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Elemental Leveling Guide for 3.3.3
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Post by
CanadianSniper
OUTDATED AND CURRENTLY ABANDONED
Talent builds have been updated for 3.3.3. The entire guide will get a big update once Cataclysm has been out for a while.
I've leveled as both enhancement (tBC) and elemental (WotLK). Here's my advice.
Table of Contents
Why I believe Elemental is faster than Enhancement
Choice of Races
Shaman Quests
Itemization
Glyphs
PvE Server Talent Build
PvP Server Talent Build
Spell Rotations
Useful Macros
pre-tBC Dungeon Gear
Crafted Gear
Leveling Guides
Final Thoughts
Why I believe Elemental is faster than Enhancement
Enhancement is powerful. I should know because I've leveled as enhancement in the past. Once you get DW WF/WF (and WF/FT later on) you will blow through mobs very fast. However, enhancement is not effective when pulling more than one mob at a time. All your powerful attacks as enhancement are focused on single targets. Elemental Combat has an effective mob killing rotation that allows the shaman to harm 3-4 targets every 4 seconds (Only if talented correctly). While your main target is obviously going to die first, the remaining mobs will have still taken a lot of damage and will be faster to nuke down.
While the changes in WoW's physics have made finishing quests the fastest way to level, AoE grinding while questing is still a large boost in exp for you. This is where Elemental shines.
Where leveling as Elemental may not shine is the lack of leather/mail caster gear that you'll find while leveling. While this is all based on chance, leather/mail gear is usually focused on melee dps. If you ever find that you're way under geared, I would suggest visiting the Auction House at levels 20 and 40 for leather/mail gear that helps you upgrade. Sometimes looking for these suffixes will be enough:
of Healing (+spell power)
of Nature's Wrath (+nature damage)
of Intellect (+intellect)
of the Eagle (+intellect and stamina)
of the Owl (+intellect and spirit)
of the Gorilla (+intellect and strength)
of the Falcon (+intellect and agility)
Choice of Races
Alliance are stuck with Draenei so I won't even dicuss that. Horde have a choice between Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren. The Orc racials offer a great dps increase for elemental shamans. Troll racials also offer higher dps against beasts and haste which offers either high dps or hps. Tauren have an increase in health which won't amount to much since it's 5% base health and shamans don't really get a lot of health. However, Tauren get a racial AoE stun which could be invaluable in sticky situations.
The race you choose is up to you. None of them are bad.
Shaman Quests
Shamans will get quest chains that involve getting your 4 totems. First you get your Earth Totem, followed by Fire, Water, and Air. You will also receive quests later on which will reward you with some nice gear. Completing the quests for the gear is completely up to you but skipping the quests that reward you your totems is a big no no.
(lvl 4) Earth Totem:
Orc/Troll
Tauren
Draenei
(lvl 10) Fire Totem:
Horde
Alliance
(lvl 20) Water Totem:
Horde
Alliance
(lvl 30) Air Totem: (Horde
TB
Org
)
Alliance
Itemization
When talented correctly, 12% of your Intellect will go to your MP5. You will also have Water Shield on you at all times and it will proc because you're soloing. Essentially, your mana will rarely run out if you gear right. I would prioritize your gear like so:
Spell Power/Damage > Intellect > Crit Rating > Hit Rating
Spell Power insures that your enemies die faster. Intellect gives you a higher mana base, makes you crit more often, and give you mana regen while casting(talented). Crit and Hit Rating are icing on the cake. I would prefer that you focus on finding Spell Power than +Nature damage items so you can be an effective healer in pug groups should they occur.
Try to always wear Mail and aim for carrying a 1hand weapon and a shield.
Glyphs Changed for 3.1
Glyphs that I'd really recommend that you pick up are
Water Shield
,
Water Walking
,
Lightning Bolt
, and
Flametongue Weapon
.. The last minor glyph space can be anything, doesn't really matter. An extra charge on Water Shield ensures that you'll spend less time recasting it while in combat. You will find in some zones like STV that you'll be casting Water Walking a lot so the glyph helps you save money and bag space. Lightning Bolt is your main spell so making it do more damage will speed things up. Flametongue Weapon should always be on your weapon so the extra +2% crit is nice.
Once you reach lvl 75 and get Lava Burst, it's recommended to replace a glyph with
Flame Shock
. This allows you to open with Lava Burst without consuming the DoT. This isn't a huge deal when killing non elites since they're usually dead after LvB but during dungeons this is a huge dps increase. Besides, you're bound to fight some elites while in Northrend anyways.
If you're on a PvP server then I would stress that you get
Stoneclaw Totem
instead of the
Flametongue Weapon
Glyph. This will literally save your ass. It's good when questing as well since you're bound to take damage while fighting mob after mob.
Post by
CanadianSniper
PvE Server Talent Build
Changed for 3.3.3
This build is focused on high dps and low downtime. Without fear of being ganked, this is for PvE soloing only.
lvl 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hE00o:bZc
lvl 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcz:bkZc
lvl 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qckId:bkZc
lvl 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qckIuhfz:bkZcm
lvl 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcdItufzVo:bkZcm
lvl 70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcdItufzVo0xx:bkZcmM
lvl 75:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItufzAo0xx:bkZcmM
lvl 79:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfzAo0xxc:bkZcmM
PvP Server Talent Build
Changed for 3.3.3
This build skips some talents for some PvP survivability talents. There's always a chance you'll be attacked while questing so this build may make your life easier.
lvl 20:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hE00o:jZc
lvl 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcz:jbZc
lvl 40:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcdbt:jbZc
lvl 50:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcddthfz:jbZcm
lvl 60:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcddtufuVo:jbZcm
lvl 67:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEo0qcddtufuVoMhM:jbZcm
lvl 75:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdftGfuAoMhM:jbZcmV
lvl 79:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfuAoMhG:jbZcmV
Spell Rotations
Changed for 3.1
Lightning Bolt will be your main spell from lvl 1 to lvl 74. Shocks cost a lot of mana so it's preferred that you only use the shocks for their effects rather than their nuke damage. Don't worry, you'll be doing tons of damage with just lightning spells. However, if your mana can handle it then don't be afraid to cast flame shock after you cast lightning bolt.
Until you get Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt is going to be the only spell you'll ever cast. Once you get Chain Lightning (and if your mana can afford it), you will then be able to pull more than one mob. So if you're pulling just 1 mob, open with Lightning Bolt. Cast Chain Lightning if your mana regen is high, otherwise it's not worth the lost mana. We don't want any downtime here and Lightning Bolt already does great damage for a low cost in mana. If you see multiple mobs close together, it's good to open with chain lightning, cast lightning bolt 2-3 times, then cast chain lightning again when it's out of cooldown.
Dropping a Fire Nova Totem is a good plan as long as there's 3 or more mobs in range. In 3.0.8, this totem causes 0 threat so I think it's safe to say that mobs won't ever attack your totem before it explodes. In 3.1 one of your talents will cause your earthbind totem to root mobs for 5 seconds.
So drop earthbind then fire nova for a brief 7 second CC if things get tough.
If you're in an area where you can pull lots of mobs from a short distance, that's a good time to drop some totems. I would recommend you drop Stoneskin, Wrath (Flametongue until Wrath), Mana Spring, and Wrath of Air (Grounding until Wrath of Air). It's up to you if you want to drop an earth totem in the first place when soloing.
When you reach level 75, you will get Lava Burst. Add this to your rotation by opening with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, then casting flame shock and Lava Burst. The main target should be dead or close to dead after that.
Every elemental shaman will recommend that you replace one of your glyphs with Glyph of Flameshock so your DoT isn't consumed after Lava Burst.
Always keep Water Shield up. Always! This is why we have that minor glyph for the extra charge. If you accidentally pull 5 mobs that are orange/red level to you, you may still have a chance to outlast them if you keep water shield up and heal when necessary. As long as mana regen keeps coming, you'll be fine. Once you lose all your mana, you're useless.
Useful Macros
Making a Macro explained by WoWWiki
First, open up the macro window. You can do this either by opening the main menu and selecting Macros, or by typing /macro (/m) in the chat box. At the top of the window, you'll see two tabs: General Macros and Yourname Specific Macros. General macros are stored on an account-by-account basis and are shared by all your characters. Character specific macros are, well, I think you can figure this one out yourself. :P Immediately under the tabs is a grid of 18 boxes where the macros are displayed. Under those, there is a single box which displays your currently-selected macro with a Change Name/Icon button next to it. Below that is the edit box where you actually type the macro. Finally, at the bottom you have a number of self-explanatory buttons.
To create a macro, click the New button at the bottom of the window. This brings up another small window off to the side where you choose the icon and type a name for the macro. If you choose the question mark icon, WoW will automatically pick an icon for your macro based on what spells or items are listed in the macro. Once you have chosen an icon and a name, click the Okay button.
One Button Totems
This makes totem dropping easier. You should always be on the ball if the situation where you need a different totem dropped arrives. Don't get lazy!
Note: This macro will not work if you don't have the totem spell listed below. Don't be afraid to change the text in the macro to fit your needs.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=6 Totem of Wrath, Mana Spring Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Stoneskin Totem
/castsequence reset=6 Totem of Wrath, Mana Spring Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Strength of Earth Totem
Totem Macros are a thing of the past. At levels 30-, 40 and 50 you will learn a spell that allows you to drop 4 totems at the same time in one global cooldown. These spells are called
Call of the Elements
,
Ancestors
, and
Spirits
. You can learn these from your shaman trainer.
One Button Imbues
This saves you 3 action bar slots.
#showtooltip
/use Flametongue Weapon; Frostbrand Weapon; Windfury Weapon; Earthliving Weapon
Reincarnation Cooldown
This macro allows you to see when your Reincarnation spell will be ready. It will also tell you how many ankh you have.
#showtooltip Reincarnation
If you guys have suggestions for more ele shaman macros, please let me know :) I'm not interested in "/cast spellA; spellB" stuff
Post by
CanadianSniper
pre-tBC Dungeon Gear
Here are some items I would recommend you grab while you're in a dungeon. This may help your caster gear problem before you hit Outlands.
Like I mentioned above, you could visit the auction house to look for gear with these suffixes: Healing, Nature's Wrath, Intellect, Eagle, Owl, Gorilla, and Falcon.
Ragefire Chasm:
Crystalline Cuffs
*
Robe of Evocation
*
The Deadmines:
Emberstone Staff
**
Gold-flecked Gloves
*
Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Wailing Caverns:
Deep Fathom Ring
Robe of the Moccasin
*
Seedcloud Buckler
Serpent Gloves
*
Slime-encrusted Pads
***
Shadowfang Keep:
Eerie Stable Lantern
**
Feline Mantle
*
Girdle of the Blindwatcher
Robes of Arugal
*
Blackfathom Deeps:
Gaze Dreamer Pants
*
Glowing Thresher Cape
Moss Cinch
Rod of the Sleepwalker
**
The Stockade:
Kam's Walking Stick
**
Gnomeregan:
Acidic Walkers
*
Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator
*
Razorfen Kraul:
Death Speaker Mantle
*
Death Speaker Robes
*
Death Speaker Scepter
At this point we're going to ignore all cloth, 2hand, and offhand frill drops.
Razorfen Downs:
Bonefingers
Deathchill Armor
Glowing Eye of Mordresh
Scarlet Monastery:
Hand of Righteousness
(cath)
Hypnotic Blade
(lib)
Triune Amulet
(cath)
Zul'Farrak:
Jinxed Hoodoo Kilt
Jinxed Hoodoo Skin
Jumanza Grips
Lifeblood Amulet
Maraudon:
Charstone Dirk
Gemshard Heart
Gizlock's Hypertech Buckler
Soothsayer's Headdress
Sunken Temple:
Bloodfire Talons
Crest of Supremacy
Featherskin Cape
Horns of Eranikus
The Dragon's Eye
Windscale Sarong
At this point every 5man dungeon onwards will have tons of loot. So much that it will take up a lot of space in this post. Regardless, if you're doing BRD, BRS, DM, Scholo, or Strat then you will usually always find gear suited for you. Take my word on that.
* For the first few dungeons you will rarely come across caster items that are the best armour type for you. Downgrading to cloth is fine at the start just so you can get started with some nice gear. Later on I would recommend you upgrade to leather then mail.
** 2handed weapons and offhand frills aren't recommended when you're leveling since you'll have less armour. However, this is the start of the game so it's fine to equip them until you can find a suitable 1handed weapon and shield.
*** The minimum level you'll have to be to get
Unrelenting Storm
is 30. Your only mana regen until then is from your
Mana Spring Totem
(lvl26) and
Water Shield
(lvl20). It doesn't hurt to get some mp5 times if there's no spell power or intellect available.
Crafted Gear
Nethweniel gave some good pointers on gear you can get from crafting professions:
First of all, some leather and cloth gear which will give you a good start:
1) Crafted cloth armor, levels 10-45.
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.1&filter=minrl=1;maxrl=45;cr=123:86:3;crs=1:11:1;crv=0::
2) Crafted leather armor, levels 10-45.
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.2&filter=minrl=1;maxrl=45;cr=123:86:3;crs=1:11:1;crv=0::
Second, as soon as you hit level 40, you might wanna talk to a dragon- leatherworker buddy and think of replacing some items.
Level 40 to 42: You might want to start and replace your gear with this stuff
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=8198;8189;8191;8185;8347
Note: If you already have good items, you don't have to replace them just for the sake of wearing chainmail. Already got the Dreamweave set (
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=10041;10019;10021
)? Keep it an replace as soon as something much better shows up - and not something only marginally better like the turtle scale stuff.
Level 42+: You might want to buy/craft the following items as well while leveling towards outlands.
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=15048;20295;15045;20296
As soon as you get to outland, elemental gear will be readily accessible to you, so don't bother to go through the hassle to get something crafted for you.
If you are a leatherworker yourself: you can craft some armours almost right away. The only backdraft is, that you wont be able to equip them all at your lower 60ies. They might be a nice addition to quest items though.
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=25659;25661;25660
In your late 60ies you might want to consider the Netherfury set (
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=25694;25693;25692
) as a starterset for Northrend, which you could combine with the nerubian Set you learn to craft as soon as you hit the ice of the north. I would advise against it though: too much hassle for equipment that lives for a maximum of 3 levels.
Instead, start out with the complete nerubian set (
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=38418;38419;38420;38421;38422
) and some quest rewards. This will ease your first few levels. After that you will get some decent gear through instances and crafting (
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.2&filter=minrl=72;maxrl=80;cr=123:86:3;crs=1:11:1;crv=0::
).
Leveling Guides
Want to level fast? Recruit a friend, get some BoA items that increase the exp you get, and read up on
Jame's Horde Leveling Guide
or
Jame's Alliance Leveling Guide
.
There's also an addon for the guide now.
Want a list of the BoA items you can get? I'll let Lighter explain.
Thinking of Leveling an Elemental or Restoration Shaman in style?
Shoulder:
(PvE)
Mystical Pauldrons of Elements
- 40
Emblem of Heroism
(PvP)
Aged Pauldrons of The Five Thunders
- 200
Stone Keeper's Shard
Trinkets:
(PvE)
Swift Hand of Justice
- 50
Emblem of Heroism
(PvE)
Discerning Eye of the Beast
- 50
Emblem of Heroism
(PvP)
Inherited Insignia of the Horde
- 250
Stone Keeper's Shard
Weapons:
(PvE)
Devout Aurastone Hammer
- 50
Emblem of Heroism
(PvP)
The Blessed Hammer of Grace
- 250
Stone Keeper's Shard
Although Mail, these items will turn into Leather when mailed to a <40 Shaman.
The alt in question must be on the same realm realm as the character you will be buying the items with. They must also be on the same faction.
Note: I would recommend the
Headmaster's Charge
for leveling because the stats are higher than what the Mace offers and it gives you Crit.
Final Thoughts
I made this guide in hopes of helping players new to shaman for the 3.0.8 patch. If you notice any mistakes or have suggestions for this guide, I'm all ears :)
If you still think that enhancement is far superior for faster leveling, by all means go for it. Enhancement is not bad for leveling and neither is Elemental. Just remember that Enhancement is not the focus of this thread. Thank you :)
Post by
soccergenius
Cool write up. I know that for leveling the down time for elemental is now next to nothing after lvl 20 with water shield.
I do have one issue with your choice of glyphs though. Once you get lava burst you really should have the flame shock glyph so you can open up with a lava burst and not have to waste a GCD to cast your second one. Plus, flame shock's DoT does a lot of dmg on its own too. Most people will take the flame shock glyph over the flametongue glyph since your most damaging attack, lava burst, will always crit when used correctly.
Post by
CanadianSniper
Cool write up. I know that for leveling the down time for elemental is now next to nothing after lvl 20 with water shield.
I do have one issue with your choice of glyphs though. Once you get lava burst you really should have the flame shock glyph so you can open up with a lava burst and not have to waste a GCD to cast your second one. Plus, flame shock's DoT does a lot of dmg on its own too. Most people will take the flame shock glyph over the flametongue glyph since your most damaging attack, lava burst, will always crit when used correctly.
Sounds reasonable enough. My shaman is only lvl 63 so I have yet to experience Lava Burst :) I will update the glyph section. Thanks!
edit:
It would help this guide a lot if an experienced elemental shaman could notify me on what a great spell rotation is from lvls 75-80.
Post by
windcrusher
Nice guide, however I'd like to point out a few "leveling" errors-
Elemental is not faster than Enhancement pre 60... its not.. no, not even with water shield at 20.
Why?
Poor Itemization. Before you hit outlands, theres next to NO gear that supports a safe elemental leveling. What do I mean by safe? Mail gear with the correct stats on them. Sure, you can probably load up on "of the Eagle" gear, but thats either A) A lucky find on the AH , or, B) Expensive due to preferred twinking stats (server mileage may vary). Which leaves one to downrank gear by picking up leather *which more often than not has stats wasted on +spirit, which is of NO use to a shaman* or even cloth *more options, less armor*, but less armor which means you get hit harder... even with a shield, this does not offset the incoming damage enough to even consider a fair trade. Not untill you hit near the 50s and have a solid elemental leveling spec would leveling become preferable to enhancement. Im sorry but its not.
Can you level as Elemental? Yes, you can, a bit better now than before... but by no means is it close to being faster than enhancement. With water shield at 20, enhancement just got a lot faster, keeping ahead of elemental, by the tim you pick up shamanistic rage, elemental cannot touch the speed which enhance can blow through mobs, even multiple ones. Then when you get the ghost puppies... 0 downtime for enhancement. With elemental, you dont really get to see its mana conservation goodness untill deep in the tree...and you need the correct stats on gear to back it up. Yes you get water shield... but you need to be hit to gain back those bursts of mana, which means while your blue bar goes up, the red bar goes down.
Im not an advocate for enhancement... Ive been elemental since BC released, thanks to them finally putting in caster mail gear to support us *and equally disappointed with WotLK for taking it away again* But I do think you should forewarn the drawbacks to "leveling" an elemental before outlands..after that...both specs equal out in the respective leveling styles in terms of speed.
Diehard Elementals (like me) will try to say otherwise, but reality trumps theorycraft every time. I wish they would go back and rework gear itemization pre-outlands. Other than those small, yet important, points, nice guide and good work.
Post by
CanadianSniper
Nice guide, however I'd like to point out a few "leveling" errors-
Elemental is not faster than Enhancement pre 60... its not.. no, not even with water shield at 20.
Why?
Poor Itemization. Before you hit outlands, theres next to NO gear that supports a safe elemental leveling. What do I mean by safe? Mail gear with the correct stats on them. Sure, you can probably load up on "of the Eagle" gear, but thats either A) A lucky find on the AH , or, B) Expensive due to preferred twinking stats (server mileage may vary). Which leaves one to downrank gear by picking up leather *which more often than not has stats wasted on +spirit, which is of NO use to a shaman* or even cloth *more options, less armor*, but less armor which means you get hit harder... even with a shield, this does not offset the incoming damage enough to even consider a fair trade. Not untill you hit near the 50s and have a solid elemental leveling spec would leveling become preferable to enhancement. Im sorry but its not.
Can you level as Elemental? Yes, you can, a bit better now than before... but by no means is it close to being faster than enhancement. With water shield at 20, enhancement just got a lot faster, keeping ahead of elemental, by the tim you pick up shamanistic rage, elemental cannot touch the speed which enhance can blow through mobs, even multiple ones. Then when you get the ghost puppies... 0 downtime for enhancement. With elemental, you dont really get to see its mana conservation goodness untill deep in the tree...and you need the correct stats on gear to back it up. Yes you get water shield... but you need to be hit to gain back those bursts of mana, which means while your blue bar goes up, the red bar goes down.
Im not an advocate for enhancement... Ive been elemental since BC released, thanks to them finally putting in caster mail gear to support us *and equally disappointed with WotLK for taking it away again* But I do think you should forewarn the drawbacks to "leveling" an elemental before outlands..after that...both specs equal out in the respective leveling styles in terms of speed.
Diehard Elementals (like me) will try to say otherwise, but reality trumps theorycraft every time. I wish they would go back and rework gear itemization pre-outlands. Other than those small, yet important, points, nice guide and good work.
I understand what you're saying. I can only speak from my own experience leveling as elemental and for me it was cheap, fast and easy. Yes I did buy upgrade items in the ah at lvl 20 and 40 but what i bought was cheap. I had an easier time leveling as elemental than I did as enhancement. That's just my experience though. I don't want this to become an enh vs ele war :) Thanks for your input!
Post by
soccergenius
Adding to the previous post, it's easier to find melee leather with decent stats than with caster stats. What this really just means is that we as shaman have to be prepared to wear a lot of cloth armor. I agree that enhancement is still faster than elemental for leveling, but not so much so that people will plainly say, "Don't level as elemental!" You won't be killing things quite as fast as enhancement, but you don't have to drink after every pull, if at all.
If you like casters, go ahead and level as elemental. If you like smacking faces, level as enhancement :P
And for the guide, I think you should mention how with FT on your weapon, the faster the weapon speed the more dmg you'll do, which is helpful while leveling as you'll find yourself melee'ing often.
Post by
windcrusher
Never meant to imply that you shouldn't level as elemental. Bad wording on my part perhaps? I was just pointing out how terrible it is to gear as elemental until outlands. And gear has a direct influence on the speed of leveling, both in dealing damage and reducing incoming damage, both of which mitigate downtime, which slows down leveling speed. I love elemental...can't persuade me to play any other spec (and trust me, my guild has tried).
For leveling 1-60:
1H and Shield- As Soccer suggests, a fast weapon with flametounge does several benefits:
- More chances for FT to crit, which does count as spell crit (and is effected by such) to proc Elemental Focus and Oath.
- Fire bypasses armor, so though your melee attacks may be weaker, FT will do full damage (unless said mob has resistance to fire).
- Glyph of Flametounge gives you a flat 2% crit chance..which, pre outlands, is a hard thing to come by... all your spells will crit more often, be it lightning, healing, or FT itself.
- If you do have to downgrade by picking up leather/cloth..the shields armor will help offset damage taken by a better amount than a regular squishy clothy would get.
Bear in mind, a shaman has very few "OH @#$%!" buttons...elemental even less so. Avoid your downtime by reducing any incoming damage as much as possible.
Glyph of Water Mastery - this will help your mana conservation considerably priot to finding decent MP5 gear, or getting a nice sizable mana pool.
Glyph of Lightning Bolt - used to reduce the mana cost by 10%... this has been changed to increase damage by same amount. It sucks, I know. But, more damage on your main attack means mobs fall faster, which means you get hit less, which means less downtime, which means....*breathe*....faster leveling.
Aside from these tips... stay at max range, nuke, use frost shock if you need to keep distance, dont forget earthbind, and just keep a stack of mana pots on hand. About the best advice I can offer. They really need to go back and fix oldworld gear.
Last note - If you have a high level 80 already and starting a shaman... the heirloom mace and shoulders and 2 of the mana trinkets would take an elemental faaaaaaarrrrrrrr to leveling faster, sickly faster in fact.
Post by
237914
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
CanadianSniper
Thanks for the comments thus far. I made a note on the gear situation some of you mentioned.
Post by
Zakkhar
Hi, my shaman is currently lvl 72, with build similar to your proposition for pve build (with some minor changes, i didint research before talenting - just picked what i thought would be good).
Got to 60 with enh, was thinking about respecing ele and than bam, 3.0.2 and dropping all talents. I had no choice than to respec ele. I had some gear already for it. For PvE i love it. I get a lot pure stats from talents plus my gear aint bad (1k spdmg, 25 crit self buffed), but...
There are always buts....
I am sick and tired of being ganked and dueled by arcane mages, dks, palas, shadow priests etc... Is there any class, i mean any class i can handle 1vs1 with deep ele build?
From my experience i stand no chance against any dk, arcane mage or paladin, i got slight chance against spiriest (this one feared+doted, so the fight was over before i even got out of fear and put tremor/grounding/disease cleansing on).
I am pretty bad at pvping with this char because its an alt and i dont practice pvp with him much - plus i get frustrated too much cause the playstyle is kinda different from my two mains (prot warr, bm hunter).
Or is it just - to be great in pve, you have to suck pvpwise?
Post by
CanadianSniper
Arcane mages hurt. True story. They're just too good against us. All of our anti-mage abilities are spells and arcane mages can silence us from casting them. I've never beaten an arcane mage with my elemental shaman so I can't help you there.
For DKs, kite them. Keep your grounding and disease cleansing totems up at all times. Don't get close. If they pull you in then cast that ice slow spell on you, heal urself first (waiting out the debuff) then thunderstorm. Using thunderstorm right away won't help you since you'll still be snared.
Nuke shadow priests and always purge everything they use.
We can still purge PW: shield right?
(confirmed. yes we can) I'm not exactly sure how the spriest feared you. Did you allow him/her to get close? Drop tremor if that happens (Grounding won't save you from priest fear).
About the guide: I'm currently making a list of good gear in pre-tBC dungeons that you should look for if you find groups.
Post by
Zakkhar
Thanks for the answer.
What i basically experience in attempt to kiting is. Eartbind totem gets a Miss or Resist each tick - dunno which exactly, if i manage to get some distance with frost shock its way too little to be able to cast LB (CL got lower cast speed so i guess i will have to cast that), instants are instants, with 6s cd not enough to hurt your enemy properly. If i start casting LB i will most likely be Interrupted/silenced and i am more or less dead.
I remember i had similar problem with hunter when starting a pvp with him, but hunter has just way more ways to gain range, while as Ele i got only 45s cd Thunderstorm and 6s cd Frost shock combo (as i mentioned earthbind totem doesnt seem to work properly).
guess i for a change need to start ganking allies and practice tacs on them.
Post by
CanadianSniper
I just realized while playing my shaman today that the glyph of lightning bolt was changed from reducing the cost by 10% to increasing the damage by 4%. I fixed this mix up in the guide.
Post by
flashbacknlnl
bump
Post by
Mustangman
Once you reach lvl 75 and get Lava Burst, it's safe to replace your Flametongue Weapon Glyph with Flame Shock. This allows you to open with Lava Burst without consuming the DoT.
If you have both of these
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41532
and
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41536
as your glyphs, why would you choose FT weapon glyph to get rid of?
I'd opt for the 2% crit to spells over 4% extra damage any day.
Post by
CanadianSniper
bump
There's no need for senseless bump posts. If you want to support this guide then you can report for it to be stickied. It's up to you guys if you find it useful.
Once you reach lvl 75 and get Lava Burst, it's safe to replace your Flametongue Weapon Glyph with Flame Shock. This allows you to open with Lava Burst without consuming the DoT.
If you have both of these
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41532
and
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41536
as your glyphs, why would you choose FT weapon glyph to get rid of?
I'd opt for the 2% crit to spells over 4% extra damage any day.
The original argument was that extra crit % wasn't required since you'd be guaranteed a crit every 8 seconds using lava burst in conjunction with flame shock. However I see your point and it's debatable on which you would prefer. I will make note of that in the guide. Thanks :)
I personally would still keep the 4% more damage for LB. This is mainly because I crit very often as a lvl 64 shaman anyways. When I reach lvl 75 and get Lava Burst, I will only keep the flametongue weapon glyph if I'm not critting very often.
This goes for gems as well. I would stack spell power gems regardless of socket colour (unless the socket bonus was very nice) if my crit was already very high.
Post by
fenom
I vote for sticky
Though elemental may not always be the fastest alot of people want to level ele and I think this is a great guide for it
Post by
CanadianSniper
Finally got around to adding the pre-tBC dungeon gear section.
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