Some Elemental Shaman Info

[Fideous]

I just wanted to pass some info along to Diamonnd and Fhaetal about Elemental Shaman. Here is a nice link with some nice info about talents, glyphs and rotations.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=45759.0

Talents :

Couple suggestions for you here Fhaetal. First, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=29180 is an enhance shaman talent and there is no need to pick it up as elemental since it increases melee crit, not spell crit. I would put these points into reducing spell pushback (Eye of the Storm) since there is a lot of raid wide damage in Ulduar and a tight rotation is where shaman see nice dps returns. I would also remove the point from Reverberation and stick it into Improved Shocks (Enhance tree). Other than that, everything looks good and you both have the needed talents.

Edit - Another thing to consider is the Elemental Warding talent, a very nice talent with all the raid wide damage that happens. I would take points out of Convection for it, since Elemental Shamans are already the most efficient casters and don't have mana troubles.

Glyphs :

With 3.1, a new glyph was introduced http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64262. I would recommend using this glyph with the Flame Shock glyph and the Lightning Bolt glyph. Fhaetal, i noticed that you don't even have the Flame Shock glyph. Having to reapply Flame Shock after every Lava Burst is a huge dps loss. With the glyph, you'll only need to reapply when the dot expires.

Rotation (with regards to single target dps) :

As already mentioned, a tight rotation is key for elemental shaman to maximize their dps. In the link above, you'll see that your rotation depends on the level of haste you have. The key thing to remember is that Lightning Bolt (LB) will be your best nuke to use between Lava Burst (LvB). This is because it has he highest spell power coefficient, benefits from the glyph, and also from the talent Shamanism ( http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62101 ). The goal is to get as many LB's between your LvB without missing the CD on LvB. Basically, spend some time on the target dummies and test out your rotation.

Optimal Haste comes around the 530 point (latency plays a part here), at which point your cast time for LB is 1.6 secs and you can fit 5 perfectly between LvB. I would not start gemming for haste or anything to reach this point, but it can be reached fairly easily with gear choices. In particular, you should favour gear with spell power, hit (till capped) and haste. Crit is the lower of the 4 stats since it doesn't benefit LvB at all (automatic crit).

Anyway, i just noticed the number of Chain Lightnings that were being cast on boss fights in Ulduar and was a little surprised. Its fine to use on trash, but on single target fights it should only be used as a filler so you don't miss your LvB CD. The fights in ulduar require a lot more movement so getting a nice rotation down can be difficult.

Hope this helps.