Totem Talk: Elemental shaman buffs in patch 4.0.6
by Sarah Nichol 
Feb 10th 2011 at 6:00PM
As ever, when I logged in to patch 4.0.6 (on the EU servers, of course), I spent a good amount of time cooing over the little changes. Even with the PTR, there is a lot that goes unremarked or unnoticed simply because I'm so focused on the theory changes. I bid farewell to a large pot of archaeology grays and was uncommonly happy about the appearance of the Elementium Stormshield graphic and the ability to mount up next to the Stormwind flight master. I am ecstatic about the graphic changes to healing spells. The watery hands effect on Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge and Healing Wave has turned me into a smug shaman. The spell effect is a small change, but it adds a great deal to the flavor of the shaman class -- even if many people on my Twitter don't like the sound effects.
A couple of weeks ago, I was not impressed by the changes to our spells as they were on the PTR at that time. In the end, the changes have been a little more substantial and subtle, but the overall fragility of our DPS in heavy movement fights will remain an issue for those of us that raid. What has this patch wrought for us? Stronger AoE, a more powerful flame nuke, increased efficiency and a change that will have us shocking our socks off. Let's talk about some of the changes, after the jump.
Shaman
- Hex now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
- Purge now dispels a single effect instead of two.
- Spiritwalker's Grace duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 10.
- Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown.
- Earthquake damage has been increased by approximately 10%.
- Elemental Overload (Mastery) procs of Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning can now generate Rolling Thunder charges.
- Lava Burst's damage has been increased by roughly 10%.
- Earthquake's mana cost is now correctly reduced by Elemental Focus' clearcasting proc.
- Elemental Oath properly increases the damage of Earthquake.
- Player movement speed cannot be reduced below 100% while in Ghost Wolf if the player is or has been in an indoor environment.
- Reincarnation can now correctly be used after Soulstone Resurrection or Rebirth has already been used on the shaman during a boss encounter.
Lava Burst gets a buff
The 10% buff to Lava Burst is a straight-up buff, as the developers increased both the base damage and the spell coefficient. As a result, Glyph of Lava Burst is now one of our two main prime glyphs. Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem is worth swapping in for any fight over 7 minutes, but that's nothing new and is a decision that is reliant on your ability to maximize the useage of Fire Elemental Totem. For most fights, elemental shaman will be choosing between Glyph of Flame Shock and Glyph of Flametongue Weapon to fill that third prime slot.
As far as our AoE is concerned, Earthquake has been buffed and now benefits from Elemental Oath and Clearcasting, so try to be sure that Clearcasting is up when you start casting to benefit. This will make fights with AoE phases such as Coreborus, Magmaw and Maloriak easier to handle, especially for fresh raiding shaman.
Rolling Thunder and shock management
The changes to elemental are deeper than they appear, in the grand tradition of the "simple" elemental spec that actually has a great deal of intricacy in the details. The choice of third glyph is more crucial now that Rolling Thunder has a chance to proc from overloads of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. This change to Rolling Thunder results in a noticeable difference to the speed at which Lightning Shield stacks up. Waiting for a full nine-stack Fulmination is to risk losing two charges of Lightning Shield, and as the amount of haste on our gear increases, Earth Shock is almost ready to use again as soon as the cooldown is up.
Going back to Glyph of Flame Shock, I feel that this glyph will be even more important as the faster stacking of Lightning Shield will bring the shared shock cooldowns into conflict with increasing frequency. While a straight-up comparison between Glyph of FTW and Glyph of FS would imply that 2% crit is a more pure damage increase, the value of easing shock management cannot be underestimated. The improvement to our mana regeneration also makes Reverberation even more attractive and devalues Convection. Even when lacking a replenishment, I haven't felt the need to spec back into the mana cost reduction talent.
Mastery vs. haste battle continues
As ever, I really recommend simming and spreadsheeting your own gear to figure out the the best options for you and your gear setup. That said, the change to Rolling Thunder does mean that haste and mastery are on average much closer in value once again. There will be peaks and troughs in the value of both stats due to the incremental nature of mastery and mini-haste thresholds such as an extra Flame Shock tick; however, in a live environment, these points are largely irrelevant. Crit remains relatively weak, so it is still our main target for reforging after excess spirit and hit.
Gemming in 4.0.6
If you haven't already, you should be re-gemming with Brilliant Inferno Ruby nearly all the way, but consider your socket bonuses carefully and be prepared to use a Purified Demonseye in blue sockets and a mixture of Reckless Ember Topaz and Artful Ember Topaz for yellow sockets. Bonuses worth grabbing are mastery, haste, and of course intellect bonuses. Crit bonuses can be ignored, as 40 intellect gives more crit than the bonus! It is also best to ignore spirit/hit bonuses when over the 16-17% cap. The value of intellect means that pure mastery or haste gems are never preferable to an orange gem.
Ideally, we should all be grabbing Burning Shadowspirit Diamond, but if you would rather wait until prices come down (or a guildie gets the cut), then Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond is an acceptable alternative, if you don't feel the 54 intellect is worth the auction house price tag.
DPSing on the move
I'm hoping the Rolling Thunder change will also alleviate our movement problems. The speed of LS charge stacking will mean that any movement is likely to coincide with a fair chunk of Fulmination damage to unload on a single target. The use of this will of course still be restricted by the shared cooldown, but Earth Shock is now a prime spell to use when on the move, with Unleash Elements as a good backup.
I'm not going to complain about the extended duration of Spiritwalker's Grace, as we can definitely use every tool Blizzard gives us when it comes to mobile DPS. Is it enough? It remains to be seen. Unleash Elements remains a great spot spot for small movements, but Spiritwalker's Grace is a lot more flexible and can be used for things like laying down a Healing Rain on the Feud spot or casting Earthquake while moving back to the ranged pile after a Pillar of Flame. I treat this spell like a trinket -- there is little point trying to save it for some special occasion, so I use it as often and as soon as I can unless I have a definite plan. Otherwise prioritize Earth Shock, or use an Unleash Elements+Flame Shock combo when forced to move. Always Be Casting still remains true.
Yet another keybind
Ah yes, those PvP tweaks. The result for a raiding shaman is that Tremor Totem needs to be much more easily accessible as a quick cast as a opposed to being pre-cast and planned for. In the past, I selected it in my totem stomp when I knew a fear was involved in a fight, but now we'll need to be able to cast it quickly, so make some space for it on your bars. There is a lot of grousing about this change, but having a raidwide fear break brings us a raid utility cooldown. Not quite the same as those healing cooldowns our restoration kin are after, but I like the uniqueness and activity involved in this new totem design.
A positive result
Well, I do adore this spec, so I'm unlikely to be entirely grumpy after any patch, but 4.0.6 has left me feeling positive and intrigued for what the future holds for the spec. With so many classes being balanced, I haven't entirely had the chance to get a real comparison going, but my early tests lead me to believe that the elemental spell priority is even more active and dynamic than when the 31-point talent trees were launched. I would have liked the developers to invest a little more time in the totem AI, but despite the panic about the state of shaman in general for progression raiding; we're doing just fine for the average player.
If you've got any questions for me, don't hesitate to email me, and if you've got a resto off-spec, check out Joe's restoration shaman 4.0.6 survival guide.
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk. Ready to take your elemental shaman up to the new level cap? We'll help you get to level 85 with our guide to leveling an elemental shaman. Check out our Cataclysm 101 for elemental shaman, or pick up our pre-raid gearing guide.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Necromann Feb 10th 2011 6:31PM
I like the new healing spell effects.
JianaMax Feb 10th 2011 8:45PM
You really should level you shaman up.
Biskit333 Feb 10th 2011 7:01PM
I have a quick question for either the writer or fellow commenters. Currently I am mainspec Resto and offspec Enhancement, but I am considering switching to Ele for my offspec due to the similar gear structure for Resto and Ele. Is it viable to use a gearset optimized for Resto while dpsing as Ele? I know some secondary stat weights are different, will I be gimped for Ele if I reforge away from mastery for example? On a related note, do you think Ele is in a good spot right now in comparison to Enh, both playstyle and dps wise?
Thanks for the advice everyone!
Boobah Feb 10th 2011 7:23PM
Your biggest problem (or at least, my biggest problem...) with trying to share gear between elemental and resto is that Elemental has a spirit/hit cap. In 5-mans, you'll be sitting on absurd amounts of hit that will do nothing for you; I suspect the problem repeats itself in raids once you start getting raid-geared.
The other stats all have uses, even if elemental wants to reforge all its crit away while most advice for resto I've seen recommends the same for mastery (though I can't call it a bad stat.)
It's certainly doable, but you need to decide ahead of time which is your main spec for enchanting/gemming/reforging purposes. Then, as you gear up, you can pick up alternate pieces that let you fine tune things like your hit cap or whatever.
Mahram Feb 10th 2011 8:20PM
It is absolutely possible, though not optimal. I currently am doing that very thing, and with the spirit-to-hit conversion, you can definitely do some nice DPSing.
For now my healer gear is my DPS gear, but I'm starting to pick up pieces dedicated to DPS, and the gemming/reforging/enchanting is different; it's VERY nice not to carry around 2 sets of gear, but eventually I'm gonna have to have a dedicated DPS set if I want to min/max to the fullest.
But go to it! It's a blast for sure. I was enhance for Wrath, and the only thing I miss about it is my Ghost Wolves.
Nopunin10did Feb 10th 2011 9:34PM
Other than the spirit/hitcap problem another person mentioned, your other biggest problem is Crit.
For resto shaman, Crit is probably our best reforge-able stat. It is the only stat (other than intellect) that increases both Healing-per-second and Healing-per-mana. According to this article, Crit ain't so great for elemental.
If you only plan to use the Resto spec in group settings, though, Elemental is a cost-effective option. Optimized or not, you can do some real damage in Resto gear as you're doing daily quests or other solo activities without having to invest in new enchants, gems, or reforges.
Boozard Feb 10th 2011 11:21PM
one thing you also have to consider is when you start collecting the T11 set. the set bonuses are, of course, tailored for one or the other meaning you wont benefit from the healing set bonuses while in elemental mode and vice versa. at one point you really are going to be bringing 2 sets of gear if you intend to be completely proficient in both roles.
StormDance Feb 10th 2011 7:31PM
Did they really fix Rolling Thunder procing from LO procs? I was under the impression that it was still broken from Bashiok's post on Tuesday.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/157055/lo-not-procing-rolling-thunder
Kilseker Feb 10th 2011 7:34PM
I have to say I stopped and chuckled when I read "Totem of FTW."
Kilseker Feb 10th 2011 7:35PM
*Glyph* Damn I could use an edit button :(
Ocidaar Feb 10th 2011 7:44PM
You can definitely share gear between the two specs, but you'll be better off if also create two or three sets of gear and optimize each for the each role.
Restoration: No real upper limit on spirit other than balancing with throughput.
Elemental: Spirit to get 6% hit.
Elemental Boss: Spirit to get 17% hit.
In 4.0.6, the sweet spot between the two specs is Mastery.
Resto: Crit == Mastery > Haste.
Elemental: Haste == Mastery > Crit.
Early on, shoot for the highest iLevel items, and accept that you may not have the perfect item for the slot; reforge as necessary to balance out your stats. It doesn't take long running heroics before you'll have multiple items that can fill each slot; reforge each item for the role it is best for, then gem and enchant them appropriately.
timcarroll Feb 10th 2011 7:46PM
Er, slightly garbled that first sentence while editing it, so to clarify: Create multiple sets of gear. Each set of gear should select items that optimize for the stats needed for one of your specs.
Pyromelter Feb 10th 2011 7:59PM
First, I want to just say I love what you are doing with this column Miss Pewter.
With that out of the way, I want to comment on a few things. Let's start with this one:
"In the end, the changes have been a little more substantial and subtle, but the overall fragility of our DPS in heavy movement fights will remain an issue for those of us that raid. What has this patch wrought for us? Stronger AoE, a more powerful flame nuke, increased efficiency and a change that will have us shocking our socks off."
Maybe this is me, but I like that the challenge for elementals is in the "shoot 'n scoot" mentality that formerly dominated hunter dps. Since hunters can now auto shoot while moving, that removes part of their skill set that they need, and I think that's fine, since their rotations are a bit more complicated than they once were. Shaman dps is also more complicated than it was in wrath, but is still one of the most simple dps rotations in the game.
To that end, making dps on the move difficult is a-okay with me, with one caveat. On a straight "stand and nuke" fight, elemental shaman should be either at the top or within 5% of the top dps spec. Now there really isn't any more Patchwerk type fights, but this should be the standard. Once you start moving, your dps goes down more than other classes. The reason I'm okay with this, is that the "shoot 'n scoot" type of dps is something that I consider to be a more pure style of dps. When doing dps like this, your goal is to move as little as possible, and therefore you push the margins of movement in fights. Meaning that if a patch of "fire" appears under your feet, you attempt to strafe just to the very edge of that fire, and no more. Or, even better, let's say you recognize that fire with .5 seconds left on your lava burst spell channel. Do you wait that extra .5 to move, or do you cancel and move now? Or, how well do you utilize spiritwalkers grace and elemental mastery?
This tests your mastery of the fight mechanics more than other classes that can almost run ad-nauseum without hardly ever having to stop.
The caveat to this is that stand and nuke DPS MUST be higher than every other class, because ele's are poor on the run, no matter how masterful you are of the encounter and your class skills. This is where I fear shaman will be lacking, because blizzard pretty much has never let shaman top the meters in such a way.
" The improvement to our mana regeneration also makes Reverberation even more attractive and devalues Convection"
Convection, IMO is and always was a waste of talent points. I don't remember if that was the name of the mana reducing talent in wrath, but I remember even then, there was a talent in the enhance tree that reduced the mana cost of shock spells by 45% that was considered a "standard" talent back then. I never used it, opting instead for a point in the talent that increased damage of Fire Nova. The only time I ever had any kind of mana issue was when I first hit level 80 on my shaman and I was in all quest blues and greens. The only thing I had to do then was use Thunderstorm between mob pulls. I think I still have about 10 stacks of kungaloosh on him from training cooking and never needing to drink for mana.
"and a change that will have us shocking our socks off."
I agree, especially if you are high on mastery. There is a good chance in the near future that most shaman will be using earth shock every time it comes off of cooldown with that change (not a bad thing IMO). This will also improve DPS on-the-move, so I agree where you said, "The speed of LS charge stacking will mean that any movement is likely to coincide with a fair chunk of Fulmination damage to unload on a single target. "
" I treat this spell like a trinket -- there is little point trying to save it for some special occasion, so I use it as often and as soon as I can unless I have a definite plan. "
I also believe this is the best way to utilize it, unless you know some boss ability is coming that is going to require you to move.
"I haven't entirely had the chance to get a real comparison going, but my early tests lead me to believe that the elemental spell priority is even more active and dynamic than when the 31-point talent trees were launched."
I think the main thing is you are going to be casting earth shock more than before, and your shared shock cooldown is going to almost always be on cooldown. Not a huge change, but one that makes ele shaman better on the run, and with the other changes, ele shaman should definitely be seeing a boost in DPS. Not too happy about the nerf to tremor totem, but it's understandable, and the dps buffs more than make up for it IMO.
One final note regarding meta gems:
The old Chaotic Skyflare Diamond from WotLK will be a LOT cheaper than the shadowspirit diamonds. If you have a blue helm, like, say http://www.wowhead.com/item=62407 , you can pop one of those cheapo meta gems in there for a nice boost without breaking your bank, and having that +3% crit damage in your helm will help a lot with that lower gear level. Go for the more expensive meta gems once you have an epic helm or a heroic blue helm.
tl;dr - Pewter is awesome, I like the shaman changes, shaman are now better on the run, still require skill on the run, dps should improve significantly, mana never was and still is not an issue for ele shaman, more earth shocking fulmination for the win, and use CSkyflareD instead of BSD for your meta in lower ilevel helms.
Pyromelter Feb 11th 2011 1:01AM
Ouch, the was a helluva wall of text. Almost a whole shaman article I wrote there myself. Worth a read if you're a shaman lover like I am though :)
Sarah Nichol Feb 11th 2011 4:38AM
I love comments like this, I should nab you to guest post at my blog sometime ;)
I've never been a fan of speccing for mana efficiency, although I did have an offspec with it for use on Magma to help a little bit with managing Earthquake mana drain, but one or two gear upgrades and proper thunderstorm use/glyph of thunder and use of magma totem made that unneeded. And then we changed to the kiting tactic so I got to single target nuke. Ahem.
I also like our turrent style, to a certain extent. I'd prefer them to review totems (and totem AI) than give us more to do on the move, and I feel these changes are 'enough' to make DPS more interesting. Also gief a decent Fulmination spell effect. It's a big pay off, it deserves pretty!
On ChaoticSky, ChaoticShadow is getting pretty damn cheap now as well (I've seen it anywhere from 100g to 300g) as all JCers will have access to that pattern. BSD seems to sell for around 900g+ so really only worth it for epic hats.
Crimson Feb 11th 2011 4:41AM
Wall of text crits you for OVER 9000!!! ;)
Lol nice post Pyromelter
Freak Mojo Feb 10th 2011 8:14PM
I just dusted off my shammy and specced Elemental. Has the leveling build changed with this patch at all? I'm only at 65, so I've got time to read up on things. But damn is it fun right now :-)
Sarah Nichol Feb 11th 2011 4:40AM
No, it's pretty much the same - pick up those core DPS talents and lament that you're locked out of the enhancement tree until you hit 31 talent points.
iain Feb 10th 2011 8:59PM
So who else noticed that our elemental totems no longer have a collective 2min cd?
Fire an earth can both be up together!
Pyromelter Feb 11th 2011 12:59AM
Don't earth elementals still taunt? Pretty sure you'd only want to hit that one if the boss is under 2% and all your tanks are chomping on the floor.
Anyway, blizzard needs to do 3 things to make totems (and therefore shaman buffs) to be viable:
1. 60 minute duration on all buff totems. (strength of earth, windfury, mana spring, flametongue, etc)
2. 100 yard radius area off effect on all buff totems.
3. All buff totems persist through death of the shaman, like any other buff or battle standard. Combat totems like searing or earthbind can disappear.
Does that remove the uniqueness of totems? Absolutely. But Blizzard themselves "normalized" all buffs, and classes are not supposed to be brought to raids specifically for x or y buff anymore. This would simply even the playing field. It's just not right that Blessing of Might is superior to strength of earth and mana spring totem combined.