Elemental Shaman Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

This tree enables you to pull and kill many enemies at once through the use of Fire Nova and its related talents and glyphs, while also investing into survivability and kiting through Elemental Warding, Storm, Earth and Fire, Thunderstorm, and Earth's Grasp.

For sturdier enemies and bosses you can just use your regular single-target rotation as described below, as the tree picks most single-target talents and generally skips Mana talents in its early pathing, a flaw you should make up for with good Water Shield uptime.

Finally, Totem of Wrath is taken as a group and single-target buff, but for the most part you should be using Magma Totem once a few enemies are pulled.

In Wrath you will be able to unlock Glyphs that improve your abilities at the following levels:

1. Level 15 unlocks your first Major and Minor Glyphs;
2. Level 30 unlocks your second Major Glyph;
3. Level 50 unlocks your second Minor Glyph;
4. Level 70 unlocks your third Minor Glyph;
5. Level 80 unlocks your third Major Glyph.

As an Elemental Shaman you will want to be using Glyph of Fire Nova and Glyph of Flametongue Weapon. The final major glyph is only unlocked at Level 80, at which point you should swap to an end-game build.

For minor glyphs, Glyph of Water Shield, Glyph of Renewed Life, and Glyph of Water Walking are fine quality of life options.

Good usage of Earthbind Totem can help you avoid a lot of damage. Place it between yourself and your enemies to slow them and give yourself extra Lightning Bolt casts before taking any damage.

Once you have the instant cast AoE Fire Nova, you can simply kite packs of enemies around your totem while frying them over time, which is made easier later on by Magma Totem and the rooting effect of Storm, Earth and Fire! Fire Elemental Totem is even more powerful than Magma, and should be used for the largest pulls.

While not listed below, buff totems such as Flametongue Totem, Totem of Wrath, and Wrath of Air Totem can be used at any time to buff your party in dungeons or to make you more powerful when you want to engage elite enemies on your own.

1. Make sure Rockbiter Weapon is active on you at all times, to maximize your potential damage output.
2. Make sure Rockbiter Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times.
3. Make sure Flametongue Weapon and Lightning Shield are active on you at all times.
4. Make sure Flametongue Weapon and Water Shield are active on you at all times.
5. Stoneclaw Totem will frequently stun enemies who attack it. When fighting dangerous packs, you can use it to distract some of the enemies while focusing on others. It is also very useful to distract enemies from attacking you while you are pulling many enemies for a Fire Nova AoE round.
6. Drop Earthbind Totem and Searing Totem for AoE pulls and kite around the totems while using Fire Nova until all enemies are dead.
7. Drop Earthbind Totem and Magma Totem for AoE pulls and kite around the totems while using Fire Nova until all enemies are dead.
8. Use Chain Lightning on cooldown when facing multiple enemies simultaneously or when Elemental Focus is active.
9. Use Chain Lightning (with Elemental Mastery, if available) on cooldown when facing multiple enemies simultaneously or when Elemental Focus is active.
10. Use Flame Shock if your target will live through its duration, Earth Shock otherwise.
11. Use Lava Burst on cooldown, provided there is an active Flame Shock on the target.
12. Use Lightning Bolt.

Buying everything is, essentially, the way to go, as spell costs are quite low and all of them have uses, even if small ones.

If you are doing a completely new character and want to save as much gold as you can for your mounts, you can opt to buy only the recommended skills for the rotation in the section above.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get-go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Elemental Shaman Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

When leveling, stay alert for weapon upgrades you might encounter, as these will improve your experience significantly. You will also need to complete various class quests in order to be able to use your totems, with unique questlines for Earth, Fire, Water, and Air totems.

These quests are different for Horde and Alliance Shamans, and the early quests also have differences between Horde races. To help you with both weapons and quests, we have made two dedicated guides:

Once you reach maximum level, we recommend you dive into our Elemental Shaman Guide, which covers everything you need to know about playing Elemental in the end game.

We especially recommend reading through these pages:

• Our Elemental Shaman Talent builds guide contains the PvE-oriented builds for Elemental Shamans;
• Elemental Shaman Rotation guide contains details on how to play in a variety of situations, including some advanced totem management tips;
• Browse the Elemental Shaman Stats guide to learn about your stat priority as an Elemental Shaman and how they contribute to your performance at maximum level;
• The Gear guide for Elemental Shamans contains the best gear pieces to look for at Level 80 in order to maximize your damage;