WotLK Classic Elemental Shaman Guide
Welcome to our Elemental Shaman guide for WotLK Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play Elemental Shaman proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
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.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Excellent DPS at low gear levels, with a simple rotation;
Able to burst on demand with
Elemental Mastery;
Shared gear with Restoration allows for easy swapping between healing and damage between encounters.
Low mobility and survivability;
Poor scaling with gear when compared to other casters;
Can have Mana issues in longer fights, especially when at low crit levels.
Elemental Shaman Changes in Wrath
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.
Best Races for Alliance Elemental Shamans
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.
Draenei Elemental Shamans
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.
Best Races for Horde Elemental Shamans
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.
Troll Elemental Shamans
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.
Orc Elemental Shamans
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!
Tauren Elemental Shamans
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.
Best Professions for Elemental Shamans
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.
Best Shaman Macros and Addons
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:
Changelog
- 23 May 2023 (gear page): Added P3 best in slot items and new page layout.
- 23 May 2023 (enchants page): Updated for Phase 3.
- 18 Feb. 2023 (talents page): Talent and glyph changes to account for Fire Elemental resetting on encounter end.
- 11 Feb. 2023 (gear page): Re-added Phase 1 gear as an option for alt gearing before going into Ulduar.
- 11 Feb. 2023 (talents page): Further talent, glyph and talent explanation improvements.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (this page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 17 Jan. 2023 (pre-raid gear page): Updated for Phase 2.
- 17 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Phase 2.
- 17 Jan. 2023 (talents page): Adjusted recommended talents with Ulduar in mind.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (pre-raid gear page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (gear page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (enchants page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (stats page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (rotation page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (talents page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (spells page): Page added.
- 12 Sep. 2022 (this page): Page added.
This guide has been written by Seksi, original vanilla player and multi-class player, currently playing on Gehennas Horde. You can find him on the Classic Shaman and Druid, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
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