Elemental Shaman DPS Guide — Shadowlands 9.0.5

Elemental Shaman is a damage dealing spellcaster with a rich and flexible toolkit. Elemental Shamans can approach a multitude of environments without feeling compromised. Through certain talents, Elemental can also provide very significant burst damage, allowing them to surge ahead during short damage checks or dungeon bosses. Overall, this specialization has a tool or talent for every scenario, although its sustained single-target damage might be lacking.

Strengths

• Current best single-target talent build is very fun and mobile.
• Some talent builds are very straightforward to play.
• Potential for massive burst damage for single-target and Cleave/AoE.
• Excellent utility outside of Raids.
• Talent choices allow for excellent flexibility and varied playstyles.

Weaknesses

• Most survivability tools are talent-related and can be awkward to use properly.
• Tends to be outclassed by other specializations outside of specific situations.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Shamans, so you can see what changes with every patch of Shadowlands.

Chain Lightning and Lava Beam now deal 35% more damage.

Earthquake now deals 70% more damage.

Earth Shock now deals 30% more damage.

Lava Burst now deals 10% less damage.

Lightning Shield now deals 415% more damage.

Overall, these changes result in a massive buff to our AoE damage, and a small buff to our single-target damage. The Lightning Shield change does not really matter for raiding or Mythic+ as the base damage was basically nothing and it only procs when you get hit by a melee attack. This is not insignificant in PvP or for solo content, however.

Echoes of Great Sundering now causes Earthquake to deal 120% additional damage (was 175%). Note that because of the massive buff to baseline Earthquake, your buffed Earthquakes will actually hit significantly harder than they used to despite this nerf. Overall Patch 9.0.5 is a buff to this Legendary.

All non-Necrolord Covenant Class Abilities have been buffed. However, notably because of the massive buffs to Fleshcraft, Necrolord remains our recommended Covenant.

If you want to play an Elemental Shaman, but currently do not have one at max level, you can check out our leveling guide for tips on your journey.

After the leveling phase, you may want to optimize your performance by using one or several addons. In order not to be overwhelmed, we recommend you start using at least some of our recommended addons during the leveling of your Shaman, so you can get acquainted with them and configure/customize them to your liking.

Elemental Shaman is a spec with simple fundamentals for both single-target and AoE, with a wide array of customization available from your talents. Some talents allow for Elemental to be very easy to play, or very complex and rewarding.

Most of your time will be spent casting Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst, while maintaining Flame Shock and casting Earth Shock once you have enough Maelstrom. Beyond these fundamentals, gameplay largely depends on your talent choices.

If you are just starting as an Elemental Shaman and are interesting in learning the basics of the spec, visit the Spell Summary first, then the Easy Mode page below.

If you already know how Shamans work, head directly to the Talents and Rotation pages in order to find out more detailed information.

Gearing is not as simple as it once was, although the easy access to simulations are extremely helpful. Our gearing page will help you learn about how best to gear your Elemental Shaman.

After you have acquired some gear, you must then use the right enchants, gems and consumables. Visit our dedicated page, as well as our stats page so you get a better idea which stats you should look for.

Shadowlands introduces 4 Covenants, new unique "factions" that do not like each other, so much so that you can only join one of them! They are core to the Shadowlands experience and which Covenant you join is one of the biggest decisions you can make in World of Warcraft.

Shadowlands also introduces an arsenal of Legendary Powers, but you can only have one at a time, and crafting them takes time and money, choose wisely! Legendary Powers are to be acquired from the new end-game activity, Torghast.

While your core gameplay loop is accessible early on, max level gameplay can be wildly different than during leveling. Our Torghast, Mythic+, Raiding, and PvP guides will help you fine tune your gameplay in any end-game content.

If you are struggling with doing good DPS and are unsure what you are doing wrong, visit the pages below in order to find answers and advice.