totem whenever it is off cooldown (and it can be on the boss for 2 minutes).