Cataclysm Classic Elemental Shaman Spell Summary

This page will list the relevant skills for an Elemental Shaman, and explain what they do. It is recommended that you read through this page in order to have a basis to better understand the various topics that are discussed throughout the rest of this guide.

Unleash Elements has different effects depending on your active weapon imbues: Unleash Wind for Windfury Weapon, Unleash Flame for Flametongue Weapon, Unleash Life for Earthliving Weapon, Unleash Frost for Frostbrand Weapon, and Unleash Earth for Rockbiter Weapon. Dual-wielding means you get to unleash two effects per cast instead of one.

Healing Rain is a new area heal which you can place on the ground for 10-seconds. While it can do great healing, it does require 6 injured players to stand within it for the full duration, making it more situational than most area heals.

Spiritwalker's Grace allows the Shaman to move while casting spells for 15 seconds.

Elemental Resistance Totem replaces all Elemental resist totems and grants extra spell resistance against all elements.

Bind Elemental is used to crowd control elemental enemies.

Ancestral Vision can be used to resurrect all nearby allies with a single spell cast.

Greater Healing Wave is a strong but slow single-target heal. This makes it likely to overheal, so be prepared to stop casting at the last moment if it looks like that will be the case.

Healing Surge casts very quickly and does decent healing but costs a huge amount of Mana, so make sure to only use it as an emergency heal.

Lava Burst always critically strikes if Flame Shock is present on the target. This spell will be part of your Cataclysm rotation and its guaranteed crit makes it great when burst damage is needed, especially in PvP!

Lightning Bolt deals damage to a single target from range. This will be your main damage spell in PvE due to having the best damage-to-Mana ratio in our kit and no cooldown.

Chain Lightning deals damage to three targets from range. It does more damage than Lightning Bolt, even to its primary target, and has a lower cast time, but it also has a 3-second cooldown and a large Mana cost. Use it for area-of-effect damage or when bursting down an enemy.

Earth Shock deals damage and slows the melee attack speed of its target. Useful against melee enemies if you cannot avoid their attacks.

Frost Shock deals damage and slows its target by 50% for 8 seconds. This makes it useful when chasing or fleeing from enemies.

Flame Shock deals damage-over-time to its target. This can contribute a small, but consistent chunk of damage in a fight and has the added usefulness of preventing Rogues and Druids from staying in stealth while it is active.

Fire Nova causes your Flame Shock debuffed targets to explode for damage around themselves. Since it has a very short 4-second cooldown, it can do massive area damage but Elemental will generally not be able to spread enough Flame Shocks to make it worthwhile.

Thunderstorm causes some damage and returns some Mana to you, but also knocks back all targets hit a large distance, making it very useful when soloing, in PvP, and in all situations when used with Glyph of Thunderstorm.

Healing Wave is an efficient but slow single-target heal. This makes it ideal to heal small amounts of damage during downtime.

Chain Heal is one of the best area-of-effect heals in the game due to its high healing, lack of cooldown, and smart-heal properties, which will cause it to jump to the most injured targets in range, regardless of the group they are on.

A Totem is instantly placed on the ground near you when you cast it, does not move, and generally has a single digit of health, allowing it to be destroyed by your enemies with any single-target ability. Their effects only apply to your 5-player party, even when you are in a raid group.

Every Shaman Totem has a specific niche role to fill and a distinct ability. There are four types of Totems: Air, Earth, Water and Fire, and you can have only one Totem of each element placed at a time, which will be replaced if you cast a new Totem of the same element.

Call of the Elements, Call of the Ancestors, and Call of the Spirits allow you to customize up to one totem of each type to instantly be dropped down when these abilities are used, saving significant time.

Totemic Recall allows you to destroy your current totems in order to recover 25% of their Mana cost. You can use this to avoid pulling patrols with your totems, to recover some Mana when moving to a new place and even just to recover some Mana for free when your totems are about to expire!

Wrath of Air Totem provides significant Spell Haste and should always be placed down if you are the only one who can provide this raid buff in a group.

Windfury Totem provides melee Haste to nearby players and is one of the best melee buffs, but can also be provided by Death Knights.

Grounding Totem will redirect to itself any harmful spell cast at a nearby party member which is great to handle problematic spells in PvP, such as Counterspell.

Earth Elemental Totem creates an Earth Elemental that taunts and generates threat on nearby enemies. Due to its relatively high health, it can serve as an emergency tank for you and your group.

Strength of Earth Totem grants extra Strength and Agility to your raid.

Tremor Totem removes Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects from your party every 5 seconds. This makes it invaluable in fights with Fear effects or in PvP. Make sure to drop it when slightly under 5 seconds are left for the Fear effect to hit the party, so that it is removed almost instantly.

Earthbind Totem slows nearby enemies, making it easier to flee or kite.

Stoneskin Totem increases the Armor of your raid group and can also be provided by Paladins with Devotion Aura.

Stoneclaw Totem taunts enemies, serving as a distraction for a short period with its small health pool. It is mostly of use while leveling or when used with Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem.

Mana Spring Totem regenerates the Mana of your party by a small amount every 2 seconds. This improves your party's Mana sustainability, and should be up unless another player is already providing a similar buff, as they do not stack.

Healing Stream Totem heals your party for a small amount every 2 seconds. While its healing is low, it is still usually worth keeping it out as it also has a long duration.

Fire Elemental Totem creates a Fire Elemental that scales with your Spell Power when cast (thus allowing for the use of pure Spell Power gear in a pre-pull min-max situation) and deals significant single-target and area-of-effect damage, making it great for contributing damage to your group or while soloing.

Magma Totem deals small amounts of area-of-effect damage to nearby enemies very frequently. Since it has no cooldown, you can use it for extra damage, especially against multiple enemies.

Searing Totem deals a small amount of single-target damage to nearby enemies. It deals less single-target damage than Magma Totem but is also cheaper and available at a lower level.

Flametongue Totem increases the Spell Power of nearby party members. It is a weaker version of Demonic Pact or Totemic Wrath, and should only be used when these are not available, which for an Elemental Shaman is only until you learn the Totemic Wrath talent.

Wind Shear interrupts your target for 2 seconds on a 15-second cooldown with a 25-yard range, making it one of the best interrupts in the game.

Hex is a crowd control spell similar to Polymorph but it does not heal the target or break instantly upon any damage, while also letting the target slowly move around. It is a Curse effect, making it harder to be dispelled by some classes.

Bloodlust / Heroism grant a huge amount of Haste for 40 seconds to the Shaman's raid group and can only also be brought by Mages, making it a strong reason to bring at least one Shaman to a group.

Lightning Shield grants you a buff that causes damage to melee attackers when they hit you.

Water Shield creates a shield on yourself which provides passive Mana regeneration and extra bursts of Mana whenever you are hit. This is great in all types of content, but especially so if you are being consistently hit for the extra Mana returns while soloing and leveling.

Flametongue Weapon is a weapon imbue that increases your Spell Damage and causes each hit to deal additional Fire damage. This will be your standard imbue of choice.

Rockbiter Weapon is a weapon imbue that increases your Physical damage. It is only useful during the early stages of leveling.

Windfury Weapon is a weapon imbue that grants your melee abilities a 20% chance to activate three extra auto attacks with added attack power instantly.

Ghost Wolf boosts your running speed by 40% but can only be used outdoors. You can learn it at an early level, making this is a very important movement skill for leveling Shaman.

Reincarnation allows you to return to life after dying, as long as its 30-minute cooldown is ready. You can use it to recover from mistakes.

Ancestral Spirit brings the target back to life, but can only be used while out of combat.

Purge removes two buffs from the targeted enemy. You will typically be using it to remove healing-over-time effects, shields, and buffs.

Astral Recall recalls you to your set Hearthstone location, with a cooldown of 15 minutes. This is pretty handy for quickly traveling the world.

Water Walking allows you or another friendly player to move over water for 10 minutes. Taking any damage will cancel the effect, but you can still use it to quickly move through certain parts of the world.

Water Breathing removes your or another friendly player's need for breathing while underwater for 10 minutes. This is generally useless, but can save you sometimes when doing underwater quests or gathering.

Far Sight grants you vision over an area, allowing you to detect enemy players without actually putting yourself in danger.