Elemental Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Stormy 61 comments
General Information

In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Elemental Shaman in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.

1.

Elemental Shaman in Mythic+

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.

1.1.

Elemental Shaman Mythic+ Rotation

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 Icon Flame Shock and Earthquake Icon 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 Icon Hex or Capacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem, between damaging abilities.
1.2.

Elemental Shaman Utility

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

  • Your Earthquake Icon Earthquakes will always knock down non-Boss enemies once. Being able to spam Earthquakes results in considerable crowd control.
  • Healing Surge Icon 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 Icon Earth Shield and its sister talent Elemental Orbit Icon Elemental Orbit are nice ways to help your healer, especially combined with your own healing spells.
  • Earth Elemental Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Flash of Lightning, typically along with a Lightning-focused build.
  • Capacitor Totem Icon 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 Icon Static Charge talent or lead to a follow-up stun if using Guardian's Cudgel Icon Guardian's Cudgel.
  • Hex Icon Hex is the Shaman equivalent of Polymorph Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Earthgrab Totem is the previous totem's big brother; it roots surrounding targets for 8 seconds, then slows them.
  • Thunderstorm Icon 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 Icon Sanguine in Sanguine keys. The Thundershock Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Purge remove 1 beneficial effect from an enemy target. Greater Purge Icon Greater Purge removes 2, which is rarely useful in PvE.
  • Cleanse Spirit Icon Cleanse Spirit removes all curses from a friendly target.
  • Healing Stream Totem Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Nature's Swiftness is a must-pick in every situation
  • Depending on the dungeon, pick Wind Rush Totem Icon Wind Rush Totem or Earthgrab Totem Icon 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 Icon Poison Cleansing Totem or Stoneskin Totem Icon Stoneskin Totem might have some use. Most notably, Poison Cleansing Totem Icon 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 Icon Afflicted affix.
  • Ancestral Guidance Icon 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.
2.

Mythic+ Talents for Elemental Shaman

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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 4pc.

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

3.

Mythic+ Affixes

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

If ignoring Entangling Icon Entangling is not possible, using Ghost Wolf Icon Ghost Wolf (ideally with Thunderous Paws Icon Thunderous Paws) or Gust of Wind Icon Gust of Wind/Spirit Walk Icon 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 Skittish Icon Spiteful. Elemental is particularly good at dealing with this affix because of their arsenal of crowd-control and the fact that their Earthquake Icon Earthquakes will knock down the shades, buying precious time.

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

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

4.

Gear for Mythic+

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

5.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated with 10.2 builds, put Fire on top as it is most relevant with T31.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 11 Jul. 2023: Fixed some links that still led to season 1 pages.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 06 May 2023: Added some more advice regarding talent/build choice.
  • 01 May 2023: Removed mentions of non-Season-2 affixes. Added tips on how to deal with the 3 new Season 2 affixes, adjusted default talent recommendations. Adjusted some wording.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Adjusted recommended fire build for dungeons for more AoE burst.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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