Elemental Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2

Elemental Shaman is currently an above-average ranged-DPS specialization for Mythic+ in Dragonflight. It can provide strong multi-target bursts and sustained damage, as well as a lot of utility. Its mobility is much better than before , and it is slightly less fragile. Its single-target damage is good, but nothing special.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 3 page below.

To get an idea of the approximate power level of different specs in Mythic+, visit the page below. Tier lists are not the end-all for the actual value of specs in various content, however, so take it with a grain of salt.

Both the single-target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Elemental Shaman DPS rotation, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

A couple additional habits you should practice in Mythic+:

• Pool your Maelstrom towards the end of every trash pull in order to reduce the ramp-up time needed to reach your maximum output.
• Keep in mind that efficiency is important and that you should not waste spells that do damage over time on enemies that will die within seconds. In particular, limit the amount of Flame Shock and Earthquake casts. This, of course, also goes for cooldowns. Do not waste cooldowns on packs that are about to die.
• Damage is not all there is in Mythic+, so you will often want to weave in crowd control abilities, such as Hex or Capacitor Totem, between damaging abilities.

Elemental Shamans provide support for the party through heavy crowd control, a variety of dispels, and occasional healing.

• Your Earthquakes will always knock down non-Boss enemies once. Being able to spam Earthquakes results in considerable crowd control.
• Healing Surge heals for a moderate amount with a fast cast time. It costs 25% of your Mana pool. Do not hesitate to use it on yourself or others.
• Earth Shield and its sister talent Elemental Orbit are nice ways to help your healer, especially combined with your own healing spells.
• Earth Elemental is a summon that is primarily used to help with tanking for 1 minute. It can taunt and take quite a bit of punishment before dying while also dealing okay damage.
• Wind Shear is your "kick". It is fairly unique in that its 30-yard range and 12-second cooldown are shorter than most other ranged characters. This makes Wind Shear one of the best interrupts in the game, and you should use it a lot. This cooldown gets even lower if you are using Flash of Lightning, typically along with a Lightning-focused build.
• Capacitor Totem is your only way to stun targets. You cast it at a target location, and after 2 seconds, it will stun enemies within 8 yards for 3 seconds. This ability has a 1-minute cooldown, which can be reduced by using the Static Charge talent or lead to a follow-up stun if using Guardian's Cudgel.
• Hex is the Shaman equivalent of Polymorph. This spell transforms 1 enemy into a frog for 60 seconds, preventing it from attacking or casting spells as long as you do not attack it. It only works on humanoids and beasts.
• Earthbind Totem projects a totem that slows everything around it for 20 seconds. It is very useful, especially if you kite around the totem.
• Earthgrab Totem is the previous totem's big brother; it roots surrounding targets for 8 seconds, then slows them.
• Thunderstorm does very little damage but knocks away enemies around you and slows them by 40% for 5 seconds. It is quite useful, especially when you use it to displace an enemy in a specific direction, which is extremely useful to push enemies off Sanguine in Sanguine keys. The Thundershock talent, recommended in most other situations, transforms Thunderstorm into a more reliable crowd-control spell that does not risk pulling additional enemies.
• Tremor Totem summons a totem removing all Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects on party and raid members within 30 yards every few seconds for 10 seconds.
• Purge remove 1 beneficial effect from an enemy target. Greater Purge removes 2, which is rarely useful in PvE.
• Cleanse Spirit removes all curses from a friendly target.
• Healing Stream Totem does a decent amount of healing over time. If you have a few seconds before a pull, it can be a good idea to drop one before the fight begins.
• Chain Heal does significant healing in dungeons. You should not use it often, but it can be very good to help your healer or to keep your party up if your healer dies or runs out of Mana.
• Nature's Swiftness is a must-pick in every situation
• Depending on the dungeon, pick Wind Rush Totem or Earthgrab Totem. Earthgrab can be used reactively and makes for safer "discovery" of dungeons, while Wind Rush is better with pre-planned use to gain some time or kite.
• In some dungeons, Poison Cleansing Totem or Stoneskin Totem might have some use. Most notably, Poison Cleansing Totem is a godsend to help the tank survive poison stacks when fighting Hungry Lashers in Algeth'ar Academy, or to deal with the Afflicted affix.
• Ancestral Guidance can potentially be useful if your healer cannot deal with some damage situations properly in high keys, or just to help save their Mana.

There are many competing builds for non-single-target situations, and what is best will heavily depend on your stats and the specific combat situation. They are split into two main categories, "Lightning-focused" builds and "Fire-focused" builds. Note that while when using the full T30 set, Lightning-focused builds are almost always strictly superior, people using Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 4pc want to use Fire-focused builds.

Lightning-focused builds generally have stronger and faster cleave and are best on 4+ stacked targets (pre-T31), even if they do not live for very long.

Fire-focused builds require enemies that live for longer but are better against spread-out enemies and have better priority target damage. They can also spec into reliable burst of various duration or rely on Deeply Rooted Elements and have higher variance.

Here is an example. Remember that you can use the "Copy Export String" option to import it directly into the game. The following build is our default recommendation for Mythic+ when using Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 4pc.

Remember to get Cleanse Spirit and Poison Cleansing Totem to deal with Afflicted, make sure you have Thunderstorm to help with Sanguine or Hex (possibly with Voodoo Mastery to deal with Incorporeal).

Note that the class tree assumes a non-specific dungeon situation, so you might have specific utility needs not covered by this general recommendation. You may find using Earth Shock more comfortable, at least during the (re)discovery phase of the dungeons, especially on some dungeons like Uldaman, where Fire builds may still be easier to play properly.

There are multiple variants here depending on whether you want to learn a bit more on the fire side, or want better single-target at the cost of some AoE. The main issue with Lightning-focused builds is that more of their points give mediocre or bad value compared to Fire builds. This makes hybrids viable. We will not mention every possibility here and recommend testing things yourself or reading our detailed opinions on talents further down the page.

Alternatively, especially if you do not yet have access to Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 4pc but have a T30 set bonus, you can also use a Lightning-focused build. Here is an example. Remember that you can use the "Copy Export String" option to import it directly into the game.

As before, there are many variants of such builds, varying their strengths and weaknesses. Choice paralysis may be a real issue for us in this expansion.

While these recommendations should help you with your talent picks in Mythic+, in some situations, it can be better to tailor your talents to specific situations. For a more in-depth look at all the Elemental Shaman talents, visit the link below.

For general information about Mythic+, please visit our general mythic+ page.

Elemental Shamans should excel during Fortified weeks as, depending on the tier set we use, our multi-target damage has a short ramp-up time and then will sustain at high numbers with or without the use of cooldowns, and our crowd control is great. During tyrannical weeks, players may want to take more single-target-oriented trinkets, gear, or even talents, but that will be both dungeon and key-level dependent.

Incorporeal can be dealt with using Hex, with Voodoo Mastery being possibly a good option to help deal with this affix. Leftover mobs can and should be kicked/stunned as available, preferably at the end of their long cast, as they will start casting again immediately.

Afflicted should be no issue for you if you can spec into Poison Cleansing Totem, which will get rid of all the mobs within 30 yards. If your group lacks dispells especially, consider using Totemic Recall with Call of the Elements to refresh this totem, with Totemic Projection as an option to put the totem in the middle of the mobs.

If ignoring Entangling is not possible, using Ghost Wolf (ideally with Thunderous Paws) or Gust of Wind/ Spirit Walk will get you out of the effect easily enough.

Use any mobility or crowd-control at your disposal to help deal with Spiteful Shades from Spiteful. Elemental is particularly good at dealing with this affix because of their arsenal of crowd-control and the fact that their Earthquakes will knock down the shades, buying precious time.

Elemental Shamans should use Thunderstorm to push enemies off of Sanguine zones when on this affix.

For more details about the Mythic+ affixes, please visit our dedicated affix page.

For a better idea of how to gear for Mythic+, please visit our dedicated Gearing guide.