Elemental Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 11.0

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 4 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+:

• It can be a good idea to pool 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 Thunderstorm (if you are using Thundershock) 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 regularly knock down non-Boss enemies. Being able to spam Earthquakes results in significant "free" crowd control.
• Healing Surge heals for a moderate amount with a fast cast time. It costs 10% 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 for the 15% HP boost it gives you, though especially in solo play it is great to help with tanking for 1 minute. It can taunt and take quite a bit of punishment before dying while also dealing a little 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.
• 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 mediocre healing and is not worth the opportunity cost. Just use Healing Surge.
• Nature's Swiftness is a must-pick in every situation
• Wind Rush Totem is not super useful in most dungeons but it can help dealing with certain boss abilities or gaining a few seconds between packs. Jet Stream can be helpful if there are dangerous snares.
• In some dungeons with deadly poison stacks, Poison Cleansing Totem might have some use.
• Ancestral Guidance is a strong healing cooldown for no damage cost that can help unburden healers. Use it often, ideally communicating when you will use it.

There are 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-dominant" builds (which are really closer to hybrids) and "Fire-dominant" builds. Note that if you are using any T31 bonus, you absolutely want to use a fire-dominant build.

Lightning-dominant/hybrid builds are currently very far behind, especially if you have any T31 bonus, and we do not recommend using them.

Fire-dominant builds are best against enemies that live for longer, are better against spread-out enemies and have better priority target damage.

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+.

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.

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.

We recommend heavily against it as it is not really close at the moment, but you can alternatively, use a lightning-dominant build. Here is an example. Remember that you can use the "Copy Export String" option to import it directly into the game.

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 dispels 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.