Elemental Shaman PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (Season 1)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Elemental Shaman and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Elemental Shaman PvP Guide.
Talent Choices for Elemental Shamans
While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.
Talents Summary
Shaman Tree Talent Highlights
- Stone Bulwark Totem provides a defensive absorption shield.
- Lightning Lasso is available without using a PvP Talent.
- Totemic Projection is critical for the use with Static Field Totem and repositioning enemies, mainly melee teams.
- Thunderous Paws, Winds of Al'Akir, and Gust of Wind gives mobility to reposition or get away.
- Planes Traveler gives a reduced cooldown for Astral Shift.
- Increased passive healing through Healing Stream Totem.
Elemental Shaman Tree Talent Highlights
- Decreased cooldown of Flame Shock with Flames of the Cauldron.
- Damage increase through Improved Flametongue Weapon to our main fire spells.
- Deeply Rooted Elements procs Lava Bursts on all targets with Flame Shock.
- Ascendance provides another burst damage cooldown, with 2 minute cooldown when taking First Ascendant.
- Splintered Elements gives a Haste buff, increasing the proc rate of Lava Burst and rate of Flame Shock damage.
- Surge of Power allows the Elemental Shaman to root enemies in PvP, and reduce Fire Elemental cooldown quickly.
- Searing Flames give an easy passive way to generate Maelstrom.
Elemental Shaman Hero Tree Talent Highlights
The Farseer specialization for Elemental Shaman focuses on using Primordial Wave to summon ancestral spirits, for damage and healing benefits.
- Ancient Fellowship: Gives ancestors a chance to summon another ancestor when they expire.
- Routine Communication: Gives Lava Burst the ability to summon more ancestors to increase the burst damage possible from the spirit pets.
- Earthen Communion: Increases the healing from Earth Shield.
- Final Calling: At expiration, the ancestor casts an Elemental Blast which can provide moderate damage output.
Overall, the Farseer talents for Elemental Shaman aim to amplify your connection with ancestral spirits, giving you a blend of powerful offensive abilities, and supportive healing.
PvP Talents for Elemental Shaman
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents; each has uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.
- Grounding Totem is a default selection against caster or Hunter teams. This can stop crowd-control from the enemy team and large damaging spell casts from casters.
- Burrow is an immunity defensive which can also deal moderate damage.
- Static Field Totem gives the ability to relocate this totem and move the enemy team away from you or your teammates. Note it only has around 5K HP but can be an important factor when going for burst or saving your teammates.
- Shamanism reduces the cooldown of your Heroism/ Bloodlust to 60 seconds at the expense of only making it give 20% Haste and last only 10 seconds. Additionally, affected players will no longer receive the Exhaustion debuff.
- Totem of Wrath is a default pick against caster teams. This talent increases the critical damage by 20% of only spell casts or heals. Although this is highly dependent on how often your spells critically hit, if a critical strike happens, the damage is significantly greater due to the multipliers of Master of the Elements, and the combination of Surge of Power and Stormkeeper. This also affects Lightning Lasso now.
- Unleash Shield provides significant utility for the Elemental Shaman to benefit from pushing enemy teammates off ledges and rooting. When using Elemental Orbit both knockback and root effects are applied.
- Counterstrike Totem is a situational talent. This can be useful as a small peel for your teammates or as a surprise against enemies in arena. In battlegrounds, this can be used as a considerable damage option but will not lead to kills. Generally, teams are aware of this Shaman's ability to use this totem. They will stop attacking once it is on the ground.
Changelog
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for TWW Launch.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for TWW pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight 10.2.6.
- 24 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight 10.2.5, talent page.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updatedfor Dragonflight 10.1.5.
- 06 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight 10.0.7.
- 04 Feb. 2023: Updated for 10.0.2 updates.
- 12 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.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1 of Shadowlands.
- 19 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 02 Dec. 2020: Updated in preparation for first PvP season of Shadowlands.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
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.
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