Elemental Shaman 5.2 (40 replies to this topic)

This thread is for comments about our Elemental Shaman guide for Patch 5.2.

1. Is there a way to access the previous guide? Like an archive we can get to? Questions still come up for the old content with MoP is still being month away.

2. Regarding the Tremor Totem. Will this only work if u get the totem down BEFORE the fear is cast? I tried to use it after a missed interrupt but someone else said they dispelled it. So not sure if it worked or not.

Also let me just add a huge Thank You for everyone’s hard work on this site. It is the 1 stop Home Depot for anything you need to know about WoW.

Oddthomasina, on 27 August 2012 - 02:20 PM, said:

While Mists of Pandaria is a month away, Patch 5.0.4 is coming tomorrow. It brings all the Mists of Pandaria class changes, hence why we're updating our class guides.

Tremor Totem only removes Fear effects, it does not prevent their application. That said, Tremor Totem stays around for 6 seconds, so if a Fear effect is applied on you while Tremor Totem is active, it will most likely remove it. I don't know what you mean by "dispelled". Tremor Totem, like every static totem, has health and can be destroyed.

Thank you for sharing your position opinion of our website

Hi, just a little comment.

Fire and earth elementals now dynamically adjust stats to the caster stats and not just snapshot them the instant the elemental is summoned, so the guide should be updated to reflect this change.

Thank you for your work!

On the MoP coment, just /facepalm !!!  Guess I need to read all the forums before commenting.

About the Tremer Totem guess I worded that wrong, but being the ubber players that u r, u answered it anyway.

Zeruel, on 28 August 2012 - 08:07 AM, said:

Thank you for this suggestion! I updated the guide to reflect it

The description for Nature's Guardian doesn't suggest that it does anything other than reduce threat.  This is misleading.  Nature's Guardian temporarily increases current and maximum health by 25% once the 30% health threshold is broken.  This increase that becomes active only when it is needed most functions similarly to an absorb effect.  It allows the Shaman to temporarily absorb more damage without dying, but if it is not replaced by real healing after its effect, then the Shaman will still remain in danger.

It's an often effective and passive defensive ability with a very short cooldown.  It's not just a threat dump.

Totemic Projection should also be useful with Earthgrab Totem and Capacitor Totem (in addition to the Fire Totems).  Being able to project roots, stuns, and slow would have really come in handy in the Cho'Gall fight, for instance.

Conductivity's shared healing is capped at a maximum amount.  It is neither more or less effective at healing clumped raiders or just one target.  By that, I mean that if the healing amount after a Lightning Bolt was cast were to be 15k healing, it'd be 15k healing for one target or 7.5k healing for each of two targets, etc.  When you're talking about ten targets, the one Lightning Bolt is only offering 1.5k healing per target.

Where Conductivity is effective is in situations where it can be worked with Chain Lightning spam, especially in a small group.  For instance, when running heroics, the Chain Heal spam improved Conductivity can be very effective.

The Primal Elementalist talent also adds two more abilities not currently mentioned.  Fire Elementals gain Immolate, a very high damage dealing DD & DoT ability.  Earth Elementals gain Pulverize, a short duration stun.    There are other abilities to click, like Harden Skin, but I am not sure if they are new.  However, I don't ever recall seeing Immolate or Pulverize on previous live servers' Elementals.

It's nitpicking, but the Glyph of Unstable Earth description says that Earthquake knocks back; it knocks down.  Also, it might be worth adding that the slow reapplies per tick (if I am remembering that correctly.  It may be worth testing).

Finally, unfortunately a talent I was excited about, Totemic Restoration, doesn't work as good as it might seem.  It'd be nearly impossible to get the 2 minutes and 24 second Fire Elemental that you've described without absolute minuscule use of the Elemental on the part of the player (and the glyph).  The best case return is 50%, and it is also the 100% equivalent.  I knew the first part but not the second.

So, if you were to use the Fire Elemental for 30 seconds, or 50% of its base duration, then you would get 50% of 50% of the cooldown reduced.  It would go down by 1 minute and 15 seconds and not 2 minutes and 30 seconds as the description might suggest.  That's no bargain.  It does help, but it's no bargain.

The talent does still provide some flexibility and some refund on destroyed or short lived totems, but it is far less exciting than it could be.

bosako, on 28 August 2012 - 11:32 PM, said:

Thank you very much for this detailed feedback. I will go through everything tomorrow, as I am going to bed now

bosako, on 28 August 2012 - 11:32 PM, said:

I've updated the description, let me know what you think

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That's interesting, I did not think of it! Description has been updated.

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I reworded the explanations for all 3 specialisations on this talent. Let me know if you find them better.

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I added all the abilities that the Elementals have.

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There's no nitpicking when it comes to improving our guides

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I updated the description of the talent in all 3 specs.

Thank you again for the detailed feedback!

I guess it's not really that important right now, but I can't see why the Timepiece of the Bronze Flight isn't listed in the alternatives to the legendary in the BiS list. Last time I checked it was equal or maybe even slightly better then the ledger, plus the bonus of the extra armor it gives (can actually be handy if in need of an extra stomp-soaker on Morchok).

So, the guide says that haste > mastery/crit when you don't have insignia equipped. However, the gem sections says to use int/mastery gems for yellow slots. Which is the correct way?
Also, Timepiece > Ledger. (3 less spirit, 5 more haste)

Mulch, on 04 September 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Curdi, on 04 September 2012 - 10:21 PM, said:

I fixed the gem sections yesterday. Indeed Ledger is not as good as Timepiece. The thing is that I was using the same, common text for Balance Druids, Shadow Priests, and Elemental Shamans. It skipped my mind that Elemental Shamans could also use Shields

Your Hit Rating is wrong. You need 4760 Hit if you have the racial passiv.  1% Hit = 340 HItrating

Freyn, on 07 October 2012 - 11:58 AM, said:

Nice catch, thank you! I don't know how I could have calculated this wrong

Hey, just noticed you guys list that a wand (Torch of the Celestial Spark) is Best in Slot for an elemental shaman. We can't use wands.
Otherwise - thanks for the guide! =0)

In the MoP BiS list is a link for a Wand?

Caaboose, on 15 October 2012 - 01:36 AM, said:

Earris, on 18 October 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

My bad, I've just fixed it Thank you for the report.

With my ele shams i hate having to run to melee to drop an magma totem or a capacitor totem. So i've been using a macro.

/cast Magma Totem
/cast Totemic Projection
Totemic projection doesnt use a gcd so press and click totem anywhere. Since the other 3 talents are situational i like this one the best as my default.

Immune, on 08 November 2012 - 12:07 AM, said:

I like this macro, it could be used for Spirit Link totem too!

Hmmm, something seems odd to me for the Elemental Off-hand BiS. I can't find a reason you'd take the Inscribed Jade Fan over the Eye of the Ancient Spirit. You get more Intellect and Stamina, and Elemental converts Spirit to hit so you come out ahead there as well. It does give haste instead of mastery, but at a notably greater rate (502 haste vs. 377 mastery), and you value both equally in the current guide. I'm pulling these numbers from your BiS listing in the current Restoration Shaman guide.

Now, I'm not a Shaman player, and am extremely new to this anyway, so I figure at least 50/50 odds I've missed something obvious/implied, but I figured I'd point it out on the off chance. Thank you for reading.