Elemental Shaman DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.1
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Elemental Shaman in World of Warcraft Dragonflight 10.1.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Elemental Shaman gear and best in slot.
Gearing a Elemental Shaman
Welcome to our Gearing Page for Elemental Shaman. This section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.
If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.
The Importance of "Simming Yourself"
At this stage in the game, there are so many variables and layers of optimization that you can apply to your character that there is no way for a guide or anything else to tell you exactly what gear you should wear. This is why we always recommend simulating your own character using Raidbots. The website can help you choose set bonuses, trinkets, and combinations in a way tailored completely to your specific character. Learning to use this tool is essential to maximizing your potential, as there is simply no other way to consider all the variables.
Evaluating Upgrades
The easiest way, and also the method we suggest, to compare multiple items is to use Raidbots' Top Gear. Here you can input an export from the Simcraft AddOn, select the items to compare, and it will find out which of the items are best.
Stats
Many people overthink the distribution of their secondary stats. An important thing to remember is that a higher quantity of stats is nearly always better than a better quality of stats. Because of this, wearing higher item-level gear with worse stats tends to be better than lower item-level gear with great stats. Keep this in mind when considering gear. For more stats information, please refer to our dedicated page.
Best in Slot Items for Elemental Shaman
Static Best in Slot lists are always misleading, and it is best to use the tools at your disposal, notably Raidbots Top Gear and its Droptimizer options.
Early Gearing in Dragonflight
Once you finish the Dragonflight campaign and reach max level, you will want to upgrade your gear. There are many ways to do this. We recommend that after some World Quests and Heroic Dungeons, you try getting into Mythic Dungeons, preferably with friends, and do every single dungeon during the weekly lockout.
The Great Vault
This weekly loot system remains much the same. You can select ONE item out of a maximum pool of 9, depending on how many raid bosses you defeated, your Mythic+ dungeon clears and how much Honor you farmed the previous week.
You can learn more about this system on our dedicated Great Vault page.
Elemental Shaman Gear Upgrades in Dragonflight Season 2
The Valor Upgrade system is gone in Season 2 and is replaced by a new system that allows for item upgrades to be obtained from a wider variety of content.
Dragonflight Season 2 introduces two new currencies: Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests, both obtainable from practically all forms of content in the game. They can be used to upgrade gear up to Item Level 441, which is entry-level Mythic Raid Item Level.
They can also upgrade Crafted Gear up to iLvl 447, which is late-Mythic Item Level.
For more information on the new Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.
As with Valor, the cost to upgrade scales differs per slot but now also increases quickly as item levels go up.
You can learn more about this system on our dedicated Valor page.
Best Items to Upgrade for Elemental Shaman in Dragonflight Season 2
Unsurprisingly, you should sim your character to determine which upgrades give
the most bang for your buck at any point in time. Beyond that, you generally want
to maximize your weapon, then your trinkets, especially if you can grab Igneous Flowstone.
After that, it is generally best to upgrade the slots that give the most stats,
especially the tier set pieces: Chest,
Helm or Pants, with a lower priority on whatever has the best secondaries, but maximizing
intelligence remains the best way to gain DPS. Note that Very Rare gear from Heroic
and Mythic difficulty in Aberrus cannot be upgraded this way; in fact, no Mythic difficulty gear
cannot be upgraded at all with this system. However, if you can get
Voice of the Silent Star
from the last boss in Aberrus, Scalecommander Sarkareth, it is much stronger
than a regular cloak.
Tier set for Elemental Shaman in Dragonflight Season 2
You will want to have your full T30 4-set, no matter what content you are looking
to do, as soon as possible. In the meantime, you want to keep the T29 bonuses until you
can get Shaman Elemental 10.1 Class Set 2pc.
What tier piece you skip is not very important in this tier and will probably depend on what you obtain and whether you are using the Horizon Strider's Garment set (in which case you want to skip the gloves). Overall the Helm piece is probably the one you will most likely want to skip once you have the 4 other pieces, as it has the worst stats for the relevant builds.
This set somewhat forces us into using a Lightning-Focused build, and more specifically
if we want to play optimally, makes us use a "set" rotation, whose goal is to
set up Electrified Shocks and
Surge of Power for every
Stormkeeper
Lightning Bolt, in order to maximize its damage. This will not be to everyone's
taste and will take some time to learn.
Timewalking Trinkets
Cataclysm Timewalking is back as of May 23rd, 2023, and introduces new Trinkets and other items from dungeons like the Stonecore, Lost City of the Tol'vir, Throne of the Tides, End Time, Blackrock Caverns, and the Firelands Raid. The Firelands Trinkets can be upgraded to Item Level 437. They will only be available this week until Cataclysm Timewalking hopefully comes around again later.
Are Cataclysm Timewalking Trinkets worth it?
First, it is very important to note that Sorrowsong does NOT SIM PROPERLY.
It is overvalued by sims and is not as good as it shows. It is a pretty good
trinket for Mythic+ but is much less relevant in raids.
Necromantic Focus is a very good option for raiding, especially for
the people who insist on playing Fire!
Witching Hourglass is a solid all-around option for people who have not
gotten a strong heroic item-level trinket yet.
Gale of Shadows is okay in single-target, pretty mediocre in AoE,
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark is okay in AoE and bad for single-target. They remain
an okay option for newer characters, characters who have been unlucky with trinkets,
or people who just returned to the game.
Best Cataclysm Timewalking Trinkets for Elemental Shaman
Tl;dr: Unless you have excellent trinkets already, it is probably worth trying
to get Necromantic Focus for raiding and single-target heavy M+ as well as
Sorrowsong and
Witching Hourglass for Mythic+.
Necromantic Focus
Sorrowsong (mostly for M+)
Witching Hourglass
Gale of Shadows
Tendrils of Burrowing Dark
Trinkets for Elemental Shaman
IMPORTANT: Massive trinket changes have occurred, Igneous Flowstone
went from being the best trinket by a lot to being mediocre, and
Neltharion's Call to Dominance
was also nerfed significantly. Neither is currently desirable.
Important note: Ominous Chromatic Essence is somewhat similar to
Whispering Incarnate Icon
in that it gains a lot of value as more people use its different versions. However,
it is not as immediately powerful by itself, and because for everybody to gain the maximum
possible bonus you need a minimum of five, each using a different secondary stat,
its full potential is unlikely to be available to every group immediately.
Our overall recommendations are:
For Raids:
Ominous Chromatic Essence (all buffs, best color depends on your stats)
Rotcrusted Voodoo Doll
Naraxas' Spiked Tongue
Idol of Pure Decay
Vessel of Searing Shadow
Darkmoon Deck Box: Dance (Emberscale)
Spoils of Neltharus
Necromantic Focus
Igneous Flowstone
Screaming Black Dragonscale
For Mythic+ or AoE heavy raid encounters:
Ominous Chromatic Essence (all buffs, best color depends on your stats)
Spoils of Neltharus
Erupting Spear Fragment
Irideus Fragment
Obsidian Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
Igneous Flowstone
Screaming Black Dragonscale
Ominous Chromatic Essence (solo, best color depends on your stats)
Sorrowsong (maybe a little higher, but the effect can be tricky to use optimally)
Jewelry for Elemental Shaman
Aberrus does not have any very rare Jewelry, though it has Voice of the Silent Star,
which everyone will want
You may want to keep your Seal of Filial Duty from Broodkeeper Diurna,
especially if you have a nice Mythic one. To a lesser extent, if you have a Mythic
Seal of Diurna's Chosen,
it will compete with lower-end Season 2 rings; make sure to use simulations to determine
if it is worth keeping; the Shield effect has some value. Finally, if you have an
Onyx Annulet with the optimal
stones, it will likely be replaced by any decent Normal ilvl ring from Season 2,
especially outside of pure single-target scenarios.
Because jewelry pieces do not have Intelligence on them, you must pay more attention to the secondaries they have. For example, a ring with your 2 worst stats will be worse than a ring 10 item levels lower with your 2 best stats.
Weapons for Elemental Shaman
There are no special weapons for Elemental Shamans. However, I recommend weapons with the best stat combos for the best builds available. It is probably a good idea to start the season by crafting a weapon with Critical Strike and Haste
The best weapons for all content in no particular order:
From dungeons:
From Aberrus:
Professions for Elemental Shaman
While professions do not generally give player power, there are possible exceptions in some circumstances. Suppose you want to min/max your player power in all possible situations. In that case, you should be an Alchemist and an Engineer. Note that the actual uses of their unique bonuses are highly conditional and, for the most part, should not dictate your profession choice.
Embellishments for Elemental Shaman
There are multiple viable options there. In practice, this is not very easy,
and what you want to get depends on various factors. Note that endgame
crafted items are a "hard commitment," meaning there are no refunds, no take-backs
of your Spark of Ingenuity. You can recraft the items with different
Embellishments, or at a higher item level, must be the same item.
Do not forget that Alchemical Flavor Pocket does not count for your
embellishment limit, and you always want it on!
Tl;dr recommendation: Get Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch and pick one out of:
- Another
Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch because they stack. Best overall single-target option
Elemental Lariat: Better AoE, the more sockets you have, the better it gets
Acidic Hailstone Treads: Best damage on paper but beware the downside
Alternatively, you can use the Horizon Strider's Garment (Haste) set, using the
waist and another piece. Acidic Hailstone Treads with
Toxified Armor Patch
may be tempting, but it is almost certainly going to backfire horribly.
The new is Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch is quite strong
and almost certainly Best in Slot.
Blue Silken Lining and
Adaptive Dracothyst Armguards are solid, but
unimpressive increases.
Elemental Lariat has become a staple for many specs. If you intend on
using it with Lightning builds, make sure to socket different
gems on it to benefit from multiple stat procs, prioritizing Haste and Critical Strike
(meaning you want those as the LOWEST stat on at least two gems because that is
how the proc works).) It is an okay default pick but is only strong if you have
many sockets.
Horizon Strider's Garment set with Wind Spirit's Lasso and either
Scale Rein Grips
or
Ancestor's Dew Drippers give you some nice haste, and are especially good on
AoE/Cleave for Lightning-focused builds because multi-hits with
Chain Lightning
and
Electrified Shocks-
Frost Shocks can give multiple procs,
unlike most other abilities. It is not super strong for single-target, but still quite good.
Acidic Hailstone Treads have okay stats for Lightning-focused builds,
and the effect is very powerful in single-target, especially when doubled with a
Toxified Armor Patch. That being said, the downside is absolutely killer,
especially when using said patch: 20% reduced movement speed. On top of that, you
will most likely be using the class trinket from Aberrus when you obtain one, which
further reduces your movement speed. However, Elemental Shaman can work around these
downsides with
Ghost Wolf especially combined with
Thunderous Paws,
Spiritwalker's Grace with
Graceful Spirit, or
Gust of Wind/
Spirit Walk.
Having to potentially use these options when you could have normally just walked
out comes at a cost; however, in heavy movement fights, this could straight up
makes you useless. The best damage on paper, but the cost is very hefty, especially
in progress. Beware.
Venom-Steeped Stompers were a solid single-target boost for fire-focused
builds which relied on stacking a single-stat (Mastery) and with some very low value
stat (Critical Strike). However, with the rise of lightning builds, which do not
have such a wide range of stat priority, those boots become quite awful, especially
since the stats are very bad for Lightning-focused builds.
Onyx Annulets for Elemental Shaman
Onyx Annulets are a new kind of ring you can obtain from the Zskera Vaults
in Patch 10.0.7.
For more details about what Stones you want to use in your new ring, please refer to our dedicated page:
For more information regarding the Onyx Annulet, the Primordial Gemstones, and how to obtain them, check out our dedicated guide for it below.
Should Elemental Shamans farm an Onyx Annulet in Dragonflight Season 2 ?
Essentially, they are only outstanding for fresh characters. If you just leveled a Shaman, it can definitely be a good idea to farm one.
Even with the best stone combination, Onyx Annulets do not beat Mythic Season 1 rings in raid situations and are way worse for Mythic+. In short, unless you already have them or time is not an issue, we recommend not bothering with them as Season 2 rings above LFR ilvl will be at least equivalent in most cases, and generally better.
Changelog
- 24 May 2023: Fixed a couple BiS weapon recommendation, added temporary recommendation for Timewalking trinkets, updated some trinket rankings.
- 09 May 2023: Fixed swapped out ring descriptions, added a reminder about Alchemical Flavor Pocket, updated trinket list to reflect recent changes
- 06 May 2023: Updated recommended weapons and trinkets following the latest changes. Removed outdated paragraph on the Eranog ring. Updated Onyx annulet section to recommend it for fresh characters.
- 02 May 2023: Updated recommended embellishments and trinkets, added recommendation on what to craft first, updated which tier piece to skip.
- 01 May 2023: Updated section about Onyx Annulets and added information on its viability in Season 2, added a section on Gear Upgrades in Season 2, updated the recommended trinkets and weapons list and the jewelry and embellishment sections. Updated the Tier Set Section with the T30 set.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Added a section about Onyx Annulets.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated trinket section, updated info on Voidmender's Shadowgem. .
- 29 Dec. 2022: Updated embellishment section.
- 21 Dec. 2022: Updated trinket & jewelry sections.
- 13 Dec. 2022: Added a couple trinkets to the trinket section, updated the section about Elemental Lariat. .
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 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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