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it (read more Elemental Shaman DPS Azerite Traits/Powers and Armor in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
Pick up the Azerite gear with the best traits for your Elemental Shaman and learn about the Heart of Azeroth. This page is updated for World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1.
For more information about the 
Heart of Azeroth, please read
our Hearth of Azeroth guide.
The other pages of our Elemental Shaman guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
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.
1. Disclaimer
This page reflects the current state of theorycrafting on Azerite traits, but is currently still incomplete and, most importantly, constantly changing because of Blizzard's numerous hotfixes in the last few days. These rankings will definitely change over the coming weeks.
2. Azerite Gear for Elemental Shaman
Azerite Traits are special effects present on Helm, Shoulder, and Chest
slots in Battle For Azeroth. Each Azerite item has either 2 or 3 tiers of
Azerite Traits to choose from (items below item level 340 only have 2 tiers,
while items above that have 3). In addition to this, every Azerite item
also has a +5 item level bonus (
Azerite Empowered). Each tier,
as well as this item level bonus, become unlocked as you gain certain amounts
of Azerite Power.
The first tier of Azerite Traits is split between a class-specific choice and a generic choice. Generic choices can be zone-related or content-related (such as PvP traits which are only found on PvP gear but work in PvE content).
The second tier has a multitude of options varying from interesting stat procs to static stat gains. This is the tier that is missing on items lower than item level 340.
The third tier can either be a defensive or healing option.
Azerite gear has fixed traits and stats. Each piece has predetermined Azerite Traits, item level, and can not roll either tertiary stats or sockets. While tuning is always in flux, we will try to list the currently best traits for raiding first. Keep in mind many of these are very raid / dungeon / world / PvP-oriented and do not work well in other types of content.
3. Recommended Pre-Raid Traits
This section will discuss the recommended pre-raid Azerite traits for both dungeons and raids. While these are currently recommended, any balance changes to traits will likely change our recommendations. Note that the following lists are pulled directly from simulations, so read the text for explanations on what is actually practical to use/seek.
3.1. Single Target
Thunderous Blast
Dagger in the Back
Igneous Potential
Rezan's Fury
Blightborne Infusion
Tidal Surge
Echo of the Elementals
Filthy Transfusion
Swirling Sands
Realistically, you always want at least one point in 
Igneous Potential
for additional Lava Surges. Beyond that, the top 3 traits are quite a
bit ahead of the other ones. However, both 
Thunderous Blast and
Dagger in the Back are slow and need to ramp up on a single target, and
because of that are very impractical outside of Patchwerk situations. I personally
recommend using 
Blightborne Infusion if you can find it.
Swirling Sands is also a good alternative for general use.
A full list will be linked once Azerite Trait tuning stabilizes.
3.2. Cleave/AoE
- Blightborne Infusion
- Swirling Sands
Champion of Azeroth
Ancestral Resonance
Unstable Catalyst
Tradewinds
Note that all three top traits only exist on one piece of non-world quest gear.
Ancestral Resonance grants extremely strong burst AoE if you are
using 
Bloodlust/
Heroism for AoE purposes. I do not
recommend using 
Unstable Catalyst. 
Tradewinds will
make people like you more, and if its secondary effect procs on a DPS player,
its DPS value increases significantly. 
Synapse Shock is not very
far behind those traits and gives very consistent value. More importantly, it is
very easy to find early on.
4. Recommended Items
Please note that this is not a BiS list. The variety of possible item levels changes the value of some traits and multiple instances of the same trait have different values. Moreover, most trait combos do not exist, so we have to settle for what exists and is realistically obtainable. While traits are important, item level will usually win out. As a rule of thumb, a 15 item level difference will make up for any trait. All the items listed are available in dungeons, with a few exceptions.
4.1. Helms
Soulscarred Headgear
Visage of Bloody Horrors- Hood of the Dark Reaper
- Sethraliss' Fanged Helm
Dread Gladiator's Chain Helm or
Dread Gladiator's Chain Helm from PvP
4.2. Shoulders
Hook-Barbed Spaulders- Cannoneer's Mantle
Azerothian Champion's Spaulders from getting Exalted with the
Champions of Azeroth faction
Spaulders of the Enveloping Maw from the World Boss Warbringer Yenajz
in Stormsong Valley
Dread Gladiator's Chain Shoulderguards or
Dread Gladiator's Chain Shoulderguards from PvP- Crashguard Spaulders
4.3. Body Armors
Loa-Blessed Chestguard- Corrupted Hexxer's Vestments
- Shrapnel-Dampening Chestguard
Sharpshooter's Chainmail Hauberk for Alliance, 
Scalemail Battle Harness
for Horde, from the Arathi Highlands' faction World Bosses
5. Outer Ring Traits for Elemental Shaman
Anduin's Dedication / 
Sylvanas' Resolve
causes your spells to have a chance to increase your primary stat for 10
seconds. If an ally dies nearby you also instantly gain this effect. Note
that this is a PvP trait.
Archive of the Titans is an Uldir-specific trait. It gives
you a small primary stat buff every 5 seconds which stacks up to 20 times.
Stacks only decay when out of combat. It also gives the
Reorigination Array buff, which you should always aim to
have active while raiding in Uldir.
Barrage Of Many Bombs gives you a chance to fire a
clusterbomb at your current target. When the bomb gets close, it explodes into
smaller bombs which do AoE damage when they hit the ground.
Battlefield Focus / 
Battlefield Precision
gives your abilities a chance to apply stacks of a debuff to the target. This
debuff causes them to take more damage from all raid members. Note
that this is a PvP trait.- Blightborne Infusion causes your spells to have a chance to
increase your Critical Strike for 14 seconds.
Blood Rite causes your spells to have a chance to increase
your Haste for 15 seconds. Killing enemies refreshes this effect.- Champion of Azeroth gives your abilities a chance to increase
all your secondary stats for a minute, stacking up to 4 times. Getting a new
proc will refresh the duration, so you will keep this at 4 stacks throughout
an entire fight.
Collective Will / 
Stand As One causes your
spells to have a chance to increase your primary stat and maximum health. This
effect is also applied to up to 4 nearby allies. Note that this is a PvP
trait.
Combined Might / 
Stronger Together gives you
and 4 allies a bonus to one of your secondary stats or to your Spellpower / Attackpower (depending on your role), chosen at random, for 10 seconds. Note
that this is a PvP trait.- Dagger in the Back gives your abilities a chance to shoot
a dagger at your target, applying a damage over time effect for 12 seconds,
stacking up to 4 times. If you shoot this dagger when behind the target,
it will apply 2 stacks.
- Filthy Transfusion gives your damaging ability a chance
to do damage over 6 seconds to the target, healing you for the damage done.
Glory in Battle / 
Liberator's Might causes
your spells to have a chance to grant Critical Strike and Haste for 10 seconds.
Note that this is a PvP trait, and attacking a member of the opposing
faction significantly increases this chance, making these traits are much
stronger in PvP content.
Incite the Pack causes you to occasionally increase your
Mastery and that of up to two nearby allies for 20 seconds.
Laser Matrix causes your spells to have a chance to unleash
a barrage of lasers which deal damage and heal injured allies for a small
amount which is further split among them. It also gives the
Reorigination Array buff, which you should always aim to
have active while raiding in Uldir.
Last Gift / 
Retaliatory Fury causes your
spells and abilities to have a chance to grant Mastery and an absorb shield .
Note that this is a PvP trait; also, taking damage from a member of the
opposite faction has a chance to activate this effect, making these traits much
strong in PvP content.- Liberator's Might gives your abilities a chance to give you
Haste, and even more Critical Strike for 10 seconds.
Meticulous Scheming causes you to gain a buff for 8 seconds
that transforms into a 20-second Haste buff after you cast 3 different spells
while it is active.
Relational Normalization Gizmo causes your spells to have a
chance to grant you a primary stat and maximum health buff or Haste and 50%
movement speed for 10 seconds. This trait is only obtainable through
crafting Engineering goggles (
AZ3-R1-T3 Gearspun Goggles) that cannot
be upgraded past item level 340.- Retaliatory Fury gives your abilities a chance to give you
a Mastery buff and a shield for 10 seconds.
- Rezan's Fury causes your damaging abilities to have a chance
to summon a Child of Rezan, which deals Physical damage to your target and causes
them to bleed for additional damage over 12 seconds.
Ricocheting Inflatable Pyrosaw causes your spells to have a
chance to heal up to 4 allies for a large amount. This trait is only
obtainable through crafting Engineering goggles
( AZ3-R1-T3 Gearspun Goggles) that cannot be upgraded past item level
340.
Ruinous Bolt gives your abilities a chance to summon a Soul
(pet) by your side for 14 seconds. The Soul deals Shadow damage to a random
nearby target.
Secrets of the Deep causes your spells to have a chance to
spawn a Surging Droplet nearby, which you can collect to increase your primary
stat for 18 seconds. Rarely, a Void Droplet will be created instead, which
increases your primary stat for twice as much as Surging Droplet's when
collected.- Stand As One gives your abilities a chance to drop a Banner
for 6 seconds, which buffs you and 4 nearby allies with their primary stat,
and increases maximum Health.
- Stronger Together causes your abilities to have a chance to
plant a factional banner for 6 seconds, empowering yourself and up to 4 allies
with the spirit of the Alliance.
- Swirling Sands causes your spells to have a chance to
increase your Critical Strike for 12 seconds. This duration can be extended by
landing Critical Strikes up to a maximum of 18 seconds.
- Sylvanas' Resolve gives your abilities a chance to give you
a decent amount of primary stat, for 10 seconds. You also get this buff if an
ally dies near you.
Synaptic Spark Capacitor gives your abilities a chance to
put a debuff on your target. This debuff will deal damage to enemies within 8
yards of the target with the debuff, and causes them to do 5% less damage to
you. This trait is only obtainable through crafting Engineering goggles
( AZ3-R1-T3 Gearspun Goggles) that cannot be upgraded past item level
340.- Thunderous Blast gives your damaging abilities a chance
blast the target for extra Nature damage, and cause the target to take 20% more
damage from your next blast. When the bonus damage reaches 100%, the next blast
will Critically Strike, and reset the bonus damage back to 0%.
- Tidal Surge gives your damaging abilities a chance to deal
some Frost damage to the target and slow it by 20%.
- Tradewinds causes your spells to have a chance to grant you
Mastery for 15 seconds. When this buff expires, it jumps once to a nearby ally
at half duration and amount.
- Unstable Catalyst causes your spells and abilities to have
a chance to create a zone standing in which increases your primary stat.
Note that, when using at least 1 Uldir trait inside the Uldir raid, 
Reorigination Array
grants you a buff that increases your highest secondary stat every 5 seconds,
stacking up to 10. This power increases over time, in order to make Uldir
raiding easier.
5.1. Spec-Specific Outer Ring Traits
Note that the numbers mentioned in this section scale with item level.
Synapse Shock makes your Lightning Bolts
and 
Chain Lightnings increase your Intellect by 5, per target
hit, for 15 sec, stacking up to 5 times.- Echo of the Elementals makes it so that when your
Storm Elemental/ Fire Elemental expires, it leaves behind a
Spark Elemental/Ember Elemental to continue attacking your enemies for 30 sec. - Igneous Potential makes you deal 77 additional damage when
you cast
Lava Burst, and your Lava Surge chance
is increased to 18%. 
Lava Shock makes 
Flame Shock ticks
increase the damage of your next Earth Shock by 31, stacking up to 20
times. Note that this is a personal buff and that it works with multiple Flame Shocks.
Rumbling Tremors spawns Tremors that deal 77 Physical damage
to enemies within 8 yards every 2 seconds after casting Earth Elemental.
The Earth Elemental's auto attack damage is also increased by 77.
Natural Harmony grants 10 critical strike for 12 seconds when you
deal Fire damage, 10 mastery for 12 seconds when you deal Frost damage, and
10 mastery for 12 seconds when you deal Nature damage. This is shared with Enhancement.- Ancestral Resonance increases your Mastery by 54 every second,
stacking up to 20 times, after you cast
Heroism/
Bloodlust.
Note that this is unaffected by 
Sated and is shared with Enhancement.
6. Middle Ring Traits for Elemental Shaman
Savior makes your heals on targets below 35% health have a
chance to heal for an additional amount.
Bracing Chill causes your heals to have a chance to apply
Bracing Chill to the target. Healing a target with Bracing Chill will heal for
an additional amount and move Bracing Chill to a nearby ally, up to 6
times.
Blessed Portents grants your healing spells a chance to
apply Blessed Portents to the target for 20 seconds. When the target falls
below 35% health, Blessed Portents is consumed and heals them.
Blood Siphon passively increases your Mastery and
Leech.
On My Way passively increases your Versatility and
Speed.
Earthlink increases your primary stat, with the exact
amount cycling between a minimum value and maximum value every 6 seconds.
Overwhelming Power causes your damaging spells to have a
chance to increase your Haste. The amount of Haste granted decreases every
second or whenever you take damage.
Concentrated Mending causes your healing effects to have a
chance to grant the target a HoT that heals every 2 seconds for 12
seconds. The amount healed doubles every 2 seconds.
Elemental Whirl causes your damaging spells to have a
chance to increase one of your secondary stats for 10 seconds.
Woundbinder causes your healing effects to have a chance
to increase your Haste for 12 seconds. Healing lower health targets will grant
more Haste.
Unstable Flames causes your damaging spells to have a
chance to grant a Critical Strike buff for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5
times.
Heed My Call gives your damaging abilities a chance to deal
additional Nature damage to the target, and a smaller amount of damage to
nearby targets.
Azerite Globules gives your damaging abilities a chance to
apply a debuff to your target. This debuff stacks up to 3 times, and when it
reaches 3, the target explodes, doing AoE damage.
Gutripper gives your damaging abilities a chance to deal
additional Physical damage. This bonus damage occurs more often when the target
is below 30% Health.
Ephemeral Recovery causes your healing spells to grant you
up to two stacks of an insignificant amount of Mana regeneration.
These traits are generally weaker than the outer traits. That being said,
you generally want 
Overwhelming Power above all for all situations,
with 
Unstable Flames also being a good general trait, although notably weaker.
For Single Target, 
Heed My Call is very strong. For AoE, 
Azerite Globules
is very strong.
7. Inner Ring Traits for Elemental Shaman
Personal Absorb-o-Tron grants you a chance, when taking
damage, to gain a large absorb shield for up to 1 minute. This trait is only
obtainable through crafting Engineering goggles
( AZ3-R1-T3 Gearspun Goggles) that cannot be upgraded past item level
340.
Impassive Visage heals you when you take damage. It can not
occur more often than every 6 seconds.
Resounding Protection causes you to gain an absorb shield
every 30 seconds.
Auto-Self-Cauterizer grants you a chance, when taking
damage, to self-heal for a large amount and remove most bleed effects as well
as slowing nearby enemies by 30% for 5 seconds. This trait is only
obtainable through crafting Engineering goggles
( AZ3-R1-T3 Gearspun Goggles) that cannot be upgraded past item level 340
.
Self Reliance causes you to be healed every 3 seconds while
no enemies are within 20 yards of you.
Longstrider increases your movement speed by a percentage
of your highest secondary stat, with a maximum movement speed gain limit.
Serene Spirit heals you when you cast
Astral Shift, and again when its duration ends.
Pack Spirit heals you while in Ghost Wolf
form.
Azerite Fortification heals you when you are stunned,
immobilized, or knocked back.
Gemhide causes you to gain Avoidance and Armor for 10
seconds when you take damage that exceeds 10% of your maximum health.
Bulwark of the Masses causes you to gain a moderate absorb
shield when surrounded by 4 or more enemies, but can only occur once every 15
seconds.
Vampiric Speed causes you to self-heal and gain Speed for 6
seconds whenever an enemy you damaged dies.
The value of these traits is mostly situational, although 
Longstrider
and 
Resounding Protection (Prydaz, Xavarius Magnum Opus' old
legendary effect) are always useful.
8. Find Azerite Armor By Trait/Power
In the table below, you can see all of the Azerite gear available to your Elemental Shaman. By using the + button located next to each item, you can expand the list of Azerite powers that this item possesses (to collapse the list, simply click the - button).
If you want to filter items according to the powers that they offer, you can use the filters below.
Filter #1:
Filter #2:
Filter #3:
Reset Filters
| Head Items | Shoulders Items | Chest Items |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
9. ChangeLog
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
- 11 Aug. 2018: Page added.
CONTENTS
FROM THE SHAMAN FORUMS
- Your experience with resto shamans in mythic +
- Thinking of going with Enhance Shaman
- Macro Helps...
- Help with Enhancement
- Stat confusion
IN THE SAME CATEGORY
- Transmog Shaman Sets
- Transmog Shaman Models
- Enhancement Shaman Azerite Traits and Gear
- Restoration Shaman Azerite Traits and Gear
- Level up a Shaman
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