Elemental Shaman DPS Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Elemental Shaman Overview

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.

2. Patch 8.1 Changes for Elemental Shaman

• Capacitor Totem and Earthbind Totem now have a range of 40 yards, up from 35.
• Earth Shock received a new animation and its Spell power coefficient was lowered from 250% to 210%.
• Flame Shock's duration was increased from 18 to 24 seconds. The damage per tick remains the same.
• Lava Burst's condition to be a guaranteed critical strike has changed. Flame Shock now only needs to be present on the target when the spell actually lands.
• Lightning Bolt's Spell power coefficient has been increased from 58 to 70.4%.
• The Exposed Elements and High Voltage talents are gone. Earthen Rage replaces Exposed Elements on the level 15 row. Master of the Elements replaces High Voltage on thee level 60 row.
• The new talent Surge of Power replaces Earthen Rage on the level 90 row.
• The new talent Call the Thunder replaces Master of the Elements on the level 30 row.
• Master of the Elements now also affects Earthquake.
• When Elemental Blast overloads, it now always grants a second, different buff.
• Wind Rush Totem received a new animation.
• Icefury now generates 25 Maelstrom, up from 15, and makes your four next Frost Shocks hit for 200% more, up from 100% more. These Frost Shocks now generate 8 Maelstrom.
• Lightning Bolts empowered by Stormkeeper now also deal 150% more damage.
• Ancient Ankh Talisman is a new Azerite trait.
• Tectonic Thunder is a new Azerite trait that replaces Rumbling Tremors.
• Ancestral Resonance now gives your spells and abilities a chance to increase your Mastery for 20 seconds, and also increases the duration of Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp on you to 60 seconds.

3. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Elemental Shaman

• Elemental Focus has been removed.
• Maelstrom generation has been lowered across the board.
• The Maelstrom costs of most abilities have been changed significantly.
• Some abilities that were not on the global cooldown now are.
• Flame Shock now lasts 18 seconds and does not use Maelstrom to increase its duration, and it also has a 6-second cooldown.
• Earth Shock now has a static cost of 60 Maelstrom.
• Lava Burst now only generates 10 Maelstrom, down from 12.
• Lava Surge now has a 15% chance to proc, up from 10%.
• Chain Lightning now only generates 4 Maelstrom per target hit, down from 6.
• Earthquake now costs 60 Maelstrom, up from 50.
• Fire Elemental now lasts 30 seconds, down from 1 minute. While Fire Elemental is active, each tick of Flame Shock generates 3 Maelstrom.
• Fire Elemental and Earth Elemental both have a new baseline ability. Their Primal Elementalist forms also have one.
• Frost Shock no longer uses Maelstrom. The damage this ability does has been significantly increased: it now does around 90% of a Lightning Bolt's damage, but it does not generate Maelstrom and has fewer synergies.
• Tremor Totem is back! This ability summons a totem that removes Fear, Charm and Sleep effects from party and raid members within 30 yards. It might see some use in Uldir.
• Capacitor Totem is now a baseline ability which is the same as the Legion talent Lightning Surge Totem except it only has a 3-second duration, down from 5, and a 1-minute cooldown, up from 45 seconds.

Many talents have been removed or moved around the tree. Some talents have been changed and some new talents have been added to the game. Path of Flame, Gust of Wind, Voodoo Totem, Ancestral Swiftness, Lightning Rod, and Elemental Fusion have all been removed from the game.

4. Elemental Shaman Strengths

• Fairly straightforward playstyle
• Potential for very good burst damage for Single Target and Cleave/AoE
• Excellent Utility outside of Raids.
• Talent choices allow for excellent flexibility and varied playstyles

5. Elemental Shaman Weaknesses

• No burst mobility
• Most survivability tools are talent-related and can be awkward to use properly
• Tends to be outclassed by other specializations outside of specific situations

6. Elemental Shaman Viability in the Current Patch

8.1 is a net buff for Elemental Shamans, for numbers, flexibility and fun. This version of Elemental Shaman is notably more viable for Raid content than the release version, in part because of the renewed viability of Icefury. However, some problems were either not addressed properly or not at all, and Elemental still remains in my opinion a fundamentally second-rate specialization in most scenarios.

7. Changelog