Elemental Shaman PvP BiS Gear, Trinkets, and Switch Items
This page lists the best DPS gear you can currently get in WoW Classic for your Elemental Shaman. Also very important, we list the best switch items you can use, including Engineering trinkets.
For our more information about Shaman talents for PvP as well as consumables, please refer to our Classic Shaman PvP Guide. For the general best in slot (BiS) list for Elemental Shamans, please refer to our Classic Elemental Shaman BiS Gear Guide.
WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Edition
In Classic Fresh we will be going through the WoW Classic phases at an accelerated pace. Thus, much of the gear below will not be available for some time until its respective phase launches, but will eventually be available, as it already is in all Classic Era servers which are permanently set to the final WoW Classic phase with all gear sources available.
PvP Best in Slot List for Elemental Shamans
This is the gear we recommend for PvP encounters such as World PvP and
Battlegrounds. In PvP you need less Spell Hit from you gear to maximize your
odds at hitting enemies: only 3% are needed (or nothing, if you have maximized
Nature's Guidance), so make sure you do not go above this value with
your gear.
While the list below is a rather optimized one, feel free to use any high Stamina and Intellect / Spell Power / Critical Strike / Armor pieces you find, as they will serve you well while climbing through the ranks.
The Shaman PvP sets have a blue-quality version and an epic-quality version, and while they have high amounts of Stamina, they also waste stat budget on useless stats for Elemental such as Strength, which diminishes the value of the set pieces. The set bonuses are also not all ideal for us, with the 40 AP bonus one being outright useless.
Our best in slot list will be focused on non-situational items that always have value based on their stats alone. If you are looking for the best situational items you can use / switch to, check the Switch Items section further below!
You can also find out about the recommended PvE DPS Gear for Elemental Shamans in the link below.
Shaman PvP Switch On Use Items
Switch Items are items that you do not normally wear since they do not give very good stats, but offer an on-use effect that is very good for certain scenarios. So, you switch to them for their effect.
Defiler's Talisman (or its Alliance counterpart,
Talisman of Arathor)
can be used to grant you a powerful personal absorb effect for 15 seconds. It can
be obtained through Arathi Basin Friendly reputation.
Skull of Impending Doom is one of the most powerful item switches you can
have. This can be used to break many different CC abilities such as
Polymorph,
Freezing Trap,
Sap, Seduce, and many more. It also has a niche
use by helping you suicide which causes no item durability loss which can save you outside
of PvP situations. In Battlegrounds this is only truly useful in Warsong Gulch since it
is a battleground with a flag mechanic. This can be used to catch a flag carrier or
run a flag since movement speed as a flag carrier is incredibly important (if you are
attempting to use this in a battleground it is a good idea to have a healer put a HoT
on you to negate the DoT effect ESPECIALLY if you are using it as a flag carrier).
This is a reward from the level 40 quest Forbidden Knowledge in the Badlands.
Furbolg Medicine Pouch is sold by Gorn One Eye when you reach
Honored status with Timbermaw Hold. This is a great item that you can
swap during combat to provide you with a significant 1000 heal over 10 seconds.
For comparison's sake,
Heavy Runecloth Bandage heals you for 2000 over 8
seconds, but requires you to channel it, and you cannot take any sort of damage
in the channel duration.
Tidal Charm is one of the strongest PvP trinkets in the game. It is very
annoying to farm for so do not be discouraged if it takes you a while to obtain one.
Tidal Charm has an estimated 30-yard range, making it very strong for stopping mounted
people in world PvP. This trinket
has a cooldown of 15 minutes though so make sure to use it wisely. Tidal Charm is a drop from
Prince Nazjak in Arathi Highlands.
Nifty Stopwatch provides a 40% run speed increase for 10 seconds when
used, which can be invaluable for escaping or running someone down in PvP. This is
a reward from the quest This Is Going to Be Hard in the Badlands.
Barov Peasant Caller is a reward from a questline in Scholomance
that summons 3 servants to deal damage for you. The duration is unclear but seems to be
very short. This trinket is incredible against casters since the 3 servants attacking will
continually push back the cast time of enemy casters' spells. These peasants can also break a
Rogue's
Vanish if the Rogue attempts to vanish while the servants are fixated on them. They also do a good
amount of damage putting extra pressure on your target. All in all, this is a very easy trinket to obtain that
has many good uses in PvP. This item is a reward from The Last Barov in Western
Plaguelands.
Glimmering Mithril Insignia does not break fear, it prevents you from being feared.
So, you must use it before being feared. This trinket is fantastic for engaging either a
Shadow Priest or Warlock
to negate their major CC mechanic. Using this in conjunction with
your Insignia trinket to break fear to prevent a chain fear is a great combination that allows
you to easily pressure Shadow Priests and Warlocks.
Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire is a more difficult trinket to obtain due to being
an Onyxia drop from Onyxia's Lair. The trinket does not have very great stats
on it, but just like
Barov Peasant Caller it will attack Rogues through Vanish making it
very strong in mirror matchups to prevent your target from getting a restealth. The skeleton
does do a significant amount of damage (between 100 and 200 usually) and can critically hit, this
allows you to pressure any class with it from just the damage that it does. This item is dropped
from Onyxia in Onyxia's Lair.
Arena Grand Master is difficult to acquire, but has an excellent on-use
effect that gives you a roughly 1000 shield for 20 seconds. To get it, you must open
the chest at the center of the Gurabashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale
12 separate times to get 12 of
Arena Masters. You turn in those Arena Master
trinkets to Short John Mithril in the back of the arena for the reward.
Insignia of the Horde
is very easy to obtain, simply requiring you to be Honor Rank 2 and then to
purchase one in your major city. This trinket is required in PvP since it breaks
fears and stuns and is the only active way to break one of these effects while
they are already on you. The only other way would be to use an item such as
Skull of Impending Doom before being feared or stunned but being able to
break free from these effects is more powerful in our opinion.
Engineering Trinkets for Classic Shamans
Engineering is considered to be an almost required profession in PvP due to the exceptional trinkets and other on-use items that you can use in various situations. The strongest of those trinkets are listed below. For more information on Engineering, check out our Engineering profession guide linked below.
Arcanite Dragonling is an interesting trinket since the level of the Dragonling
is your Engineering skill divided by 5 meaning as a Level 39 twink you can potentially have a Level 60
Dragonling (even higher if you are a gnome). This trinket has an absurd cooldown time of 1 hour
so be very careful when using it. The Dragonling attacks normally but has a fire breath attack
that deals much more damage (between 250-350 a hit) however this is pretty rare and only usually
happens once during the uptime. If you are using Fire attacks (such as a
Fire Mage or Destruction
Warlock would) then this trinket's Fire Breath ability puts a debuff on the target that makes
Fire spells against the target deal extra damage. This item is an Engineering
item that requires 300 Engineering.
Gnomish Battle Chicken is similar to the
Arcanite Dragonling. The level
of the summoned chicken is your Engineering skill divided by 5,
meaning that this is very powerful for twink brackets and gnomes. The Battle Chicken
occasionally squawks which gives 5% more attack speed for 4 minutes. This trinket, just like
the Arcanite Dragonling, can see Rogues in stealth. If you use both the
Battle Chicken and Arcanite Dragonling, it is recommended to alternate them, given that they
both have very long cooldowns. This item is an Engineering that requires
Gnomish Engineering and 230 Engineering to make.
Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector reflects any shadow spell cast on you for
5 seconds when used. The plans to craft this drop from Crimson Inquisitors
in Stratholme.
Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector reflects any frost spell cast on you for
5 seconds when used. The plans to craft this are sold by Xizzer Fizzbolt
in Winterspring.
Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector reflects any fire spell cast on you for
5 seconds when used. The plans to craft this drop from Solakar Flamewreath
in Upper Blackrock Spire.
Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector will root your target in a net for 10 seconds,
which will not be broken by damage. However, it occasionally backfires and will net
you instead. The plans can be learned from Gnomish Engineering trainers.
Goblin Mortar will do some fire damage
and stun all targets in a small radius for 5 seconds. The plans can be learned from
Goblin Engineering trainers.
Gnomish Cloaking Device will make you invisible for 10 seconds. The plans
drop from Mekgineer Thermaplugg in Gnomeregan.
Gnomish Death Ray can be channeled for a few seconds, draining your
health some, to deal a huge burst of damage to your opponent at the end of the channel.
The plans can be learned from Gnomish Engineering trainers.
Goblin Rocket Helmet allows you to rapidly charge and disable an enemy
for 30 seconds, which is a huge amount of time in most PvP situations. Although this
disabling effect will only hold if the enemy is not attacked during this period,
you can sneak attacks in before / while using it without it breaking and it is of
great usefulness when against multiple enemies.
Gnomish Mind Control Cap is similar to the Rocket Helmet in that it,
usually, instantly takes an enemy out of the fight for a long period of time. However,
instead of simply stunning the enemy, it converts him into your minion for 20 seconds!
Gnomish Rocket Boots and
Goblin Rocket Boots serve similar purposes:
to make you run much faster for a short period of time. The main difference
between them is that, when they fail, Gnomish boots make you run around as if you
were Feared for a bit, while Goblin boots occasionally (30% unless you cancel the
effect early, which makes it less likely) explode, causing you to have to make more
of them to keep using their effect.
Shaman PvP Guide
We hope this guide was helpful for your PvP exploits! Feel free to check out the general PvP Talent and Consumables guide as well in the link down below.
Changelog
- 24 Nov. 2024: Reviewed for Classic Era and WoW 20th Anniversary.
- 07 Dec. 2020: Updated with Phase 6 (Naxxramas) gear.
- 23 Jul. 2020: Updated with Phase 5 (Ahn'Qiraj) gear.
- 12 May 2020: Added Silithus twilight boss summonings gear.
- 16 Apr. 2020: Updated with Zul'Gurub and Dragons of Nightmare gear.
- 11 Mar. 2020: Updated with Arathi Basin gear.
- 15 Feb. 2020: Updated for Phase 3.
- 11 Dec. 2019: 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 Warrior, Mage and Shaman Discords, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
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