[Elemental] WWS & Gearing help thread
 

Rather than clutter up the rotation thread, we can have all our discussions (and when I say our, I generally mean you guys as I still have stuff I really should finish writing) about WWS performance, gearing help, etc etc etc

Please remember to read as much of the thread as possible, to avoid covering the same stuff over and over again.

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Would love to get this guy's DPS up. He's pretty well geared. I've been looking around and find elemental shaman dps is kinda low anyway, but then again, every bit helps.

Questions in this thread follow the same rules as anywhere else, they're just devoted to elemental DPS how-to.

Read the theorycraft think tank elemental article first. Don't ask impossibly open ended questions, like 'here's a wws and armory, what should change?"

Alright, my question here about gear might slap me in the face but...

I've been following Binkenstein's amazing spreadsheet for gear and have been finding myself rolling on a lot of gear directed for healers once I'm hit capped. Is this an error on my end or just what happens for elemental at a certain point?

Also because I'm playing with the hit cap I'm often stuck with situations like this:

I'm hit capped and Item A is now highly devalues in an EP sense
Item B which I happen to have is an upgrade
If i equip item A it puts me just a tiny bit below hit cap, priorities on gearing change and Item A becomes betyter than Item B

So I'm in a constant repeat with these two items. It also happens with the values of crit and haste at times as well.

I can only think of one best-in-slot item for Ele which has spirit or mp/5 on it, assuming that is what you mean by "healer gear".

Otherwise, if you are just talking about upgrades in general, then assuming you are in blues or ilvl 200 epics, then there will be a fair bit of "healer gear" that represents an upgrade. However you will be hurting both your guild and your own DKP by rolling on it, and only ending up with an item you will want to replace again before Ulduar anyway.

Generally I ignore any fluctuations like that. If item B leaves me under the hit cap, and I can't get over it otherwise, it's not going to get used. However, keep it around, because once you can, you'll use it.

I use two Pawn value sets at the moment, so I can keep track of this sort of stuff.

1. Is item A worth more on Elemental?
2. Is item A worth more on Elemental Hit?

• If yes to 1 & 2, use item A always.
• If yes to 2, but no to 1, use item B only when it keeps you above your hit cap
• If no to 1 & 2, use item B

Most of the time when faced with "healer" gear that is an upgrade, I'll say to the other shaman present "That's an upgrade, but I'll pass for you guys if you want it", and they do likewise with non-mp5 gear.

just for the record, I always pass to healers, most of these upgrades were going to be abyss crystals anyway.

You are talking about the [Torch of Holy Fire] as being our only MP5 Best in slot correct?

I've had quite a few Shaman try to convince me that our Tier 7 Valor gloves are best in slot, but short of getting cloth, the best mail gloves IMO are the [Benefactor's Gauntlets].

Yes, and yes, I agree.

I am currently using the horrible Heroes gloves, as the benefits of switching to Benefactor's gauntlets are outweighed by the loss from re-gemming and the loss of the -admittedly not huge - T7 4pc bonus. Once I can get my hands on any sort of T7 head I will certainly use Benefactor's.

Personally, I can't justify taking the Torch of Holy Fire until all of our healers have it. It just screams healing weapon to me and frankly, given our current state of affairs, I can wait.

Right now I am still just trying to spend a lot of time figuring out itemization and best in slots to stay at or around 289 hit rating and maximize spell power / haste / crit.

To me it's pretty clear the Benefactor's Gauntlets are BIS. The T7-25 set is BIS for helm, chest, legs and shoulders especially when you take the bonuses into account. A lot of the other slots are up for grabs between a couple things depending on your priorities (ex: Do you really want a shield? How much do you enjoy cloth?)

Just as an exercise in TC, I am pretty sure that assuming you have no anti-cloth prejudice, the absolute best in-slot set would involve ditching a few pieces of T7, and certainly the set bonus. If you were somehow able to get hold of [Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster] then those legs are really so good on their own that it makes breaking the set worthwhile. Partnered with something like [Mantle of the Corrupted] I think it would certainly be worthwhile.

Practically though, its 4-pc T7 + Benefactor's for me too. :)

I am actually currently in the unfortunate position of having 2 potentially BIS items sat in the bank for reasons of set bonus/hit cap (Gauntlets + Girdle of Recuperation). Just need the WoW gods to bestow a T7 head + Dying Curse and all that can be put right...

It's been mentioned earlier, but you can pick up [Mark of the War Prisoner] and that's a pretty decent replacement for Dying Curse. Obviously the epic trinket's proc is far superior.

I'm still not sold on the Mark. I have several best in slot with and w/o hit items, and I spent an entire day the other day messing around with gear combinations, and I couldn't find a single combination that made up for the deficit the use ability on the Mark leaves you vs. the proc from [Forge Ember].

Obviously procs are important, but if you can make use of the hit on the Mark it's better than the Ember (hit is going to outperform crit assuming roughly equivalent ilevel). Also keep in mind that having an on-demand boost to your spellpower goes a long way towards evening things out between the two procs (though the Forge Ember's proc is superior over a longer fight). An on-demand SP boost allows you to stack your timers and get more guaranteed mileage out of the boost, whereas a proc happens roughly every 45 seconds regardless of what else is going on.