Draegan

Thanks, just came back to the game and leveling up a new toon, and I have my shaman at level 63 now and I'm attempting to put together a shopping list of sorts. I'm having trouble finding a decent weapon/shield combo along the way. But +700 damage +20% crit is a good goal to reach for.

 

Kasi

I'm at about 780 damage unbuffed and 21-22% crit. I am a Dragonscale Leatherworker though. That to me adds a good deal of dmg and crit over the alternatives, as well as a chunk of mp5. Because of the lack of elemental gear in Kara I really like the DS set. It in many ways is still better than T4, although having the 4 piece T4 bonus would be nice which would make my optimal PVE set to be T4 sans the chest and the full DS set.

If you look at my gear in my profile right now I'm sitting at 745 damage, but that is in my pvp gear. Mainly just change my head to the SMV quest, trinket to a green + dmg trinket (or Icon would be best if you could get it), shield to the BoE lvl 68 blue one, and exorcist ring to the blue one from Steam Vaults that has a better spread of stats. That gets me to 780. Would be nearly 800 with Icon. 925ish with WoA and Imp DS. Add in consumable buffs on top.

Oh to answer your question on weapon/shield combo. Weapon is tough. There is one and only one non heroic blue dagger/mace, which drops off the second to last boss in SH. He also drops TF shoulders, so it is worth getting. But still only one option and the rng can screw you. I just went and did SL a bunch and got the LC mace. That should last me for a long time. Shield is very easy. Just get Draenei Honor Guard Shield - Items - World of Warcraft. It's almost the same as the Honor badge shield, just lack 3-4 dmg and the stamina. Crit and int it is pretty much identical.

 

• Binkenstein

T4 4pc isn't that hot, switching in some t5 items is better.

Depending on whether you want the T5 4pc set bonus, T4 helm/gloves are the best ones to keep, as T5 shoulders/legs/chest are definitely better than the T4 ones.

*puts a big IMO stamp on this post*

 

Quasi

Cycles: Pretty much the same with the main variable being sustainability.
Gems: Same but I prefer the 12 dmg, run speed pvp meta gem. I use vitality to my boots because of it. Basically personal preference.

As far as set bonuses go I decided to break up my T4 when I entered Hyjal and BT. A lot of the fights required so much movement that my group wasn't always able to be in range of totems. At least thats how our strategies worked. I still have T4 on me depending on the fight, but for the most part its collecting dust.

1k dps sustained is my goal as well for raids, but its much more difficult to achieve than I thought. Maybe when we finally get an enhancement shaman to help out

Is there anyone else out there that can consistently sustain 1000 dps on multiple bosses?
I believe I only have a handful of parses where I was able to do it.

 

Kelorius

T5 is all around better than T4 imo. T4 legs and gloves have no spell crit on them at all and for elem shaman thats just not gonna cut it in my book. I am working on getting 4pc T5 for a couple reasons 1) they are just good pieces for the most part and 2) the set bonus is pretty good.


The Armory

This is my armor profile. Yes I need new back and neck but Prince and Maulgar are being stingy.

For the most part, I carry ~1k DPS on all bosses in SSC and lower with some exceptions -- Hydross and Vashj. I get fairly good treatment in my raid, always have a spriest and an enhancement shaman. Of course I have no WWS parses at hand to post but when/if I can find some I will. In terms of gems I like 4crit/5dmg over 9 dmg but I also like having 40% crit with LB/CL for mana and DPS reasons.

 

Dicho

I think we are making a gross error in comparing tier 4 and tier 5 here(tier 6 aswell), as our assumptions are not the same.

If you are without a shadow priest in your group in raids, then tier 4, 4piece bonus is a huge upgrade, since you might very well go oom before the boss goes dead without it.

If on the other hand you do have a shadow priest in your group, it is essentially useless, as you will have more mana then you know what to do with and you are better off using gear with better elemental stats.

The tier 5 bonuses(boni?) are not amazing. The charged effect(2 part bonus) has a 7% procc rate(according to wowhead, and doesnt seem that far off by my own WWS parses), and stays on for a good 15 secs. That is too short to be of much use for spot heals, and you are not really hurt by those 1-2 spot heals you might have to do in a fight anyway, since you got a shadow priest. If you have to switch completely to healing in a fight, the charged effect is utterly useless again, as you wont be doing any dmg spells.
The 120 mana back has a decent procc rate, though 120 mana aint much, and if youre really hurting that much for mana, you should be wearing the bugged tier 4, 4 part instead. Beautiful.

That leaves you picking up tier 5 mostly for its own stats. And keeping in mind 2 part tier 4 is 20 spell dmg for yourself, nevermind the bonus for the group. Thus youll be better off keeping the best 2 bits of Tier 4, and picking up t5, or other random gear that fits in the other 3 slots.

Tier 6 is the first set where blizzard seems to realise that elemental shamans are actually a full-on dps class, and that mana is not that big a concern for the shadow priest blessed shaman. - Only beef I got with tier 6 is that it has silly amounts of hit, which we dont need.

 

Torrential

I did this using Potent Noble Topaz for yellow slots where the gem bonus was +damage, and +9 damag gems in blues, and +9 in yellows if the gem bonus wasn't spell damage.

First set was using the T4 helm in everything, 2nd set using T5 helm.

Then the third set is the best (imo) of the first 2 side by side. T4 Head/Shoulders with T5 Gloves/Legs comes out the best. (again, imo) I only need 36 +hit(assuming the head glyph) from gear and that's with a point missing from Nature's Guidance so +hit is basically a non-issue in my considerations.

This is of course assuming you're maintaining 3 piece NS set. If not then just pfft to all this :p

As an aside: 1k dps shouldn't be that hard to reach. If I don't have to move and I'm just allowed to stand there and pewpew (Tidewalker for example) I can sustain 1k+. We have yet to get WWS rolling but I started working with it last night for our Al'ar attempts. If I get it all figured out and all that I can get a WWS link for myself on a nice stand still fight like TW.

 

• Binkenstein

updates! And a new file host too!

Fixing up stuff, got the rest of the T4/5/6 items in, so now I think I'm pretty much done with the raid instances (post/send PM if I miss something out/screwed up an item).

Next stop: PvP gears!

 

whave

Just a quick question; I chewed through the thread but could not really find the reason for the defined 24% crit 'cap' which a lot of people seem to use/relate to. Could someone enlighten me please?

 

Torrential

I was unaware that was something other people used at all. I mentioned the 24% 'cap' as a personal preference but I don't think there's really any sort of theorycraft reason as to why you would want to stop at 24%. It's just a number I'm comfertable with and feel works for me.

 

Dicho

As far as I know there is nothing that should cap you at 24%, be it threat, dmg, mana regen, etc.

Threat is a non-issue on the majority of fights unless your tank has some serious issues. Crits do not generate more threat-per-dmg, but ofc a crit will "spike" your threat more then a normal hit would. With Omen/KTM, or just common sense, it should be extremely hard to overaggro as an elemental shaman.

Mana regen is sadly far more dependant on the group setup then your own critrate. If you have an unlucky group setup for regen, you might have to wear gear that gives you more regen, I.e 4 part tier 4, Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker, etc.

Given a SP, you should always go for the maximum output in terms of dps, regardless of where that might put your crit rate.

 

whave

'Cap' was written like this for a reason, I know there is no mechanics-based cap on this, just saw 27% selfbuffed crit as a base on other forums as well. Thanks for the infos

 

Rugrud

NEw file host isn't working anymore.. i was able to DL it yesterday, but i gave the URL to some fellow shaman, and it's down...

 

Torrential

Not exactly the best place to ask but it's not thread worthy: Last night I dropped myself under the hit cap and added a draenei shadow priest to the group. I see his buff for +hit, and he sees mine. Other people in the group only see 1 buff. I then noticed my miss rate for 3 Al'ar attempts to be higher than I'm used to. Granted 3 attempts isn't much of a sample size but it certainly seems that the two draenei's +hit buffs aren't stacking.

 

• Binkenstein

It's mostly me getting to grips with how this new file host works. It seems to create a new file rather than replacing the previous copy. And I somehow managed to remove it from the catalogue listing. All fixed now.

As such, I'll be using my website as a daily update, and then putting a new copy onto the filehost every friday or so. In either case, I'd recommend linking to the listing, rather than directly to the file ( Binky's files Free file hosting - Files upload - Max 1 GB per file via FTP, 300 MB via HTTP, Subdomain, FTP access, the fastest 1-click free file-hoster ) to avoid problems like that when I make an update.

Got all the arena sets/bg armor in now, going to work on the arena weapons next, finish updating the bg sets, and then move onto 5man loot and craftables.

 

• Binkenstein

I would be highly surprised if they stacked, as you'd have 5 draenei in a party with +5% hit from stacking auras. Alliance don't need any more OP racial abilities (gg fear ward)

 

Xei

Dear Pew Pew Shaman - I hath come to thee for guidance!

We recently recruited an Elemental Shaman and last night was his first raid. Being essentially a DPS Caster he has fallen under me (Mage Class Officer) for raiding matters.

I guess its the best idea but I really have no idea about elemental shaman talent trees, specs, gear choices etc - the latter being important because we distribute loot through council.

He did well (I think) on Maulgar/Gruul and our few Mag wipes (regularly top 3 DPS on the channeler zerg, which is the most important part I think) but I would like some guidance about Elemental Shaman - specifically gear/spec/gem choices.

His Armory:
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dath'Remar&n=Kithix

WWS of Maulgar, Gruul and Mag attempts:
Wow Web Stats



EDIT

For some reason the armory wont hyper link but works when I cut and paste - /shrug.

"Being a leader is not a position of power. It is a position of service." ~ Barestomper

WTB Oceanic Horde PvE Players

 

• Binkenstein

Url tags ftw (the forums don't auto tag armory links).

Gear loots fairly good (can get alot of decent ele gear from heroics/kara, and I'd get more crit-based trinkets that Quag's Eye. the horn from Arc, or the Shattar rep trinket would be good), spec's good (although I'd drop out 2 Unrelenting Storm points for more range), so it all will come down to buffs & how he plays.

I assume you had a stacked group (ele shaman, spriest, 3 casters)?
Don't forget to take into account the group buffs when considering his worth.

PS: got all the bg items done now

 

Xei

It was him, myself (Fire Mage), another Fire Mage, Shadow Priest and Lock. The Officers asked me how he did after Maulgar - he came #3 on DPS and boosted my own DPS by about 60!

I see that they get 9% to hit with talents alone, and another 3% from Totem, so that leaves 4% to hit from items - correct? So they focus more on crit gear for more clearcast procs? With their usually high crit rates I would think that TLC would be a really good trinket for them.

What sort of numbers should I be expecting of him - roughly 80% of a Mage/Lock (encounter dependent)? After one raid I fully think the is worth investing time and gear into, but I want to have all the facts/figures when relaying that information to my Officers.

"Being a leader is not a position of power. It is a position of service." ~ Barestomper

WTB Oceanic Horde PvE Players

 

Miaxi

Why was he shocking so much? Shocks don't benefit from crit talents nor can proc lightning overload, so unless you are moving you lose damage with them. But the ratio seems to be roughly 3:1, so it looks like he was trying to use them on every cooldown? If he had too much mana due to the shadow priest, he should have been using Chain Lightning.

 

• Xabu

Going from the Gruul WWS, I only saw 1 mana potion consumed unless I read wrong, so if mana was to his advantage it probably would have been slightly more beneficial to work chain lightning into the rotation as opposed to the shocks. Granted, the shocks are still useful (I throw a flame shock in if I get tossed in his general direction), but won't get LO or 11% crit benefit.

Talents/gear look good (most of the lower elemental talents revolve around preference), though like was mentioned earlier, a bit more spellhit wouldn't hurt.

 

Hodan

That's one thing to learn. Shocks are basically identical to LBs and such in damage except they cost more mana, and can't proc LO. They also crit 11% less. He should never shock (unless he's running on a gruul shatter and wants to maximize his DPS).

TLC is a very good trinket - your shaman should grab it, t4 and LW for netherstrike/good boots.

Something to keep in mind is that the elemental shaman is mainly there as a buff class. He shouldn't be top 3 (no offense), more like 5-8. His main asset is totem of wrath + wrath of air - which should add roughly 100 DPS to the casters in your group (you can test this using other classes' respective spreadsheets - most will have an option for wrath of air totem).

T5 isn't much of an upgrade over t4, though. He'll probably notice that and (hopefully) pass on it to his fellow peers. As a general rule of thumb, if it has hit he probably shouldn't take it (t4/5 come with plenty, believe me).

 

Xei

Thanks for the replies.

Looking again over the WWS, he didn't use all that many shocks on Maulgar - I guess the shocks on Gruul are right before Ground Slam as that is what I do, try to use an instant cast in the air. Shocks on Mag would be just interrupting I assume - but I will bare that in mind during the next few raids (we have Void Reaver tonight, I wouldn't think Shocks would be worthwhile at all).

I remember reading somewhere else that Flame Shock is decent enough to include in the rotation, assuming Misery/Scorch debuff is up - is this correct?

The usual rotation is LB spam and a CL in if you have enough mana? (or in conjunction with EM?).

He has a TLC, and uses Quag's Eye atm. My aim is to get him T4 shoulders or legs (has helm) ASAP for the nice T4 2 piece set bonus. He also has a few bad gems in there, might get him to put some hit gems in there to make it up to the cap.

Our guild is kind of in a rebuilding stage after a big split/set-back so we have several under geared people who we are working with. I don't expect him to lead charts, but he needs to maintain a decent level to justify his spot. I think he is earning his place after his performance last night.

"Being a leader is not a position of power. It is a position of service." ~ Barestomper

WTB Oceanic Horde PvE Players

 

Miaxi

No, I checked the amount. Gruul doesn't shatter often enough for that. It really looks like a 3:1 rotation with a couple missed out. I am sure that he could improve his DPS already by just dropping shocks and only using Lightning Bolt.

Yes.

 

Steiny

Hi Guys,

Just been reading through your thread and there's so much good info in here...

Here's my 40/0/21 shammy - The Armory

If you have any comments on talent tree/loots please let me know, I'm currently 2 badges short of the shield, and 5k honor short of the not set epic boots. After that I'm going to farm out the rest of my 17Kish LC rep to get the gavel and still working on the merciless chest. After that not sure what I'll go for, maybe the back from 25x bdages, or the head piece if I can't get the one from kara.

That should get me to about 700dmg unbuffed, and about 24/25% crit minus 11% from talents. Where should I look to get some more spl dmg, I feel mine is a little low and not sure what loots to go for to buff it up, maybe socket itemization would help, any recommendations?

Another thing...

I've been trying to work in a suitable resto/elemental build, so I can heal for this new guild im playing with, my problem is I still want to be able to pvp with my friends and if possible as healer/dps. Does anyone have any good recommendations on talent distribution? I don't know if I can do anything worth while, and thinking I might just have to change to all out resto.

this is what I'd probably do if I go all out resto.

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Shaman -> Talent Calculator

Not sure what else I can do and still be able to succesfully heal in kara. I'd prefer to stay Elemental, but doing this till the guild can get another healer.

Other then that I have the 10crit on my gloves cause it was like 3g and I don't have the matts/G for 20spl dmg.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on my toon,

Many Sechks