Elemental Shaman DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within Pre-Patch

Welcome to our Rotation page for Elemental Shaman. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

Due to simulations still being a work in progress and the many changes, these lists are a work in progress. Additional details for Fire-focused are coming soon.

If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Beginner page, which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

Neither our single-target nor our multi-target rotations change in Mythic+ content. If you are looking for information and tips specific to Mythic+ content, please visit our Mythic+ page below.

Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 2pc : Primordial Wave also casts an Elemental Blast at the target at 70% effectiveness, and grants you all three Elemental Blast bonus effects for 10.0 seconds. This Elemental Blast, of course, does not cost Maelstrom, and a pseudo "Pandemic" effect has been implemented, allowing subsequent Elemental Blasts to extend a buff's duration to up to 130% of its original duration.

Shaman Elemental 10.2 Class Set 4pc: Lava Bursts burn your target for 10 percent additional damage over 4 sec, and after consuming Primordial Wave, your next 2 casts of Lava Burst also hit up to 3 additional targets affected by your Flame Shock for 65 percent of normal damage. Those extra Lava Bursts generate Maelstrom, as you would expect.

This section is dedicated to providing an action priority list tailored to our recommended Single-Target build which you can find in our Talent Page.

WARNING: Because of the recent Shaman rework, simulations are very much a WORK IN PROGRESS and you should expect our recommendations to change regularly until all the bugs and kinks can be sorted out. Thank you for your patience!

1. Cast Fire Elemental.
2. Cast Primordial Wave.
3. Cast Flame Shock during the pandemic window to refresh it if Primordial Wave will not be available in time.
4. Cast Elemental Blast if Master of the Elements is up.
5. Cast Icefury if no Icefury-empowered Frost Shocks are available.
6. Cast Lava Burst if either Lava Surge or Ascendance is up.
7. Cast Ascendance.
8. Cast Lava Burst.
9. Cast Icefury.
10. Cast Frost Shock if Icefury buffs are available and Master of the Elements is up.
11. Cast Elemental Blast if your next cast would bring you above maximum Maelstrom.
12. Cast Frost Shock if Icefury buffs are available.
13. Cast Lightning Bolt.
14. Cast Flame Shock and if really needed Frost Shock while moving.

This section is dedicated to providing an action priority list tailored to our recommended T31 AoE / Mythic+ build which you can find in our Talent Page.

1. Cast Fire Elemental if Ascendance is not up.
2. Cast Totemic Recall if Ascendance is not up and Liquid Magma Totem is on cooldown for a long time, depending on how long adds will live.
3. Cast Liquid Magma Totem if Ascendance is not up.
4. Cast Primordial Wave on whichever target is closest to losing the Flame Shock effect, unless it is close to dying.
5. Cast Earthquake if Echoes of Great Sundering and Master of the Elements are up.
6. Apply Flame Shocks as required to maintain a maximum of 6, favor whichever target has the lowest duration Flame Shock effect (or none at all), unless it is close to dying.
7. Cast Elemental Blast if Echoes of Great Sundering is not up.
8. Cast Ascendance
9. Cast Lava Beam if Ascendance and Master of the Elements are up.
10. Cast Lava Burst if Ascendance is up.
11. Cast Chain Lightning if Master of the Elements is up but neither Ascendance or Lava Surge are up
12. Cast Lava Burst.
13. Cast Earthquake if the pack will not live long enough to wait for another Echoes of Great Sundering Earthquake but has enough life that it is worth spending the Maelstrom.
14. Cast Chain Lightning.
15. Cast Flame Shock on whichever target is closest to losing its DoT effect.

• Tempest has no target limit but does reduce damage beyond 5 targets.
• Meteor is limited to 8 targets.
• Earthquake and Liquid Magma Totem have a soft-cap at 20 targets. This cap is high enough that it should rarely matter.

Funneling means using the fact that there are multiple targets present in the fight to gain damage on a single target. For Elemental Shamans, this means having multiple Flame Shocks running on several targets and using the additional Lava Surge procs to gain a significant amount of DPS on one target. If this is an important part of the fight, you may want to gear toward Haste, as this is a very good start for this strategy.

If you are using the talent Master of the Elements, you may want to try to use the buff on the most appropriate spell for the situation, usually your spender. From best to worst, you ideally want to use Master of the Elements on:

1. Lightning Bolt empowered by Stormkeeper
2. Earthquake if it will hit 4+ targets or 2+ if empowered by Echoes of Great Sundering.
3. Elemental Blast
4. Earth Shock
5. Frost Shock empowered by Icefury
6. Lightning Bolt empowered by Power of the Maelstrom
7. Icefury
8. Lightning Bolt
9. Frost Shock

Note that the list above is what will give the most value for the proc, but IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THIS IS THE ACTUAL SPELL PRIORITY IF YOU HAVE A PROC. It should not override the fact that you should cast Earth Shock if you have 90 or more Maelstrom or that casting Elemental Blast should generally take priority over everything else if long-term efficiency is the goal. Obviously, there are plenty of situational exceptions, but it is impossible to give static priorities for every situation.

In most scenarios, especially in a raid, there are two main uses for Surge of Power. Either you use it on Lava Burst in order to get a full additional use of Fire Elemental, or, if the fight will not last long enough, you use it on Lightning Bolt for additional Mastery: Elemental Overload procs.

In addition, against exactly 2 targets within 8 yards of each other, you want to use Earth Shock to empower your Flame Shock to hit both targets, but only if Flame Shock is not already present on both or is within the pandemic window.

If you do not know what the "pandemic window" is, look here

Finally, if you are using Stormkeeper as well, you should almost always want to pool Maelstrom before casting it so that both Stormkeeper-empowered Lightning Bolts become also empowered by Surge of Power. The exact amount of Maelstrom required depends on the talent, whether or not you are using any combination of these talents: Eye of the Storm, Flow of Power, Elemental Blast, Searing Flames.

Here is an example assuming you use our recommended single-target build with Eye of the Storm and Flow of Power:

1. Pool Maelstrom until you have at least 144.
2. Cast Stormkeeper
3. Cast Elemental Blast
4. Cast Lightning Bolt
5. Cast Lava Burst
6. Cast Elemental Blast
7. Cast Lightning Bolt

This talent has some interesting synergy with Primordial Wave and Skybreaker's Fiery Demise for heavy multi-dotting of split targets.

Before using each of your cooldowns, you should take special care to consider several factors. Our offensive cooldowns have lengthy recharge times, but when correctly utilized, they can be responsible for a large percentage of our damage output. You should always take into account:

• Your raid's Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp usage.
• The mechanics of the current boss, including intermissions and abilities that necessitate movement.
• The spawn timers of any adds that might be present, as we may want to use or delay certain cooldowns with respect to cleave and AoE.

There are a few things to consider before each Ascendance usage.

• Ensure Flame Shock is present on as many targets as possible.
• Ensure no boss mechanics will interfere, such as intermissions, boss movement, or mechanics that will force you to move. It can be a good idea to use Spiritwalker's Grace to ensure full DPS uptime.
• Clear Lava Surge if active, and any remaining Lava Burst charges.
• If using this talent, cast Elemental Blast immediately before activating Ascendance.

Do not let yourself Maelstrom cap; be sure to cast your spender when or before you reach 90 (140 with Swelling Maelstrom) Maelstrom.

If you are not using Skybreaker's Fiery Demise, Fire Elemental (or Storm Elemental) has a long cooldown, and its usage should be considered carefully. The best time to use this cooldown is always during periods of increased Haste or damage, and therefore, we typically will pair it with the Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp usage. That said, we never want to lose a potential usage of Fire/Storm Elemental by delaying it for maximum efficacy. For example, on an encounter that lasts 3 minutes, you would use Fire Elemental immediately on the pull and once again as soon as it is off cooldown, regardless of when Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp is used. Remember not to use Earth Elemental when your Fire/Storm Elemental is still around if you use Primal Elementalist.

Note that because most fire-dominant builds will most likely use Skybreaker's Fiery Demise, you should have close to 100% uptime on Fire Elemental.

Stormkeeper is used more or less on cooldown on pure single-target encounters.

On multiple-target fights or fights with intermittent cleave and AoE, it can be a good idea to delay your Stormkeeper until you are able to Chain Lightning the adds.

Elemental is quite mobile: between Spirit Walk or Gust of Wind, Ghost Wolf form and Icefury being a must. Fire-dominant builds also have even better mobility thanks to the extra Lava Surge procs. Elemental is, at worst, a fairly mobile spec, especially if you use your instant spells to adjust your positioning. Proactively position yourself to reduce potential movement from mechanics. Keep careful track of boss timers and mechanics, as they can spell disaster for your damage if you are targeted during a damage dump.

You should avoid casting Maelstrom-generating spells above a certain Maelstrom threshold that would make you go over the Maelstrom cap. Because of all the talents and procs interacting with that threshold, it is difficult to give exact numbers without making a detailed list that would be very impractical to use. We recommend instead that you use Swelling Maelstrom and follow our recommended priorities in order to never overcap. Keep this in mind when pooling Maelstrom as well. It is likely these spells will overload at raid levels of gear; therefore, if you cast Lava Burst at 92/142 Maelstrom or Icefury at 88/138 Maelstrom , it is likely you will overcap Maelstrom and waste valuable resources. In practice, it is safer to cast these spells at lower Maelstrom than their limits to avoid wasting your overload procs. The key to success is managing all of your separate procs without overcapping Maelstrom.

The reason why Flame Shock should always be up on your target is because:

• each tick has a chance to proc Lava Surge, which resets the cooldown of Lava Burst;
• Your Lava Burst will always critically hit if Flame Shock is on the target. This is very important due to your Elemental Fury passive.

You should only cast Lava Burst when Flame Shock is active on the target, or the target will live for less than 5 seconds. Flame Shock ticks every 3 seconds without accounting for Haste, meaning that you have to take advantage of Lava Surge within one global cooldown to avoid potentially wasting a new Lava Surge proc from the next Flame Shock tick. By the same token, casting Lava Burst immediately as it comes off cooldown is also imperative so that Lava Surge is not wasted while Lava Burst is off cooldown.

Flame Shock benefits from Pandemic, meaning that you can refresh it any time that it has less than 30% of its original maximum duration remaining, and the remaining duration will be added to the new debuff. Therefore, you are able to refresh Flame Shocks without wasting any duration when it has 5 seconds or less remaining, and it will be extended by 18 seconds. For example, if your Flame Shock has 5 seconds left and you refresh it, your new Flame Shock would last 23 seconds.

• Surge of Power
• Stormkeeper
• Primordial Wave

1. Cast Stormkeeper 4.5 seconds before the pull.
2. Do NOT precast Stormkeeper; delay until you can do a combo with Surge of Power.
3. Cast Fire Elemental/ Storm Elemental 3 seconds before the pull.
4. cast Lava Burst 1.5 seconds before the pull.
5. Apply Flame Shock on pull.
6. Cast Primordial Wave.
7. Cast Lava Burst.
8. Proceed with normal priority.