Resto to Ele, help please :)

[Grahmrook 6]

Hi all, so I am curently Enh OS, but my ilvl in that spec is only about 538 so I was thinking until I get more gear it might be more beneficial for me to OS Ele.  My raid team currently consists of Hpal, Tree, and me.  I am thinking it might be nice for them to have an option of another ranged dps for 2 heal fights as normally it is the pally who changes.  With that as the background here are my questions. 

 

My armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/llane/Nitzi/advanced

(I am 3 Runestones from my cape so that should come next week.)

 

First, I have at the moment 2 peices of "real" dps gear. 

Petrified Pennyroyal Ring and

Grips of Tidal Force

 

Additionally I have 2 Essence of the Cursed Protector and 1 Leggings of the Cursed Protector.

 

Do I turn these in for Elemental pieces?  I was kind of holding onto one of the Essences incase I got better legs then my tier for my resto set so I could swap out the WF helm for the tier helm to keep my 2pc.  If I was just going to go for the Ele 2pc, what would go good with legs to be able to save an Essence?  Should I not worry to much about head issue and just buy 3 pieces of tier?  (As an aside, is 4pc ele worth it? Not looking for a debate, just a quick and dirty yes or no lol.)  I have no dps trinkets, should I try to pick one up with Timeless coins?  I can run flex to try and get the 540 versions but that is always a crap shoot.  Again, this is probably going to be a seldom used OS so it is not like gearing for it is of immediate importance.

 

I also have Gaze of Arrogance is there any reason to use this over my 1h and shield for elemental?

 

I use AMR to Gem/reforge gear so should I use the lock function to seal my resto peices from it trying to change their stats and just have it adjust the dedicated dps peices? 

 

Lastly, even leveling I never dps'd on my shaman after TBC when I made the char, so I have a very poor ideal of how ele works.  Is there a good cast sequence macro to use for learning, or am I better off just trying to learn the spell priority.  I am not looking to be #1 dps, but to at least not hurt my raid team with lack luster damage when called upon to change specs.

 

Sorry if this is a lenghty question but I feel like I am playing catch up on shaman as I only finished it off to 90 in December and have been a prot pally most of this xpac.

 

Thanks for the advice and everything in advance and thanks for reading!

[Stoove 347]

Sorry if this is a lenghty question but I feel like I am playing catch up on shaman as I only finished it off to 90 in December and have been a prot pally most of this xpac.

 

It rather is a long question! I will try to advise you from the point of a Resto Shaman looking for a good Elemental offspec without sacrificing Resto gear. That's currently what I'm doing, too! :)

 

Firstly, make sure you have the Tier 4pc on your Main spec. It's good when you learn to use it. Don't stick with the 2pc bonus.

 

Secondly, use the staff you mentioned. If you're mostly in Resto gear to start, you will have way too much spirit which takes up lots of stats you could use elsewhere. Using the staff for your OS would mean more damage stats.

 

Definitely yes to trying to get the Trinkets. I got Kardris' Toxic Totem from Flex, it's upped my damage significantly. :)

 

Learn the spell priority! Here on Icy Veins we have a pretty good beginner's guide (which is being updated and corrected in the coming week). The rotation we describe is accurate in most cases, so learn how to execute the basics of it first and then learn the more subtle things. I don't know of any castsequence macro anyway :)

 

 

I use AMR to Gem/reforge gear so should I use the lock function to seal my resto peices from it trying to change their stats and just have it adjust the dedicated dps peices? 

 

Definitely. AMR will likely reforge you out of huge amounts of Spirit into huge amounts of Haste or Mastery, which you aren't likely to want for your Resto mainspec.

 

I hope that helps! Any followup questions? :)

[Grahmrook 6]

Thank you Stoove, your help is always appreciated and amazing!  I do have my 4pc, I swapped my tier chest for the WF one I have.  I guess I need to practice more using Healing Bro >.> 

 

I did read the elemental guide, but as you pointed out, it refers a lot to ToT so looking forward to it being updated.  Also I did not see anything in it which discussed 2 and 4 pc elemental bonus and their merit.  Which brings me back...   Besides legs, which piece or pieces of elemental should I get as tier vs the resto-pretending-to-be-dps gear? 

 

Beyond that, I will use the guide for glyphs and such.

 

Thanks again!

[Stoove 347]

I did read the elemental guide, but as you pointed out, it refers a lot to ToT so looking forward to it being updated.  Also I did not see anything in it which discussed 2 and 4 pc elemental bonus and their merit.  Which brings me back...   Besides legs, which piece or pieces of elemental should I get as tier vs the resto-pretending-to-be-dps gear? 

 

Ah, it references ToT? That had slipped past me! Thanks for the catches. I will search for as many mentions as possible and get another update in the works as soon as I can. These things take a while to process! In addition, I'll ask my new favourite person Tickle from Totemspot what she thinks of the Elemental set bonuses and get an update with those, too. Until then, I'm afraid I don't have an answer to your question. Sorry!

 

Update: I asked Tickle on Twitter and she informed me that the stats on the Elemental tier set is pretty much Best in Slot even without the bonuses (which are pretty good overall). I'd recommend getting whatever loses you the most Spirit really, because you probably have far too much of it on your Resto gear.

 

Thanks again!

 

Always 100% welcome. Remember to click Like on particularly helpful comments. It helps us know what to post more of!

[Ogudei 0]

Concerning Elemental tier bonuses. There's not much to say. 2pc piece is a slight dps gain and I personally would never adjust my use of Earth Shock to apply or refresh the debuff.

The 4 piece is entirely passive and is in no way predictable. I often check damage done by the elemental and it ranges from .5% - 3% of my total damage.

[kitsu 55]

As ele the set bonuses dont matter, tier is often the only int mail without spirit. if you can get the thok ring, that will also help slightly, but the main thing is your trinkets, youre looking for maximum burst on the pull, when you can open and unload. big int procs are key.

 

immersius, shaman, or garrosh are pretty much the best trinks you can get, but mageara and animus trinks are okay too.

 

the worst thing about resto - ele sets is that crit = 0 gain for ele. a better system is main spec ele, and resto off. all ele gear is fine for resto, it's a lot easier to gem full spirit on your off spec pieces than it is to reforge every pull.

 

and lets face it, shaman are cd kings. if you need one its usually for more cds, not actaul output. just go main ele, AG + ascendance as ele is like 600k hps, easy.