Elemental Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

This is the default build for raid encounters.

Note that when using Araz's Ritual Forge, First Ascendant catches up to Preeminence, so you should feel free to swap to it if the fight timings work better for it.

Note that the new Hero talent Ancestral Influence does not currently work. Once it does, swap out Earthen Communion/ Natural Harmony for it.

The following talents are MANDATORY: Earth Shock, Elemental Fury, Echo of the Elements, Stormkeeper, Earthquake, Flash of Lightning, Lightning Capacitor, Primordial Fury, Amped Up, Path of the Seer, Power of the Maelstrom, Earthshatter, Storm Infusion, Echo Chamber, Fusion of Elements, Ascendance, Inferno Arc, Primordial Fury, Mountains Will Fall, Call of Fire.

The above 20 talents are always locked in. Then there are mandatory choice nodes: You need to pick:

• Either Tectonic Collapse or Aftershock.
• Either Master of the Elements or Molten Wrath.
• Either Fury of the Storms or Herald of the Storms.
• Either Elemental Resonance or Thunderstrike Ward.
• Either Preeminence or First Ascendant.

You always need to pick one of the two for these five nodes. We favor the first listed talent in each case. This leaves 5 "free" talent points.

The following talents are ALWAYS BAD FOR SINGLE-TARGET: Flames of the Cauldron, Searing Flames, Lava Flows, Crackling Fury, Charged Conduit (for Farseer).

Finally, you get to pick talents between these options:

• Elemental Unity (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)
• Everlasting Elements (only picked if you get Elemental Unity)
• Primal Elementalist (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)
• Earthen Rage
• Lightning Rod
• Storm Frenzy
• Flames of the Firelord
• Flametongue Weapon
• Voltaic Blaze
• Purging Flames

As you can see, there is significant synergy between the first 3 talents and Fury of the Storms, meaning they are typically either picked together or not at all. Because fights in the Midnight Pre-Patch are so short, which massively benefits these talents, we recommend you always pick them.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note that this class tree purposefully ignores some utility talents, such as Purge. You should adjust this recommendation depending on what utility will be needed in each encounter. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in our class tree, you can and should adapt your utility toolkit to the content you intend on doing.

This is our recommended for Mythic+. Stormbringer offers significantly more AoE than Farseer, though it has less single-target, is less mobile, and requires more thought to play optimally.

Note that when using Araz's Ritual Forge, First Ascendant catches up to Preeminence, so you should feel free to swap to it if the fight timings work better for it.

The following talents are MANDATORY: Earth Shock, Elemental Fury, Echo of the Elements, Stormkeeper, Earthquake, Flash of Lightning, Lightning Capacitor, Primordial Fury, Amped Up, Path of the Seer, Power of the Maelstrom, Earthshatter, Storm Infusion, Echo Chamber, Fusion of Elements, Ascendance, Inferno Arc, Primordial Fury, Lightning Rod, Mountains Will Fall, Call of Fire, Voltaic Blaze, Purging Flames.

The above 23 talents are always locked in. Then there are mandatory choice nodes: You need to pick:

• Either Aftershock or Tectonic Collapse
• Either Fury of the Storms or Herald of the Storms
• Either Elemental Resonance or Thunderstrike Ward
• Either First Ascendant or Preeminence.

You always need to pick one of the two for these four nodes. This leaves 3 "free" talent points.

The following talents are ALWAYS BAD for this build: Flames of the Cauldron, Searing Flames, Lava Flows, Flametongue Weapon.

Finally, you get to pick talents between these options:

• Storm Frenzy
• Charged Conduit
• Molten Wrath or Master of the Elements
• Flames of the Firelord
• Earthen Rage
• Elemental Unity (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)
• Everlasting Elements (only picked if you get Elemental Unity)
• Primal Elementalist (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)

As you can see, there is significant synergy between the last 3 talents and Fury of the Storms, meaning they are typically either picked together or not at all. For a Stormbringer Mythic+ build, they give high value and we recommend you pick all of them.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note that this class tree purposefully ignores some utility talents, such as Purge. You should adjust this recommendation depending on what utility will be needed in each encounter. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in our class tree, you can and should adapt your utility toolkit to the content you intend on doing.

FAQWhich Earthquake talent should I pick? ?

Unless you really hate placing Earthquake even with a cursor macro, the "area-targeted" version is generally superior, though it does take more work. We would recommend using the @cursor Macro from our Macros & Addons section.

We recommend you also check out our Dedicated Mythic+ Page.

This is an alternative build for Mythic+, the Elemental Tree talents are almost the same as the raid build, the only difference is a point into Crackling Fury. We would get two if we could but unfortunately it is not possible, too many key or required talents are mandatory. The main benefit of this build is higher mobility due to Earth Shock ( Farseer gains additional Elemental Blast buffs from Final Calling) and higher single-target damage.

Note that when using Araz's Ritual Forge, First Ascendant catches up to Preeminence, so you should feel free to swap to it if the fight timings work better for it.

The following talents are MANDATORY: Earth Shock, Elemental Fury, Echo of the Elements, Stormkeeper, Earthquake, Flash of Lightning, Lightning Capacitor, Primordial Fury, Amped Up, Path of the Seer, Power of the Maelstrom, Earthshatter, Storm Infusion, Echo Chamber, Fusion of Elements, Ascendance, Inferno Arc, Primordial Fury, Mountains Will Fall, Call of Fire, Voltaic Blaze, Purging Flames.

The above 22 talents are always locked in. Then there are mandatory choice nodes: You need to pick:

• Either Aftershock or Tectonic Collapse
• Either Molten Wrath or Master of the Elements
• Either Fury of the Storms or Herald of the Storms
• Either Elemental Resonance or Thunderstrike Ward
• Either First Ascendant or Preeminence.

You always need to pick one of the two for these five nodes. This leaves 3 "free" talent points.

The following talents are ALWAYS BAD: Flames of the Cauldron, Searing Flames, Lava Flows.

Finally, you get to pick talents between these options:

• Flametongue Weapon
• Storm Frenzy
• Lightning Rod
• Charged Conduit
• Flames of the Firelord
• Earthen Rage
• Elemental Unity (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)
• Everlasting Elements (only picked if you get Elemental Unity)
• Primal Elementalist (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)

As you can see, there is significant synergy between the last 3 talents and Fury of the Storms, meaning they are typically either picked together or not at all. In single-target however, you get much less value from their benefits, and we recommend not picking any of those, and by default to stick to the first 3 on the list.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note that this class tree purposefully ignores some utility talents, such as Purge. You should adjust this recommendation depending on what utility will be needed in each encounter. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in our class tree, you can and should adapt your utility toolkit to the content you intend on doing.

FAQWhich Earthquake talent should I pick? ?

Unless you really hate placing Earthquake even with a cursor macro, the "area-targeted" version is generally superior, though it does take more work. We would recommend using the @cursor Macro from our Macros & Addons section.

We recommend you also check out our Dedicated Mythic+ Page.

This is a build you can try in raid though we offer no guarantees. Stormbringer offers significantly more AoE than Farseer, though it has less single-target, is less mobile, and requires more thought to play optimally.

It would be much more damage to play Elemental Blast but the mobility loss combined with the changes in UI and possible encounter changes might be crippling for many. Try to use it if you can if only to get used to it for Midnight, but it might be tough.

Note that when using Araz's Ritual Forge, First Ascendant catches up to Preeminence, so you should feel free to swap to it if the fight timings work better for it.

The following talents are MANDATORY: Earth Shock, Elemental Fury, Echo of the Elements, Stormkeeper, Earthquake, Flash of Lightning, Lightning Capacitor, Primordial Fury, Amped Up, Path of the Seer, Power of the Maelstrom, Earthshatter, Storm Infusion, Echo Chamber, Fusion of Elements, Ascendance, Inferno Arc, Primordial Fury, Lightning Rod, Mountains Will Fall, Call of Fire.

The above 21 talents are always locked in. Then there are mandatory choice nodes: You need to pick:

• Either Aftershock or Tectonic Collapse
• Either Molten Wrath or Master of the Elements
• Either Fury of the Storms or Herald of the Storms
• Either Elemental Resonance or Thunderstrike Ward
• Either First Ascendant or Preeminence.

You always need to pick one of the two for these five nodes. This leaves 4 "free" talent points.

The following talents are ALWAYS BAD for this build: Flames of the Cauldron, Searing Flames, Lava Flows, Flametongue Weapon, Voltaic Blaze, Purging Flames.

Finally, you get to pick talents between these options:

• Storm Frenzy
• Charged Conduit
• Flames of the Firelord
• Earthen Rage
• Elemental Unity (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)
• Everlasting Elements (only picked if you get Elemental Unity)
• Primal Elementalist (only picked if you also get Fury of the Storms)

As you can see, there is significant synergy between the last 3 talents and Fury of the Storms, meaning they are typically either picked together or not at all. For a Stormbringer raid build, they give high value and we recommend you pick all of them.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note that this class tree purposefully ignores some utility talents, such as Purge. You should adjust this recommendation depending on what utility will be needed in each encounter. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in our class tree, you can and should adapt your utility toolkit to the content you intend on doing.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Note that this class tree purposefully ignores some utility talents, such as Purge. You should adjust this recommendation depending on what utility will be needed in each encounter. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in our class tree, you can and should adapt your utility toolkit to the content you intend on doing.

FAQWhich Earthquake talent should I pick? ?

Unless you really hate placing Earthquake even with a cursor macro, the "area-targeted" version is generally superior, though it does take more work. We would recommend using the @cursor Macro from our Macros & Addons section.

There are multiple talents that require a change to your rotation in order to use them optimally. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our Dedicated Rotation page.