Elemental Shaman DPS Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.1

If you are new to Elemental, it is recommended you read this before proceeding! In this section we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, and how they interact with important cooldowns. If you have played this spec before or have already achieved a level of comfort playing this spec in a practical environment, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Maelstrom is the primary resource of Elemental Shamans. Maelstrom is essentially a clone of the Rage resource Warriors use. It is generated by casting spells and using specific abilities, while other abilities covert Maelstrom into powerful damage. Maelstrom is generated and consumed fairly slowly for Elemental, which makes the rotational priority very easy to predict and contributes to a fluid state of play.

Note that this page simply lists all the different abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Shaman Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose, and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

Lightning Bolt is your main filler. It deals weak damage and generates 8 Maelstrom.

Lava Burst is your Maelstrom generating nuke. It deals strong damage, has a short cooldown, and is a guaranteed critical strike if your Flame Shock is active on the target. Lava Burst generates 10 Maelstrom.

Earth Shock is your Maelstrom consuming nuke. It deals powerful instant damage, has no cast time and costs 60 Maelstrom.

Flame Shock is a damage over time spell you should keep applied to your primary target at all times. It deals weak damage over time but has an important interaction with your Lava Burst. Not only does it guarantee that all Lava Burst casts will be critical hits, but each tick also has 15% chance to proc Lava Surge (see next section). Flame Shock has no Maelstrom cost but has a 6-second cooldown.

Frost Shock is your filler spell during movement. It also slows the target by 50% for 6 seconds. It deals a moderate amount of damage but does not generate Maelstrom unless empowered by Icefury. You should only use this for movement, when you need the slow, or if you really need extra damage immediately.

Chain Lightning is your main Maelstrom generating nuke for AoE/Cleave. It deals weak damage and generates 4 Maelstrom per target hit. It can chain to up to 5 targets.

Earthquake is your main Maelstrom consuming nuke for AoE/Cleave. It deals good damage over 6 seconds in the targeted area, and can knock down enemies within.

Lightning Shield is a maintenance buff that needs to be refreshed every 30 minutes if you use Static Discharge or in fights where there is a risk of getting hit in melee. It does not stack with Earth Shield, so keep that in mind for solo play in particular.

Flametongue Weapon and Primal Strike are technically in Elemental Shamans' arsenal, but they should never really be used.

Lava Surge is the main proc to watch out for. Your Flame Shock has a 10% chance to activate Lava Surge, which resets the cooldown of your Lava Burst and makes it an instant cast.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.

Most Elemental DPS Cooldowns are gained through talents, and are covered in the Builds and Talents page.

Fire Elemental is a 2.5-minute cooldown that summons a powerful Fire Elemental for 30 seconds. You do not have control over it, but it deals significant damage and you usually want to pair it with Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp. Once you reach Level 58, when it is active, it increases the duration of new Flame Shock casts by 100%.

Bloodlust/ Heroism is the signature Shaman cooldown, increasing the haste of all your party and raid members by 30% for 40 seconds, with a 5-minute cooldown.

Astral Shift is a 1.5-minute cooldown reducing your damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. It is your main defensive cooldown and you should use it often. Once you reach Level 54, it lasts for 12 seconds.

Reincarnation is a passive ability allowing you to raise from the dead with 20% of your Health and Mana. This has a 30-minute cooldown which does not reset on wipe. This is an incredibly powerful ability when it is available.

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. Particularly useful for solo content, especially with the Swelling Waves War Mode talent.

Earth Elemental is a summon that is primarily used to help with tanking for 1 minute. It can taunt and, in Battle for Azeroth, can now take quite a bit of punishment before dying and also deals decent damage.

Healing Stream Totem does some decent healing over 15 seconds. It is a useful thing to use in before starting fights or when moving to help with healing your party.

Chain Heal should mainly be used in 5-man parties when your healer is either struggling or dead.

Wind Shear is your "kick". It is fairly unique in that its 30 yards 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.

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.

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. Very useful especially if you kite around the totem.

Thunderstorm does very little damage but knocks away enemies around you and slows them by 40% for 5 seconds. Quite useful, especially when you use it to displace an enemy in a specific direction.

Ghost Wolf transforms you into a wolf, preventing you from casting but increasing your movement speed by 30% as long as you stay in this form. In addition, your movement speed cannot go below 100% while in this form.

Spiritwalker's Grace is a very helpful tool for movement which should be used to kite or to keep dealing damage when you have to move a lot.

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.

Cleanse Spirit removes all curses from a friendly target.

Ancestral Spirit allows you to resurrect allies after a very long cast. It is not usable in combat.

Astral Recall is essentially a second Hearthstone on a 10-minute cooldown.

Far Sight is one of the least useful spells in the game, allows you to see at a distance. You can safely remove this from your bars.

Water Walking allows you or whoever you target to walk on water as long as no damage is taken.

Aside from the basic toolkit, you will come across new abilities via your Talents, depending on the ones you choose. We will outline the active abilities here.

Static Discharge does moderate damage to a target you used Flame Shock on, over 3 seconds. It is instant and has a 30-second cooldown.

Elemental Blast deals good damage and increases either your Critical Strike, Haste, or Mastery by 91 for 10 seconds. It has a 2-second cast time and a 12-second cooldown.

Echoing Shock does moderate damage then replicates your next spell for free. It is instant and has a 30-second cooldown.

Earth Shield places a shield that heals its target for a small amount whenever they take damage. This heal can only occur once every few seconds, and has 9 charges.

Storm Elemental replaces Fire Elemental. It summons an elemental for 30 seconds that deals significant damage and reduces the cast time of and the GCD incurred by your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 3% each time you cast either spell, up to 20 times. This has a 2.5-minute cooldown.

Liquid Magma Totem summons a totem at the target location for 15 seconds that hurls liquid magma at a random nearby target every 1 sec, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards. It has a 60-second cooldown.

Ancestral Guidance converts 20% of your damage and healing done into healing on up to 3 nearby party and/or raid members. Lasts 10 seconds, with a 2-minute cooldown.

Wind Rush Totem summons a totem for 15 seconds that increases the speed of allies within 10 yards by 60% for 5 seconds. The speed buff is continually refreshed, as long as they are within range.

Icefury hurls frigid ice at the target, dealing high damage and causing your next 4 Frost Shock to deal 100% increased damage. It generates 15 Maelstrom, has a 2-second cast time, and a 30-second cooldown.

Stormkeeper has a 1.5-second cast time and causes your next 2 Lightning Bolt OR Chain Lightning to be instant cast and trigger an additional Elemental Overload on every target hit. If you use the buff on Lightning Bolts, they will also do 150% more damage.

Ascendance transforms you for 15 seconds, removing the cooldown from Lava Burst and transforming Chain Lightning into Lava Beam. The damage of Lava Burst is further increased by your Critical Strike chance while Ascendance is active. Ascendance has a 3-minute cooldown.

For a more in-depth look at all the Elemental Shaman talents, including the ones that do not add active abilities but grant passive benefits, visit the link below.

Once you reach max level, it can be somewhat overwhelming to completely change the way you play by suddenly implementing a large number of addons in a short space of time, especially if they have a heavy visual impact on your UI. We recommend using some of the more basic addons recommended on our Addons page below while leveling, so that you have more time to get used to them during the easier phases of playing your class.