Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide from 1 to 70 — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Elemental Shaman leveling guide for The War Within. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Shaman leveling guide.
Gear Options
When leveling up, always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.
Talents to Level Up as an Elemental Shaman
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
This is an example setup; it is difficult to go wrong while leveling. For example, you may want to make a beeline for damage talents and ignore some defensive/healing or crowd-control abilities. We would encourage experimenting with the feel of different talents. Note that the value of some talents/talent combos can change significantly depending on your secondary stats. This assumes no particular stat is heavily favored.
- Level 11 and 12: Get
Astral Shift then
Astral Bulwark on your class tree and
Earth Shock or
Elemental Blast on your elemental tree. If you would prefer a higher
Astral Shift uptime at the cost of a significantly lower damage reduction, you can spec into either
Planes Traveler instead.
- Level 13 to 18: Get
Brimming with Life then
Earth Elemental and
Earth Shield on your class tree and
Fire Elemental, then
Earthquake and
Echo of the Elements on your elemental tree.
- Level 19 to 24: Get
Elemental Orbit,
Capacitor Totem and
Guardian's Cudgel from the class tree, then
Master of the Elements,
Elemental Fury and
Aftershock on the elemental tree.
- Level 25 to 34: Get
Wind Shear,
Frost Shock and
Nature's Fury from the class tree and
Unrelenting Calamity, then
Flash of Lightning,
Icefury,
Fusion of Elements then
Swelling Maelstrom.
- Level 35 to 44 Get
Spiritwalker's Grace,
Gust of Wind,
Fire and Ice,
Healing Stream Totem and
Elemental Resistance from the class tree and
Flow of Power,
Improved Flametongue Weapon then
Primordial Fury,
Lightning Conduit and
Elemental Unity from the elemental tree.
- Level 45 to 50: Get
Elemental Warding,
Ancestral Guidance and
Thunderstorm from the class tree as well as
Flames of the Cauldron,
Eye of the Storm and
Power of the Maelstrom from the elemental tree.
- Level 51 to 56: Get
Graceful Spirit,
Nature's Swiftness and
Lightning Lasso from the class tree, and
Primordial Wave,
Splintered Elements and
Liquid Magma Totem from the elemental tree.
- Level 57 to 62: Grab
Traveling Storms (or
Thundershock), then get
Stone Bulwark Totem and
Enhanced Imbues. On the spec tree, grab
Ascendance,
Preeminence and
Echo Chamber.
- Level 63 to 70: Get
Primordial Bond, then
Totemic Surge,
Totemic Recall and
Call of the Elements from the class tree. On the spec tree, grab
Stormkeeper,
Deeply Rooted Elements,
Skybreaker's Fiery Demise and
Mountains Will Fall.
Suggested Rotation
Remember to keep the following buffs up at all times:
Lightning Shield, mostly important after talenting
Lightning Conduit.
Earth Shield
Skyfury
Flametongue Weapon (because of the
Improved Flametongue Weapon talent
- Start by casting
Fire Elemental when a fight is going to last a while.
- Cast
Flame Shock when engaging enemies , with
Primordial Wave when it is available. If engaging multiple enemies, cast Primordial Wave on one and Flame Shock on another.
- Cast
Liquid Magma Totem when multiple enemies will be hit by it.
- Cast
Primordial Wave on cooldown. Aim to hit a target not affected by
Flame Shock.
- Cast
Ascendance whenever you need the burst.
- Cast
Lava Burst whenever it is available.
- Cast
Stormkeeper whenever it is available.
- Cast
Earth Shock/
Elemental Blast or
Earthquake if multiple enemies will be hit by it.
- Cast
Lightning Bolt or
Chain Lightning if multiple enemies will be hit by it.
- Cast
Flame Shock when you need to move, and the enemy will live for a while yet. Otherwise, cast
Frost Shock.
War Mode Talents to Level Up as an Elemental Shaman
If you are willing to take the risk and utilize War Mode, the following PvP talents are recommended during leveling or for other open-world content. There may be times when you would like to use other options and are encouraged to experiment! PvP talents can be freely changed at any time.
Your first PvP talent slot will unlock at Level 20, your second at Level 30, and the final at Level 40. The following is a curated list of PvP talents that we consider good for leveling.
Totem of Wrath increases the critical effect of spells of allies within 40 yards by 20% for 15 seconds, 40-second cooldown. Good for solo play and excellent if you are doing outdoor content with others.
Volcanic Surge increased the damage of
Lightning Bolt and
Chain Lightning by 25% and the damage of
Lava Burst by 45%
Lava Surge has an additional 100% chance to proc, and now, instead of its normal effect, reduces the cast time of your next
Lightning Bolt or
Chain Lightning by 25%, stacking up to 2 times.
Static Field Totem summons a totem at a target location that creates a circle of terrain that enemies cannot move through. It is extremely handy, versatile crowd control with a 1-minute cooldown.
Burrow Burrow beneath the ground, becoming unattackable, removing movement-impairing effects, and increasing your movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds. When the effect ends, enemies within 6 yards are knocked into the air and take Physical Damage. This ability has a 2-minute cooldown.
Counterstrike Totem replicates and reflects damage you take for 15 seconds on a 45-second cooldown. This can be really strong when in a high-damage area to deal some chip damage to targets around you and convert your health pool into additional damage.
We recommend picking 3 of the above talents, depending on what you value most. Personally, we would recommend the following picks:
Recommended Elemental PvP Talents
- Level 20:
Volcanic Surge
- Level 30:
Totem of Wrath or
Burrow if you prefer a "get out of jail" card
- Level 40:Whichever talent you did not
pick at level 30,
Counterstrike Totem or
Static Field Totem, depending on personal preferences. We would get the leftover level 30 talent.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated Leveling Tree + adjusted one talent choice.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 06 Feb. 2024: Fixed an oversight.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Re-added rotation tool, added PvP talents.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 02 May 2023: Modified a setting to make things clearer for people leveling from 60.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for the class talent overhaul of Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 18 Nov. 2022: Updated with a new build order. People who want to know in advance where to go from level 60 to 70 can now see my recommendations.
- 07 Nov. 2022: Talent pick order in calculator should be fixed. .
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Shaman Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Stormy, Elemental main since Wrath of the Lich King and member of the Storm, Earth and Lava Elemental theorycrafting team.
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