Elemental Shaman Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Level 30 Talents (21,0,0)

We're going to fully commit to the Elemental tree to power up our Lightning Bolt and shock spells as much as possible.

1. Mana is the primary concern in early levels so you'll put 5 points into Convection first then the next 5 into Concussion for extra damage.
2. We'll skip the 2nd row entirely and put 1 point into Elemental Focus and 4 points into Elemental Fury.
3. When playing solo you're going to be getting hit by enemies who will push back your spell casting. Put 3 points into Eye of the Storm to help combat this.
4. Finally put 1 point into Call of Thunder, go back to put a final point into Elemental Fury and put your final point into Lightning Overload.

Level 60 Talents (34/5/12)

Here's a look at what we think the level 60 Elemental Shaman Talent Tree will look like. As mentioned above, this guide will be updated as we go through the beta and during launch to include any other Endgame Elemental Shaman Talent Trees such, along with all the other information you need to excel in the endgame and Raids as a Shaman.

Playable Races

Alliance - Dwarf

Horde - Orc, Tauren, Troll & Skyborne

Recommended Races

Dwarf provides 3 useful abilities and is probably the best race for leveling to 30 as Alliance. Mace Specilization gives you 1% crit when using a mace. Stoneform grants you immunities and Physical Damage Reduction and Big Game Hunter increases you damage to beasts (which you'll see a lot of while leveling up).

Troll is great since you’ll be fighting a lot of beasts in the early game and they have 5% increased damage to beasts. Their Berserking buff grants you 10% casting speed for 10 seconds and they also have Rapid Regeneration which allows you to restore 50% of your health every 3 minutes.

Orc is the other competitive horde race choice. Blood Fury boosts your Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds. Shatter Curse grants immunity to Curses, Banes and reduces Magical Damage taken. Hardiness decreases stuns by 20%

The primary Skills you’ll use are Lightning Bolt, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock and your Totems. Unless they changed it in WoW forever, Chain Lightning isn't learned until level 32 and we wont be able to add it into our gameplay in this beta :(

1. When fighting you're primarily just going to spam Lightning Bolt to take down enemies.
2. Your 3 Shock skills can be used for different purposes. Flame Shock is a great way to get extra damage on a mob. Frost Shock is used when you want so slow something down so you can kite away and cast without interruption. Earth Shock is used to interrupt spell casters while also doing damage to them. Having all 3 shocks ready to use is a key part of playing your Elemental Shaman to the fullest. They're also a great way to finish off a mob who is attacking you since they're all instant casts.
3. Keep up your Lightning Shield at all times, this is one of the highest DPS skills you have compared to its mana cost. It's always worth having up and helps a lot with finishing off enemies who are striking you with melee.
4. Drop Stoneclaw Totem and have it tank for you!

Totems

Totems are the next part of gameplay that's important. There are a lot of options you can use depending on situations. Wow forever has added 2 new skills for totem management: Totemic Projection allows you to move your existing totems to a new location and Call of the Ancients lets you cast all 4 totems on your "totem bar" by pressing 1 button.

Three essential totems for early leveling are Stoneskin Totem, Mana Spring Totem and Searing Totem. You're going to want to keep these down basically all the time and move them with you.

There are 3 very powerful utility totems that you need to have at the ready depending on the encounter

1. Earthbind Totem will slow all enemies nearby, this is great to have when you need to escape from danger.
2. Tremor Totem breaks fear, charm and sleep. This will be more useful in dungeons where these are more of a concern but is crucial to have down when you need to prevent your allies form suffering from these ailments
3. Grounding Totem will absorb a harmful spell coming at you. This shouldn't be unlocking until level 30 unless they changed it. But it's another great totem you can toss down to soak some damage to yourself or an ally.

Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, levels 8, 14, 20 & 26 all have upgrades to your Lightning Bolt so make sure you go back ASAP at these levels to gain more power.

You have the ability to Purge enemies. If an enemy has a strong magic buff purge it off of them.

Elemental Shamans biggest problem is running out of mana. Only drop the totems you feel are really benefitting you. Keep your weapon skill up so you can melee enemies if needed at times and always keep a weapon buff like Rockbiter Weapon on so you can do more melee damage when the time comes.

There will be class quests to unlock the different totems (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) make sure to do these when they're available so you aren't missing out on the power of a new totem.

Unlike most other casters, Elemental Shamans can't use wands, RIP.

A Shamans favorite stats are Intellect and Stamina, Spirit is also decent but not as important for this class as some other casters. Intellect increases your maximum mana pool and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. Stamina increases your health, and Spirit helps your Health and Mana regenerate faster when out of Combat. Prioritize Intellect and Stamina on items but don't be disappointed when a good item has Spirit on it.

You'll do much better on this class in a party of dungeon environment. Being able to provide the totem buffs to allies and sit back and cast freely makes this class a lot more powerful than going out on your own. If you're set on playing elemental shaman try to get into groups as often as you can and you're going to have a better experience playing it.

The game play is going to be the same in Dungeons, adjust your totems to fit the party and remember your utility totems can come in handy.

If your party has multiple people who are using Attack Power to do damage drop a Strength of Earth Totem instead of Stoneskin Totem.

Bring a lot of water with you and buy bigger bags so you can carry more water. Befriend a Mage so they can make you lots of water.

Buy a lot of cheap Mana potions and convince your party mates to give you all of theirs when they drop. They all know you need it the most, it shouldn't take much convincing.

Stop Casting / Earth Shock

#showtooltip Earth Shock

/stopcasting

/cast Earth Shock