Classic Elemental Shaman DPS Guide
Welcome to our Elemental Shaman DPS guide for WoW Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play the Shaman class as Elemental DPS. Click the links #below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Elemental Shaman guide.
Shamans are, arguably, the best support class in WoW Classic. With their powerful and flexible totems, such as Windfury Totem, Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem, they keep their allies safe and increase their damage potential significantly.
While only Horde players can be Shamans, every group will benefit immensely from having at least one, and due to totems only being able to affect one group at a time, a 40 man raid will want to have at least 8 Shamans to have totems in every group.
This guide will be covering Elemental Shamans, one of the flashiest ranged damage dealers in WoW Classic and, arguably, the most powerful role a Shaman can assume in PvP due to its great burst damage while keeping good healing capabilities.
Elemental Shaman in the Season of Mastery
Although the Season of Mastery brings with it a number of changes to how you may experience the content of WoW Classic, these tweaks do not include any adjustments to how you play Elemental Shaman. As such, this guide will cover all you need to know regardless of which version of Classic you wish to play.
However, due to certain pieces of content from later Phases now being available at an earlier date, gearing recommendations for Elemental Shaman will be different. Because of this, we have created additional pages detailing your best in slot items for both pre-raid gear and the current raids available.
Elemental Shaman Strengths
- The highest ranged burst damage potential in the game with Elemental Mastery or Nature's Swiftness combined with Lightning Bolt into Chain Lightning into Earth Shock.
- Ability to swap to healing at any moment as some of the most powerful Restoration talents are on the top of the tree.
- Totems for every type of situation, including Windfury Totem, one of the greatest DPS increases a group can have in WoW Classic.
- Great support tools even outside of totems, such as Earth Shock and Purge, which contribute to the high skill cap of the class.
Elemental Shaman Weaknesses
- Weak sustained damage-dealing potential due to running out of Mana very fast, which forces the usage of lower ranked damage spells in long fights.
- Squishy and has no real escapes once focused.
Best Races for Elemental Shamans
Unlike other classes, Shamans can only be played in the Horde faction, so plan accordingly and search for a Horde guild if you want to roll one.
Troll is the best race for PvE, while Orc is the best race for PvP. Tauren is slightly behind, but has its own perks, which you can read about below.
Troll Elemental Shamans
- Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
- Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between 10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with the effect being greater the more hurt you are.
- Bow Specialization increases your skill with Bows by 5, which increases your chance to hit with a bow.
- Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration and allows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.
Trolls are the best choice if your goal is to maximize your PvE throughput, due to Berserking, which makes your casts much faster every time it is up. Unfortunately, none of the other bonuses is very impactful, and Orc has some really good PvP bonuses, so pick Troll if you want to focus on PvE!
Orc Elemental Shamans
- Axe Specialization increases your skill with axes by 5, which increases your chance to land a blow on a target with axes.
- Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds and reduces healing effects on you by 50% for 25 seconds.
- Command increases your pet damage by 5%.
- Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 25%.
Orc is the go-to PvP race choice for Shaman, due to Hardiness, which allows you to often ignore stun effects. This is a deal-breaker effect, especially against Rogues. While Axe Specialization and Blood Fury are good bonuses to have as a melee DPS, they are not of much importance to Elemental Shamans.
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.
- Due to their large sizes, Tauren have a larger hitbox than other races, which allows you to hit, and be hit from further afar. This can be great when trying to chase a target or problematic when trying to flee from melee enemies.
War Stomp can be a great ability for PvP, allowing you to get Lesser Healing Wave off in an emergency, and the 5% increased health from Endurance is nice, but Tauren does not give any throughput increase, which makes it an all-rounder choice if you dislike the other races.
Best Professions for Elemental Shamans
Shamans of the Elemental path will require Engineering in order to be competitive in the end game. It is generally a good idea to pair it with Mining in order to harvest the ores and stones needed to make your explosive consumables.
Alternatively, you can pair Alchemy with Herbalism, allowing you to create your own liquid consumables and maybe find a Black Lotus here and there!
For information on these and the other professions, browse our profession guides, which have all the nitty-gritty details.
Changelog
- 07 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Added multiple new alternative gear options.
- 01 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Reworked the BiS guide with Naxxramas and clarity in mind.
- 01 Dec. 2020 (enchants page): Added Phase 6 shoulder enchants, Frozen Runes, and the Silithus world buff.
- 12 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Added the remaining Phase 6 gear.
- 03 Nov. 2020 (enchants page): Updated enchants for Phase 6.
- 03 Nov. 2020 (stats page): Further clarified that Spell Penetration has no effect in relevant PvE content.
- 02 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Phase 6 and Frost Resistance gear.
- 05 Oct. 2020 (gear page): Added Hammer of the Gathering Storm.
- 02 Sep. 2020 (stats page): Added a note on raid bosses having been found to have no Nature Resistance thus far.
- 06 Aug. 2020 (gear page): Transferred the Ahn'Qiraj gear into the main guide.
- 27 Jul. 2020 (gear page): Added a link to the Nature Resistance gear guide.
- 20 Jul. 2020 (gear page): Added AQ40 BiS gear section.
- 14 Jul. 2020 (enchants page): Updated enchant and consumable list for Phase 5.
- 19 May 2020 (gear page): Added Cloak of the Hakkari Worshipers.
- 19 May 2020 (enchants page): Updated with current World Buffs as of Phase 4 as well as glove enchants.
- 12 May 2020 (gear page): Added Silithus twilight boss summonings gear.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (enchants page): Added Zul'Gurub consumables and enchants.
- 14 Apr. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Zul'Gurub gear.
- 11 Mar. 2020 (gear page): Updated with Arathi Basin gear.
- 28 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Added Flarecore Leggings.
- 19 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Added Staff of the Shadow Flame.
- 15 Feb. 2020 (gear page): Updated for Phase 3 and split the guide into multiple pages.
- 24 Jan. 2020 (gear page): Added PvP reputation gear and more ranked PvP gear.
- 11 Jan. 2020 (stats page): Reworked Spell Power's coefficient explanation.
- 11 Dec. 2019 (gear page): Added link to PvP BiS.
- 12 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Guide is now Phase 2 ready and added Raid best in slot list.
- 29 Sep. 2019 (enchants page): Added a shortlist with the essential consumables for Elemental Shamans, ranked by price vs effectiveness.
- 19 Sep. 2019 (gear page): Changed some gear slots due to powerful gear that was confirmed to be available in Phase 1, when it was previously not thought to be the case.
- 27 Aug. 2019 (this page): Added a section for each race to make the guide easier to read.
- 24 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Reworked spell structure to place the critical spells on the start and make a generic section out of the rest.
- 24 Aug. 2019 (this page): Improved the professions section, adding more details, item links and tips.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (enchants page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (stats page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (rotation page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (talents page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (spells page): Page added.
- 19 Aug. 2019 (this page): Added Elemental Shaman guide.
More Classic Shaman Guides
More Classic Guides from Other Classes
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
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 Warrior, Mage and Shaman Discords, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
- Molten Core Tuning Detailed, Coming After Weekly Reset
- Molten Core Trash Mob Immunity Hotfix
- Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair Now Live in Season of Discovery Phase 4
- Higher Libram and Burning Essence Droprate Hotfix Coming + Fire Resist Explanation in SoD P4
- Molten Core Season of Discovery Details and Launch Date and Time
- Rise of the Zandalari Patch Coming to Cataclysm Classic on July 30th!
- SoD World Boss Resurrection Issues: July 18th
- World Bosses Live Now in Season of Discovery Phase 4