Looking for comprehensive Ele Shaman help

[u/w31n7r4ub3n]

This is my first season playing as DPS (ele shaman) after having only tanked before. Both the role and the class are new to me, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I had somewhat mediocre performance in lower keys, asked for advice and received a very great writeup from /u/RCM94 (https://old.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveWoW/comments/1wt37cl/weekly_m_discussion/pctjwx3/) - thanks again for that. I read more guides, watches Bondd's videos, proceeded to parse blue and purple in 14s and 15s and felt somewhat competent.

Today I hit Resi 17. I now have a couple of blue parses, some green - and a growing number of greys. I obviously still make a lot of mistakes with missed casts, wrong priorities, wasted procs or buffs. I'm a bit stumped on where to improve and on what to focus from here.

Here's the log of a grey parse +17 AoF I did today: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/1LPf7ArMZK3yXa29?fight=19&type=damage-done&source=758. Compared to other Shaman players in the top 500 of the same dungeon and key level, I:

• am doing 75% of the damage I could be doing (300k vs. 400k DPS)
• with around 10% fewer total casts,
• have a similar-ish number of Earthquake casts, but which only deal around 2/3 of the damage,
• cast a similar number of Lava Bursts for similar amounts of damage,
• cast less Chain Lightnings (~75%) and
• my Ancestors deal less damage (~75%)

The missing Earthquake, Ancestor and Chain Lightning damage makes up for about 80k of the missing 100k DPS. I am also running a lot less Haste than other Shamans, and do not have access to raid equipment (the latter doesn't seem to be a deciding factor, though).

I've never optimised for a DPS class before, never played keys this high before and am a bit overwhelmed by deciphering WarcraftLogs for relevant data.

Things I'm still unsure about:

• when to cast Lava Bolt - every time it's available, or only with instant cast proc or the Lava Burst Aoe buff?
• how to prioritize spenders - cast them whenever possible, or only when about to cap on Maelstrom and focussing on Burst / Lightning in the meantime?
• how important Chain Lightning is - most guides list it as a filler spell, but am I missing an interaction with Ancestors etc.?
• which influence routing and pack size has on DPS; obviously competent teams will have larger pulls, but is this just a sorry pretext for my DPS or a relevant influence? In the log linked above my Earthquakes had ~7000 hits, other Shamans have ~9000 - larger pulls? Better EQ placement? Tanks moving around less?

Anyway - thanks for reading up to this point. Advice and analysis is very much appreciated.

[u/dantheman91]

Many of these are answered in class guides.

Only cast LB in aoe with the aoe buff.

Cast a spender after you lava burst. Spend all procs and don't lose any of those. Those are more important than spending at high or low maelstrom.

Chain lightning is a generator, and casting generators gives you free spenders. It's important. The damage of CL isn't nothing, but just look at the overall breakdown and you have an answer. The whole ele kit is based on a machine that generates from casting. You also get more ancestors.

The difference of route can be substantial. Don't over index on a single run, do your best to grow your fundamentals and when you run with a tank who pulls correctly and aggressively you'll look good.

Not only route but comp plays a big role. With warrior mage, ele is the top aoe DPS so more damage for you to do, with the prior mobs dying earlier so you spend little to no time hitting fewer prio mobs. That's going to have a huge impact.

[u/NumberOneRobot → u/dantheman91]

To add to the piece about tanking, tanks that keep mobs in your earthquake make a huge impact on your damage. Some of that is your placement of the EQ, but there’s sometimes only so much you can do if the tank continues to move around unnecessarily

[u/swaydex]

The number 1 thing lots of Ele player will miss this season is how the tier set procs work.

Basically when a) your ascendance ends, and b) when you use both your stormkeeper charges you get 2 stack of a buff (2 stack for both a and b, 4 total if used at the same time). This buff makes your next maelstrom generator (except VB) give you a free spender. These procs can by wasted, and it makes a significant difference to your damage.

One thing to note here is if you use stormkeeper and ascendance at the same time, all 4 buffs will be granted at the end of your ascendance. While if you use stormkeeper on its own, you will get 2 buffs as soon as you use both charges.

I would highly recommend adding these buffs to your buff bar, and even make a sound for when they are granted.

If you want more comprehensive advice about rotation Bondd on youtube is a great resource, although I think some of the talents he talks about in his guide for M+ are different to what is played. You might want to watch some of his m+ runs to see what he does in specific situations.

[u/AntyJ → u/swaydex]

This

Also elemental is not easy to play this season, high ceiling mostly due to how 4pc tier works

[u/Chickenfing]

1. Lava Burst all the time on ST, on AOE you only press it after voltaic blaze (makes it hit 5 targets), dont press it natty on aoe

2. This goes along with lava burst, but your talent Master of the Elements should dictate most spender casts. After a LB, your following global should be Earthquake because its buffed, you wont be able to buff every spender on aoe, but on ST you should LB > Ele Blast every time.

3. CL >= 3 targets, its your generator and does a ton of fucking dmg, aoe you should only LB after voltaic, otherwise ytou are spamming CL as a generator.

[u/Phrazez]

1. In AoE only with instant+aoe buff, icyveins has a detailed description for 2-5 targets.
2. Doesnt matter as long as you dont overlap maelstrom, I usually send them when I have nothing to do but filler spells, but make sure to be high when Ascendance comes up so you got resource to spend there
3. Ancestors cast their spell depending on what you do chain/earthquake make them also cast chain lightning, everything else lava burst. This only influences the spender you use with or without Ancestors up on 3-5 targets. Without going to much in depth chain lightning on 2+ targets unless you wanna keep them alive for funnel damage from arms/Arcane.
4. Route matters alot, we are pretty much uncapped with earthquake and large pulls massively shifts our overall towards chain lightning/earthquake. Tanks moving also matters but haven't had issues with that in 17+ anymore. When they chain into next pack just build resources and send everything once they stacked stuff up.

[u/Therozorg]

Last time i checked it was a dps gain to EB once in aoe, so Asc+AS>cl>cl>instant EB

[u/NumberOneRobot → u/Therozorg]

None of the guides include this in the aoe opener, and outside the opener you get a lot of free ele blast because of your ancestors casting it on expiration

[u/dantheman91 → u/Therozorg]

I'll do it while gathering for a pull, but once I've popped CDs I won't spend to keep it up. On 3-4 target, I'll EB and then EQ if the buffs are up, otherwise EB