Shaman Hero Talents — The War Within (11.1.0)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Elemental Shaman, check out our Talents page:

If you want a detailed list of all the new Hero talents, check out our Spells page:

Farseer is notably ahead in pure single-target and priority damage. It remains behind in multi-target and becomes vastly worse in AoE situations with more than 3 targets. You want to use this hero talent on every current encounter (except Ovi'nax).

Stormbringer is way ahead of Farseer in situations where significant AoE will occur but is behind Farseer in single-target by enough that we cannot currently recommend it for raiding in Liberation of Undermine.

Stormbringer gives you top-tier heavy AoE/Cleave damage and is still adequate in single-target. The added mechanics can be somewhat annoying to keep track of but they add significant power.

Farseer remains far behind in Mythic+ although it could be viable for keys where AoE matters relatively little and where you mostly pull small packs.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Elemental Shaman

Farseer (Raid) Stormbringer (M+)

3.

Best Farseer Build for Elemental Shaman

Natural Harmony will, most of the time, be much more practical than Earthen Communion. Currently, aside from solo play, you should always take Ancient Fellowship and Routine Communication because of the important synergies with Final Calling and Offering from Beyond.

3.

Best Stormbringer Mythic+ Build for Elemental Shaman

Nature's Protection is vastly better than Surging Currents in every circumstance and is essentially a non-choice. You always take Supercharge as Storm Swell is nowhere close its power even with low Mastery. You always take Electroshock as it give reliable movement while Lightning Conduit can proc at the wrong time, making you move further than you wanted and cause problems.

Due to the diminished importance of Lightning Bolt compared to Stormbringer builds, you end up using Icefury-empowered Frost Shocks rotationally, unlike Stormbringer builds. Other than that, press Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown. We recommend macroing it to Lava Burst. Remember to put it BEFORE those spells in the macro.

• #showtooltip
• /use Ancestral Swiftness
• /cast Lava burst

You might think there is some potential benefit from holding it one GCD to gain the damage bonus on a stronger ability, or make something instant, but in almost every case you are better off putting it on cooldown immediately so you can start reducing its cooldown again. There is no other rotational change for Farseer.

Stormbringer is more interactive but adds multiple things to track and can be difficult to fully optimize in practice. Most people are likely better off just using the procs as they happen and not thinking too hard about them. Otherwise, you will want WeakAuras tracking Rolling Thunder timing, tracking Maelstrom spendings for Tempest availability, and an Awakening Storms tracker to at least know if your next proc will give you Tempest.