What "rotation" do I use now?
Rotations for an elemental shaman have changed. With most fights being high mobility fights, a standard "rotation" will not measure up completely as stopping and starting a rotation multiple times to move will only lower your DPS. Instead, there are now 3 types of 'Priority' rotations for elementals to use.
IMPORTANT
Note that I am finally putting a small note here to say something very important about the below rotations. These are never set in stone and there are better ways to play than just following these guidelines exactly. A standard, agreed-upon point of all high end shaman is that even though Chain Lightning is often a DPS increase to cast at any given time, it is more important to use it to buffer the time between your Lava Bursts, making sure that they go off as soon as possible. An example (Extreme with no casting haste) is that you have 1 second until your Lava Burst cooldown is up. Sitting and waiting is a DPS loss, but casting Lightning Bolt is also a waste because it clips the cooldown of Lava Burst by a full second. Chain Lightning is considered a buffer because you still get good damage for what you casted but it also only pushed your Lava Burst back a half second rather than a full.
IMPORTANT
Chain Lightning on Cooldown:
-(Situational) Renew fire damage totem.
-Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
-Cast Chain Lightning if it is off cooldown, Lava Burst is on cooldown, and above criteria is met.*
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.
*Chain Lightning will come before Lava Burst in this priority assuming it has the opportunity to jump to additional targets!
This priority will give you the maximum DPS for a priority rotation. With the changes to Chain Lightning, casting it every time it is off cooldown is a DPS increase over only spamming Lightning Bolt between every Lava Burst cast due to Chain Lightning having a higher DPCT (Damage Per Cast Time) than Lightning Bolt.
Chain Lightning after Lava Burst:
-(Situational) Renew fire damage totem.
-Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
---After casting Lava Burst cast 1 Lightning Bolt and 1 Chain Lightning.
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.
This priority rotation gives more leeway to your mana. Casting LvB->LB->CL ensures that your Lava Burst crits the target and grants you Clearcasting which will give you a guaranteed reduced mana cost on your Chain Lightning (your most mana intensive spell).
No Chain Lightning:
-(Situational) Renew fire damage totem.
-Flame Shock when the DoT expires.
-Cast Lava Burst if it is off cooldown and above criteria are met.
-Else, cast Lightning Bolt.
Hurting for mana? Just died and self-rezzed? Sit back, relax, and fit Lightning Bolts between your Lava Burst casts.
Knowing what your character is capable of rotation wise will help you do more DPS. A good elemental shaman will switch their priority on the fly as needed based on their mana and situation (Ex: A shaman typically following rotation 1 dies, gets battle rezzed, and falls into rotation 3 until he has enough mana to eventually get back into rotation 2 and 1).
Fire Totems and You!
Basic Rules of Fire Totems:
-ALWAYS Use Totem of Wrath if you do not have the increased spellpower from Demonology Warlocks or do not have the 3% crit debuff from Retribution Paladins or Assassination Rogues.
-Fire totems scale with Spell Power and Spell Critical. NOT HASTE.
-Use your Fire Elemental when: It will not be killed and your stats are at their highest. This means that before using it, make sure your trinkets that can stack for spell power are maxed out, your procs that increase spell power (such as the new ring from Icecrown reputation) are active, and you have used a potion to increase your spellpower and crit ([urlhttp://www.wowhead.com/?item=40212]Potion of Wild Magic[/url]).
-Else, keep Searing Totem active.
What Glyphs should I use?
Major (BiS):
Glyph of Lightning Bolt - Increases the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt by 4%.
Glyph of Totem of Wrath - When you cast Totem of Wrath, you gain 30% of the totem's bonus spell power for 5 min. (84Spell Power at maximum rank)
+
Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Elemental Totem by 5 min. (SEE EXCEPTIONS BELOW)
Glyph of Lava - Your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 10% of your spellpower.
Glyph of Flametongue Weapon - Increases spell critical strike chance by 2% while Flametongue Weapon is active.
Glyph of Flame Shock - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Flame Shock damage by 60%.
Minor:
Glyph of Thunderstorm - Increases the mana you receive from your Thunderstorm spell by 2%, but it no longer knocks enemies back.
That's great, but which do I use?
Standard elementals will use: Lightning Bolt, Totem of Wrath, and Lava Burst.
EXCEPTIONS: .
If you can fit two casts of Fire Elemental into a fight using the Fire Elemental Totem glyph, it does simulate higher than Totem of Wrath glyph ASSUMING that it is not a fight that will instantly destroy the totem or the Fire Elemental. Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, and Fire Elemental Totem
As per my understanding, at low gear levels Flametongue and Lava Burst glyphs are both very close when simmed with Flametongue coming out only a few digits away on single target, stand and nuke fights. Flametongue is a viable exception to using Lava, though Lava is much more reliable. (Lava ALWAYS increases your DPS versus Flametongues 2 extra percent to get a critical you may have gotten anyways at our critical levels)
Flame Shock, at max tier10 gear level apparently passes all glyphs by a few digits. Though many shaman will never reach this point I felt it worth noting in this guide.
What stats on gear should I be going after?
The most important stat for an elemental shaman (and most raiding classes period) is Hit Rating. The cap for hit rating on level 83 (raid boss mobs) is 17%, or 446 rating. You should have spec’d into Elemental Precision, which means you only need 14% hit on your gear, or from other raid buffs. The following buffs give you hit rating:
Heroic Presence – 1% (Alliance only, All draenei)
Misery – 3%** (Shadow Priests)
Improved Faerie Fire – 3%** (Balance Druid)
** Misery and Improved Faerie Fire DO NOT STACK!
If your raid contains these buffs/debuffs, this leaves 263 hit rating on gear for Alliance, and 289 hit for horde. Until you are hit capped, you should gear, gem, and enchant mainly for +hit rating. (26.232 hit rating = 1% hit)
As a base reference, these are your stat priorities for gear and enchants.
Hit > Spell power > Haste > Crit > Int
Hit: HIGH to NO priority- Ss the best stat point to point until it caps, then becomes useless. Try to hit as close to cap as possible without going under.
Spell power: HIGH priority- Gives most DPS per point. Prioritize this on gear above other DPS stats, no questions asked. Gives a return to ALL spells at any gear level.
Haste: MEDHIGH to HIGH priority- Haste starts out as a good stat and becomes an amazing stat as your gear gets better. Haste is always a better stat point for point than crit UNTIL your bread-and-butter nuke, Lightning Bolt, hits the one second cap. Until then, it is always better to gear for haste above crit.
Crit: MEDIUM priority- The lowest of our true DPS stats. It gives returns to all but one spell but doesn't stack nearly as well as spell power and haste do. Only prioritize this above haste assuming your Lightning Bolt is capped at or below a one second cast time.
Spreadsheets!
There are a few spreadsheets and other standalone programs that are handy in finding upgrades and help with gemming / enchanting:
ZAP! -
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t80396-e...p_spreadsheet/ESSE –
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t40904-e...t_spreadsheet/SimulationCraft -
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t81455-s...craft_shamans/What totem relic should I use?
There are only a few relics out there for elemental shaman but I'm going to help you pick up only the best.
A few relics look amazing on paper but are hindered by a high internal cooldown (Totem of the Elemental Plane). These are your best totems that are readily available to any shaman just hitting 80!
Bizuri's Totem of Shattered Ice
Totem of Electrifying Wind
Totem of Hex
Thunderfall Totem
Totem of the Void (level 70)
The newest totem on the list, Bizuri's Totem of Shattered Ice, comes from Badges of Frost and is our new highest DPS increasing totem. It has a 100% uptime once fully stacked unlike Electrifying Wind which is a ~90% uptime and increases your haste slightly more to boot. Totem of Electrifying Wind comes out above Hex and Thunderfall due to having a low internal cooldown. Totem of Hex comes up second due to Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning being a much larger percentage of your total damage than Lava Burst. Thunderfall is the third and lowest of the top end totems. Totem of the Void even comes up above the afforementioned Totem of the Elemental Plane due to the maximum possible uptime of it being 33%.
What Enchants and Gems should I use?
Enchants:
The following enchants are considered to be the best available in game assuming you are hit capped (Profession based enchants are NOT included here. Most professions [Engineering and Tailoring, I'm looking at you] are direct increases from another enchant or to a previously unenchantable slot)
Cloak - Greater Speed (23 haste rating)
Chest - Powerful Stats (10 to all stats)
Bracer - Superior Spellpower (30 spell power)
Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (28 spell power)
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (15 stamina and 8% run speed increase)* OR Icewalker (12 critical strike and 12 hit rating)
Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (63 spell power)
Shield - Greater Intellect (25 intellect)
Legs - Sapphire Spellthread (50 spell power and 30 stamina)
Head - Arcanum of Burning Mysteries (30 spell power and 20 critical strike rating) Requires Revered with Faction: Kirin Tor
Shoulder - Greater Inscription of the Storm (24 spell power and 15 critical strike rating) Requires Exalted with Faction: The Sons of Hodir
* It is well debated that the less time you spend moving, the more time you are spending casting. The 8% run speed gives you that little bit of a boost to get you back and DPSing faster.
If you are short of the hit cap, these enchants may be of help with you (Note that you should only do this after replacing gems and moving gear sets. Reenchanting over your best in slot enchants is not recommended at all):
Gloves - Precision (20 hit rating)
Weapon - Accuracy (25 hit and 25 critical strike rating)*
*Enchanting your weapon with hit+crit over spell power can generally be counter productive as the spell power gained from Mighty Spellpower generally outweighs it. I would only recommend this enchant as a last ditch for hit cap. Consider regemming or switching a few pieces of gear around (check those spreadsheets!) before re-enchanting your weapon with Accuracy.
Gems and Gemming:
Meta - Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (+21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage. Requires two blue gems to activate)
Blue - Glowing Dreadstone (12 spell power and 15 stamina) OR Royal Dreadstone (12 spell power and 5 mana every 5 seconds)*
Red - Runed Cardinal Ruby (23 spell power)
Yellow - Reckless Ametrine (12 spell power and 10 haste rating)**
* For DPS, Royal is a slightly better choice in long fights due to the minor increase in MP5 leading to more Chain Lightning casts, though if survivability is your problem then Glowing should be your only option.
** Runed Cardinal Rubies gem better in yellow slots if the socket bonus does not warrant a DPS increase
