Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.1.5)

Elemental Shaman is excellent at questing when your cooldowns are up, much less so when they are not. Generally, you will be slower than many other specs at pure questing leveling because your raw burst, multidotting, or ability to reliably pull half a zone is not as good as many other specializations. That being said, with smart cooldown use, you can pull just about anything, especially when your trusty Earth Elemental and Bloodlust/ Heroism are available. In a way, this favors taking breaks, appreciating the new zones, and reading quest text and not speedrunning as fast as possible, which is what we would recommend!

Elemental Shaman is well suited to dungeons as well, with their wide toolkit allowing them to help get any group out of almost any bad situation and their AoE damage being extra powerful when using a dedicated dungeon build.

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.

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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 Elemental Fury and Aftershock on your elemental tree.
• Level 19 to 24: Get Elemental Orbit, Capacitor Totem and Guardian's Cudgel from the class tree, then Stormkeeper, Echo of the Elements and Master of the Elements on the elemental tree.
• Level 25 to 34: Get Nature's Fury, Wind Shear, Frost Shock and Nature's Guardian from the class tree and Unrelenting Calamity, then Earthquake, Flash of Lightning, Icefury, Fusion of Elements and Swelling Maelstrom on the elemental tree.
• Level 35 to 44 Get Fire and Ice, Healing Stream Totem, Elemental Resistance, Elemental Warding, Spiritwalker's Grace and Thunderstorm from the class tree and Fury of the Storms, Lightning Capacitor, Echo Chamber, Storm Frenzy and Primordial Fury from the elemental tree.
• Level 45 to 50: Get Gust of Wind, Wind Rush Totem and Primordial Bond from the class tree as well as Power of the Maelstrom, Earthshatter and Improved Flametongue Weapon from the elemental tree.
• Level 51 to 56: Get Graceful Spirit, Traveling Storms and Stone Bulwark Totem from the class tree, and Ascendance, Preeminence and Erupting Lava from the elemental tree.
• Level 57 to 62: Grab Lightning Lasso, then get Refreshing Waters and Enhanced Imbues. On the spec tree, grab Mountains Will Fall, Elemental Unity and Flames of the Cauldron.
• Level 63 to 70: Get Seasoned Winds, then Totemic Surge, Totemic Recall and Nature's Swiftness from the class tree. On the spec tree, grab Primordial Wave, Splintered Elements, Liquid Magma Totem and Deeply Rooted Elements.
• Level 71 to 74: I recommend using the Farseer tree for leveling as it is much easier to use than Stormbringer. You will want to get Elemental Reverb, Spiritwalker's Momentum, Final Calling and grab Ancestral Swiftness as soon as possible!
• Level 75 to 80: After that, it matters less, you probably want to get Heed My Call, Primordial Capacity, Maelstrom Supremacy, Latent Wisdom, Offering from Beyond and Natural Harmony

Remember to keep the following buffs up at all times:

• Lightning Shield, mostly important after talenting Lightning Conduit.
• Earth Shield
• Skyfury
• Flametongue Weapon (when using the Improved Flametongue Weapon talent)

1. Start by casting Fire Elemental when a fight is going to last a while.
2. Cast Stormkeeper whenever it is available.
3. Use Ancestral Swiftness whenever available.
4. 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.
5. Cast Liquid Magma Totem when multiple enemies will be hit by it.
6. Cast Primordial Wave on cooldown when at least one Flame Shock is up.
7. Cast Ascendance whenever you need the burst.
8. Cast Lava Burst whenever it is available.
9. Cast Earth Shock/ Elemental Blast or Earthquake if multiple enemies will be hit by it.
10. Cast Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning if multiple enemies will be hit by it.
11. Cast Flame Shock when you need to move, and the enemy will live for a while yet. Otherwise, cast Frost Shock.

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.

1. 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.
2. Burrow lets you 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.
3. 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.
4. 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:

• Level 20: Totem of Wrath or Burrow
• Level 30: Burrow or Totem of Wrath if you prefer a "get out of jail" card
• Level 40: Counterstrike Totem or Static Field Totem, depending on personal preference.