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Elemental PvP Specs. Follow

#1 Jan 21 2009 at 12:46 PM Rating: Good
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There is so much to choose from and it's so hard to pick without feeling like you're losing out on some good talents. With the new goodies on Tuesday I am trying out a new PvP build (keep in mind I'm only 71) for my Elemental Shaman, I've put all points into Elemental except for 11 into enhancement for the half cost shocks.

What are your guys prefered pvp builds for elemental and are there some talents that MUST ABSOLUTELY not be left out?

Thanks for any tips!
#2 Jan 22 2009 at 10:18 AM Rating: Good
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I would not worry about pvp talents until your 80 for the most part.

at 80 I would suggest something like this:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321105132531351000000000000000000000000000050520310000000000000000000&glyph=121503030602

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321105132531351000000000000000000000000000050523010000000000000000000&glyph=121516030602

I think most would try something more similar to the first option at 80 but for me atleast I find beefing up LS to be well worth it in PvP.

For me it always seems I do use lightning shield, fire totems and shocks more then anything to dish out damage while staying mobile, using a well timed Flame Shock Lava Burst to finish them off.
#3 Jan 23 2009 at 11:48 PM Rating: Good
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With the introduction of Lava Burst, Lightning Overload is even more worthless in PvP now than it was in TBC. Let's face it: people are not just going to let you stand around and chain-cast Lightning Bolts/Chain Lightnings at them outside of a BG fustercluck.

Most of your time is going to be spent shocking, laying fire totems, keeping Lightning Shield up, Thunderstorming, etc. In case you haven't noticed the re-occurring theme here, it's instant casts. You're going to be presented with very few opportunities to actually wind up a huge nuke against a competent opponent, and when you do you're almost assuredly going to be reaching for Lava Burst.

I would take the five points out of Lightning Overload and move them elsewhere.
#4 Jan 24 2009 at 5:15 AM Rating: Good
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Good point guadion I see what you mean, although at the same time I like keeping certain talents for 5 mans =P

for a full out arena pvp spec I would have to agree LO ios not worth the hassel, only time we cast LB in arena is durring BL if we aren't being stunned to death =P
#5 Jan 24 2009 at 8:20 AM Rating: Good
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Hey, jmfmb, do you instance/raid as Elemental? Apologies to the OP as this is getting off topic, but I'm curious as to what percent of your overall DPS Lightning Overload contributes now with Elemental Shaman working Flame Shock and Lava Burst into their spell rotations religiously. I was thinking of going Elemental for my DPS off-spec once dual-spec is introduced into the game, but as I want the spec to function for farming and grinding as well as some instancing and raiding, I would like the spec to be functional for PvE and PvP.

This is what I was looking at. I realize it's not really optimal for either, but I PvE mainly as Resto so as long as it's passable I'll be satisfied. However, if not having LO and EW is really going to be too much fail for me then I'll probably just stick to Enhancement which can easily do both with the same build. I don't feel the need to top meters with an off-spec, but I know Elemental Shaman are kind of struggling now anyways and I don't want to compound the problem with a half-assed spec.
#6 Jan 24 2009 at 10:36 AM Rating: Good
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I have actualy been on an unexpected break from wow for about 2 weeks now lol. Between my PC acting up and my time card running out I have been reluctant to purchase a new card (my last card got little play because wow just would not work lol)

But I have been keeping up with changes and have been very interested in what blizzard has been doing with elemental, as it is you can get a spec that works ok for both with loss of very minor pve talents...

I have to agree with the way LO is atm it is not too necesary but i have nop hard numbers to offer you to back that up, and your right the amount of spell power you gain from EW is minor enough to pass up (it doesn't scale well at all when you think about it).

Even convection is meh when you consider our spells being so cheap in PvE with all the mana batteries running around, and in PvP Water shield helps keep mana up really well.

Your spec looks pretty solid I might suggest something a bit more like this though...

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053305152321335132031351000000000000000000000000000050500010000000000000000000&glyph=120715050306

or

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321335132031351000000000000000000000000000050523010000000000000000000&glyph=120715050306

but if LO is worth getting for atleast pve

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?shaman=053300152321335132531351000000000000000000000000000050500010000000000000000000&glyph=120715050306

Edited, Jan 24th 2009 1:37pm by jmfmb
#7 Jan 24 2009 at 11:37 PM Rating: Good
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There is a lot of regen floating around, this is true, but I'd really like to see what kind of consumption and longevity I'm getting before I make a call on Convection. 10% less mana spent on offensive spells is pretty damn good overall for PvE.

Reverberation would be great for PvP, but those were five points I figured I could do marginally well without and they wouldn't help in PvE at all once I've got the Flame Shock glyph. This was one of those cases where I made a call in favor of PvE.

I also really, really hate Imp. GW for an Elemental build. You're just not ever going to run away from anyone with it and you don't really need to chase stuff since anytime people back off you can start winding up nukes. And obviously, it's worthless in PvE except as a small matter of convenience when soloing.

The way I look at Elemental Weapons is that it's basically like wearing one more piece of SP gear. Doesn't scale for crap, you're right, and this was the first place to give when I needed more points.

Imp. Shields, again, I'd like to have, but it wouldn't do much for me in PvE and I just don't feel comfortable giving up points anywhere else in Elemental to accomodate it.
#8 Jan 25 2009 at 11:28 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
but I'm curious as to what percent of your overall DPS Lightning Overload


I don't have hard number on it but with the flame shock glyph your standard rotation will involve 8 LB between your FS. I would think that not taking LO will gimp your DPS in a raid setting. For solo PvE it's another story.
#9 Jan 25 2009 at 2:29 PM Rating: Good
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feelz wrote:
[quote]I don't have hard number on it but with the flame shock glyph your standard rotation will involve 8 LB between your FS. I would think that not taking LO will gimp your DPS in a raid setting. For solo PvE it's another story.

Eight LB? Are you sure? Because I ran 2-3 without the glyph. I can't imagine six seconds would equate to another 4-5 LB's, especially since, with the glyph's other effect, you'd also be casting LvB every time it's off cooldown since it doesn't consume Flame Shock anymore.

But I'm not the guy raiding as Elemental, so... if I take your word for it and assume I am gonna be casting LB that much then I would definitely have to agree that PvE would be unthinkable without LO.

Hmm... either way it's something interesting I look forward to testing for myself.
#10 Jan 25 2009 at 3:47 PM Rating: Good
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Without any haste, LB is a 2 sec cast. LvB cooldown is 8 sec and FS ticks for 18 sec with glyph. Add haste and the perfect rotation is almost impossible.
I find that FS > LvB > 4xLB > LvB > 4xLB > repeat, works well. Only my opinion though.







Edited, Jan 25th 2009 6:47pm by feelz
#11 Jan 25 2009 at 7:57 PM Rating: Good
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1,121 posts
rotation concept for ele shaman is dead...

basically when fs is not on target reaply , cast lvb when off cd, cast lbs in between and if multiple targets throw in cl durring this time frame...

the system is priority FS>LVB>LB/CL in that order
#12 Jan 26 2009 at 7:23 AM Rating: Good
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2,396 posts
In light of this discussion I think I am going to shuffle my build around a little and take LO instead of Convection. If I end up having mana issues then... well... I'll go back to the drawing board. But casting 3-4 LB's in between most LvB's would definitely warrent the inclusion of LO in PvE without a doubt.
#13 Feb 02 2009 at 12:04 PM Rating: Decent
Ive been playing around with it and I was wondering. Weaving ES into your rotation when shocks are off CD. Would the damage it outputs not be worth the GCD? Does LO make LB that much better? I know how the SP is applied, LB gets alot more of your SP for being a "2.5" second cast. At high haste levels are you hitting 1 second LB's?
#14 Feb 02 2009 at 4:12 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
Ive been playing around with it and I was wondering. Weaving ES into your rotation when shocks are off CD. Would the damage it outputs not be worth the GCD? Does LO make LB that much better?


I guess with the glyph to reduce the GCD by 1 sec it might be worth testing. You would have to give up a glyph though and ES is 25 yards range with talents. I think spamming LB/CL between LvB and refresh FS when needed is still a better option.


Quote:
Does LO make LB that much better?


Yes. Works also for CL.


Quote:
I know how the SP is applied, LB gets alot more of your SP for being a "2.5" second cast. At high haste levels are you hitting 1 second LB's?


Lightning bolt is a 2 sec cast with talents. Even without trying, you end up with a bunch of haste plus you have wrath of air totem. You won't get to a 1 sec. cast without giving up more important stats for haste.

Right now, without the totem, my LB is around 1.84 sec. with 260 haste rating.
#15 Feb 03 2009 at 7:57 AM Rating: Decent
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My guild is blessed by the healing gods, but is a little short on DPS, so I was asked to respec Elemental this week for the last half of Naxx. First night I put out about 1.8-2k DPS raid buffed. I attribute this mostly to not having seriously DPS-ed in about eight months, and also to having sub-optimal gear collected entirely through off-spec rolls (lawl zero hit). But it was a good learning experience.

Second night I went in re-gemmed, re-geared (150 hit, 67 more haste, slightly less SP and crit), re-re-specced (spent 300g on respecs and re-glyphs in one night ~_~). My stationary DPS jumped to ~2400 before raid buffs. I consistently messed up the rotations, so I'm pretty sure I could add a couple hundred more with some practice. None of my Elemental gear is enchanted, so that would have added even more.

Points of interest:

1. Convection was unnecessary. My mana steadily decreased, but I was never in danger of bottoming out on any fight. BUT. Note that I did have Replenishment and BoW from a Ret Pally and I maintained rotations consisting of LB, LvB, and FS, only using CL on trash. CL would have been a DPS increase but a large hit to my mana pool that I wasn't sure I could sustain on boss fights (and I didn't want to push my luck).

2. Naxx encounters exist to mess with your rotation, so the suggested eight LB's between FS's is a pipe dream 90% of time. Still not entirely sure how much bang I actually got out of LO, but without needing Convection I'd still rather take it than not.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2009 10:58am by Gaudion
#16 Feb 03 2009 at 12:46 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
2. Naxx encounters exist to mess with your rotation, so the suggested eight LB's between FS's is a pipe dream 90% of time. Still not entirely sure how much bang I actually got out of LO, but without needing Convection I'd still rather take it than not.


That's true of every encounter where you need to be constantly on the move. On a fight like patchwerk though, if you can't get at least 6-8 LB between your FS you're doing something wrong.

I can only think of a few fights where I can't really use any kind of rotation. Heigan comes to mind... maybe grobulus if you're not lucky and always get the debuff... can't really think of any other fights where I couldn't stand in a corner and just spam to my heart's content.

Mind you, right now my guild needs me as resto so I've only seen the encounter once or twice as dps so maybe my memory is a bit off.

I don't think any elemental shaman in PvE should pass on LO. Where are you gonna put those point anyways.


Just out of curiosity, if you don't take convection, where do you put those 5 points?
#17 Feb 03 2009 at 1:03 PM Rating: Good
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feelz wrote:

Just out of curiosity, if you don't take convection, where do you put those 5 points?


That was my thinking as well. One could argue that 3 points in Elemental Warding would help out the healers, if you aren't hurting for mana.(since you need to put those 3 points somewhere in the top 3 tiers of elemental just to move farther along in the tree) But that still leaves you with 2 points to put somewhere, and honestly I don't see anything else worth getting.

But one thing I did notice:

Quote:
1. Convection was unnecessary. My mana steadily decreased, but I was never in danger of bottoming out on any fight. BUT. Note that I did have Replenishment and BoW from a Ret Pally and I maintained rotations consisting of LB, LvB, and FS, only using CL on trash. CL would have been a DPS increase but a large hit to my mana pool that I wasn't sure I could sustain on boss fights (and I didn't want to push my luck).


That seems to be a contradiction there. On one hand you say Convection isn't necessary because you were never in a situation where you could have gone out of mana, but then you go on to say you didn't cast CL because it's a mana hog and on a boss fight and by casting there was a good chance you would have gone OOM.

That would have been a nice increase in DPS to cast CL during a boss fight and Convection would have alleviated a lot of the threat of going OOM.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2009 4:04pm by SynnTastic
#18 Feb 03 2009 at 2:48 PM Rating: Decent
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SynnTastic wrote:
feelz wrote:

Just out of curiosity, if you don't take convection, where do you put those 5 points?


That was my thinking as well. One could argue that 3 points in Elemental Warding would help out the healers, if you aren't hurting for mana.(since you need to put those 3 points somewhere in the top 3 tiers of elemental just to move farther along in the tree) But that still leaves you with 2 points to put somewhere, and honestly I don't see anything else worth getting.

It was actually a night of more experimentation. If you'll scroll up a few posts you'll notice I expressed interest in a build that was not optimal for either PvE or PvP, but sufficiently functional at both. I used that build exactly except with the five points in Convection swapped into LO.

Quote:
Quote:
1. Convection was unnecessary. My mana steadily decreased, but I was never in danger of bottoming out on any fight. BUT. Note that I did have Replenishment and BoW from a Ret Pally and I maintained rotations consisting of LB, LvB, and FS, only using CL on trash. CL would have been a DPS increase but a large hit to my mana pool that I wasn't sure I could sustain on boss fights (and I didn't want to push my luck).


That seems to be a contradiction there. On one hand you say Convection isn't necessary because you were never in a situation where you could have gone out of mana, but then you go on to say you didn't cast CL because it's a mana hog and on a boss fight and by casting there was a good chance you would have gone OOM.

That would have been a nice increase in DPS to cast CL during a boss fight and Convection would have alleviated a lot of the threat of going OOM.

There is a lot of give and take there.

Consider that Chain Lightning is 2.5 times more expensive than Lightning Bolt and, with the recent changes to talents and the glyph for LB, doesn't hit all that much harder anymore. The big advantage to CL is the reduced cast time, which, if kept off cooldown, does result in a DPS increase over time. I guess, in answer to your question, I don't think that having Convection would have made a difference either way if I had gone ahead with CL spam.

The people talking about maintaining a rotation that involves keeping CL off cooldown are usually people like Jiade, who are counting on raid buffs to push them towards the 50% crit mark so that Elemental Focus is always active in addition to raid regeneration buffs. These are also the people that main-spec Elemental and have geared, gemmed, and enchanted for Elemental. (And usually in better raids in general so stuff dies faster and fights are generally shorter.) This was only my second night playing Elemental seriously in nearly a year. I have no idea what the spec is capable of in a raid environment at this point, and even less so with a hack gear set in my unfamiliar hands.

Bottom line, there are a lot of wrinkles there. Given more time with the spec, I would have ironed those out, but as my guild considers me one of their better healers, they're reluctant to let me go even with our general need of DPS, so it's something that's going to have to wait until dual-spec comes out. I certainly don't presume to be "good" at Elemental and I wouldn't suggest anyone emulate my build, but I was quite satisfied with it.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2009 5:55pm by Gaudion
#19 Feb 03 2009 at 4:35 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
The people talking about maintaining a rotation that involves keeping CL off cooldown are usually people like Jiade, who are counting on raid buffs to push them towards the 50% crit mark so that Elemental Focus is always active in addition to raid regeneration buffs


Don't forget LvB can proc Elemental Focus so you don't need that much crit to have it up almost 100% of the time. I'm just not convinced that CL would really produce higher DPS. Correct me if I'm wrong but CL is not affected by Shamanism so at some point, depending on your SP, your LB will hit for pretty close to the same damage as CL. Granted there's only one mob.
#20 Feb 03 2009 at 5:23 PM Rating: Decent
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It's not the amount that CL hits for. It's the faster cast time. You can head on over to EJ to check the math on it if you want, but the concensus seems to be that keeping CL off cooldown in your rotations results in higher DPS over time. But it is a mana hog regardless, which is the part I was concerned about.
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