Season of Discovery Elemental Shaman DPS Guide

Shamans are typically brought to groups for their high utility and totem related buffs, such as Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, or Tremor Totem.

Elemental in particular has always been the caster damage specialization for Shamans, and especially deadly in PvP due to its massive burst damage combo with Elemental Mastery guaranteeing simultaneous critical strikes for Chain Lightning and Earth Shock and this is still true in Season of Discovery, but they will also be able to do much more damage than before with the new abilities described below!

Strengths

• High PvE damage and high burst damage, especially in PvP with Elemental Mastery
• Strong utility from totem buffs such as Windfury Totem and Strength of Earth Totem
• Near infinite Mana once Shamanistic Rage is unlocked with a significant part also applying to raid

Weaknesses

• Mana starved until Shamanistic Rage is unlocked
• One of the lowest single target damage specializations especially once everyone is geared
• Mobility issues (especially considering totems are immobile) and susceptible to crowd control

Elemental Shamans can now deal even more burst damage with the new Overload and Lava Burst runes!

Also, their old nemesis of Mana sustain can finally be overcome through the usage of Shamanistic Rage for massive Mana returns, making Elemental play much smoother than it used to.

The waist runes, Power Surge and Fire Nova enable a choice between even more Mana regeneration and strong area DPS potential. Finally, Spirit of the Alpha provides fantastic utility in the feet slot, but you can also use Decoy Totem for extra survivability if it is being applied on the tank already.

Due to all the new abilities and runes, the rotation, gearing options, and talent decisions recommended for Elemental Shamans have changed and can be found in the guides in the Table of Content at the top of this page. Within these, you will find all the information you will need to master this new game mode!

The best profession to have as Elemental is Engineering. It provides powerful items that you can use in both PvE and PvP content to either deal damage or help you get out of a tough spot.

Leatherworking is also a great choice for Elemental Shamans due to special bind on pickup crafts such as Glowing Hyperconductive Scale Coif and Screaming Chain Pauldrons, and further BoP crafts are expected down the line.

The main feature of Season of Discovery is the new Rune Discovery system, which allows you to discover and attach special abilities to your gear slots after finding them across the world. We list all of Shaman's runes and where they can be located in the guide below.