Content: 

Introduction 
Playstyle 
Changes Cataclysm ----> Mists of Pandaria 
Races 
Glyphs/Talents 
Stats caps etc. 
Spell Priority 

 


Mists of Pandaria has brought a large amount of changes with it. 
This guide will contain everything u need to know for Elemental Shaman DPS for patch 5.4.8. 
(Guide will be updated from time to time(as fixes,dungeons and raids are getting released) 
 

Playstyle 
Elemental is the ranged caster damage specialisation of Shaman. It relies on a number of cooldown based spells for damage, along with a single dot and a charge/expend ability. It also has a number of damage & utility spells in the form of totems, the signature ability for Shaman, and can assist with some off-spec heals if necessary (especially with talents).It is the most armoured of caster specs thanks to mail & shields. 
 

Changes Cataclysm ----> Mists of Pandaria 
As all other classes Shamans gained some spells at the cost of losing some. 
(None of the Great things came without punishment) 

New spells: 
Ascendance 
One of the new DPS cooldowns gained by Shamans. 
In our case it will allow us to cast Lava Burst without cooldown being triggered and Chain Lightning will be morphed into Lava Beam. 
Lasts 15seconds and also morphs us into Flame Ascendant. 
Capacitor Totem 
This is one of the new totems.It has 5seconds charge time after placing it(if glyphed charge time is reduced by 2seconds) 
After getting fully charged this totem will discharge and stun all enemies within of 8yards of the totems location for 5 seconds. 
Healing Tide Totem NEW 5.4 
This totem was actually a talent from patch 5.1 to 5.3.Now it was changed to baseline cooldown, all 3 specs can use it. 
This is an AoE healing cooldown with a 40-yard radius so its position will not matter much. 
Healing Stream Totem 
HST was changed.It is no longer permanent.Now it has 15seconds duration with 30seconds cooldowns.It can be improved byRushing Streams talent. 
Stormlash totem 
One of the new DPS cooldowns gained by Shamans. 5minutes cooldown with 10seconds duration. Empowers everyone with Lightning making their any spell or hit cause bonus Nature damage. 
 

Races 
Mist of Pandaria has brought Pandarens as a new race in World of Warcraft.Among many classes which Pandarens are able to pick Shamans are among them. 
Pandarens by themselves are neutral,that is untill they finish starting chain quest in order to chose their faction. Horde orAlliance 
Meanwhile Horde and Alliance still have same races which are able to pick Shamans. 
Racial Bonuses 
Alliance: Pandaren >= Draenei > Dwarf 
Although if you value Draenei as worth 340 hit rating rather than 340 of the highest out of Crit/Haste/Mastery it ranks in first place. 

Horde: Troll >= Orc > Pandaren > Goblin > Tauren 
Pandaren bonuses only last while you have a food buff present. 
Troll & Orc are fairly interchangeable. Orcs will gain more from a talent like Primal Elementalist. 
 

Glyphs / Talents as Elemental Shaman 
Mists of Pandaria changed our talent systems. Now we get to pick 1 out of 3 talents per tier on 15th, 30th, 45th, 60th, 75th, 90th level. 
Tome of the Clear Mind is now the item we use in order to change our talents pre-boss fight. 
Tier 1 talents: Astral Shift, Nature's Guardian, Stone Bulwark Totem 

All three have valid uses; Nature's Guardian has the lowest CD, and with constant damage incoming, will provide more damage reduction more consistently, but isn't under your direct control and may trigger when unwanted. For predictable spikes, Nature's Guardian is better for single big hits, and Stone Bulwark totem better for ongoing small amounts of damage. Which is "better" depends on the circumstances of the encounter. 

Tier 2 talents: Earthgrab totem Windwalk Totem Frozen Power 
Second tier totems are CC ones or Anti-CC ones. 
Windwalk works like a Raid-wide Hand of Freedom while Earthgrab roots/slows everything in its range.Frozen Power is not worth taking. 

Tier 3 talents: Call of the Elements Totemic Projection Totemic Persistance 
There will be no static or right choise among these 3 as Totemic Persistance does not allow you to use 2 Fire totems at same time. 
Call of the Elements will not reset cooldown on Fire elemental nor Earth elemental totem,therefor u get no dps increase (however Healing Stream totem,Tremor totem,etc will get reseted),while Totemic Projection can be used to move Magma totem inside the pack of mobs. 
So on this tier u gotta pick by the "feeling" 

Tier 4 talents: 
Ancestral Swiftness,Echo of the Elements,Elemental Mastery 

Echo of the Elements is slighty winning over other 2 talents,however Echo of the Elements is limited per 1 proc in 4seconds in PvP. 
Tier 5 talents: 
Ancestral Guidance Conductivity Rushing Streams 
Ancestral Guidance is by far THE best choice u can make on this tier.It scales directly with damage and the 40% value is applied to each target. 3 targets x40% = 120%. Meaning if u do 100k dps you would have 1.2milion healing done in 10seconds 
Conductivity would need raid to be stacked for a long time at same spot in order to be usefull. 
Tier 6 talents: 
Elemental Blast Primal Elementarist Unleashed Fury 
All 3 talents are viable choice. Primal Elementarist would be choice for bosses/fights with serious burn phases.While Unleashed Fury and Elemental Blast are pretty close to eachother.If u can manage with another cast in your priority take it.If not and fight will have a lot of moving take Unleashed Fury. 
 

Glyphs are mostly your choice however I do advise you to use Chain Lightning and Flame Shock 
 

Stats 

Intellect:Our main source of Spellpower and also increases crit chance slightly. 
Spirit: With the specialization passive Elemental Precision this is identical to Hit Rating. 
Critical Strike Rating: This stat increases our chance to deal additional (250% because of our passive Elemental Fury, and bumped up to 259% with the Chaotic meta gem) damage on every spell that we cast. 
 Haste Rating: Increases cast speed and dot tick rates. Actually works on increasing the number of spells cast in a given period of time, so that 100% haste doubles the number of casts. 
Hit Rating: 15% spell hit is required to hit raid bosses & level 93 targets. Any excess hit has no effect on your output, but it is important to be at or over that 15% cap. 340 rating per 1%, 5100 rating required for 15%, 4760 rating for 14%. 
Mastery Rating: Mastery increases the chance for Elemental Overload procs, duplicating Elemental Blast, Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and Chain Lightning casts at 75% strength. 
Elemental stat priority: Intellect > Hit/Spirit to 15% cap > Haste >= Mastery > Crit 
 

Gems and Enchants 
Gems 
Meta: Burning Primal Diamond / Sinister Primal Diamond 
Blue: Purified Imperial Amethyst / Veiled Imperial Amethyst / Energized Wild Jade / Lightning Wild Jade 
Red: Brilliant Primordial Ruby / Reckless Vermilion Onyx 
Yellow: Reckless Vermilion Onyx / Artful Vermilion Onyx / Quick Sun's Radiance 
 
Enchants 

Shoulder: Greater Crane Wing Inscription or Crane Wing Inscription 
Chest: Glorious Stats 
Legs: Greater Cerulean Spellthread or Greater Pearlescent Spellthread 
Hands: Greater Haste or Superior Mastery 
Feet: Pandaren's Step 
Wrist: Super Intellect 
Back: Superior Intellect 
Main Hand: Jade Spirit > Windsong > Elemental Force 
Off Hand: Major Intellect 

 

Priority Lists 
Single Target, Stationary 

1.Cast Flame Shock IF the DoT has expired or has 1 tick remaining. 
2.IF you have the L90 talent Unleashed Fury, cast Unleash Elements 
3.Cast Lava Burst IF it is off cooldown AND Flame Shock is on the target 
4.IF you have the L90 talent Elemental Blast, cast Elemental Blast 
5.Cast Earth Shock IF Lightning Shield is at 6-7 charges. Note: It is possible to pre-cast this with 3 or more charges if you need to recast Flame Shock shortly (ie: the dot has more than 5 seconds remaining) 
6.Use Fire Elemental Totem IF the cooldown has expired 
7.Drop Searing Totem IF you have no active fire totem AND Fire Elemental Totem cooldown has more than 15 seconds remaining 
8.Cast Lightning Bolt 

 

Extra Notes 

Do not use Unleash Elements in a single target rotation without Unleashed Fury 
Chain Lightning is not a DPS gain over Lightning Bolt. This is because Chain Lightning has a 1/3 modifier on Elemental Overload procs, which reduces both the damage dealt and lowers the number of Rolling Thunder procs. Chain Lightning also has a much higher mana cost, which will consume all of your mana very quickly or cause you to waste time by using Thunderstorm to regenerate mana. 
Even with the change to Lava Burst so that it always crits, the 50% bonus damage when Flame Shock is on the target means that you always want to use Lava Burst when Flame Shock is on the target. It is OK to use it on target swaps without waiting for the shock cooldown as it now deals more damage than Lightning Bolt when Flame Shock is not on the target. 
 

Movement 

With the removal of the Glyph of Unleashed Lightning in 5.3 (allowed Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving but with a permanent -5% cast time penalty) and merging the casting-while-moving function into the base version of Lightning Bolt, there is only one way to handle mobile DPS now. 

Use the stationary rotation as the only spell you can't cast on the move is Lava Burst except when Lava Surge procs. For that you can either stop to cast it or pop Spiritwalker's Grace if you absolutely have to keep moving. Often players will add Spiritwalker's Grace into their Ascendance macro to ensure that there are no movement penalties while it is up. 
 

Multitarget 
Two to Five Targets 

Cleaving: 
Single target rotation & substitute Chain Lightning (either glyphed or unglyphed) in place of Lightning Bolt 
AoE 
Cast Chain Lightning (either glyphed or unglyphed) on the highest target. 
 

Six or more targets 

Cast Magma Totem before the AoE phase begins or of there are 7+ targets. If you have Totemic Projection, use it to reposition the totem for maximum effect 
Cast Earthquake targets 
Cast Chain Lightning 
 

Cooldown Use 
Depending on your talent choices, you will have between three and four cooldowns. 

Ascendance 
For Elemental, Ascendance turns you into a Flame Ascendant for 15 seconds, removing the cooldown on Lava Burst and turning Chain Lightning into Lava Beam. This ability should primarily be used for single target damage, and should be combined with other cooldowns like Elemental Mastery or on-use trinkets. For maximum effect, it should be used when Lava Burst is on cooldown, as it resets the current cooldown when activated. 
It can also be used to boost the effectiveness of Chain Lightning during AoE phases, which changes into Lava Beam. 
Earth Elemental Totem 
Earth Elemental Totem isn't that powerful when compared to other cooldowns, only adding roughly 0.8% to your total damage, but it contributes about as much damage as a single Lava Burst cast over a minute duration (with a five minute cooldown). The only catch is that you can't use any other Earth Totems while it is up, which includes Earthbind Totem and Tremor Totem. Only cast it in place of a Lightning Bolt while Fire Elemental Totem is on cooldown for longer than one minute, and only if you don’t need to use other earth totems while it is up. 
Elemental Mastery 
If you take Elemental Mastery as your Level 60 talent then you use it in conjunction with Ascendance and Fire Elemental Totem whenever possible. It is safe to stack it with either Bloodlust or the Sinister Primal Diamond proc, but try to avoid having all three up at the same time, if possible. 
Fire Elemental Totem 
Fire Elemental Totem is your second high damage cooldown, dealing approximately 5% of your totaldamage (or ~26% of your DPS while it is up), and lasts for either 1 minute with a 5 minute cooldown, or for 36 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown if you use Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem. It should be used with any cooldowns you can use with it, except for Mastery procs as Fire Elementals are not affected by Elemental Overload. If you take the Primal Elementalist talent the damage output is roughly doubled. 
Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem 
This glyph is a damage gain or loss depending on the fight duration, but given that most fights will have an unpredictable end it may be better to use it so you can sync it with Ascendance. Even though there's no direct interaction between the two abilities, you can combine them both with other cooldowns (potions, Bloodlust/Heroism, Elemental Mastery, trinkets etc) for higher burst damage. 


Gearing list(s) 
Pre-raid - Heroic Dungeons + BoE epics / crafted epics 
Head: 
Waterburst Helm ( Jade temple,Wise Mary heroic ) 
Neck: 
Dorian's Necklace of Burgeoning Dreams (BoE World Drop) 
Mending Necklace of the Golden Lotus (Golden Lotus,exalted) 
Necklace of Disorientation (Shado-Pan Monastery, Master Snowdrift) 
Shoulder: 
Mindbender Shoulders (valor points) 
Neverdare Shoulders (Jade temple,Sha of Doubt) 
Back/Cloak: 
Dirl's Drafty Drape (BoE World Drop) 
Sagewhisper's Wrap (Valor points) 
Cloak of Hidden Flasks (Stormspout Brewery, Hoptallus) 
Chest: 
Robes of the Setting Sun (valor points) 
Lifekeeper's Robe (Letherworking) 
Stormbreaker Chestguard (Letherworking) 
Uncasked Chestguard (Stormspout Brewery,Yan-Zhu The Uncasked) 
Wrists: 
Shadow Puppet Bracers (Sholomance,Instructior Chillheart) 
Hands/Gloves: 
Lifekeeper's Gloves (Letherworking) 
Fists of Lightning (Letherworking) 
Hexxer's Lethargic Gloves (Mogusan palace,Gekkan) 
Gloves of Explosive Pain (Sholomance,Darkmaster Gandling) 
Belt/Waist: 
Belt of Totemic Binding (Siege of Nuizao Temple,Wing Leader Ner'onok) 
Sunheart Waistband (Jade Temple,Lorewalker Stonestep) 
Klaxxi Lash of the Precursor (Valor points) 
Legs: 
Bradbury's Entropic Legguards (Scatlet Halls,Flameweaver Koegler) 
Kilt of Pandaren Promises (BoE World Drop) 
Boots: 
Airbender sandals ( 
Boots of Unbreakable Umbrage (Sha of Anger quest reward) 
Rings: 
Viscous ring (Gate of the Setting Sun,Commander Ri'mok) 
Ring of malice (Shado-Pan Monastery,Corrupted Taran-Zhu) 
Eye of the Tornado (Shado-Pan Monastery,Master Snowdrift) 
Vithrak, Gaze of the Deadman (Scarlet Halls,Flameweaver Koegler) 
Simple Harmonius Ring (Valor points) 
Trinkets: 
Vision of the Predator (Gate of the Setting Sun,Striker Ga'dok) 
Relic of Yu'lon CURRENTLY NOT WORKING 
Ghost Iron Dragonling (Engi trinket) 
Flashfrozen Resil Globule (Vizier Jin'bak in Siege of Niuzao Temple) 
Jade Magistrate Figurine (Mogu'San Vaults trash) 
Main Hand: 
Je'lyu, Spirit of the Serpent (Jade temple,Sha of Doubt) 
Carapace Breaker (Gate of the Setting Sun,Raigonn) 
Off Hand/Shield: 
Scroll of Whispered Secrets (BoE World epic) 
Inscribed Jade Fan (Inscription) 
Inscribed Red Fan (Inscription) 
Shield of the Protectorate (Gate of the Setting Sun,Raigonn) 




Siege Items BiS list*Delayed update* 
Head: Headpiece of Celestial Harmony 
Neck: Untainted Guardian's Chain (Mastery build) 
Neck: Necklace of Fading Light (Haste build) 
Shoulders:Shoulderguard of Foul Streams 
Cloak: Legendary 
Cloak: Non-Legendary 
Chest: Hauberk of Celestial Harmony 
Wrists:Cavemaker Wristguards 
Hands: Gloves of Celestial Harmony 
Belt: Chitin-Link Chain Belt 
Legs: Leggings of Celestial Harmony 
Boots: Powder-Stained Totemic Treads 
Ring: Signet of the Dinomancers 
Ring: Laser-Slice Signet 
Trinket:Black Blood of Y'Shaarj 
Trinket:Purified Bindings of Immerseus 
Weapons: 
Main Hand: Kardris' Scepter 
Off hand: Revelations of Y'Shaarj[/b]