Elemental Shaman 8.3

[Stormy 11]

For Maelstrom monitoring, I recommend using WeakAuras, either make your own, or probably better/easier use someone's premade ones and customize/move it around as you like. You can find 3 different styles here http://stormearthandlava.com/guide/general/weak_auras.html

Swanzy chooses not to have a bar at all, just a big number, which works fine in BfA.

[Zennen 0]

I personally like Soulyouth's one the most. I removed some of the functions I didn't want, but it's clean and simple, but got what you need.

 

https://wago.io/BkPVwbqoW

[Zennen 0]

Hey there,

Do you have any addon/weakaura suggestions on how to track remaning time on Primal Elementals? I can only find weakauras that track the normal versions. Preferably I would like one that tracks all elementals, Primal/Normal fire, earth and storm.

 

Thanks!

[Stormy 11]

Hm, Cayna's & Notes' weakauras at least track the cooldowns of elementals, primal or not, are you looking for something specifically appearing counting down the Elemental's uptime? If you've tried those and they're not satisfactory, I can only recommend making your own (it's not super complicated) or browsing https://wago.io/weakauras/classes/shaman/elemental until you find something that works for you. 

[Zennen 0]

I can't seem to find one that tracks uptime on both primal and normal elementals.

[Klein 0]

Should elemental shamans use 2-handers or 1-handers and a shield/off-hand? Maybe include answer in the Gear section and FAQ? I dont really understand why this isnt an actual frequently asked question.

[Stormy 11]

Either's fine, the only advantage is you get a bit more armor with a shield, but that's irrelevant in nearly every situation. Potentially you can get 2 sockets if you use 2 items, but that's obviously a fairly niche situation, and one solved anyway by simming. Use whatever's higher item level/sims higher.

[Wravis 0]

Most other class/spec guides have a chart for the azurite traits, while this one has a rather confusing list. In the future will you be making a chart for ease of use?

[jinsu2301 273]

2 hours ago, Wravis said:

Most other class/spec guides have a chart for the azurite traits, while this one has a rather confusing list. In the future will you be making a chart for ease of use?

The issue with that (and a symptome of the azerite gear as a whole) is that it's not that easy since you always have to consider combos rather than just the top simming traits on their own.

You might have one piece with your best simming trait on the outer ring, and your worst trait on the middle ring, and that combo could be worse than two mediocre traits. So, I think a list of recommended gear might be a better solution than a list of sims copied straight off bloodmallet.

It's also worth noting that trait balancing isn't done yet, so expect a rework of the trait page once things have finally settled down.

[Stormy 11]

I've actually been reworking the Azurite page, it should be more insightful once it's updated sometime today.

 

Generally, you want to be visiting this website to look at the value of traits (regularly updated) https://bloodmallet.com/index.html#shaman_elemental?data_view=azerite_traits&type=trait_stacking&tier=3 

(check the various options)

[Guest Elderwolf]

Should I use earth element as a DPS cool down is fire element is on cd?

[Stormy 11]

If you're not using Primal Elementalist, you can use both whenever. If you are, you have to be careful to not use one while the other is still active.

Generally, you're better off using the Primal Earth Elemental for its defensive cooldown when necessary. It doesn't do a ton of damage unless you have traits for it (and you don't want those traits).

If you won't need the extra defensive however, feel free to use the Primal Earth Ele as a damage cooldown, but be careful of his taunt, you might want to disable its autocast (and disabling it will lead to your fire elemental's fire blast being disabled the next time you use it).

[Guest Chapslop]

On the "Builds and Talents" page it seems unnecessary to point out that Stormkeeper's additional Elemental Overload also affects Lava Beam since Ascendance (where Lava Beam comes from) is on the same tier and can't be taken in conjunction with Stormkeeper.

[Stormy 11]

Good catch, that part is a remnant from Legion and I must have missed it while rewriting the section. I'll fix it next update.

[Guest Torchwick]

.... Is it just me or is the "stat priority" page on Ele shaman extraordinarily wrong... Verse only scales high on earthquake. Crit seems to be best ST stat behind haste because of the 250% crit damage or mastery for aoe situations because dual flame shock procs more lava burst with 2 targets and chain gets more procs off mastery in 3+ situations. not only is Verse useless in pve its probably ur least important stat... verse provides 0 synergy with kit where Crit goes with a passive and mastery on ele is very synergistic with many abilities as it grants Maelstrom generation. I personally run Haste/Mastery and I often can't be caught by many other classes unless they have 5+ ilvls on me on most Uldir boss fights.

[Valks 2,375]

2 hours ago, Guest Torchwick said:

.... Is it just me or is the "stat priority" page on Ele shaman extraordinarily wrong... Verse only scales high on earthquake. Crit seems to be best ST stat behind haste because of the 250% crit damage or mastery for aoe situations because dual flame shock procs more lava burst with 2 targets and chain gets more procs off mastery in 3+ situations. not only is Verse useless in pve its probably ur least important stat... verse provides 0 synergy with kit where Crit goes with a passive and mastery on ele is very synergistic with many abilities as it grants Maelstrom generation. I personally run Haste/Mastery and I often can't be caught by many other classes unless they have 5+ ilvls on me on most Uldir boss fights.

I'm sure Stormy will reply in due time in regards to your issues with the stat priority, but it might be worth linking some stuff to back up your suggestions and proposed improvements. If this setup is working that well for you, it'd be great to see some logs of you outperforming others as strongly as you have suggested. It helps him to review what you are saying and, if it is performing this well, it gives some real-time evidence to evaluate.

[Guest Phildozer]

Concerning 8.1 updates as well as a couple other things.

Should update the current azurite page, igneous potential is simming rather low now in comparison to most other traits on BloodMallet.

Also curious why there is no mention of the usage of Eye of the Storm / Meteor while using the Storm / Fire Elemental. This is a rather significant for our dps output and I see many guides making no real mention of it.

[Stormy 11]

Regarding Azurite, the sims had been very much in flux (and one of the trait was seriously bugged) so I was holding off on updating the power rankings, and didn't notice the Bloodmallet link was broken, my bad! 

The Macro #2.6 in the macro section is helpful with using both Eye of the Storm and Meteor. Regarding Meteor, it doesn't really matter when you use it in single-target situations, as long as you do in fact use it, since you can only use it once per Primal Fire Elemental. Obviously you want to use it on as many targets as possible. I thought I added a sentence about it but I guess it got lost somewhere.

If you check [Storm Elemental] in the Multi-target rotation sections, you will in fact see this "

1. If using both  Storm Elemental and  Primal Elementalist make sure you use  Eye of the Storm (but not before casting one  Call Lightning).

[Guest Neolism]

Quote

For exact ratios, this will vary depending on your talents and other factors. For single-target, you want 40% of your secondary stats as Critical Strike, 40% as Haste, 20% as Versatility and 10% as Mastery. So if you had a total of 1000 secondary stats on your gear, you would ideally have 400 Critical Strike, 300 Haste, 200 Versatility and 100 Mastery. For AoE, this becomes 600/200/100/100.

40+40+20+10 = 110%.

[Valks 2,375]

On 2/11/2019 at 9:09 PM, Guest Neolism said:

40+40+20+10 = 110%.

I've let Stormy know, thanks!

[Guest Qareen - Argent Dawn]

Hold on a minute. Now Versatility is top priority in stats? Since when?

All other sources say Int, Crit, Haste, Vers and then Mastery.

Please elaborate.

One more thing: as an Elemental Blast spec, is it that way behind Echo of the elements or just marginally?

[jinsu2301 273]

18 hours ago, Guest Qareen - Argent Dawn said:

Hold on a minute. Now Versatility is top priority in stats? Since when?      (5th of March 2019)

All other sources say Int, Crit, Haste, Vers and then Mastery.       (No, they don't, wowhead also has both builds listed)

Please elaborate.

This actually has been elaborated on in the Stat Priority section of the guide. Versatility is likely your best stat if you run the Echo/Master/Icefury build. Otherwise Crit and Haste will likely be top.

Stat priorities depend on your characters gear, talent choices and even specific combat situations (Multi vs Singletarget; Short burst vs Long fights). That's why you always want to sim yourself in raidbots if you want reliable results. Speaking of which, if you want to test the viability of an Elemental Blast build, you can do that too with raidbots.

[Stormy 11]

Echo of the Elements is mostly strong because of its fantastic synergy with having multiple IP azerite traits, as well as master of the elements. If you don't have those traits or only one for example, Elemental Blast isn't crippingly far behind, but you're still going to lose 1-2k dps.

On the stat issue, jinsu explained it well.

The "Generic priority" that's obvious on the stat page is for the current optimal build that most people will use in a competitive environment, assuming they have IP traits notably.

Below, you can see those lines 

For the more general  Earthen Rage /  Storm Elemental /  Primal Elementalist build, you want 40% of your secondary stats as Critical Strike, 40% as Haste, 10% as Versatility and 10% as Mastery.

[Guest NewbShammy]

Why does the #4 page (Builds and Talents) list Elemental Blast as (currently) useless - but you list it for the #6 page (Rotations, Cooldowns and Abilies)?

#6 doesn't even mention Earthen Rage or Echo of the Elements for the priority lists, both Single and Multiple list Elemental Blast.

[Stormy 11]

I list it in case people want to use it despite it being an inferior choice right now. Not everybody wants to use the generally optimal talent choices, and there is always room for tailoring your build to specific encounters, although in EB's case it is just never worth it currently unless you really want to play with it. I have been asked by multiple people when to use EB in BfA, despite my warnings that it was weak, some people just want their shiny effects and preferred playstyle.

Neither talents you mention have much interaction with your priority list. Earthen Rage is a pure passive that is only influenced by what you are targeting, and Echo of the Elements adds a charge to Lava Burst, which could change the priority list, but in practice it doesn't actually change the order in which you want to cast your spells, it just gives a bit more flexibility. In the past, the priority list did in fact depend on whether you used Echo or not, so this was a good question.