Elemental Shaman DPS PVE Guide – WotLK

Welcome to the PVE Elemental Shaman DPS Guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King!

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

The four talents marked with blue are replaceable.

Spend those four talent points depending on the raid, your gear, and the encounter. Sometimes you need to instantly go into the Spirit Wolf form to avoid damage. Sometimes, when you can get hit by AoE damage it’s best to take Elemental Warding. Improved Fire Nova is taken more when you have BiS gear, for maximizing your damage.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Totem of Wrath
• Glyph of Lightning Bolt
• Glyph of Lava

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Renewed Life
• Glyph of Water Shield
• Glyph of Water Walking or Glyph of Water Breathing

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

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow: Potent Ametrine
• Blue: Glowing Dreadstone

If you lack Hit Rating or Haste, use these: Veiled Ametrine & Reckless Ametrine

• Head – Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Sapphire Spellthread
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Icewalker
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Black Magic or Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower
• Shield – Enchant Shield – Greater Intellect

1. Flame Shock
2. Lava Burst
3. Elemental Mastery
4. Lightning Bolt

Everything else is used when cooldown goes off. If needed, use also Chain Lightning.

Stat Priority

1. Hit
2. Spell Power
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike Rating
5. Intellect

Elemental Shaman requires 17% of spell hit to always hit the target. 3% can be gained from the Elemental Precision talent, additionally 1% from Heroic Presence. Target debuffs like Misery and Improved Faerie Fire reduce the requirement by another 3%.

Spell Power is the most reliable stat for Elemental Shamans as it increases the effectiveness of all spells. Stack it as much as possible. Haste is another vital stat for this spec. Ideally, the target is to reduce the casting time of both Chain Lightning, and Lava burst down to 1 second. We can reduce the cooldown to 1 second by getting 33.67% of Haste (or 1100 haste rating, while buffed).

Critical Strike Rating is a secondary stat that should be received mainly from gear. The soft cap for crit is 40%, and the maximum amount of crit that can be achieved without sacrificing too much from other stats is roughly 70%. Intellect is our core stat which increases our overall mana pool, mana regeneration and is partially converted into spell crit.