Contents
Overview
Elemental Shaman is a Nature caster built around big crits. 
Elemental Fury doubles the bonus damage of your spell crits, 
Lightning Mastery cuts a full second off 
Lightning Bolt and 
Chain Lightning, and 
Elemental Mastery hands you a free guaranteed crit every three minutes.
The reputation is that Elemental runs out of mana in a minute. Experienced Elemental players will tell you that’s exaggerated. What most guides skip is that mana is a skill here, not a fixed limit: pick the right rank of Lightning Bolt, use your potions and runes on cooldown, and you’ll last through most fights. Short fights are where the spec shines.
Rank 4 Lightning Bolt gets the same bonus from your spell damage as Rank 10, for much less mana. Never go below Rank 4: spells learned before level 20 get a reduced bonus from gear, and Rank 3 is learned at 14.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Huge crits. Elemental Fury and Elemental Mastery make your burst some of the best of any caster.
- Totems for your party, plus
Purge, an 
Earth Shock interrupt and an emergency heal. 
Reincarnation speeds up wipe recovery, since you can stand up and help bring the raid back.- Scales well into later raids, where Ahn’Qiraj gear that lowers enemy resistances adds a lot of damage.
- Mana. Long fights punish careless rank choices and missed potions.
- Many enemies resist Nature damage, including elementals and several later raid bosses.
- Caster gear is shared with Mages, Warlocks and healers, so upgrades come slowly.
- Early on there’s no easy Nature debuff to boost your damage unless an Enhancement Shaman’s
Stormstrike is on the target.
Talents
Hover over any talent to read its tooltip. Calculator not loading? Open the Shaman talent calculator on Wowhead.
This is the standard raid build most Elemental Shamans run: 31 Elemental and 20 Restoration. You’ll likely keep it for your whole raiding career.
Key Choices:
Convection and 
Concussion are the base of the tree: 10% cheaper and 5% stronger shocks, Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning.
Call of Thunder adds 6% crit to your Lightning spells, and Elemental Fury doubles the crit bonus on top of that. Together they’re where most of your damage comes from.- Lightning Mastery takes a full second off Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Elemental Mastery makes your next Nature, Fire or Frost damage spell a free, guaranteed crit on a 3-minute cooldown.
Elemental Focus gives a 10% chance for your next damage spell to cost no mana. Small, but it adds up over a long fight.- In Restoration,
Nature’s Guidance adds 3% hit, 
Totemic Focus makes totems 25% cheaper, 
Totemic Mastery stretches your buff totems to 30 yards, and 
Tidal Mastery adds 5% crit to your Lightning spells and heals.
Once you reliably have high spell crit from raid buffs, you can move the point from Elemental Mastery into 
Nature’s Swiftness. Many players take Nature’s Swiftness from the start as an instant emergency heal. Tidal Mastery is the flexible block if you want 
Ancestral Knowledge or something else instead.
Stat Priority
- 1
- Spell Hit (to 13%)
the cap against raid bosses is 16%, and
Nature’s Guidance covers 3% of it. A resisted spell does no damage at all, so this comes first.
- 2
- Nature Damage and Spell Damage
Nature damage boosts your Lightning spells and
Earth Shock, which is most of your damage. General spell damage is close behind.
- 3
- Spell Crit
every crit gets the doubled bonus from
Elemental Fury.
- 4
- Intellect
your mana pool. On fights longer than about two and a half minutes, value it above crit.
- 5
- MP5
steady regen helps on long fights, but it comes after everything above.
Spell Penetration is hard to find, but it shows up on some later gear and lowers the target’s resistances. If you see it on Ahn’Qiraj gear, take it seriously.
Rotation
Single target is simple: keep 
Searing Totem down, keep 
Flame Shock on the target, and cast Lightning Bolt. The skill is in the rank. The shorter the fight, the higher the rank you can afford. On a long fight, or once your mana dips, drop to Rank 8 or lower. You deal less per cast but keep casting longer, and that’s more damage in total.
When your mana runs low, your party’s totems come before your own damage. A dropped 
Mana Spring Totem or 
Windfury Totem costs your group more than a few missing Lightning Bolts.
OPENER
- 1.
down first, along with whatever buff totems your party needs.
- 2.
starts its damage over time early.
- 3.
pop it and follow with Chain Lightning for a free guaranteed crit on your biggest spell.
PRIORITY
- 1.
keep it up and in range for the whole fight.
- 2.
keep it on the target.
- 3.
when Elemental Focus gives you Clearcasting. It hits harder and casts faster than Lightning Bolt, and Clearcasting makes it free.
- 4.
everything else. Pick the rank by fight length and remaining mana, never below Rank 4.
- 5.
to finish off enemies with very little health left.
AOE
- 1.
replaces Searing Totem against packs.
Magma Totem- 2.
on cooldown if you can get close to the pack, especially with Call of Flame.
Fire Nova Totem- 3.
against three or more targets, it replaces Lightning Bolt completely. Against two, stick to the normal rotation.
Totem twisting (cycling Windfury Totem with another Air totem) costs a lot of mana. Leave it to Enhancement and Restoration Shamans; it’s not worth it for Elemental.
Consumables
- Flask
your biggest spell damage boost. Pricey, so save it for progression.
Flask of Supreme Power- Elixir
the cheaper spell damage option for normal raid nights.
Greater Arcane Elixir- Weapon Oil
36 spell damage and 1% spell crit.
- Food
8 mana every 5 seconds.
Runn Tum Tuber Surprise for Intellect is the alternative.
Nightfin Soup- Potion
use it on cooldown once you’ve spent enough mana to take the full amount.
- Rune
turns health into mana.
Dark Rune does the same job.
Gear
You wear mail from level 40, but most of your caster upgrades are contested by Mages, Warlocks and healers. Gear up as a Restoration Shaman where you can, since healing gear with Intellect and crit often works for you too. Dragonscale Leatherworking is the profession that makes mail caster pieces. For bosses that resist Nature, look for items that lower the target’s resistances.
- Trinket
A counter to Nature resistance on later bosses
- Set Bonus
Stormcaller’s Garb (3-piece)
The 3-piece bonus boosts your Nature damage
- Head & Legs
- Vodouisant’s Vigilant Embrace for more Intellect
- Shoulders
Spell damage from the Zul’Gurub shoulder enchant
- Weapon Enchant
Spell Power
Brilliant Wizard Oil on top for a raid night
Tips & Tricks
Use 
Major Mana Potion and 
Demonic Rune on cooldown in long fights. Holding them for later usually means you never use them.
Elementals and some raid bosses resist Nature. Expect lower numbers there, and lean on gear and debuffs that cut resistances.
Drop 
Tremor Totem and the cleansing totems when slightly less than 5 seconds are left before the fear, poison or disease. They pulse every 5 seconds.
Troll is the usual pick for Elemental. 
Beast Slaying adds 5% damage against beast bosses, though 
Berserking burns mana faster by speeding up your casts.
Herbalism and Alchemy let you make your own mana potions, which is most of what the spec costs to run. Enchant only the pieces you’ll keep for a while.
Related Guides
- Shaman Leveling Guide (1-60) — talents and totem quests from 1 to 60
- Shaman Enhancement DPS Guide (Level 60) — the melee side of Shaman damage
- Shaman Restoration Healer Guide (Level 60) — Chain Heal, downranking and raid totems
- Molten Core Raid Guide — the first raid most Shamans step into
- WoW Classic Alchemy Guide (1-300) — make your own mana potions
- WoW Forever Shaman Guide — what changes for Shaman in WoW Forever