Totem Talk: Glyphing for Fire Elemental
by Rich Maloy 
Mar 21st 2010 at 6:00PM
Axes, maces, lightning, fire, frost, and wolves, and best of all, Windfury. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box, pens the enhance side of Totem Talk, and leads the guild Big Crits as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.
After writing last week's article and then this week diving headfirst into some 10s and 25s I felt like the Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem needed some love. I felt even more so after looking at my combat parses for Lich King fights and noticing Fire Nova was my second highest damage ability. The fight is a long one -- a very long one -- and it got me wondering if I could step up my output by glyphing into fire ele. After all, who doesn't want more minions running around doing damage for them?
Fire ele has the potential to be a great glyph: the elemental is another pet doing good damage and we can still cast Fire Nova off the totem. Of course the downsides are deal breakers for the glyph in most cases:
- The pet is leashed to the totem
- Fire Nova's damage is lost if the boss or mobs move away from the totem
- The 5 minute cooldown is still longer than most boss fights
Read more to see when and where it's appropriate to glyph into this.
With the glyph in one of our major slots, the totem will have a 5 minute cooldown. This means that a boss fight at 300 seconds or less then the glyph is a total waste. At 360 seconds you only get an additional 60 seconds (half the totem's total uptime). Then at 420 seconds the glyph allows for two Fire Elementals to run their full duration.
Even on a single target fight having two ele's up will beat out the Glyph of Windfury Weapon-- at least in my sims at Stoney's gear level which includes Black Bruise and Cudgel of Furious Justice, two weapons with high damage numbers that should increase the benefit of glyph of WF. After running a few sims it became clear that even with those weapons and just a single target fight, the fire ele was over the top on longer fights. Add in some adds and it's well worth it.
The next question was, on which fights will the glyph be worth it? I went to World of Logs to find the median boss fight length to decide if we should be glyphing for Fire Ele in these fights. Here's what I found:
| ICC Normal Fight | 10s (secs) | Glyph 10s? | 25s (secs) | Glyph 25s? |
| Lord Marrowgar | 229 | No | 243 | No |
| Lady Deathwhisper | 263 | No | 324 | (1) |
| Gunship Battle | n/a | No | n/a | No |
| Deathbringer Saurfang | 266 | No | 269 | No |
| Festergut | 227 | No | 280 | No |
| Rotface | 219 | No | 304 | No |
| Prof. Putricide | 362 | No | 495 | (2) |
| Blood Prince Council | 300 | No | 317 | No |
| Blood Queen Lana'thel | 283 | No | 318 | No |
| Valithria Dreamwalker | 315 | No | 352 | (3) |
| Sindragosa | 512 | Yes | 510 | Yes |
| The Lich King | 982 | Yes | 968 | Yes |
And for Trial of the Grand Crusader
| ToGC Fight | 10s (secs) | Glyph 10s? | 25s (secs) | Glyph 25s? |
| Northrend Beasts | 400 | (4) | 459 | (4) |
| Lord Jaraxxus | 204 | No | 263 | No |
| Faction Champions | 210 | No | 504 | (5) |
| Twin Val'kyr | 173 | No | 230 | No |
| Anub'arak | 247 | No | 462 | Yes |
There are a few judgment calls in there, which I'll go into greater detail here:
(1) - Ldy Deathwhisper on normal isn't exactly a hard fight. The ele could have a good time attacking the boss but for the most part on normal mode I'd suggest passing on this glyph, unless your guild pushes up towards the 6 minute mark on this fight.
(2) - Professor Putricide in phases 1 & 2 can be done as a high movement fight or as a mostly stationary fight if you follow the strat to tank him directly under the green slime spawn -- something we executed successfully in Big Crits. Phase 3 however is very high movement and it's likely the Ele will get left behind. For this reason I do not recommend glyphing into it for 10s; in 25s it is likely to get used in phases 1 & 2 then be on cooldown for phase 3. Your call.
(3) - Dreamwalker is a high adds fight. Actually as far as tanks & dps are concerned it's an adds-only fight. I really don't recommend the FE glyph unless your guild pushes the upper boundaries of 5-6 minutes in there. Definitely guild dependent decision.
(4) - Northrend Beasts is a long fight and you'll definitely get use of the totem twice, but the odds are high that Icehowl will not be where you want him to be for Fire Novas and you'll lose that damage. I'd say you're better off not using it here.
(5) - Faction Champs have an AoE damage reduction ability so that high DPS guilds can't round them up and AoE 'em down. The Fire Ele does ~25% of its damage as AoE so the output is gimped a bit, plus there's a chance the opponents will target and kill it. Again, I'd say no to this in most circumstances
There are clear cases where this glyph will bring the maximum benefit. Namely, some of the hardest fights: Anub'arak in 25s heroic, plus Sindragosa and The Lich King on 10s and 25s. For this reason I highly recommend having a few stacks of the Glyph of Fire Elemental and Glyph of Windfury Weapon made for switch out on these fights. Use every advantage you can.
May all your hits be crits!
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk, whether reading Mike Sacco's Elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of Restoration or Rich Maloy's Enhancement edition, we have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wetwork Mar 21st 2010 6:21PM
Great article;
1. I had no idea about the information in the article.
2. Backed up with research
3. Solid logic about exceptions, good fight mechanics knowledge!
Nattfod Mar 21st 2010 6:22PM
Mages are free to use their water elementals where they wish, ours should be summoned not brought and leased to a lame totem, same goes for our rocky tank friend, plus he needs a big buff.
Angus Mar 21st 2010 6:46PM
You can't call something that was unable to take 2 hits from correct level mobs 4 levels after you learned him a tank...
Noah Mar 21st 2010 7:11PM
He can if he's a paper tank.
splodesondeath Mar 21st 2010 9:23PM
As a mage, I should mention some differences between Water Elemental and the shaman elementals.
1. Mage WE: 45 seconds, up to 60 talented, unless you glyph it for indefinate time (PvE only, as WE loses his long-range Frost Nova). 3 minute cooldown (can be instantly cut with Cold Snap). Essential part of Frost DPS (the lowest of mage DPS trees)
2. Shaman FE and EE: 2 minute duration. 10 minute cooldown. Not essential to shaman's DPS, but a nice boost.
[WARNING: NO RESEARCH HERE] I would imagine that an Elemental shaman who does not use his Fire Elemental could outdps a Frost Mage using Water Elemental. Frost relies a lot more on the WE, so they don't have to worry about leaving him behind, he's their guardian.
Eldoron Mar 21st 2010 9:55PM
again some troll who wants one class's ability to be totally similar to another. WoW is NOT about giving each class equal spells. Warlocks can fear, so all the classes should be able to do it? The more similar classes get, the more WoW is dying. Add this to the info what developers said: they NEVER wanted classes to have the same abilities, and they NEVER wanted to balance classes against each other in PVP. WoW was clearly a PVE focused game, they only introduced and enhanced PVP later on because many people wanted to play that way and Blizz wanted to satisfy those people to gain players. So don't ever ask for a class spell only because X has similar one but better.
KilanShaman Mar 21st 2010 8:34PM
Your parses are great, but what are your thoughts? How about on 5-mans or in general while questing? Give us your some of your personal feelings.
MikeMachine Mar 22nd 2010 3:06AM
I can see the advantage in 5 mans that you can drop FE every fight as opposed to the first and last fight (speaking in general for 5 mans, I pop FE and BL on the first and last boss).
You can also be more assured that if a rough pull comes along you'll have the FE available to get through. But in general this is always the case if you save FE anyway. I think for 5 mans FE really comes down to personal preference. If you want him around more than once or twice than glyph.
Always liked that about Shaman Enh in general, there are a couple of ways to go about doing damage and glyphing is one of the determining factors.
Stoneybaby Mar 23rd 2010 8:48AM
Personally I would glyph into Fire Nova for 5s. You'll get far more use from constant FNs than a Fire Ele off alone in the corner
Nattfod Mar 21st 2010 9:39PM
however, I would also point out that the other specs don't need it and don't have it, thus it's not a class dependent, all shamans have the elementals, both are underpowered and both are stuck in place, also ele shamans could use an elemental pet just as much as any mage, it would be nice if fire elemental was talented the same as a frost mage's water elemental. if people say armor differences make up for it........frost has kiting abilities shamans wish they had, thus you don't even get hit, whereas our mail isn't as tough as it seems (just ask any shaman who's been 2 shotted by any other melee class).
Titusx Mar 21st 2010 10:21PM
As usual, some great advice to keep in mind. I always wondered when was a good idea to get that glyph... now I get a reasonable logical answer backed with solid data. This guy does things right.
That glyph feels like its almost right but not quite there.
I believe we should get 2 more elementals as part of our arsenal. We are shamans and all the cool storm themed, fire themed and wind themed spells belong to other classes. Elemental totems are one of the awesome things that make being a shaman cool even though one of them is pretty much useless beyond tanking a few non elite mobs for a few seconds here and there.
Rollo Mar 22nd 2010 11:32AM
Actually, that's interesting. There is overlap between druids (nature theme), shaman (elemental theme) as well as some mages (also partially elemental themed.)
As shamans, we also have the spirit world to draw power from. We don't have many spirit themed spells. Rather than pushing other classes away from elemental spells, moving us slightly in the spiritual direction would give us a more unique image.
Res Mar 23rd 2010 8:29AM
Shamans are supposed to be themed around the elements of nature while druids are more themed around animals. Fire and earth are 2 of those elements so those make sense. There is a crossover with mages but shammies shouldn't just be focused on lightning, that would be a bit boring.
I would love to see the elementals re-designed to not just look like flaming voidwalkers though.
Nessie Mar 22nd 2010 12:45AM
I'm surprised Saurfang isn't a yes on this. It's and upwards of a 9 minute fight, single target that doesn't move. Unless the concern is that the elemental would break the CC?
thebitterfig Mar 22nd 2010 2:14AM
minor nitpick: DBS's berserk timer is 8 minutes (so the fight can't last 9 minutes), but that doesn't really cause any problems with your argument, since 7 minutes is the Glyph of Fire Elemental sweet spot. anyhow, it's a great glyph for DBS when you are running pretty close to the berserk timer, and that'll depend on your guild. i'd say this is probably the best glyph to have on your first time on saurfang, and probably for most pugs, too. either one of two outcomes will be present. the first possibility is you'll run deep enough into the fight where you can drop a second elemental, and this is a large dps burst right as you need it most, when he's low health and probably put a mark out on someone. the other is that you'll down him in less than 5 minutes, in which case the lost dps from not using the windfury weapon glyph won't have hindered moderately fast kill.
what this points to is that the median fight length from a large number of guilds isn't quite the best metric for determining when GoFE is a good glyph. for any fight with fairly static positioning (at least for the first 2 minutes and in the last phase) that can potentially last long enough,* this is a great glyph. whether fights last long enough depends on your own raids, and while WoL medians are helpful in guessing when they'll be useful, trust your own experience first
*here is what i don't know. how much of a second Fire Elemental is needed to outperform glyph of windfury weapon? 30 seconds? a minute? the whole 2 minutes? it'd be pretty easy for someone with more info on enhancement shamans to figure this out. start with the dps value of GoWFW, multiply by the fight length, divide by the added dps of a fire elemental over a magma totem, multiply by 120 to find the number of seconds the extra fire elemental needs to be active in order for GoFE to be better than GoWFW. almost everything should be pretty easy to plug in, most glyphs have had their value simmed out pretty clearly, plus the damage dealt by magma and fire elemental totems are known. the two tricky parts are estimating fight length, and the exact impact of the extra gcds you save by not having to keep dropping magma totem every 20 seconds.
icepyro Mar 22nd 2010 8:05AM
Theorizing (is that a word?) on when to use the glyph has me thinking. FE seems to be mostly an enhancement thing. I know this is the enhancement column, but how much damage does it actually do and is there ever a time it's useful for other shamans? I know that's a touch offtopic, but any insight is appreciated.
As for some of the comments I see here: I love the flavor of having the elementals linked to a totem. I don't want to be like a mage or lock with their summoned pets, but the limitations of the leash make it feel quirky. I would love it if you could recast the totem, effectively moving it, infinitely during duration. The elemental is dismissed when duration ends, a different totem is dropped, or the totem is off the ground for more than 3-5 seconds.
Alternatively, (maybe easier to do but admittedly a bit more OP) during the cooldown (since it starts immediately), the elemental can be out for a total of two minutes. So for the next 10 minutes you can have the elemental out whenever you like, but for no more than two minutes total.
Nattfod Mar 22nd 2010 9:53AM
ummmmmmm last time I checked Blizzard intentionally made Shamans and paladins mirrors of each other pre-BC, thus your argument about the company's plans doesn't hold water.
Res Mar 23rd 2010 8:22AM
They might have been considered "mirrors" in the sense that they were opposites, but the argument you're refuting is based on Blizz not wanting classes to be the same with identical abilities which they definitely did not have.
If you were around back then you'd remember when all the Alliance players whined that shammies were ridiculously OP in PVP (and the reason horde won all battlegrounds) and Horde whined that pallies were ridiculously OP in PVE (and the reason alliance got all the world firsts.)
Firestyle Mar 22nd 2010 9:56AM
I'm going to vote no on glyph of fire elemental totem. Mostly, I do this on reliability and control of the elemental.
1. I'd say he has a 1 in 10 chance of going to the corner and baking cookies during any given encounter.
2. Thereafter, I'd say he's got a 3 in 10 chance of trying to kill something you don't want him to - for example the adds on anub p3 hardmode.
I've seen an elemental go nuts on saurfang adds, and then when they die sit there and stare at saurfang from 10 yards for 15seconds before attacking. Overall, consider the fact that a well placed magma totem may provide more dps on the intended target simply because you can control it. This makes the elemental too situational.
Titusx Mar 22nd 2010 1:35PM
Hey, I even fantasise about getting an Air elemental that moves slowly and does solid range damage tailored more for Elemental and a Water elemental that does some healing with some riptides of its own and some water themed stuff.
Perhaps Elemental Shamans could have a nasty talent that lets them drop all 4 at once... but that might be overkill XP. Hey, dreaming is free.
Earth Elemental should be given some actual utility beyond its minor leveling use. Perhaps make it so that all dmg dealt to the shaman go to him instead, like a buffed up stone claw totem and since it cant be used in arenas it wont be such a big PvP buff.
Elemental Totems are cool, no doubt about that... but they are a bit of a let down un their current state. Totems in general are in dire need of revision and retuning of the mechanic as a hole.