Elemental Shaman PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Dragonflight / 10.0.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilises your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Elemental Shaman, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Elemental Shaman PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Elemental Shaman
Elemental Shaman are dependent on combining the benefits of multiple talents to kill their opponents, which requires Maelstrom and preparation. Elemental Shaman will either be one of three states during PvP:
- Sustaining damage and generating Maelstrom.
- Dealing large amounts of damage by using
Flame Shock,
Primordial Wave,
Lava Burst, and
Earth Shock on cooldown, along with
Stormkeeper/
Lightning Lasso when you are able to line up burst damage.
- Playing defensively.
Sustained Damage
This is done through spreading damage and disrupting the enemey team.
- Maintain
Flame Shock on up to 4 enemies on cooldown (including pets), using
Primordial Wave to help spread Flame Shocks. This helps generate Maelstrom if talented into
Searing Flames.
- Use
Lava Burst if you have a
Lava Surge proc, on a target with
Flame Shock active to guarantee a critical strike.
- Cast
Earth Shock if Maelstrom is above 80.
- Cast
Lava Burst.
- Cast
Lightning Bolt as a filler.
- Cast
Purge or
Greater Purge as a filler.
- Cast
Wind Shear on the healer or enemy casters.
- Cast
Hex on enemy melee to reduce incoming damage.
The burst of Elemental Shaman is high compared to other classes at this point.
Burst Damage with Lava Burst Build
- Ensure
Flame Shock is on your kill target and as many other enemy team members as possible.
- Ensure you have 80 or more Maelstrom to be able to use
Earth Shock.
- Ensure you have
Power of the Maelstrom buff.
- Use
Fire Elemental.
- Cast
Stormkeeper.
- Use
Primordial Wave.
- Use
Skyfury Totem.
- Cast
Lava Burst, along with
Fire Elemental's
Meteor since this ability is off global cooldown.
- Use
Earth Shock.
- Cast
Lightning Bolt, empowered from
Stormkeeper and with the
Surge of Power buff.
- Use
Lava Burst with
Lava Surge procs from
Splintered Elements.
- Use
Earth Shock.
- Cast
Lightning Bolt, empowered from
Stormkeeper and with the
Surge of Power buff.
- Fill with
Lava Burst.
Playing Defensively
Healing or Crowd-Controlling the Opposing Team
Healing Surge is a spammable heal, which
provides significant side-healing. This should be used if your healer is
stunned or crowd-controlled.
Hex is a curse 7-second crowd-control which can be broken by
damage. In general you do not want to damage a target that has been hexed.
That player does still have control of their character to move out of line
of sight. This is best used on the enemy team when their have
used an offensive or defensive cooldown, or the healer as part of a
crowd-control chain.
Earthbind Totem is a placed totem which slows any enemies
within the radius. This totem is incredibly useful and should be used on
cooldown. This helps your team's positioning. This totem can also help you
land
Capacitor Totem.
Thunderstorm knocks back all enemies around the Elemental Shaman
as long as they are not rooted or have an immunity to knock-backs or magic
effects active like
Anti-Magic Shell from Death Knights. This is
incredibly useful and can be used to save your teammates on arena maps with
ledges, Dalaran Sewers and Blades Edge Arena. This is also a great ability
for battlegrounds in Eye of the Storm or certain areas of Twin Peaks and
Arathi Basin, which can kill the enemies from fall damage in these cases.
Purge or
Greater Purge can be used defensively to purge off your opponents
offensive cooldowns or Mana back cooldowns which are purgeable. One very
important use is during a Priest's
Mind Control of your teammate.
When a Priest does this it is better to use purge on your Mind Controlled
teammate, and not use your Wind Shear interrupt. This is because Purge has no
cooldown, while Wind Shear is on a 12-second cooldown.
Healing Stream Totem should be used to provide low amounts of
passive healing, or for the increased healing from
Swirling Currents.
Getting this buff along with the 20% benefit if
Earth Shield is on
the target will provide significant side healing.
Defensives Abilities
Astral Shift is the main defensive for Elemental Shaman which
is on a 1.5 minute cooldown. This ability decreases damage taken by 40% for 8
seconds and is not usable while stunned. It is best to communicate with your
healer and use this cooldown at high health when your opponents are using their
offensive cooldowns and your healer needs help keeping you alive.
Ghost Wolf is an underrated ability; it allows the Shaman to
stay at 100% movement speed with any slowing debuff active. This can further
be enhanced to 110% base speed using the
Spectral Recovery PvP
talent. This is the way Elemental Shaman can kite melee opponents and stay
very mobile. If you are moving beyond a very short distance, ghost wolf is
worth the global cooldown it incurs. Ghost wolf can be purged, which is one
of the reasons why the
Spirit Wolf talent is not as good as it could
be.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 04 Feb. 2023: Updated for 10.0.2 updates.
- 13 Jan. 2023: Updated for mid-season changes.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight post-launch.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 Jul. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 27 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2 of Shadowlands
- 17 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5 of Shadowlands.
- 17 Jul. 2021: Removed optional rotation references.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1 of Shadowlands.
- 19 Mar. 2021: Updated based on Patch 9.0.5 for Shadowlands.
- 02 Dec. 2020: Updated in preparation for first PvP season of Shadowlands.
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed Azerite mentions. There is a trait mention left to remove.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
This guide has been written by Tiqqle, a PvP enthusiast who has repeatedly achieved 2400 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
- Everything You Need to Know About Forbidden Reach Catch-Up Gear in Patch 10.0.7
- Dracthyr Racial Mounts Available for Everyone to Purchase in Patch 10.0.7
- Turbulent Timeways Timewalking Event Starts March 29th
- Save 30% on Select Game Services Through April 3rd
- Dragonflight DPS Log Rankings for Vault of the Incarnates, Week 14
- The Forbidden Reach Dragon Glyphs Guide (Exact Locations with TomTom Coords)
- The Most Popular Specializations for Mythic+ in Dragonflight Season 1 (Week 14)
- Bakar Dog Mounts in Patch 10.0.7 Still Remain Shrouded in Mystery