Shamen, I Need Your Guidance

So, I suck at shaman-ing.  It really embarrassing.  I feel like my DPS is very low for my gear.  I know i need more haste.  Other than that, I need an elemental intervention.  Is anyone willing to take me aside, inspect my gear, watch what i do and offer suggestions? 

What is your typical cast sequence?

I'd offer to help, but if you think *your* gear is bad.... >.<  Hoping to get some more time to play and work on it shortly (maybe even tonight!)

But I study a ton about the class and the theorycrafting behind it, so I can certainly offer some suggestions at the very least.

Looking at your gear, I'd suggest first of all looking for a new neckpiece and overall trying to see if you can move away from MP5 as a stat towards something else.  (This may mean you go for some leather gear too - the itemization for mail elemental gear is dreadful and almost exclusively designed for resto shammies.)  I'd definitely swap out a lot of those spellpower gems too - you're shooting for around 1300 or so haste if you can swing it, last I checked over at EJ.  Right now it looks to be around 470, which is definitely low - as a point of reference, my embarrassingly neglected and undergeared shaman is sitting at 582 haste unbuffed.  Also, crit really doesn't do much of anything for us - so if there are any pieces that you have which you can swap out for spellpower/haste items, definitely keep an eye out.  (Like I said, it's tough because the stats a resto look for are more crit/MP5 and a lot of our crit is already built into our talents and spells.)  You may also want to swap out the Glyph of Flametongue Weapon for the Glyph of Flame Shock again now that it's not covered by a T8 set bonus.

I'm happy to look over your casting sequence, but I suspect you're doing all the right things and just need to dump some of the crit/MP5 gear for more haste.  The rotation's generally Flame Shock up at all times, Lava Burst whenever on cooldown, Lightning bolt to fill unless you need to move or have <2 seconds before LB is up and then toss a CL instead.  Main totems will vary slightly on whether or not you have a Demo warlock in your raid, but the default from what I know of BotF runs would be Wrath of Air totem and then either Totem of Wrath or Magma. You can also try popping out your Fire Elemental on boss fights, and see if that contributes to a DPS burst too. 

So - take the above for what it's worth because I know I'm not exactly an active or well-known member - let alone shaman.   But I've played one as my main for over two years now, and even if I can't get online every day (or even every week), I do read up on the major elemental forums and blogs and try to keep my knowledge as current and accurate as possible for on the days when someday I may have time to play more!  (Also, because I love being an elem shammy.)  HTH!

Yes!! Lets definitely get together!

As for my gear, I'd love to get rid of my mp5 crap.  I know I don't need it and other stats are so much better...however, I takes what I can get!  I have that stuff on mostly because I was the only one in the group/raid who could use it, and it probably was an upgrade in other stats.  I'm not opposed to leather gear (or even cloth--I might be rocking some cloth atm), but in things like the new heroics you're not able to roll on leather if you're a mail class.

Anyway, as an alt I take what I can get, and thats fine.

My rotation is pretty much:
Flame Shock
Lava Burst
Chain Lightening
Lightning Bolt, LB, LB....until Lava is ready again.

I have 2 trinkets for haste that I pop as soon as they are up (I try at least) and Elemental Mastery, if I remember.  I'll show you on a dummy 

I'll definitely look into your glyph suggestion.  Also, I have been afraid to swap SP gems for haste but I know my haste is very low.  I'll see what I can do there, too.

Well, I tried 10 man tonight and it was still pretty bad.  I re-gemmed and upgraded a few things, so the problem must lie in my gameplay.


ARRRRGG I'm so frustrated and really embarassed.  I'm gonna retire the shaman for a while I think, maybe just drag her out to farm for me.

  Well - don't beat yourself up too much.  The game designers are actually working on elemental DPS from what I understand, I know Ghostcrawler had a post about fixing elemental's T10 T4 bonus, and I think I read something else about the DPS being a little low overall.

#show Lightning Bolt
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Lightning Bolt

Above is a macro I've been working on to help DPS.  It's definitely made an improvement for me, so hopefully it might be useful for others.  Basically, it just attaches Lightning Bolt to trinkets and Elemental Mastery to get the most haste possible as often as possible.  Now if only I can get that trinket upgrade I need...

Two things to note on this. A lot of people include a consumable with this type of macro (i.e. /use Potion of Speed). I believe Potion of Speed would be what Elem Shaman use, but I don't have confirmation from my scan of the EJ TTT thread. It could very well be Potion of Wild Magic, but I'm guessing that you don't need the crit.

Also, depending on your haste level, it may be better to use your Elemental Mastery cooldown outside of Heroism. I would check and see if you reach the GCD with Heroism and if you don't, give it a shot.

Also, on the subject of using Pots, pre-potting (using a consumable potion like Potion of Speed a second or two before entering combat) a boss encounter is always an excellent idea assuming you'll be in the boss' range within a few seconds of the pull. The fights in ICC are pretty pre-pot friendly (with the exception of the Gunship Battle) so this might be a nice boost to your dps at the start and allows you to use the pot again at another time of the fight for a boost. We are using Pull timers on just about every fight now so it will help you time this. I typically pot when the timer is below 1 second. The only downfall to this is you will be going through lots and lots of Potions so you need to have the money or mats to support this type of habit.

Before the change to elemental mastery, wild magic potions were the potions of choice because of the way haste effected the ele rotation.  Since it went from crit to haste I am not sure.  I think of you hit a potion as speed and elemental mastery, your lightning bolt may drop below a 1s cast which is not a good thing.  I have been using wild magic with elemental mastery of late.

I -do- carry WIld Magic pots on me, but I always forget to use them.  I'm getting much more vigilant about popping haste trinkets (I have 2) and my elemental mastery whenever I can.

I have some sorta-fail trinkets I can replace but overall I think I am improving.

I now have 821 haste (up from 475 or something) and 2736 SP.  I saw a slight improvement in my overall DPS last night, so maybe I am on the right track.

I also have some items with spirit on it, but I took them because no one else wanted and 264 gear is just plain better stat-wise than 219 or 226, which is what I had.

I've been using potions of speed (well - theoretically, since I haven't been able to actually play much since I started really working on improving my own DPS).  I carry both, though I haven't used WM yet since I still wouldn't drop below a one second cast on Lightning bolt. 

Not sure what you mean on the Heroism/EM part Fil - do you mean not to use EM on boss fights until after heroism?  I don't think it stacks with Heroism, but I also try to avoid blowing both at once.  If anyone knows for sure, please advise! 

Gotta admit, I've been pretty down about the whole elemental spec ever since I saw they're considered the second-worst DPS option of all classes in WoW atm, above only balance druids in terms of average DPS output.  Blech - hard to get excited about gear grinding and doing your best if your best still won't even be good enough.

Gotta admit, I've been pretty down about the whole elemental spec ever since I saw they're considered the second-worst DPS option of all classes in WoW atm, above only balance druids in terms of average DPS output.  Blech - hard to get excited about gear grinding and doing your best if your best still won't even be good enough.

I would disagree with this. Hang in there. Shadow for a long time was one of the lowest DPS specs but I still had fun with the rotation and always worked harder. In the end, it's better to have a good DPS who is very good at situational awareness (ie don't stand in fire) rather than an amazing DPS who only cares about the meters. And not to mention your utility is nearly unrivaled in the caster department.

I would disagree with this. Hang in there. Shadow for a long time was one of the lowest DPS specs but I still had fun with the rotation and always worked harder. In the end, it's better to have a good DPS who is very good at situational awareness (ie don't stand in fire) rather than an amazing DPS who only cares about the meters. And not to mention your utility is nearly unrivaled in the caster department.

QFT! 'Tis very true, keep at it!

In reference to using EM outside of Heroism, I had heard it somewhere on EJ, and found this quote from the Think Tank article:

Elemental Mastery - This spell was changed in patch 3.3, and now boosts haste instead of crit. given this change it is now recomended to use EM on its own, and not in conjuction with Bloodlust/Heroism, as to do so will likely put you over the haste softcap for LB.

There are some graphs under the Haste Rating section of the Think Tank article that break down where you are going to start hitting the 1 sec GCD cap. If you have 20% Haste, you'll start seeing the Haste soft cap for LB with Heroism.

Elsewhere in the article, they've indicated that once you get a 2pc T10 set, some people have been popping EM when the set bonus procs. Something to consider...

Here's the Think Tank article for quick access:
http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t82625-shaman_elemental/

Same here guys, i need help with Enhancement, i know most melee classes are facerollers and i want to make sure im rolling my face -correctly- across the keyboard

also mention what i need to socket can help
and

tips on resto would be nice

i need help with Enhancement

I can help with that, what area do you need help with.  I've not played since December, but, I don't think much has changed.

you should look at this first tho. http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20765-shaman_enhancement/