Elemental Shaman DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.1.0)
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Elemental Shaman in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0).
Elemental Shaman in Mythic+
Elemental Shaman is currently an above-average ranged-DPS specialization for Mythic+ in The War Within. It can provide very strong multi-target burst and sustained damage, as well as a lot of utility.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our The War Within Mythic+ Season 2 page below.
To get an idea of the approximate power level of different specs in Mythic+, visit the page below. Tier lists are not the end-all for the actual value of specs in various content, however, so take it with a grain of salt.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Elemental Shaman in The War Within
For a more general overview of Talents for Elemental Shaman, please visit our dedicated Talents page.
Best Mythic+ Talent Builds for Elemental Shaman
First and foremost, there are multiple viable variants for Mythic+, and listing every one here would be counterproductive. There is some room for different variants in certain dungeons or for certain compositions or key levels.
Our overall recommendation is the following build, but please read the Flexible Talents text after looking at the tree!:
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Flexible Talents
Class Talents
Thundershock makes
Thunderstorm always useful but is not necessarily mandatory, as you may sometimes prefer the regular version or even come up with uses for
Traveling Storms.
Purge,
Poison Cleansing Totem,
Cleanse Spirit and
Tremor Totem,
Earthgrab Totem,
Seasoned Winds and
Hex are only picked in select dungeons. The dungeon section below will tell you all you need to know.
- Many talents such as
Hex,
Earthgrab Totem,
Thundershock, or the talents improving
Astral Shift,
Capacitor Totem and
Wind Rush Totem largely depend on your group skill, composition, and the key level. We do not recommend
Astral Bulwark unless you have very specific reasons to grab it, however.
Earth Shield,
Elemental Orbit,
Refreshing Waters,
Healing Stream Totem,
Elemental Resistance and
Totemic Focus are floating points that you get once you have selected all the talents you actually need.
Specialization Talents
Many combinations are viable, this is only our preferred one at the moment.
Echoes of Great Sundering works great for when you want to do sustained
cleave damage but one target has more health or is higher priority. You will have to
decide if the benefits are worth the extra work and possible frustrations.
The following talents are NEVER optional: Stormkeeper,
Primordial Fury,
Lightning Capacitor,
Echo Chamber,
Ascendance,
Mountains Will Fall,
Lightning Rod.
The following talents we do NOT recommend switching off, but there is a universe
where you might want to do it, maybe: Lightning Rod,
Icefury and
Fusion of Elements,
Herald of the Storms,
Charged Conduit,
Preeminence.
Elemental Shaman Mythic+ Rotation
Both the single-target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Elemental Shaman DPS rotation, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.
A couple additional habits you should practice in Mythic+:
- It can be a good idea to pool Maelstrom toward the end of every trash pull in order to reduce the ramp-up time needed to reach your maximum output.
- Keep in mind that efficiency is important and that you should not waste
spells that do damage over time on enemies that will die within seconds. In
particular, limit the amount of
Earthquake casts. This, of course, also goes for cooldowns. Do not waste cooldowns on packs that are about to die.
- Damage is not all there is in Mythic+, so you will often want to weave in
crowd control abilities, such as
Thunderstorm (if you are using
Thundershock) or
Capacitor Totem, between damaging abilities.
Mythic+ Utility for Elemental Shaman in The War Within Season 2
This section talks mostly about the uses of different spells. For in-depth explanations of all Shaman Abilities and Talents, including these, check out our Spells page.
Utility of Elemental Shaman in The War Within
Interrupts, Stuns and Stops
Wind Shear is your "kick" and your most important bit of utility in
Mythic+, used to stop enemy casts for the benefit of the group and especially
the tank. It is highly recommended to use a Focus Kick macro for this.
- /stopcasting
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@focus,exists,nodead][@mouseover,exists,nodead] [] Wind Shear
This macro will kick your focus target if you have one, mouseover if you have no Focus target, and your target if you have neither of those.
To quickly set a focus target in hectic scenarios, we also recommend a Focus Mouseover macro.
- /focus [@mouseover]
Make sure that your UI shows your Focus Target's casts clearly so that you are always able to kick it on cooldown or in coordination with the rest of your group.
Stuns and "Stops"
Elemental Shamans have a large variety of "hard" crowd-control abilities available to them, but they all work in different ways.
Earthquake will "naturally" knock enemies down from time to time, giving
you free stops, though its unpredictability makes it so you should never count on it
to reliably interrupt any cast. Think of it as a bonus.
Capacitor Totem is delayed but reliable, and both of the talents improving
it are useful, especially
Guardian's Cudgel if your party is short on stuns.
Note that
Totemic Recall can allow you to cast it back-to-back if that is helpful.
Thunderstorm, whether or not you are using
Thundershock, will
interrupt enemies and knock them away or up. Be very careful of the direction you
will knock enemies to if not using Thundershock.
Hex is meant as a long-duration crowd-control but can serve as a stop
in a pinch, though it is rarely practical or efficient.
Note that Earthgrab Totem "roots" a target but is not a "stop"; it
only prevents movement. Same thing with
Frost Shocks buffed by
Surge of Power.
Technically, Earth Elemental with
Primal Elementalist also
brings a stun, but because we cannot have two Primal Elementals up at the same time
and our
Storm Elemental will have extremely high uptime; it is difficult
to really make use of it.
Movement
Elemental has reasonably good mobility for several reasons:
Many Instant spells:
- We have many instant abilities in our rotation:
Primordial Wave,
Storm Elemental,
Earth Shock/
Earthquake,
Liquid Magma Totem,
Icefury,
Lightning Bolt and
Chain Lightning buffed by
Stormkeeper or
Arc Discharge
- With our current rotation,
Frost Shocks can be used as movement cooldowns. When they are empowered by
Icefury, they are barely a dps loss in most circumstances.
Stormbringer users can use
Nature's Swiftness as a reactive instant, and gain additional instant
Chain Lightning from
Arc Discharge.
Powerful mobility tools:
Wind Rush Totem, especially boosted by
Jet Stream or
Ascending Air, and potentially by
Totemic Focus, is a powerful ability that is useful for any content, having a powerful effect and the possibility of getting 2 in a row with
Totemic Recall. Moreover, you can extend its benefits by using
Totemic Projection to reposition it!
Spiritwalker's Grace not only gives you full mobility while casting for 15 seconds (19 for
Farseer users), it also gives you 20% movement speed and has fairly short cooldown thanks to
Graceful Spirit .
Gust of Wind is fantastically versatile burst mobility, while our other choice
Spirit Walk has a much higher cooldown but gets rid of root and snare effects.
Ghost Wolf form needs to be used sparingly in combat but is very useful, especially due to
Thunderous Paws or potentially
Spirit Wolf in higher keys.
Other Utility
Shamans have an excellent toolkit that greatly benefits from being tailored to each dungeon:
Off-healing:
Earth Shield, especially when also cast on your tank, can add up to very significant healing almost for free, especially when paired with
Healing Surge is a generic fast heal that only really shines when you are healing yourself and have
Earth Shield and
Refreshing Waters talented, but is still solid.
Healing Stream Totem is one of those abilities you drop when you have nothing else you can do; it helps a little bit, and
Elemental Resistance can potentially help surviving one-shots. It is hard to justify the talent points for it however.
Many kinds of "opt-in" dispells:
Purge can remove scary magic buffs on enemies, as well as help deal with the Ascendant Affix.
Cleanse Spirit removes curses and can help deal with the Devour Affix.
Poison Cleansing Totem removes all poison effects on your entire party every 1.5 seconds for up to 9 seconds. When it is useful, you most likely want to have
Totemic Focus as it increases its duration by 50%.
Tremor Totem removes Charm, Fear, and Sleep effects. It is rarely useful, but is the best tool in the game to deal with these debuffs when they happen.
Dungeon Tips and Tricks for Elemental Shaman for The War Within Season 2
This section has Shaman-specific tips and tricks that may not seem obvious for all dungeons' bosses and mobs.This section will be filled with tips as we get a better understanding on how to play these dungeons in practice, and which mechanics require specific counters.
Mythic+ Tips for Elemental Shaman in The War Within Season 2
- Cinderbrew Meadery:
Purge
Poison Cleansing Totem
- Darkflame Cleft:
Thunderous Paws and/or
Spirit Walk
Tremor Totem
- Priory of the Sacred Flame:
Purge
- The Rookery
Cleanse Spirit (optional)
Purge (optional)
- Operation: Floodgate:
Purge
Poison Cleansing Totem
- Theater of Pain:
Purge
Cleanse Spirit
- Operation: Mechagon:
Purge
- The Motherlode!!:
Purge
Poison Cleansing Totem
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge can be used to remove Rejuvenating Honey cast by Flavor Scientist, as it heals for up to 45% of their Max Health in 18 seconds.
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Thunderous Paws and/or
Spirit Walk
Tremor Totem
Bosses
Tremor Totem can be used against the Candle King's Paranoid Mind AoE fear.
Trash
Thunderous Paws and/or
Spirit Walk can be used to remove Flaming Tether cast by Sootsnout. This is interruptible.
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge can be used to remove Templar's Wrath from Zealous Templar (30% damage for 10 seconds).
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Cleanse Spirit
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge can be used to remove the Lightning-Infused buff that all Cursed Thunderers have(1st boss room).
- It is not really necessary, but you could help a bit by using
Cleanse Spirit, to remove Seeping Corruption, inflicted by Corrupted Oracle, otherwise the target will drop damaging circles for 8 seconds.
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Poison Cleansing Totem
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge can be used to remove the Restorative Algae HoT cast by Disturbed Kelp.
Poison Cleansing Totem can be used against Undercrawlers' Lethargic Venom ability
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Cleanse Spirit
Bosses
Cleanse Spirit can be used to rescue people hit by Mordretha, the Endless Empress' Grasping Rift ability (the black hole), as it applies a long stun that also does damage.
Trash
Purge should be used to remove Bone Shield from Bone Magus.
Cleanse Spirit can be used against Nefarious Darkspeakers' Curse of Desolation.
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge can be used against Defense Bot MK III's Defensive Countermeasures and if necessary against Mechagon Mechanic's Overclock ability.
Talents
In this dungeon, we recommend getting the following talents in order to help deal with specific mechanics:
Purge
Poison Cleansing Totem
Bosses
- No fancy tips yet. Please check back throughout the Season, as I am sure to find fancy tips to put here!
Trash
Purge should used to remove Tectonic Barrier from Stonefuries
Poison Cleansing Totem can be helpful against the stacking DoT from Hired Assassins' Toxic Blades, as well as against Venture Co. Alchemists' Caustic Compound.
Affix Tips, Tricks and Management for Elemental Shaman in The War Within Season 2
This section has Shaman-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.
Note that Reincarnation becomes even more awkward than usual when
reaching Keystone level 12 as the time penalty for deaths increases to 15 seconds.
Affix Guide for Elemental Shaman in The War Within
Ascendant Affix Management for Elemental Shaman
Elemental has quite a few ways to deal with this affix:
Wind Shear
Purge
Thunderstorm
Capacitor Totem potentially twice in a row with
Totemic Recall, and available more often if specced into
Static Charge
Earthquake (unreliable, only for orbs stacked on enemies)
Pulsar Affix Management for Elemental Shaman
Nothing special here beyond making sure to soak them when you are not in danger of killing yourself, as it deals significant damage. Remain close at least one other party member so your pulsar gets soaked.
Devour Affix Management for Elemental Shaman
Poison Cleansing Totem immediately dispels everything. Pretty strong!
You can get a second one if needed with
Totemic Recall.
You can also spec into Cleanse Spirit, but unless it is good in that
particular dungeon, it should not be necessary.
How To Sim Mythic+ for Elemental Shaman
MDT Sim
MDT Sim is the best way to sim Mythic+ for Elemental Shaman. It allows you to sim an entire dungeon, pull-by-pull, with appropriate HP amounts and so on. In this way, you get a full picture within a single sim, of various target counts and durations. I have created a route that I feel is a good "average" of all dungeons that you can use. Drop the contents of the Pastebin into your Raidbots > SimC Expert Mode at the bottom > 'Footer'. Detailed instructions and more info on MDT Sim can be found on the MDT Sim Wago page.
On our Gear Page below, we have compiled BiS items for Elemental Shaman that also apply to Mythic+.
Changelog
- 01 Mar. 2025: Added additional recommended utilities for several dungeons.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for The War Within Season 2.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated and reviewed for Patch 11.0.7.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 01 Oct. 2024: Adjusted some dungeon-specific talent recommendations.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Fully updated and reorganized the page, added multiple builds with their purpose, specific dungeon builds and information, additional ability and affix recommendations.
- 19 Aug. 2024: Updated with some preliminary information.
- 12 Aug. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.2 with new Hybrid Mythic+ build.
- 20 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 17 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated with 10.2 builds, put Fire on top as it is most relevant with T31.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 11 Jul. 2023: Fixed some links that still led to season 1 pages.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 06 May 2023: Added some more advice regarding talent/build choice.
- 01 May 2023: Removed mentions of non-Season-2 affixes. Added tips on how to deal with the 3 new Season 2 affixes, adjusted default talent recommendations. Adjusted some wording.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Adjusted recommended fire build for dungeons for more AoE burst.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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This guide has been written by Stormy, Elemental main since Wrath of the Lich King and member of the Storm, Earth and Lava Elemental theorycrafting team.
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