Few questions about the Ele Rotation

[Sebbo 0]

I'm using Echoing Shock, Storm Elemental and Stormkeeper as Talents, as well as neither Surge of Power nor Master of the Elements.

My questions:

1. While Storm Elemental is active, should I ignore Lava Burst completely and just focus on casting Flame Shock, Echoing Shock, Stormkeeper and Lightning Bolt? (It says Lava Burst whenever available but stands below step ?

2. What is the reason to cast Earth Shock at 90 Maelstrom? Does it make a difference - if I have f.e. only Lightning Bolt and Earth Shock left in my rotation - to cast more Lightning Bolts below 90 Maelstrom instead of just using Earth Shock at 60? Also, let's assume I have 80 Maelstrom, cast a Lava Burst while getting a Lava Surge proc (so casting 2 Lava Bursts at the same time), then I am at 100 Maelstrom, but should either of those casts get an Elemental Overload I would overcap on Maelstrom. So shoulnd't I use Earth Shock at 60-70ish?

3. Why do I have to wait for 60 Maelstrom to cast Echoing Shock? Also, when I can't pair it with Lava Burst, should I use it with Lightning Bolt or wait until I can use Lava Burst or Earth Shock again?

4. Should I cast Earthquake at 60 Maelstrom regardless of my other procs/cooldowns or treat it like Earth Shock in terms of rotation?

 

I hope those questions don't sound too stupid, and thanks in advance! ?

[Stormy 9]

Hi,

 

1. As indicated in the rotation, while Storm Elemental is active, you forego Lava Burst entirely and only use Lightning Bolt & the spells higher in the priority order: FS when necessary, Stormkeeper, Echoing Shock to use with Earth Shocks.

2. Casting Earth Shock at 90 Maelstrom is because if the subsequent spell you cast is a Maelstrom generator, it can make you go over the Maelstrom cap (100), and therefor waste Maelstrom. Because it is an instant spell, you can use Earth Shock for mobility purposes or hold it for priority target/dps. Otherwise, the only priority is to not waste Maelstrom. If you do not have any spells that are higher in the priority to use, using Earth Shock from 60-90 is fine. If you get a Lava Surge proc as you finish a Lava Burst cast and if using that Lava Surge could put you above the Maelstrom cap, you should hold onto it for one GCD and use Earth Shock instead. The optimal result in these situations is really hard to calculate exactly because it depends on many things, including exact Maelstrom count, how much mastery you have... The Priority list that I give can NEVER be 100% correct in every situation for every build because of the inherent complexity of some situations. For example, if in the situation you give, with an overload you would only overcap by 1 or 2 Maelstrom, or if your Mastery is extremely high/low, the optimal decision might be different. Just know that this is overall EXTREMELY minor and you shouldn't worry about it.

3. You want to have 60 Maelstrom to cast Echoing Shock because you want to use Earth Shock as a follow up, as it is your hardest hitting ability. Note that you do not want to always wait to have 60 Maelstrom to cast Echoing Shock, this is an either/or. If Lava Burst is available (or if it will be after your Echoing Shock cast), you should use Echoing Shock with Lava Burst.  I am now realizing that this is not immediately obvious in the way I phrased it and I will rewrite this to be clearer. Thank you for the feedback.

On this topic, this is again a bit problematic because in some situations (assuming indefinite encounter duration but this is another issue), you would indeed want to hold onto Echoing Shock if your next Lava Burst would put you above 60 Maelstrom, allowing you to use Echoing Shock with Earth Shock. As before, it is impossible to give every possible situation in the priority list, especially if you want it to be legible and not have 50 different steps. That kind of decision is very advanced and down to Elemental Shamans who are already aware of these possibilities and weigh them every GCD, depending on the combat situation/their stats/gear...and decide on the spot. As before, this is either way a very minor difference. 

4. Earthquake should be used at 60+ Maelstrom for a few reasons. AoE is almost always a limited-time situation where you want the AoE'd enemies to die as soon as possible, and Earthquake being damage over time, you want to frontload your damage as much as possible. Second, the nature of Chain Lightning's Maelstrom generation is such that it is hard to predict how much Maelstrom your next Chain Lightning will generate, and with 5+ targets, once you are above 60 Maelstrom you can quickly overcap. For these reasons, we recommend using Earthquake as soon as it is available in AoE situations. Moreover, Earthquake provides Crowd Control in most situations, and you would generally want to keep the enemies crowd controlled as early as possible (although this is not a DPS consideration and depends on the situation). 

 

Those questions were not stupid at all, thank you for your interest.