Revisiting Playstyle and Numbers- Elemental

[LittleDansonGuy 0]

Hello, wonderful Icy Veins Shamans!

 

It's been a few weeks since I've sought out the help to increase my numbers, but now I feel a little more confident and am looking for some nitpicking on my style and where I may have slipped up.

 

Our guild is now at 9/14 Heroics and I am at least to the point where sometimes the 'stress' of the fights can make me slip up a little. I'm hoping someone can look at my numbers for Warcraft logs and figure out what I can nail down and improve.

 

Thanks for all your help! You've all done me a great service in becoming a better Ele Shaman!

-Dan

 

WcLogs: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/PV8KFmkdRMthLHzy#fight=7

*I wouldn't mind having Naz and Malk looked at intensively, but I'd like a few pointers with Spoils as well which we are struggling with.

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/silver-hand/Lirata/simple

Archived Stream Footage: http://www.twitch.tv/littledansonguy/profile/past_broadcasts

[Hybrys 199]

Sorry about the delay, LittleDanson! I'll be getting Internet in my new home tomorrow afternoon, and I'll hammer out my response then.

In the mean time, look forward to other responses!

[Uthedicia 3]

Hello Lirata, my name is Rafeke. I'm an elemental shaman. While I'm not an expert here on Icy Veins, I am 7/14 Heroic with my group that I lead myself. I have a few things here that might help you. 

 

We'll start with glyphs. You do fine by taking Shamanistic Rage but I would consider something else, maybe glyph of fire elemental totem or glyph of healing stream totem for Nazgrim. Glyph of Lightning Shield adds 10% reduction whenever your defensive portion of Lightning Shield triggers, which is nearly always useful and happens quite often, and on every fight, from Immersius to Garrosh. I would remove your glyph of telluric currents as mana should never be an issue for any fight unless you're lacking your lightning shield.

 

I typically run with the following glyphs: Lightning Shield, Chain Lightning (AoE), Healing Stream (when I run with Rushing Streams), Shamanistic Rage and Fire Elemental Totem.

 

For talents, you current choices look fine. The only thing I'd probably consider if you weren't do so is choosing between Astral Shift and Stone Bulwark Totem. I prefer Stone Bulwark Totem for the extra "health" provided through the absorb. No real other considerations to note. 

 

For your gear, you look fine but you could probably go for 35% haste, rather than 28%. I tend to find 35% gives me what I need until you get to about 88% mastery where haste is where you can pour your excess stats at. It is up to you whether your focus is AoE or single target.

 

Here is a sample armory you could use as a comparison: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/aerie-peak/Rafeke/advanced

Edited August 2, 2014 by Uthedicia

[Hybrys 199]

We'll start with glyphs. You do fine by taking Shamanistic Rage but I would consider something else, maybe glyph of fire elemental totem or glyph of healing stream totem for Nazgrim. Glyph of Lightning Shield adds 10% reduction whenever your defensive portion of Lightning Shield triggers, which is nearly always useful and happens quite often, and on every fight, from Immersius to Garrosh. I would remove your glyph of telluric currents as mana should never be an issue for any fight unless you're lacking your lightning shield.

 

I typically run with the following glyphs: Lightning Shield, Chain Lightning (AoE), Healing Stream (when I run with Rushing Streams), Shamanistic Rage and Fire Elemental Totem

Hey Uthedicia, welcome to Icy-Veins!

 

Unfortunately, I absolutely disagree with some advice in your post, and I'm going to respond point by point:

 

Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem is typically a poor glyph choice, and can actually be a loss.  Think of it this way:

 

If a fight lasts 6 minutes, without the glyph you get 2 uses for 2 mins uptime.  With the glyph, you get 3 uses for 1.5 mins uptime.

 

If a fight lasts under 3 minutes, without the glyph you get 1 use for 1 min uptimes.  With the glyph, you get 2 uses for 30-60 sec uptime.

 

I could never suggest using it unless you're in the odd situation that most of your fights end after 5.5 minutes, and before 6 minutes.  (Or 10.5 minutes and before 11 minutes.)

 

Glyph of Healing Stream Totem only affects Fire/Frost/Nature damage, and doesn't actually affect anything in the Nazgrim fight.  So I'm a little confused as to why you suggest that as a gain.  I suppose if you have issues with people standing in the Aftershock from Heroic Shockwaves, but it's unlikely to hit the person that's going to get damaged by the next hit.  Even running Rushing Streams, it's only a 1/5 chance that it would help.  Everything else is physical or arcane.

 

Glyph of Lightning Shield is usually one of my three recommended glyphs, but it's important to note that it only reduces damage taken by 10% AFTER the initial hit that procs Lightning Shield; the initial hit does not get reduced by that 10%.

 

I agree that Telluric Currents is unnecessary and can easily be dropped unless you find yourself often spamming Healing Surges.  And if you are often spamming Surges as Ele, you've got other raid-wide problems to worry about!

 

Glyph of Shamanistic Rage is very powerful for a variety of fights, such as Immerseus (Heroic), Protectors, Spoils, and Thok, where it can save your life by dispelling a harmful effect, or allow you to DPS for longer (in the case of Immerseus).

 

I'll typically recommend for glyphs Chain Lightning/Flame Shock/Lightning Shield and:

swapping Chain Lightning for Spiritwalker's Grace on fights where it isn't required

dropping Lightning Shield for Shamanistic Rage on Imm/Protectors/Spoils/Thok

dropping Lightning Shield for Capacitor Totem on Siegecrafter/Garrosh.

[Hybrys 199]

Hello, wonderful Icy Veins Shamans!

 

It's been a few weeks since I've sought out the help to increase my numbers, but now I feel a little more confident and am looking for some nitpicking on my style and where I may have slipped up.

 

Our guild is now at 9/14 Heroics and I am at least to the point where sometimes the 'stress' of the fights can make me slip up a little. I'm hoping someone can look at my numbers for Warcraft logs and figure out what I can nail down and improve.

 

Thanks for all your help! You've all done me a great service in becoming a better Ele Shaman!

-Dan

 

WcLogs: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/PV8KFmkdRMthLHzy#fight=7

*I wouldn't mind having Naz and Malk looked at intensively, but I'd like a few pointers with Spoils as well which we are struggling with.

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/silver-hand/Lirata/simple

Archived Stream Footage: http://www.twitch.tv/littledansonguy/profile/past_broadcasts

Sorry for the delay LittleDan!  Lets take a look:

 

As per your request, Nazgrim:

 

Nazgrim is all about maximizing your short-term burst while he's outside of Defensive Stance.  That being said, there are a couple of little things you can do while he's in Defensive to help your DPS look a little better through it.  Pet/Guardian attacks and DoT ticks don't cause the Rage gains associated with the need to stop DPS during Defensive Stance, so you should be dropping Searing Totem and maintaining Flame Shock on the boss.  You will generate Rage on the initial hits, but nothing else.

 

Another area of focus is on the adds. Sometimes they don't last long enough for you get to a Flame Shock and a Lava Burst off.  Sometimes it may be better to do just an EB on the first target, then swap to your second target and throw a FS/LvB combo, and by the time your Lava Burst leaves your hands, the first target will often be dead.  Toss Lightning Bolts into target 2 until it's dead, then do another FS/LvB on the 3rd target (if you think you have enough time) and you should be golden.  Don't be scared to throw a Lava Surge without a Flame Shock, as it'll still do more damage than a Lightning Bolt.

 

Your Fire Elemental Totem usage seems a little bit odd.  In your case, what I'd suggest is using it on the pull, then once again on the Bloodlust/Heroism.

 

Beyond some things like that, it's a difficult fights to analyze, just due to it's start-stop nature.  I can't find any major problems outside of those suggested changes (maintaining Searing/Flame Shock during Defensive and better distrib on add damage by predicting their health) and FET usage.

 

For an encounter that long, your DPS isn't looking bad by any measure.  We've been able to blow him up in the second Berserker Stance phase, but you seem to be waiting for the 4th.  Pushing that faster would be the best way to see better DPS.  I would suggest that your raid leader consider leaving one melee or one ranged on the boss.  In your raid's case, I'd prefer the rogue, as the Warlock should actually gain some Garrosh damage by intelligent multitargetting (IE: Havoc Shadowburns, etc.)

 

 

 

For Malkorok:

 

Your parse looks pretty good, but I definitely have a few notes.

 

Elemental Blast is the number one issue I can see.  You have 19 casts, out of a possible 26 (with 11 seconds of slack), or 95 seconds of off CD time.  You should really work on aggressively stopping and casting EB when you have the opportunity, and you'd most likely see your damage come up significantly.

 

Beyond that, there's at least one instance where your reaction time to Lava Surge could be significantly better.  But that's pretty much it.  Your CDs look good, your opener looks pretty good, Fulmination looks tight.  Speeding up these fights would make your numbers change so much, and you shouldn't worry too much about your own performance as your fellow raiders.

 

I think you're doing well, just get that EB upwards, and try to speed up your fights, and you'll see improvement overall.