Elemental Shaman PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Elemental Shaman Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play an Elemental Shaman in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build takes the standard Elemental Shaman talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Flame Shock
• Glyph of Lava Burst
• Glyph of Unleashed Lightning

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Chain Lightning
• Glyph of Lightning Shield
• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Astral Recall
• Glyph of Renewed Life
• Glyph of Water Walking

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby, or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Artful Lava Coral or Artful Ember Topaz
• Blue
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +10 Intellect, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Purified Shadow Spinel or Purified Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves – Haste (cheaper) with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Ghostly Spellthread or Sanctified Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Mastery
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Hurricane (cheaper)
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

Spirit gives an equal amount of Hit Rating (because of Elemental Precision), so you can take either stat to increase Hit.

• Intellect
• Hit Rating/Spirit (to 17% spell hit cap)
• Mastery
• Haste
• Critical Strike

Single Target Rotation

Cast spells using the following priority:

• Use Flame Shock and maintain on target, refresh when there are 3 or less seconds left
• Use Searing Totem and maintain
• Use Lava Burst on cooldown
• Use Earth Shock at 7-9 Lighting Shield stacks
• Use Lightning Bolt as filler

Multi Target Rotation

If enemies are spread out, just maintain Flame Shock on as many foes as possible, and use the Single Target rotation on one. If the enemies are in the same area:

• 2 enemies
  • Use Flame Shock and maintain on both
  • Use Single Target rotation on one enemy, but use Chain Lightning instead of Lightning Bolt
• 3 enemies
  • Use Magma Totem instead of Searing Totem
  • Use and maintain Flame Shock on as many enemies as possible
  • Use Earth Shock at 9 Lightning Shield stacks
  • Use Chain Lightning on cooldown
• 4-5 enemies
  • Use Chain Lightning on cooldown
• 6+ enemies
  • Use Thunderstorm on cooldown
  • Use Earthquake on cooldown
  • Use Chain Lightning on cooldown

Cooldowns

• Use Elemental Mastery on cooldown, ideally before casting Lightning Bolt because of its long cast time
• Fire Elemental Totem and Earth Elemental Totem should be used whenever your elementals can attack the boss uninterrupted for 2 minutes
• Use Spiritwalker’s Grace whenever you need to move so that you can keep casting while doing so
• Use Thunderstorm as both a mana management tool and as your AoE vs large groups of enemies