[WoW] Elemental Shaman

[xilsharn]

I'm curious where shaman are going to fall in this DPS rebalancing. I am not in beta and have not seen any writeups on elemental shaman in the expansion. I hope this thread isn't overkill or too hyperspecific (concerning one spec for one class).

I've respecced elemental in 'vanilla' WoW to get a good baseline feel of the aggro and mana mechanics of a PVE elemental shaman (30/0/21) pre-expansion. Honestly, aggro is much less of a concern than I thought it would be. With +300 dmg (low, I know, shutup) and 31% crit on lightning spells, I pulled aggro once, only because I didn't slow down DPS after a series of large NAC-boosted lightning bolt/chain lightning crits, and I didn't have Tranquil Air down.

Mana is still a pretty big problem but if I balance my DPS with healing it becomes less so.

So far I'm pretty encouraged by what's coming out of the expansion. For awhile I was pretty upset with the elemental tree but adding in the aggro reduction, mana regen and +hit and spell power totems, I think we're looking pretty good. I think Shamanistic Rage is in the wrong tree (should be elemental imo) but otherwise I'm heartened.

Enhancement tree is pretty-well documented, and restoration is more or less a no-brainer, so I'm hoping that there are some beta shaman who can chime in with reflections on the elemental tree here.

[Samflam]

I never liked having both my damage and my healing attached to my mana bar, especially since shaman have such piss poor mana regen.
I have tried going heavy in all three trees, but I always ended up speccing back to enhancement, to at least two handers and flurry.
Then again the guild I am in now found out early I also had a 60 priest, so I can afford to spec my shaman (now alt) however the hell I want.
I'm definitely bringing him back as my main for the expansion though, and everyone be damned, he's gonna be 42 enhance. From the sounds of it unleashed rage along with the improved totem talents there may be a point to having at least one pure enhance shaman in a raid.
This is the spec I plan on going with:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un...50100000000000
I can see shamanistic rage being a more caster friendly 41 point talent, but I'm damned happy I'll be getting it;P
To get back on topic though, the elemental tree seems to be the least "flashy".
I've been reading alot of underwhelmed reports from elemental shaman in the expansion, lightning overload either never procs or procs at the most inopportune times. It also kind of sucks to have yet another role defining totem as a 41 point talent. In my opinion, Blizzard needs to get away from the idea that our top abilities are wooden sticks with 5 hps on long cooldowns.
I've also heard aggro isn't really much a problem for elemental, but dual wielding shaman have to be very, very careful. Even with the altered parry --> spirit weapons change.
The general consensus seems to be enhancement is the way to go for the 60-67 grind. We'll see how much the trees continue to get tweaked going forward though.
Edit: That mana regen talent is pretty hot though.
Another edit: OK so apparently totem of wrath has no cooldown? Not bad.

[Lenardo]

I have not tried elemental spec in the beta yet, i have done 42 enhance though and !@$%@$% love it! an enhance spec shaman can EASILY get aggro from a warrior who is not paying attention..hell can fairly easily get it from a warrior who IS paying attn.

i HAVE done 45? 50? in restoration and DAMN we can heal Good. at level 61 i was the ONLY healer in the slave pens (level 62-64 dungeon) and we did the whole dungeon. earth shield is awesome.

[frott]

I've seen equally geared rogues/ele shaman/dpswarriors all at around the same DPS.

Whether that'll scale up remains to be seen... I've not seen massive mana gains from 61 -> 67.

[xilsharn]

Originally Posted by frott

I've seen equally geared rogues/ele shaman/dpswarriors all at around the same DPS.

Whether that'll scale up remains to be seen... I've not seen massive mana gains from 61 -> 67.

So where are the gains in gear landing if not in mana pool for the shaman mail armor?

[frott]

a lot of +damage, resilience, sta at the cost of other stats... and sockets as well.

61->67 is an unfair range unless you're talking about the currently non-itemized hard dungeons, you don't get much in terms of replacing tier3, and you can easily do things like pad the hell out of certain stats but its the same as wearing "...of ____ wrath" greens now.

I've seen very little int/spi gear so far. It's there, but have fun farming some instance 50 times to get it.

[Mkopec1]

Originally Posted by frott

a lot of +damage, resilience, sta at the cost of other stats... and sockets as well.

61->67 is an unfair range unless you're talking about the currently non-itemized hard dungeons, you don't get much in terms of replacing tier3, and you can easily do things like pad the hell out of certain stats but its the same as wearing "...of ____ wrath" greens now.

I've seen very little int/spi gear so far. It's there, but have fun farming some instance 50 times to get it.

Im not in beta but the screens I saw for some of the mail shit definitely had nice +Int on it. But with my shaman I always liked the enhancement side of things anyways. I dont raid so much so I concentrate on BGs and shit like that, but I noticed I can help alot more saving my mana for heals rather than blowing my wad on shocks and shit while the melee are dying around me.

And even if I were to raid with my shammie I would probably spec in Resto rather than Elemental since my healing and mana are worth alot more than my shitty DPS.

Amirite?

[benbadman]

Originally Posted by xilsharn

So where are the gains in gear landing if not in mana pool for the shaman mail armor?

Elemental spec is better for pvp (going up against a war/rog without a shield is suicide), and in pve with the mana regen talent, which would give you an extra 30-40 MP5 depending on the quality of your gear, running out of mana isn't much of a problem. You may have to drink every 8 mobs or so you kill in an outdoor zone, sometimes less often if you are doing quests and moving around alot in between kills. Totem of wrath and the mp5 gain is a decent compromise for raid viability for the spec, and of course you tear things up in pvp and soloing.

Another perk of elemental spec is LOWER REPAIR BILLS. You don't have to get in melee range to let npcs beat on you, occasionally you'll take a hit here and there, but for the most part your repair bill will always be under 1G in full epic armor when you make trips to town.

I'm a fan of 7 enhancement for 5% mana pool & 1 sec ghost wolf, for escapability. Without NS (assuming you go for lightning overload) you can't NS/ghost wolf, so its a good talent to have.

As far as elemental gear thats easy to get now, good mail +dmg gear is from the aq40 set, aq40 rep ring & cthun eye ring, a +dmg 1h (chromaggus/nef/naxx abom wing), trinkets (the AD exalted +dmg trinket is real nice for leveling, 1minute cooldown).

As an orc, I like trinkets + blood fury for even bigger spell crits (2k-2500 lightning bolts for 220mana, 10% manafree clearcasting, 5% you get a free double-cast from overload).

[Jabberwhacky]

I'd like you to clarify some stuff for me. You say that going against a rogue or warrior without a shield is suicide. How much mitigation does a high end shield actually add? I'm assuming it's maybe 15% or so, which translates into 15% more HP, assuming all the damage comes from melee attacks (no bleeds, no spells, nothing that uses non-physical damage). Doesn't seem like that 15% (or even 20%) would be the difference between a real fight and "suicide." Also, why would you put 5 points into a measly 5% mana (which, if your total mana pool affect your regen rate, might actually be useful) that will be of no use to you until you hit 4.99% mana, when you could put the points into 5% chance to block (doubling your base chance to block) and 25% more damage blocked, thus helping against those dastardly rogues/warriors?

[benbadman]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

I'd like you to clarify some stuff for me. You say that going against a rogue or warrior without a shield is suicide. How much mitigation does a high end shield actually add? I'm assuming it's maybe 15% or so, which translates into 15% more HP, assuming all the damage comes from melee attacks (no bleeds, no spells, nothing that uses non-physical damage). Doesn't seem like that 15% (or even 20%) would be the difference between a real fight and "suicide." Also, why would you put 5 points into a measly 5% mana (which, if your total mana pool affect your regen rate, might actually be useful) that will be of no use to you until you hit 4.99% mana, when you could put the points into 5% chance to block (doubling your base chance to block) and 25% more damage blocked, thus helping against those dastardly rogues/warriors?

On retail, shield is about an extra 17% damage mitigation.. from 36% to 53% vs a lv60 in my tier3/aq40 armor.

As for talent choices, its up to the user.. but 5% mana is a few hundred extra mana pool, more useful for 1 extra heal on raids or soloing at range. It's personal preference basically. If a shaman can live without 1 second ghost wolf, going some points into restore (5% mana savings on heals, then 2 in improved reincarnate) would be useful also. Again, just depends on playstyle, it's not really a min/max equation.

Personally, I'm a fan of ghost wolf, it seems the new expansion zones have more wandering/roaming monsters, especially those burrower insects in Hellfire Peninsula, and other NPCs that call for backup at low health, and in those situations, dropping an earthbind and popping ghost wolf on a 1second cast-- running away at 140% or 155% (w/ pvp boots)-- is pretty useful. Three second cast ghost wolf is pretty useless, might as well mount up.

[Antarius]

In regards to expansion 5 man content, I've seen both enhancement shaman and elemental shaman do really well on SW Stats for trash clearing on good players.

And I've also grouped with some totally worthless shaman as well. Some forget that they have other skills that "aren't" dps, like tremor totem (thx getting feared into other mobs causing a wipe).

In most groups I've been in though, enhancement shaman have been a better fit with the group makeup. Windfury Keeps our fury warrior #1 on the meter, helps the Shaman dps, and now gives me, as a Felguard spec warlock, a nice DPS boost from the 10% atk power.

With Wrath of Air out, I became aggro limited and I wasn't nuking as hard as I could, so it was probably a wash.



But Elemental or Enhancement, a shaman is still pretty much only healing on the boss encounters, they are all pretty much designed around 2 healers in a group.

[Lenardo]

enhancement tree and elemental trees are being worked on...

enhancement tree IS going to be "adjusted downward dps wise" during beta shortly

[Algol Devilstar]

how do you know that?

[Plaeroma]

Originally Posted by benbadman

On retail, shield is about an extra 17% damage mitigation.. from 36% to 53% vs a lv60 in my tier3/aq40 armor.

Going to nitpick the math here. While 36% to 53% is a change of 17 on the paperdoll, it's actually a bigger difference. You'll actually be taking about 26.5% less physical damage if you throw the shield on.

For reference, soul link is 30% less damage taken, and that's pretty widely held to be really really powerful, even with all the talents you have to give up to get it. With elemental shaman and shields, you don't give up any damage for the defensive gain, plus your damage doesn't get mitigated by armor and you can do from range.

[Thoruk]

Originally Posted by Lenardo

enhancement tree and elemental trees are being worked on...

enhancement tree IS going to be "adjusted downward dps wise" during beta shortly

Len's got the IN man.