Shaman Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2)

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 far ahead in pure single-target and priority damage. It remains behind in multi-target and becomes much worse in AoE situations with more than 3 targets. You want to use this hero talent on every current raid encounter. There is no situation where what tier bonuses you have available to you changes this.

Stormbringer is way ahead of Farseer in situations where heavy AoE will occur but is behind Farseer in single-target by enough that we cannot currently recommend it for any raid encounter. There is no situation where what tier bonuses you have available to you changes this.

Stormbringer gives you top-tier heavy AoE 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 is behind in Mythic+ but is easier to play and and trades significant AoE damage to gain more single-target and 2-3 target cleave. Good on Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder and lower level keys in particular.

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. Routine Communication has important synergies with Final Calling and Offering from Beyond.If you do not have Shaman Farseer 11.2 Class Set 2pc you should use Ancient Fellowship instead of Latent Wisdom.

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.

Press Ancestral Swiftness on cooldown. We recommend macroing it to Primordial Wave.

• #showtooltip Primordial Wave
• /use Ancestral Swiftness
• /cast Primordial Wave

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. In single-target, you counter-intuitively will want to cast Liquid Magma Totem AFTER casting Ancestral Swiftness and Primordial Wave, because as a multi-component spell, it makes Ancestors cast both Lava Burst and Chain Lightning.

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. This is especially important once you get Shaman Stormbringer 11.2 Class Set 4pc.