Unleash Elements and Lava Lash

[shammilin 0]

I have been playing an ele shaman for a long time, and I recently started playing an enh shaman.

Every guide I have read advises to use Unleash Elements on Flame Shock, but I don't understand why is the problem with using it with Lava Lash, which does a lot more damage than Flame Shock.

if someone could enlighten me. thanks

[Stoove 347]

Hi Shammlin,

Yes it would be nice if UE affected Lava Lash, but it doesn't! That's a pity, though. Flame Shock is the only thing we really use Unleash Fire for. OTOH, you should be using UE pretty much on CD for the extra swings you get from Unleash Wind.

[Damien 1,514]

As Stoove pointed out, Unleash Elements does not work with Lava Lash. I will just add a bit more information, to make sure that you perfectly understood the reasons why it does not work.

Lava Lash is not a spell, but a melee attack that deals Fire damage. The tooltip of Flametongue Weapon is clear. When using Unleash Elements, you get a buff that increases the damage you deal with Fire spells. Lava Lash being a melee attack, it is not affected by the buff.

[shammilin 0]

Thank you for the replies. The correct answer seems so obvious now, I don't know how I could have missed it...

[Ryieahna 10]

UE does not directly affect Lava Lash. There is some discussion, however, on whether or not it affects the flame shocks spread by improved lava lash in AoE situations. If this *is* the case it would be recommended to use UE before lava lash, so that it affects both the flame shocks spread by lava lash, and fire nova. I haven't really gotten into hard testing on if this is actually true, I've just seen some comments about it here and there.

[Damien 1,514]

I think that when Flame Shock is spread with Lava Lash, it is applied on nearby targets with the duration that remained and it ticks for the amount it ticked on the original target. So, it would benefit from Unleash Elements.