Elemental Shaman DPS Guide (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Priority List
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. The "Gambler"
    • 2.2. Ascendance Build
    • 2.3. Lightning Rod Build
    • 2.4. Icefury Build
    • 2.5. Mythic+
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
    • 1.4. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Ascendance Build
    • 2.2. Lightning Rod Build
    • 2.3. Icefury Build
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation
    • 1.1. Single Target Rotation - Ascendance Build
    • 1.2. Single Target Rotation - Lightning Rod Build
    • 1.3. Single Target Rotation - Icefury Build
    • 1.4. Multiple Target Rotation
      • 1.4.1. 2 Targets
      • 1.4.2. 3 Targets
      • 1.4.3. 4 Targets
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Stormkeeper
    • 2.2. Lava Burst and Flame Shock
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Maelstrom Management
    • 3.2. Cooldown Usage
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
    • 4.1. Icefury Opener
    • 4.2. Ascendance Opener
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Odyn
  • 2. Guarm
  • 3. Helya
  • 4. Nythendra
  • 5. Ursoc
  • 6. Elerethe Renferal
  • 7. Dragons of Nightmare
  • 8. Il'gynoth, Heart of Corruption
  • 9. Cenarius
  • 10. Xavius
  • 11. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Gambler Build
    • 1.2. Ascendance Build
    • 1.3. Lightning Rod
    • 1.4. Icefury Build
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Haste vs Critical Strike
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. Death Note
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Shamans
    • 2.2. Wind Shear
    • 2.3. Purge
    • 2.4. Macros for Elemental Shamans
      • 2.4.1. Mouseouver Earthquake
      • 2.4.2. Stopcast Gust of Wind
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonus
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket Notes
  • 3. Legendaries
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

Welcome to our Elemental Shaman DPS guide for World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. Here, you will learn everything you need to know about playing an Elemental Shaman in a raid environment and in Mythic+ dungeons.

About Our Author and Reviewers

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been written in collaboration with the team at Storm Earth and Lava, a group of Elemental theorycrafters that includes top players and prominent theorycrafters such as Stormy, Sadozai from Wizards IRL, and Gistwiki from Indestructible.

1. Class Overview

Elemental Shaman is a damage dealing spellcaster with a straightforward but flexible toolkit. Elemental Shamans can approach a multitude of environments without feeling compromised. Whether you are questing, powering through dungeons, or zoning into a Mythic raid, this is a spec that always feels like it has a place at the table. This specialization feels particularly at home when sustained cleave or AoE is present, but not a priority, as Elemental does both very efficiently while maintaining full single target presence. Through talents, Elemental also has access to some potent burst potential, allowing them to surge ahead during damage checks or dungeon bosses.

2. Patch 7.3 Changes

• Earthquake damage increased by 19%.
• Static Overload redesigned; after using Stormkeeper, your next Chain Lightning causes Elemental Overload to trigger on every target.
• All damage abilities increased by 6% (excluding Chain Lightning).
• Earth Shock damage increased by 7%.
• Frost Shock damage increased by 13%.
• Elemental Blast damage increased by 7%.
• Elemental Blast now provides 2000 stats at level 110 (down from 2400).
• Totem Mastery: Storm Totem bonus is now 5% (down from 10%).

3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes

• New legendary items have been added.
• Range of summoning Elemental spells increased from 30 yards to 40 yards.
• Earth Elemental now has 600% armor (was 400%) and 150% life (was 100%). Earth Elemental also has a 6% lower probability to get hit by a Critical Strike.
• Tier 19 4-piece nerfed: Elemental Focus increases damage and healing by an additional 7% (down from 10%).
• Storm Elemental damage buffed by 25%.
• Earthquake no longer gains additional ticks from Haste, but damage increased by 55%.
• Earth Shock damage increased by 25%.
• Frost Shock damage increased by 25%.

4. Strengths

• Potential for good burst damage
• Extremely flexible specialization
• Easy to gear due to lack of mail users

5. Weaknesses

• Deals with movement poorly
• Outclassed by other specializations in terms of pure damage

6. Viability in the Current Patch

Elemental is currently a weak specialization. There are several viable talent builds, allowing for further specialization and flexibility depending on your gear or the encounter, but damage output is generally towards the bottom of the class spectrum. However, the flexibility of talent options ensures the specialization feels consistent across the fights throughout Tomb of Sargeras.

7. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 11 pages:

• Easy Mode: TL;DR to own without reading much;
• Spell Summary: see a summary of all your useful spells;
• Builds and Talents: learn how to choose your talents;
• Artifact Traits and Relics: discover how to level up your Artifact;
• Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths: choose the right paths on your Netherlight Crucible;
• Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities: master your rotation and your cooldowns;
• Boss by Boss Strategies: find out how to defeat current content bosses;
• Stat Priority: read up on the respective values of your statistics;
• Gems, Enchants, and Consumables: choose the best gems, enchantments, etc.;
• Macros and Addons: step up your game with useful macros and addons;
• Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot: find the best gear you can wear.

8. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Sep. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket list.
• 12 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Added Netherlight Crucible page for Elemental Shaman.
• 29 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Revised recommended gems, redesigned "Consumables" section, and added a note about Healthstones in Patch 7.3.
• 29 Aug. 2017 (rotation page): Small change for Patch 7.3: Added Earthquake to 2-target rotation.
• 29 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Added a new single target build ("The Gambler") and adjusted some talent explanations for Patch 7.3.
• 29 Aug. 2017 (stats page): Re-added new stat ratios, added "The Gambler" build priority, re-ordered stats priorities.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (stats page): Removed ratios, changed stat priority, removed "Why is Mastery So Good..." section.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.3 changes.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lightforged Augment Rune and new 7.3 epic gems. Made Haste enchants and gems default.
• 24 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Added some mentions of optimal stat ratios.
• 24 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated stat priority.
• 24 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Updated Maelstrom Management section slightly.
• 22 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Adjusted a few talent descriptions, added some new talent recommendations for specific Legendary builds.
• 22 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Added Lightning Rod relics, updated Ascendance/Icefurty relics.
• 22 Jun. 2017 (this page): Updated strengths/weaknesses and viability section.
• 21 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Updated openers, action priority lists, and cooldown usage.
• 21 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Updated stat priorities.
• 20 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Tomb of Sargeras best in slot and Tier 20 section, updated trinket list.
• 14 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Smoldering Heart and Soul of the Farseer to Legendary items section.
• 14 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Removed mention of Earthquake on single-target as it no longer gains ticks based on Haste.
• 14 Jun. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2.5 changes.
• 19 Apr. 2017 (talents page): Tweaked talent recommendations for Tiers 1 and 7. Updated default talent builds as a result.
• 19 Apr. 2017 (rotation page): Added Earthquake on single-target section based on new theorycraft. Modified rotations based on the new builds we present in the talents page.
• 29 Mar. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lavish Suramar Feast.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added new path for Patch 7.2 traits.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (talents page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (gear page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2 changes.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 20 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Full update to BiS and legendaries.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Updated trinket and legendary rankings. Will update BiS list later.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Added new stat priorities and separated them based on talent build. Also added explanation for why Mastery has increased in value in Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (bosses page): Updated for Patch 7.1.5, and ToV talent recommendations added.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Fully updated rotation page for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic priority and leading talent builds.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Fully updated talents page for 7.1.5. Also added separate builds to accommodate Legendary items.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (this page): Updated description, strengths/weaknesses, viability, and added 7.1.5 changes section for clarity.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (enchants page): Added note on Mastery enchants.
• 09 Dec. 2016 (easy mode page): Added easy mode for Elemental Shaman.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (stats page): Added some more detailed notes on stat synergy.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (rotation page): Split guide into single & multi target sections for clarity. Added two separate opening sequences for different Tier 7 talents.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (enchants page): Updated notes on consumables (food/potion).
• 01 Dec. 2016 (artifact page): Split Relic choice section into two separate sections to account for leading talent builds.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (talents page): Updated Lightning Rod/Ascendance description for additional clarity. Also removed a few talents that were close contenders but did not see much practical use (e.g. Echo).
• 01 Dec. 2016 (addons page): Added Earthquake mouseover.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (gear page): Fully updated Legendary rankings.
• 01 Dec. 2016 (bosses page): Removed Echo from viable talents on Cenarius/Xavius.
• 25 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Updated Stormkeeper section to note that it now has a 1.5-second cast and affected spells are now instant in Patch 7.1.
• 21 Oct. 2016 (bosses page): Added boss by boss guide for Elemental Shaman.
• 21 Oct. 2016 (this page): Updated strengths/weaknesses.
• 21 Oct. 2016 (gear page): Added trinket rankings to help with Mythic+ trinket determinations.
• 21 Oct. 2016 (talents page): Updated talent balance based on practical results in Emerald Nightmare.
• 21 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Updated neck enchant.
• 08 Oct. 2016 (gear page): Updated BiS.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (gear page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (stats page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (this page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (artifact page): Added
• 29 Aug. 2016 (spells page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Removed trinket sims and added trinket recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (spells page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (this page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (addons page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 09 Jan. 2016 (easy mode page): Updated easy mode talent build.