Elemental Shaman Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (Season 1)

The answer to this question in any context will always be to simulate it. This is because what is an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear affects everything else.

This applies to gear, set bonuses, trinkets, legendaries, and even talents in certain situations.

The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents, for example. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, WarcraftLogs.com's rankings and statistics are a good place to see what others are doing.

We have a guide on how to sim yourself here:

There is no specific cap you want for any secondary stat. It is very common for people to overestimate the importance of having the "right" secondaries when, in reality, having a higher quantity of stats will usually beat having "better" stats. Having 130 of your worst stat is often better than having 100 of your best stat, as the differences are not as big as many people think.

For more detailed information about stats, please visit our dedicated Stats guide.

Mastery has a hard cap when you reach 100% Mastery. When using Elemental Blast, you should consider a "soft" cap of 88%, as Elemental Blast could bring you to 100%. Neither cap is currently reachable, so you do not need to worry about that.

Mastery is not currently desirable for Lightning builds in The War Within. That being said, it is very common for people to overestimate the importance of having the "right" secondaries when, in reality, having a higher quantity of stats will usually beat having "better" stats. Having 130 of your worst stat is often better than having 100 of your best stat, as the differences are not as big as many people think.

For more detailed information about stats, please visit our dedicated Stats guide.

Currently, Lightning builds are superior both for pure single-target and AoE/Cleave encounters.

What is best depends on a lot of factors — the other specs in your group, the dungeon you are doing, the affixes in play, and so on. That being said, the talent list recommended on the Mythic+ section of this guide should be a good baseline.

For better and more detailed information, please visit our Talent guide below.

There are multiple viable builds. While customized builds will be available on our dedicated raid pages, you can find more information about single-target focused builds on our Talent page below.

From a pure Patchwerk-DPS point of view, the best race for Elemental Shaman is Tauren for Horde and Dwarf for Alliance. However, we would not recommend picking a race based strictly on their current Patchwerk-DPS.

You can see more detailed information in our Simulations section

You can find this information in our Gear section.

Elemental is in a good spot for any kind of content and is especially strong in Mythic+, although it may not necessarily be optimal with every party composition or on every boss. Regardless, there is no content at any level where Elemental Shaman will be unwelcome.

You can find this information in our Gems, Enchants and Consumables section.

If using a Lightning build, you should not cast Flame Shock at all and only apply it on one target with Primordial Wave and cast Liquid Magma Totem on cooldown when there are multiple targets.

If using a Fire build, you want to keep the maximum of 6 Flame Shocks running on any target that will live for its duration, reapplying as needed using any of the methods (remember Surge of Power) available.

Only to consume Primordial Wave.

For better and more detailed information, please go to our Rotation, Cooldown and Abilities section.

Two. However, if a Surge of Power or Stormkeeper buff is available and there are only two cleavable targets, cast Lightning Bolt.

Yes.

It is a tiny increase to use Earthquake with as few as 2 stacked targets if using Earth Shock, and they will live for the entire duration. If there is any priority target, however, use Earth Shock. However, if you are using Elemental Blast, you should only use Earthquake when there are at least 3 or more stacked targets that will live for the duration.

Note that if using Echoes of Great Sundering, you always want to alternate between the two, even in single-target, if you are certain to get the full damage out of Earthquake.

Unless you really hate placing Earthquake even with a cursor macro, the "area-targeted" version is generally superior. We would recommend using the @cursor Macro from our Macros & Addons section.

Almost all of them. Here is the list:

• Flame Shock
• Primordial Wave
• Stormkeeper
• Storm Elemental
• Reincarnation
• Astral Shift
• Thunderstorm
• Lightning Lasso
• Gust of Wind
• Wind Shear
• Spiritwalker's Grace
• Nature's Swiftness
• Ancestral Swiftness
• Totemic Recall
• Totemic Projection
• Nature's Guardian
• Earth Elemental
• Bloodlust/ Heroism
• Ancestral Guidance
• Cleanse Spirit
• Purge
• Greater Purge
• Hex
• Astral Recall
• ALL totems except Liquid Magma Totem
• It notably does NOT work on Spirit Walk