Reposting my weapon speed summary from a few months ago:
Originally Posted by Jessamy
For a variety of reasons, slower (one-handed) weapons are best for both hands for a shaman:
- pro: Stormstrike, Windfury Weapon, and Lava Lash will hit harder.
- pro: More uptime for Flurry
- pro: More procs per minute for Maelstrom Weapon
- neutral: Flametongue Weapon gives the same dps with any speed weapon since it hits harder with a slower weapon.
- complicated: A slower weapon probably will proc Windfury more often, but modeling isn't straightforward.
- con: Fewer chances to proc Static Shock
For a rough guide, figure 0.1s slower weapon speed to be worth at least 50 attack power for comparison purposes.
Rouncer has mentioned that for him 0.1s slower weapon speed is worth 70 EP. My main spec is resto and my enhance gear isn't as good as his so enhsim shows it to only be worth about 50 EP for me (for main hand weapon).
Either way though, we both have a hidden assumption of weapon speeds in the 2.5 - 2.8 speed range. Since I don't intend to use a fast weapon (such as my 1.8 speed resto mace) for melee dps, I haven't bothered to run simulations with faster speeds, and don't know if weapon speed has a linear effect or something more complex.
Reposting my weapon speed summary from a few months ago:Rouncer has mentioned that for him 0.1s slower weapon speed is worth 70 EP. My main spec is resto and my enhance gear isn't as good as his so enhsim shows it to only be worth about 50 EP for me (for main hand weapon).
Either way though, we both have a hidden assumption of weapon speeds in the 2.5 - 2.8 speed range. Since I don't intend to use a fast weapon (such as my 1.8 speed resto mace) for melee dps, I haven't bothered to run simulations with faster speeds, and don't know if weapon speed has a linear effect or something more complex.
You could even list Flametongue Weapon as a con. The base damage proc scales with weapon speed; however, the spellpower coefficient bonus is the same at all weapon speeds, thereby favoring faster weapons. It's a minor impact to overall damage output though.
I'm not sure what you mean by better uptime for Flurry, however. It's uptime should really be a function of crit rate with some dependencies on whether your weapon speeds are the same or different between the hands. Given the same crit rate, a fast weapon should have the same average percentage of flurried attacks over a sufficiently long time period.
You could even list Flametongue Weapon as a con. The base damage proc scales with weapon speed; however, the spellpower coefficient bonus is the same at all weapon speeds, thereby favoring faster weapons. It's a minor impact to overall damage output though.
Your information is significantly out of date regarding Flametongue. Both the base damage and the spellpower coefficient scale with weapon speed and have scaled that way for the last few major patches.
I'm not sure what you mean by better uptime for Flurry, however. It's uptime should really be a function of crit rate with some dependencies on whether your weapon speeds are the same or different between the hands. Given the same crit rate, a fast weapon should have the same average percentage of flurried attacks over a sufficiently long time period.
A slower weapon has less frequent (but bigger) swings, and will use up the stacks of flurry more slowly. So you have the same chance to gain the buff, but don't lose it as quickly.
Originally Posted by tarrick
And then due to the slower swings will have more time between buffs while a faster weapon will proc it again more quickly within the time frame. Flurry "uptime" is not a function of time, but of percentage of attacks.
A slower weapon has less frequent (but bigger) swings, and will use up the stacks of flurry more slowly. So you have the same chance to gain the buff, but don't lose it as quickly.
And then due to the slower swings will have more time between buffs while a faster weapon will proc it again more quickly within the time frame. Flurry "uptime" is not a function of time, but of percentage of attacks.
Instant attacks can also procc flurry, and the amount of instant attacks will be the same regardless of your weapon speeds. Worth noting is also that a slower weapon will typically procc windfury less, not more, so the list of pros and cons is somewhat flawed. A better reason is that a slower weapon will waste less windfury proccs due to the cooldown.
I'm a little out of shape with latest 3.2 glyph changes for shamans. The new Flame Shock glyph is the same as the T8 2p bonus now. Having the gliph of lava, flame shock and lighting bolt, what glyph would be the best to change the Flame Shock one?
I've seen the Glyph of Flametongue Weapon and Glyph of Totem of Wrath, but havent quite decided yet...
If you're replacing your Flame Shock glyph due to having 2t8, then you should use LB, ToW and Lava as your three glyphs. The 84 spellpower you get from ToW is worth significantly more than the 2% crit from Flametongue.
When you replace your 2t8 bonus, you should reglyph Flame Shock as it's one of our highest DPS glyphs. The order is generally Lightning Bolt > Flame Shock > ToW > Lava. However, with 4t9 and sufficient spellpower to prop it up, Lava edges slightly ahead of ToW. The precise threshhold at which this occurs depends on your gear and raid buffs.
What became of the elemental shaman Think Tank piece? Is it down temporarily for editing? Does anyone know if it will be back? It was a terrific resource for showing me how to think about gearing and playing my ele shaman, and it was an interesting read, so I certainly hope it returns.
I have an issue that bothers me a great deal while playing enhance. Sometimes when I'm refreshing Magma Totem, I hit my Magma Totem keybind, and it seems to put down a fresh magma totem (based on sound and just for a second, my totem timers shows a 20 second magma totem) but it is immediately destroyed and I no longer have a magma totem. I can't replicate this behavior outside of combat. I don't know if I'm reflexively hitting my keybind quickly twice in succession and somehow the game creates and destroys a totem (which I can't seem to do when I'm purposefully trying to do it), or if I'm actually on global and somehow fooled myself into thinking I put down the totem for a second, or anything. Has anyone ever experienced this? Ive had this problem for a while, and it can be quite frustrating, since we really don't have a lot of free globals right now and a missed chance to put down Magma Totem can mean a delay of 3+ seconds on putting it down again.
I have this issue with all my totems, not just magma. It's most evident with totems with shorter cooldowns, that I am more likely to be refreshing right as they expire, such as magma -- or earthbind and grounding. It seems to be a server-client latency issue. What appears to happen is I drop a new totem right before some message is sent to destroy my totem, and even though the old totem is already destroyed, the message is still sent and the new totem is destroyed.
I have this issue with all my totems, not just magma. It's most evident with totems with shorter cooldowns, that I am more likely to be refreshing right as they expire, such as magma -- or earthbind and grounding. It seems to be a server-client latency issue. What appears to happen is I drop a new totem right before some message is sent to destroy my totem, and even though the old totem is already destroyed, the message is still sent and the new totem is destroyed.
Yes, you're right. I have noticed it on occasion when dropping my totems with the one button. Most frustrating when it's Magma though, for all the reasons you listed.
Hello, I have just a little question, I have buffed ( Food + Elixir ) 1088haste all gems are haste and only 32,20% crit
I have a question if it won't be better to gem crit instead of haste to have 37,96% Crit and 824 haste( With food and elixir ) Thanks for answers
I am wondering if there has been any changes latly to elemental shamans talent builds you guys have. I've been trying to look on google as well as on here for talent builds...and so far no topic found. I'm not sure if its just buried deep into the pages of the shaman class or no longer exists. Can someone link me the current talent build for elemental shamans in 3.22?
Also, I have gotten the tier 9 badge gear for elemental shaman Thrall's Kilt of Conquest, as well as Sunreaver Magus' Sandals. Should I get haste gems or crit gems or int gems? I have 27.6% crit chance, 358 haste, and 1087 int.
Can someone link me the current talent build for elemental shamans in 3.22?
The build you are using is consistent with the current fashion. The value of Convection is debatable, and if you have no mana problems you may want to consider putting some of the points into Elemental Warding instead. This can be useful for surviving the various random damage effects in most boss encounters - but it's mostly a personal judgement call thing.
Originally Posted by Eregdush
Should I get haste gems or crit gems or int gems? I have 27.6% crit chance, 358 haste, and 1087 int.
If you're hit capped (and your armory has you considerably over the hit cap - it's 17% base chance to miss a boss, less 3% from Elemental Precision, so you only need 14% or 368 rating), then Spellpower > Haste > Crit > Int. You should never gem for crit or int as their DPS value is negligible compared to spellpower and haste. Mostly you should gem for spellpower, with two SP/stam gems to activate your Chaotic Skyflare meta, and Reckless (SP/haste) gems to pick up any juicy yellow socket spellpower bonuses. As for enchants, use intellect/crit only where you cannot use spellpower, such as on boots or shield.
Incidentally it's also optimal to choose gear with haste over gear with crit, whenever possible.
You should never gem for crit or int as their DPS value is negligible compared to spellpower and haste. Mostly you should gem for spellpower, with two SP/stam gems to activate your Chaotic Skyflare meta, and Reckless (SP/haste) gems to pick up any juicy yellow socket spellpower bonuses. As for enchants, use intellect/crit only where you cannot use spellpower, such as on boots or shield.
Incidentally it's also optimal to choose gear with haste over gear with crit, whenever possible.
The problem I have with that is:
Now I am sitting on 2930-ish sp (self buffed) and 630 haste (without totem) and only 26% crit, currently working on getting Sundial replaced with Embrace of Spider so I will lose even more crit there, and if I want to I can swap the crit ring from Triumph emblem out for the haste one, but that will put my crit to a very low level.
Shouldn't there be some sort of minimal threshold for crit that you shouldn't go below?
The short answer is no: Lava Burst guarantees a regular crit to keep all our crit-powered talents going. Also remember that you get up to 17% crit from raid buffs/debuffs and another 5% crit to LB/CL from talents that doesn't show up on your character sheet, meaning your 26% paperdoll crit in Dalaran is actually closer to 48% LB crit in a raid.
The short answer is no: Lava Burst guarantees a regular crit to keep all our crit-powered talents going. Also remember that you get up to 17% crit from raid buffs/debuffs and another 5% crit to LB/CL from talents that doesn't show up on your character sheet, meaning your 26% paperdoll crit in Dalaran is actually closer to 48% LB crit in a raid.
I should probably add that this phenomenon is consistent across most other casters right now, even ones without guaranteed crit applicators. The scaling effect from adding more damage to some of your attacks is lower than just pushing out more spells (on a rating for rating basis).
I have a quick question if anyone wants to help me out. For professions I'm using Engineering+Alchemy: My question is for glove bonus would the haste use, rocket or sp ench be best AND for haste would the 27sp ench be greater then 23 sp? For the latter I'm assuming the sp would rule out pending haste and the former I've currently been sticking to the haste use but I want to check with anyone else who might be willing to help out.
The engi spellpower enchant on the back outshines every cloak enchant except the tailoring embroideries. And for the gloves it's: Hyperspeed Accellerators > Pyro Rocket > Spellpower Enchant.
Your information is significantly out of date regarding Flametongue. Both the base damage and the spellpower coefficient scale with weapon speed and have scaled that way for the last few major patches.
Ah, I suppose I am, it has been a while since I looked at it. Thanks for the update.
10/14/09, 5:32 PM
