PvE Elemental Shaman

Elemental Shamans in Mists of Pandaria are going to be everything you loved about Elemental in Cataclysm with less micro-managing and some more impactful button presses. It’s a good time to be a Shaman, and you’ll thoroughly enjoy being the best lava-slinging version you can be!

PvE Elemental Shaman DPS

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

Stat Priority & Reforging

Best Professions

Pre-Raid Gear

Rotation & Cooldowns

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Best in Slot (BiS)

Addons & Macros

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

One of the most noticeable changes is there’s a huge overhaul to how our totems work. A lot of totems are removed outright, with most of the buffs our totems would provide collapsed into passives such as our new Burning Wrath and Grace of Air. The Fire Elemental Totem and Earth Elemental Totem will also see a halving of cooldown as well as duration to make it more viable to cast more than once during a fight for added DPS value.

There’s also been quite a few changes to basically every one of our utility totems. Things like Earthbind Totem and Grounding Totem have had their durations shortened, and cooldowns increased. Other totems such as Elemental Resistance Totem, Manaspring Totem, Stoneclaw Totem, and Totem of Tranquil Mind have been removed.

While a lot of low-impact utility has been removed, there are several totems being added that compensate for this. You’ll see our CC package now includes things like Capacitor Totem and Earthgrab Totem (If you choose the talent at this tier). While we have Windwalk Totem, Healing Tide Totem, and Stormlash Totem as raid-wide utility options.

Our rotation is going to be similar and should feel fairly at home with a couple of adjustments. We do gain a large 3-min cooldown in Ascendance, though. Ascendance is probably the coolest addition to Elemental Shamans this expansion as it morphs us into an unbound elemental and gives a massive DPS increase by making our Lava Burst instant-cast, and making our Chain Lightning into a Lava Beam. Other pieces of the spec that have been streamlined include something like having our Lava Burst become instant-cast when proc’d by Lava Surge.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

• Simple Rotation
  With less things to micro-manage you can focus on your rotation more. Outside of big cooldown windows it’s mostly a static rotation of a few different buttons with upkeep on spells like Flame Shock and Searing Totem.
  
• Good Group Utility
  Between the passives of Burning Wrath and Grace of Air for just existing in a raid you’ll be a great addition. Of course we always have Heroism/Bloodlust, but we won’t be the only ones with a haste effect. There are also several totems such as Earthgrab Totem, Stormlash Totem, and Windwalk Totem that will have their niche to become powerful tools in the hands of the right group.
  
• Excellent Mobility & Ranged DPS
  Being ranged is an advantage in and of itself as it just makes group compositions, especially at a raid-size, easier. You also have decent mobility for a caster with instant-cast Ghost Wolf for quick repositioning and Spiritwalker’s Grace for casting while on the move.

Weaknesses

• Tougher Gearing
  There’s going to be a limited amount of caster gear targeted at mail users, and within that you’re going to be competing against your Restoration Shaman friends. It’ll make the gearing process simpler at times due to the lack of options, but also more difficult.
  
• Bit Lower Damage Output Compared to Other Casters
  Being a hybrid class and with the potential for off-healing the trade-off is going to be a bit less damage output. Don’t think that Elemental won’t be in demand in a raid-group, but this is something to consider depending on what you want out of this spec. Elemental will perform a bit better when there’s multiple targets for their AoE substitution spells, but ST can be less optimal.
  

Best Races

 Horde

Horde has the most race options if you choose to be a Shaman. Troll and Orc are going to be the top two choices for DPS increases. Troll has a mini-lust attached to their Berserking cooldown, which pairs well with talents like Echo of the Elements that benefit from fitting in more casts. Orc, on the other hand, has Blood Fury and is going to benefit from talents like Elemental Mastery and Primal Elementalist. For Orcs, it’s about capitalizing on the massive amount of spellpower Blood Fury gives you to amp your pets or pair with large haste increases.

• Orc: Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Hardiness, Command
• Troll: Berserking, Da Voodoo Shuffle, Regeneration, Beast Slaying, Bow Specialization, Throwing Specialization
• Tauren: Endurance, Cultivation, Nature Resistance, War Stomp
• Goblin: Time is Money, Rocket Barrage, Rocket Jump, Best Deals Anywhere, Better Living Through Chemistry, Pack Hobgoblin
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm

 Alliance

Your options for an Alliance Shaman are sadly a lot more limited, but with the addition of Pandarens being a neutral race you’ll at least have one solid option for an increase to DPS. The Epicurean racial trait that Pandarens have provides an increase to your main stat derived from food buffs, giving you essentially a permanent stat boost as long as you keep it up. Both the Dwarf and Draenei racial traits offer little in the way of DPS gains with just Heroic Presence offering a bonus to Hit rating, but the Expertise rating gained from something like Mace Specialization will actually count towards the Hit cap instead as a caster.

• Draenei: Gift of the Naaru, Heroic Presence, Shadow Resistance, Gemcutting
• Dwarf: Stoneform, Explorer, Mace Specialization, Gun Specialization, Frost Resistance
• Pandaren: Bouncy, Epicurean, Gourmand, Inner Peace, Quaking Palm