Cataclysm Classic Elemental Shaman Stat Priority

The stat priority for Elemental Shaman is as follows:

1. Intellect
2. Hit or Spirit (17% Hit Cap)
3. Haste
4. Mastery
5. Critical Strike

Intellect is the new primary stat for all casters, including Elemental Shamans, replacing Spell Power on every gear slot except for your weapon. Intellect increases your maximum Mana, which also increases your Mana regeneration through talents that regenerate a % of your maximum Mana, such as Rolling Thunder and the raid buff, Replenishment.

Every point of Intellect gives one Spell Power, making it the best stat for Elemental. Your Intellect will also get further increased by raid buffs such as Blessing of Kings, making it the stat to stack above all others. You will get more of it on higher item level gear, making that the main factor to consider while gearing.

Your second priority will be to reach the Hit cap of 17%, which can be obtained through the Hit Rating stat, or with Spirit thanks to the Elemental Precision talent. Reaching the Hit cap ensures that your spells can no longer miss your target, giving you the highest possible DPS increase out of any secondary stat.

Thus, you will generally want to cap Hit before other stats and should rely on Reforging to do and to keep yourself Hit capped, but not overcapped.

At Level 85:

• 102.44 Hit Rating (or Spirit) = 1% Spell Hit Chance

Haste is a great stat for Elemental as it allows you to go through your rotation much faster, and fit in more Lightning Bolts casts for every Lava Burst. It will also add additional damage ticks to Flame Shock, increasing its damage substantially. Adding these additional damage ticks requires you to hit certain Haste breakpoints, which can be easier or harder to hit depending on your buffs.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste

The breakpoints will vary depending on what buffs or racial you have such as the Dark Intent Haste buff, the Goblin racial Time is Money or Troll Berserking racial, or the Bloodlust raid buff. Hitting these Haste breakpoints is a nice, but not super important, milestone for Elemental Shamans, and you can find the exact Haste values required with your Wrath of Air Totem 5% Spell Haste buff and recommended Glyph of Flame Shock already factored in below.

Ticks Gained	Flame Shock
1 Extra Tick	66 Rating / 0.52%
2 Extra Ticks	1423 Rating / 11.10%
3 Extra Ticks	2781 Rating / 21.71%
4 Extra Ticks	4137 Rating / 32.31%
5 Extra Ticks	5484 Rating / 42.82%
6 Extra Ticks	6839 Rating / 53.40%

You can input these breakpoints into the Reforgelite Classic addon to easily calculate your optimal reforging with any gear setup.

Mastery is a new stat added in Cataclysm which provides a unique benefit for each specialization. For Elemental Shamans, this is Elemental Overload, which causes your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst to have a chance to instantly fire off a copy spell that does 75% damage and causes no threat. This is a strong stat, especially for area damage with Chain Lightning, but Haste and capping Hit are more important than stacking Mastery for DPS purposes.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1 Mastery = 2% higher chance to cause a copy spell proc

While Critical Strike Rating is your worst DPS stat because of Lava Burst usually being guaranteed to crit, and thus not scaling at all with crit, it is not far behind the rest, as even your damage over time can now critically strike for 200% damage. Another problem with Critical Strike Rating, however, is that you need a lot of Rating to get 1% more chance to land critical strikes.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit