Elemental Shaman DPS Spell List and Glossary — Season 4

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.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Lightning Bolt	LB	Your main filler. It deals decent damage and generates 8 Maelstrom. It can become quite strong with a Lightning-focused build.
Flame Shock	FS	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: it guarantees that all Lava Burst casts will be critical hits. Flame Shock has no Maelstrom cost but has a 6-second cooldown.
Healing Surge	-	Heals for a significant amount with a fast cast time. It costs 10% of your base 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.
Bloodlust/ Heroism	BL	Formerly the signature Shaman cooldown, increasing the haste of all your party and raid members by 30% for 40 seconds, with a 5-minute cooldown. Presently available to Mage, Hunter, and now Evoker as well.
Reincarnation	Ankh	A passive ability allowing you to raise from the dead with 40% of your Health and Mana. This has a 30-minute cooldown, which does not reset on wipe. This is a unique and incredibly powerful ability when it is available.
Earthbind Totem	-	Projects a totem that slows everything around it by 50% for 20 seconds. Very useful, especially if you kite around the totem.
Lightning Shield	-	A maintenance buff that needs to be refreshed every 30 minutes for fights where there is a risk of getting hit in melee. When hit, you generate 5 Maelstrom and deal minor damage. It only stacks with Earth Shield if you have the Elemental Orbit class talent, so keep that in mind for solo play in particular.
Flametongue Weapon	-	Technically part of our arsenal, but only actually used if you are also using the Improved Flametongue Weapon talent.
Primal Strike	-	You will never use this. Take it off your bars.
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.
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 charge, with a 10-minute cooldown. It is still linked to your Hearthstone, and you can only use this to teleport back to the location you picked with your Hearthstone.
Far Sight	-	Is one of the least useful spells in the game; it 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.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Chain Heal	CH	Is the only multi-target heal Elemental Shamans can get, it heals one target for a moderate amount, then jumps on up to 3 nearby allies, the healing amount decreases by 30% with each jump. It costs 15% of your base Mana pool.
Lava Burst	LvB	Is one of your main damage spells, technically dealing less damage than Lightning Bolt; however, when used on an enemy afflicted by Flame Shock, it always critically strikes. Because we always take Elemental Fury This makes Lava Burst powerful.
Astral Shift	AS	Is a 1.5-minute cooldown reducing your damage taken by 40% for 12 seconds. It is your main defensive cooldown, and you should use it often.
Chain Lightning	CL	Is your main Maelstrom generating nuke for AoE/Cleave? It deals decent damage and generates 4 Maelstrom per target hit. It can chain to up to 5 targets.
Earth Elemental	EE/Steve	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 and also deals decent damage. Your maximum Health is increased by 15% while it is active. It has a 5 minutes cooldown.
Wind Shear	WS (rare)	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's a lot.
Frost Shock	FrS	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.
Earth Shield	EaS	Places a shield that heals its target for a small amount whenever they take damage. This healing can only occur once every few seconds and has 9 charges. Your healing is increased by 20% on whoever has this spell active. It costs 5% of your base Mana pool.
Capacitor Totem	Cap 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.
Cleanse Spirit	Cleanse	Removes all curses from a friendly target within 40 yards, with an 8-second cooldown. It costs 10% of your base Mana pool.
Spiritwalker's Grace	SWG	Allows you to cast while moving for 15 seconds on a 1.5-minute base cooldown (usually reduced to 1 minute by Graceful Spirit). It also increases your movement speed by 20%. It 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	Tremor	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	-	Removes 1 beneficial magic effect from an enemy target. It costs 14% of your base Mana pool.
Greater Purge	-	Removes 2 beneficial magic effects from an enemy target. It has twice the mana cost of Purge and a 12-second cooldown. Currently does not seem to have a useful niche. It costs 21% of your base Mana pool.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Wind Rush Totem	WRT	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.
Earthgrab Totem		Summons a totem at a target location for 20 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. Every 2 seconds, all enemies within 8 yards of the totem is rooted in place for 2 seconds. Enemies previously rooted by the totem instead suffers a 50% movement speed slow.
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.
Healing Stream Totem	-	Does minor healing within 40 yards over 15 seconds. It costs 5% of your base Mana Pool. It can be useful between fights or when moving.
Totemic Projection	-	Is a 10-second cooldown ability that allows you to move all your active totems to a location within 40 yards.
Spirit Walk	SW (rare)	Removes all movement-impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 60% for 8 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown.
Gust of Wind	GoW	Hurls you forward (similar to hunter Disengage but forward) on a 30-second cooldown.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Nature's Swiftness	NS	Is a one-minute cooldown ability that makes your next healing or damaging Nature spell instant and cost no mana.
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.
Lightning Lasso	Lasso	Is a channeled ability that stuns a target within 20 yards and deals considerable damage over 5 seconds. You can move while channeling and it has a 45-second cooldown.
Poison Cleansing Totem	-	Removes ALL poison effects from a nearby party or raid member within 30 yards every 1.5 seconds for 6 seconds on a 45-second cooldown.
Totemic Recall		Resets the cooldown of your most recently used totem that has a base cooldown shorter than 3 minutes.
Ancestral Guidance	AG	Converts 25% of your damage and healing done into healing on up to 3 nearby party and/or raid members for up to 20% of your maximum Health per tick. It lasts 10 seconds, with a 2-minute cooldown.
Stoneskin Totem	-	Summons a totem that grants 10% physical damage reduction to you and the 4 nearest allies within 30 yards for 15 seconds, on a 30-second cooldown.
Tranquil Air Totem	-	Summons a totem that prevents cast pushback and reduces the duration of all incoming interrupt effects by 50% for you and the 4 nearest allies within 30 yards for 20 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Planes Traveler	-	Reduces the cooldown of Astral Shift by 30 seconds.
Astral Bulwark	-	Makes Astral Shift reduces your damage taken by an additional 20%.
Spirit Wolf	-	Increases your movement speed and damage reduction by 5% every second you stay in Ghost Wolf form, up to 4 times.
Thunderous Paws	-	Increases the movespeed of Ghost Wolf form by an additional 25% for the first 3 seconds and removes any snare effects on you. This effect can only occur every 20 seconds.
Maelstrom Weapon	-	Gives you a chance to gain a stack of Maelstrom Weapon whenever you deal damage with a melee weapon, stacking up to 5 times. Each stack reduces the cast time of your next damage or healing spell by 20%. A maximum of 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon can be consumed at a time. It forces you to be in melee, which is extremely unpractical.
Fire and Ice	-	Increases all Fire and frost damage you deal by 3%.
Ancestral Wolf Affinity	-	Makes Cleanse Spirit, Wind Shear, Purge and totem casts no longer cancel Ghost Wolf.
Elemental Orbit	EO (rare)	Increases the number of Elemental Shields you can have active on yourself by 1 and allows you to have Earth Shield cast on yourself and one ally at the same time.
Ancestral Defense	-	Increases your Leech and Avoidance by 2%.
Static Charge	-	Reduces the cooldown of Capacitor Totem by 5 seconds for each enemy, it stuns up to a maximum reduction of 20 seconds.
Guardian's Cudgel	-	Spawns a secondary Capacitor Totem when it fades or is destroyed.
Flurry	-	Increases the attack speed of your next 3 melee swings by 15% after dealing a critical strike with a spell or ability.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Graceful Spirit	-	Reduces the cooldown of Spiritwalker's Grace by 30 seconds and increases your movement speed by 20% while it is active.
Spiritwalker's Aegis	-	Enhances your Spiritwalker's Grace by making you are immune to Silence and interrupt effects for 5 seconds when you cast it.
Nature's Fury	-	Increases the critical strike chance of your Nature spells by 2% per point (2 points maximum).
Totemic Surge	-	Reduces the cooldown of your totems by 3 seconds per point (2 points maximum).
Elemental Warding	-	Reduces all magic damage taken by 2% per point (2 points maximum).
Nature's Guardian	NG	Heals you for 10% of your maximum Health per point whenever your Health is brought below 35% (2 points maximum). This effect has a 45 seconds cooldown
Voodoo Mastery	-	Reduces the cooldown of your Hex spell by 15 seconds.
Enfeeblement	-	Slows the target of your Hex spell by 70% during the spell and for 6 seconds after the spell ends.
Winds of Al'Akir	-	Increases the movement speed bonus of Ghost Wolf by 5% per point. Additionally, when you have 3 or more totems active, your movement speed is increased by 7% for one point, 15% for two points (2 points maximum).
Brimming with Life	-	Increases your maximum Health by 8%, and while you are at full Health, Reincarnation cools down 75% faster.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Swirling Currents	-	Increases the healing of Healing Stream Totem by 40% per point (2 points maximum).
Totemic Focus	-	Increases the radius of your totem effects by 8% for one point, 15% for two points. Additionally, it increases the duration of your Earthbind Totem and Earthgrab Totem by 5 seconds per point, and the duration of your Healing Stream Totem, Tremor Totem, Poison Cleansing Totem and Wind Rush Totem by 1.5 seconds per point (2 points maximum).
Surging Shields	-	Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Shield by 50% per point, and causes it to generate an additional 3 (5 with two points) Maelstrom when triggered. Additionally, it increases the healing done by Earth Shield by 13% for one point and 25% for two points (2 points maximum).
Go with the Flow	-	Reduces the cooldown of Spirit Walk by 10 seconds and the cooldown of Gust of Wind by 5 seconds per point (2 points maximum).
Mana Spring	-	Restores 100 mana to you and 4 allies within 30 yards whenever you cast Lava Burst.
Thundershock	-	Makes Thunderstorm knock enemies up instead of away and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.
Call of the Elements	-	Reduces the cooldown of Totemic Recall by 60 seconds.
Creation Core	-	Makes Totemic Recall affect an additional totem.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Earth Shock	ES	is your Maelstrom consuming nuke. It deals powerful instant damage has no cast time, and costs 60 Maelstrom.
Earthquake	EQ	Is your main Maelstrom consuming nuke for AoE/Cleave? It deals good damage over 6 seconds in the targeted area and has a 5% chance to knock down enemies within every time it deals damage.
Fire Elemental	FE	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. It increases the damage of Flame Shocks by 33% and the duration of new Flame Shock casts by 100%.
Storm Elemental	SE	Is a 2.5-minute cooldown that summons a powerful Storm elemental for 30 seconds. You do not have control over a bit, but it 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 10 times

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Icefury	IF	Hurls frigid ice at the target, dealing significant damage and causing your next 4 Frost Shock to deal 225% increased damage and generate 14 Maelstrom. It generates 25 Maelstrom, has a 2-second cast time, and a 30-second cooldown.
Stormkeeper	SK	Has a 1.5-second cast time and causes your next 2 Lightning Bolts to do 150% more damage and also causes your next two Lightning Bolts OR Chain Lightnings to be instant cast and trigger an additional Elemental Overload on every target hit.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Elemental Blast	EB	Is a 2-second cast that costs 75 Maelstrom and replaces Earth Shock. It deals massive damage and increases either your Critical Strike or Haste by 6%, or your Mastery by 11% for 10 seconds. It has no cooldown and deals "Elemental" damage meaning it counts as Nature, Fire and Frost damage.
Primordial Wave	PWave	Deals some damage and applies Flame Shock to an enemy. Additionally, it causes your next Lava Burst to also hit all targets affected by your Flame Shocks for 80% of normal damage. It has a 45-second cooldown.
Ascendance	Asc	Transforms you for 15 seconds, removing the cooldown from Lava Burst and transforming Chain Lightning into Lava Beam. The damage from Lava Burst is further increased by your Critical Strike chance while Ascendance is active. When you initially transform, a Lava Burst is immediately cast at all enemies affected by your Flame Shock, and it refreshes their durations to 18 seconds. Ascendance has a 3-minute cooldown.
Liquid Magma Totem	LMT	Summons a totem at the target location for 15 seconds that deals minor damage to 3 nearby enemy targets, applying Flame Shock, then deals damage to a random nearby target every second for 6 seconds, dealing Fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the target. It has a 1-minute cooldown.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Elemental Fury	-	Increases the damage your Critical Strikes do to 250% from the usual 200%.
Tumultuous Fissures	-	Increases the knockdown chance of Earthquake by 3%.
Inundate	-	Makes your successful Purge, Cleanse Spirit, Healing Stream Totem, Hex and Wind Shear casts generate 8 Maelstrom during combat.
Primordial Fury	-	Makes your healing critical strikes heal for 250% healing instead of the usual 200%.
Focused Insight	-	Makes your Flame Shock casts reduce the mana cost of your next heal by 10% and increase its effectiveness by 15% for each talent point spent (2 points maximum).
Refreshing Waters		Increases the healing done by your Healing Surge by 30% if cast on yourself.
Primordial Bond	-	Reduces your damage taken by 5% while you have an elemental active.
Call of Thunder	-	Increases the damage of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Storm Elemental by 15%.
Flow of Power	-	Increases the Maelstrom generated by Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst by 2 and their Elemental Overloads by 1.
Lava Surge	LS	Makes your Flame Shock have a 10% chance to activate Lava Surge, which resets the cooldown of your next Lava Burst and makes it an instant cast.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Unrelenting Calamity	-	Reduces the cast time of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 0.25 seconds and increases the duration of Earthquake by 1 second.
Swelling Maelstrom	-	Increases your maximum Maelstrom by 50.
Echo of the Elements	EotE	Gives Lava Burst an additional charge.
Call of Fire	-	Increases the damage of your Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Lava Beam and Fire Elemental by 10%.
Flux Melting	-	Increases the damage of your next Lava Burst by 20% after you cast Frost Shock.
Electrified Shocks	-	Makes Icefury cause your Frost Shocks to damage up to 3 additional enemies and targets hit take 15% increased Nature damage from your spells for 9 seconds. Chain Lightning prefers targets afflicted by this effect.
Aftershock	AfS	Gives Earth Shock, Elemental Blast and Earthquake a 25% chance to refund all Maelstrom spent.
Surge of Power	SoP	Makes Earth Shock, Elemental Blast and Earthquake casts enhance your next spell cast within 15 seconds. Flame Shock: The next cast also applies Flame Shock to 1 additional target within 8 yards of the target. Lightning Bolt: Your next cast will cause an additional 2 Elemental Overloads. Chain Lightning: Your next cast will chain to 1 additional target. Lava Burst: Your next cast reduces the cooldown of your Fire and Storm Elementals by 6 seconds. Frost Shock: Your next cast freezes the target in place for 6 seconds.
Flames of the Cauldron		Reduces the cooldown of Flame Shock by 1.5 seconds and Flame Shock deals damage 15% faster.
Flash of Lightning	FoL	Makes Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning casts reduce the cooldown of your Nature spells by 1 second.
Eye of the Storm		Reduces the Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock and Earthquake by 5 per point and reduces the Maelstrom cost of Elemental Blast by 7 for one point and 15 for two points (2 points maximum).
Power of the Maelstrom	PotM	Gives your Lava Burst casts a 13/25% chance to cause your next 2 Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning casts to trigger an additional Elemental Overload (2 points maximum).
Master of the Elements	MotE	Causes your Lava Bursts to increase the damage or healing of your next Nature, Physical, or Frost spell by 10% per point (2 points maximum).
Improved Flametongue Weapon	-	Makes Flametongue Weapon also increase your Fire spell damage by 5% for 1 hour.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Deeply Rooted Elements	DRE	Gives Lava Burst casts a 7% chance to activate Ascendance for 6 seconds.
Primal Elementalist	PE	Increases the damage to your Earth, Fire, and Storm Elementals by 80% give them additional abilities and give you direct control over them.
Echoes of Great Sundering	EoGS	Makes your Earth Shocks increase the damage of your next Earthquake by 60% per point and makes your Elemental Blasts increased the damage of your next Earthquake by 70% per point (2 points maximum).
Elemental Equilibrium	EEq	Makes it so doing direct Fire, Frost, and Nature damage within 10 seconds will increase all damage dealt by 8% for one point, 15% for two points for 10 seconds, with a 30 seconds internal cooldown (2 points maximum). Note that due to Elemental Blast's Nature, it counts as all 3 damage types at once, and so can immediately proc Elemental Equilibrium.
Rolling Magma	-	Makes Lava Burst and its overloads' damage reduce the cooldown of your Primordial Wave by 0.5 seconds for one point, 1 for two points (2 points maximum).
Echo Chamber	-	Increases the damage of your Elemental Overloads by 8% for one point and 15% for two points (2 points maximum).
Oath of the Far Seer	-	Reduces the cooldown of Ascendance by 30 seconds per point, and you gain 8% for one point or 15% for two points additional Haste while Ascendance is active (2 points maximum).
Magma Chamber	-	Makes Flame Shock damage increase the damage of your next Earth Shock, Elemental Blast or Earthquake by 1.5% for one point or 3% for two points, stacking up to 20 times (2 points maximum).
Searing Flames	-	Gives Flame Shock damage a 100% chance to generate 1 Maelstrom per point (2 points maximum).
Lightning Rod	LR	Causes Earth Shock, Elemental Blast, and Earthquake to designate a target as a Lightning Rod for 8 seconds. Lightning Rods take 20% of all damage you deal with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning.
Primordial Surge	PSurge	Causes Primordial Wave casts to trigger a Lava Surge immediately and then every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. These Lava Surges also increase the damage of your next Lava Bursts by 25%.
Splintered Elements	-	Primordial Wave grants 20% Haste plus 4% for each additional Lava Burst generated by Primordial Wave for 12 seconds.
Mountains Will Fall	MwF	Allows your Earth Shock, Elemental Blast and Earthquake to trigger your Mastery: Elemental Overload at 50% effectiveness. Overloaded Earthquakes do not knock enemies down.
Further Beyond	FB	Extends your active Ascendance by 2.5 seconds every time you cast Earth Shock or Earthquake and by 3.5 seconds when you cast Elemental Blast, up to 100% of the original buff's duration.
Windspeaker's Lava Resurgence	WLR	Grants you Lava Surge and increases the damage of your next Lava Burst by 10% whenever you cast Earth Shock, Elemental Blast or Earthquake.
Skybreaker's Fiery Demise	SFD	Increases the critical strike chance of Flame Shock by 50%, and its damage-over-time critical strikes reduce the cooldown of your Fire or Storm Elemental by 1 second.

For a more in-depth look at all the Elemental Shaman talents, visit the link below.

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

Once you reach the 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. You will want at least some of our Macros as well!