WotLK Classic Elemental Shaman Guide

Elemental Shamans are an excellent support caster in Wrath Classic, and also have good ranged DPS on their own, which starts off strong due to their strong talent tree, but scales worse than other casters in the long run.

They also provide powerful support totems such as Windfury Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Totem of Wrath, and have utility totems such as Tremor Totem and Cleansing Totem that can keep allies safe.

If you are considering leveling an Elemental Shaman, check out our leveling guide, which focuses on area effect pulling with Fire Nova!

If you would like to see where Elemental Shamans fall in the overall rankings among DPS specs for both PvE and PvP in Wrath Classic, we have created pages dedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the best through multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these lists dissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

Lava Burst is a new spell which always critical strikes if Flame Shock is present on the target. This spell will be part of your Wrath rotation and its guaranteed crit makes it great when burst damage is needed, especially in PvP!

Thunderstorm is another new spell which causes some damage, returns some Mana to you, but also knocks back all targets hit a large distance, making it very useful when soloing, in PvP, and in all situations when used with Glyph of Thunderstorm.

Elemental Mastery had its functionality changed and now gives you 15% Spell Haste for 15 seconds when used, on top of making your next spell instant-cast.

Eye of the Storm also changed, and now provides a flat 70% reduction to spell pushback.

Bloodlust / Heroism are now raid-wide but also apply the Sated debuff to everyone who gets the buff, stopping them from getting Bloodlust again for 10 minutes.

Call of the Elements, Call of the Ancestors, and Call of the Spirits allow you to customize up to one totem of each type to instantly be dropped down when these abilities are used, saving significant time.

Most totems are now raid-wide and do not stack with similar effects. Wrath of Air Totem's buff is the only that remains Shaman-exclusive. Utility totems such as Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem, and Cleansing Totem are still for your party only.

Windfury Totem no longer enchants the weapon of affected players and is now a flat melee Haste buff.

Fire Nova is now activated from your current Fire Totem rather than having its own Totem. Its cooldown can be brought down to 3 seconds with talents and the new Glyph of Fire Nova, making it do insane area damage if you can sustain the Mana to use it on cooldown.

Hex is a new crowd control spell for Shamans, similar to Polymorph but it will not heal the target or break instantly upon any damage, while also letting the target slowly move around. It is a Curse effect, making it harder to be dispelled by some classes.

Wind Shear is your new interrupt (Earth Shock now slows melee attack speed, instead), and is off the global cooldown, making it extremely powerful as the only low cooldown ranged interrupt in game.

The overall result of all of these changes and additions is a versatile Elemental Shaman, which excels at PvP with its burst damage and Wind Shear disruption, but can also bring the critical Wrath of Air Totem and Bloodlust raid buffs.

Draenei is the only race available. While it is not one of the most impactful Shaman races, it does provide useful benefits such as its 1% group Hit aura.

• Gemcutting increases your Jewelcrafting skill by 5.
• Gift of the Naaru is an instant cast spell with a 3-minute cooldown that heals over time. Because it is free, it can be occasionally useful, and being on the Holy school allows you to cast it in PvP even while interrupted on Nature.
• Heroic Presence increases your party's chance to Hit by 1%.
• Shadow Resistance increases your Shadow Resistance by 10.

Troll is the best race for PvE and also good in PvP, Orc is a great race for PvP, and Tauren is the weakest overall.

• Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
• Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you 20% increased attack and casting speed for 10 seconds.
• Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Trolls are a decent choice if your goal is to maximize your throughput, due to Berserking. Beast Slaying can also be useful against Beast-type enemies.

• Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5 while wielding an Axe.
• Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your offensive stats for 15 seconds.
• Command increases your pet damage dealt by 5%.
• Hardiness decreases the duration of stuns on you by 15%.

Orc is the go-to PvP race, due to Hardiness, which reduces the duration of stun effects. They are also good in PvE due to Blood Fury, which serves as an extra cooldown and no longer reduces healing on you!

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5-second cast time.

War Stomp is quite reliable in PvP, often allowing for an emergency Lesser Healing Wave cast, but has few PvE uses. The 5% increased health from Endurance is useful, but minor.

In Wrath all professions have unique stat bonus benefits, with gathering professions giving the lowest and Engineering and Jewelcrafting (before Epic gems) having the most powerful and flexible benefits, especially in early phases. Blacksmithing also catches up later when Epic gems are introduced.

Engineering is great because of the unique Hyperspeed Accelerators tinker, which gives 340 Haste for 12 seconds every minute. By using this extra Haste during your cooldowns or on difficult parts of a fight, you can get more benefit than the static stats of other professions. Engineering also provides multiple explosives for extra damage and Nitro Boosts for a burst of speed!

Jewelcrafting is also great because while most other professions force you to take Attack Power, you can pick from any stat with Jewelcrafting's Epic gems, allowing you to adjust your stats as needed.

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing Wrath Classic, and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited to Elemental Shamans, check out our guides below: