Elemental Shaman PvP Guide for Cataclysm Classic

Elementals were heavily nerfed when compared to Wrath and are no longer one of the top casters in Cataclysm. Regardless, they still have a decent kit with tools for most situations. Their main weakness is being trained down by melee cleaves, with Thunderstorm and Earth's Grasp providing some help. Elemental is also rather weak defensively, with Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem being the only defensive option.

Another major issue with Elemental is that most of their damage requires hard casting, making it vulnerable to interrupts. Regardless, Lava Burst, Chain Lightning, and Frost Shock can be cast in quick succession for massive burst damage, and Lightning Bolt can be cast on the move with Glyph of Unleashed Lightning, which is a rare perk among casters.

Finally, Elementals also have a lot of utility they can put to good use in the Arena, such as Purge, Grounding Totem, Hex, a low-cooldown ranged interrupt in Wind Shear, and many support totems capable of improving ally DPS.

Strengths

• Can throw out heals in an emergency situation to save an ally
• Strong burst damage with guaranteed Lava Burst critical strikes
• Great utility including offensive dispels with Purge and knockbacks with Thunderstorm

Weaknesses

• Lacks high burst from damage cooldowns compared to the top DPS classes
• Usually gets focused in arenas as the only defensive cooldown is Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem
• Vulnerable to interrupts as all of your damage is in the Nature spell school and mostly hard casted

• Glyph of Lava Burst — a nice passive boost to your Lava Burst damage.
• Glyph of Unleashed Lightning — is a gameplay-changing glyph that allows your Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving, drastically increasing your mobility.
• Glyph of Flame Shock — increases the duration of Flame Shock by a large amount.

• Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem — converts your Stoneclaw Totem into a strong personal cooldown.
• Glyph of Hex — reduces the cooldown of Hex by 10 seconds, making it usable more often.
• Glyph of Thunder — reduces the cooldown of Thunderstorm, which is of small, but occasional use.

• Glyph of Water Walking — allows you to cast Water Walking without a reagent, saving gold in the process.
• Glyph of Water Breathing — removes the reagent requirement from Water Breathing, saving some more gold over time.
• Glyph of the Arctic Wolf — a purely cosmetic option, but there are no other glyphs with any PvP impact.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this section. In PvP you will need to react and adapt to different situations, meaning you will not always follow the recommended rotation below. Aim to do whatever allows you to stick on your target the most while dealing as much damage as possible.

1. Keep your totems active with Call of the Elements as they will buff your allies and provide extra healing through Healing Stream Totem;
2. Use Flame Shock on as many long-lived enemies as possible;
3. Cast Lava Burst on cooldown on a target with Flame Shock;
4. Use Earth Shock once at 7+ charges of Lightning Shield;
5. Cast Lightning Bolt as a filler, remember you can move while casting it with Glyph of Unleashed Lightning.

When facing multiple players at Battlegrounds or wanting to cleave through multiple targets, follow the single-target rotation, but swap Lightning Bolt for Chain Lightning against 2 enemies or spam only Chain Lightning against 3 or more enemies.

Elemental Mastery should be used to force cooldowns from the enemy team or land kills later on once those are spent.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Strength of Earth Totem / Wrath of Air Totem and similar totems should be used to heavily boost yours and ally damage;
• Earthbind Totem to slow and root nearby enemies with Earth's Grasp, facilitating kiting;
• Thunderstorm for Mana and to reposition enemies or mass interrupt casts;
• Tremor Totem can now be used while you are affected by Fear or other effects it can remove, making it an excellent button to break such effects instantly on yourself and your team;
• Grounding Totem should be used to nullify enemy CC and other important casts;
• Wind Shear can also be used to disrupt caster enemies, by interrupting their casts directly;
• Purge can be used to remove enemy buffs, such as Druid heals over time or Priest shields;
• Hex is a hard crowd control spell which can be used to disable an enemy for an extended duration. Take note that it is a Curse effect, making it harder to dispel for some classes, but easier for others.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Elemental Shaman in Cataclysm PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Blacksmithing — Gives you two additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, enabling you to stack more Resilience in this season.
2. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three powerful gems, in this case Mystic Chimera's Eye, which can boost your Resilience even higher.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Elemental Shaman in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Elemental Shaman's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.