Thundernuts' arena guide for elemental shaman 3.3.5
No need for introduction and I wont get too much into detail, if you're checking this guide you already know why you want to play elemental shaman.
Starting from the basics:
1. The most viable races for arena are Tauren(h) and Draenei(a).
The Tauren's stun is what is most considerable in arena and it will sometimes help you score a kill or land a CC.
Draeneis have a HoT racial that is going to heal you for roughly 8k.
The other bonuses are not as effective in high-end arena.
2. Elemental shaman's abilities, talents and glyphs:
Talent builds:
55/16/0 A standard build for arenas and my personal preference.
60/11/0 This build is focused on creating a lot more pressure against casters, it's only effective with low latency and quick reflexes.
Glyphs:
Glyph of Stoneclaw
Glyph of Lava
These two are a must, the 3rd is a personal preference.
But your best bet is either Glyph of Totem of Wrath or Glyph of Thunder 85 spell power or 10 sec CD reduction of Thunderstorm.
[Elemental Focus] - a talent that's overlook by many elementals, if used correctly you'll never OOM from casting.
[Elemental Mastery] - use it to create pressure, forcing CDs or score a kill.
[Lightning Overload] - a rng talent, very helpful for creating pressure.
[Elemental Oath] - very compatible with other casters, and timed right with clear casting proc from [Elemental Focus], you're next 2 damaging spells will do 10% more damage, its quite abusable you can keep it 24/7 with constant crits.
[Lava Flows] - the dispel bonus is very overlooked as well, whenever someone dispels your flame shock you gain a 30% haste bonus( this is equal to Heroism/Blood Lust) for 6 seconds, if you play with a dispeller you can abuse it against warriors when they spell reflect use flame shock to reflect it on you and tell your partner to dispel it off you, you'll still get the buff.
[Thunderstorm] - if timed correctly this spell will be the difference between a win or a loss, use it to interrupt casts, knock someone back of you, thunderstorm in LoS of his/her partner and score a kill or land a CC, thunderstorm both(for 2s) or all of them to create distraction or confusion, use it against hunters to miss their traps if you can't ground it or just use it if you need the mana.
Gear:
I wont get in detail on this but the stats you should be going for are these:
Spell power - 3200+ with Flametongue.
Hit - 5%(4% for a Draenei).
Haste - depends on the comp you're running/facing but anywhere from 400 to 1000+.
Crit - 30-35% depending on the comp you're running.
Mp5(yes) - 300-500.
Resilience - 1150-1415.
Something like this - http://armory.molten-wow.com/charact...uts/Deathwing/
The most viable comps for arena with elemental shaman on Molten are these:
I'll scale them from 0-10.
2s - Elemental & destruction/demonology (9-10), elemental & sub rogue(7-10), elemental & disc/shadow(10-10), elemental & boomkin(8-10) and elemental & frost/fire mage(8-10).
3s - L/S/X(10-10), Thundercleave(9-10) and RPS(7-10).
Basic macros:
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [target=arena1/2/3] Wind Shear - Wind shear's arena enemy 1,2 or 3.
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [target=arena1/2/3] Purge - Purge's arena enemy 1,2 or 3.
#showtooltip
/cast [target=arena1/2/3] Hex/Frost Shock - I think you get it by now?
*You can use a modifier if you don't want to waste too many key binds.
These are the macro's you'll benefit from the most, the rest you should already be using.
Tactic, rotation to maximize your damage output, tips and tricks:
General tactic:
Kite,peel and off heal.
Rotation:
Depends if you're only trying to create pressure, land a kill or force CDs.
For scoring a kill or force CDs, make sure you've dispelled the enemy target from any shields and defensive buffs and start with Flame Shock and if there is one on the target already -> Lightning Bolt -> Lava Burst -> recast Flame Shock if it gets dispelled or cast Frost Shock -> Elemental Mastery -> Chain Lightning -> Wind shear/Thunderstorm to interrupt any casts and to create even more pressure use Fire Nova if you have a fire totem near by -> Frost Shock -> Pyro Rocket(from engineering) = 55k~ damage easily.
Same thing for creating pressure, without using any long CDs except for Heroism/Blood Lust some times.
Tips and tricks:
#1. Learn to fake cast properly, don't just mindlessly fake cast till you die, rather than that its better if you get interrupted and start casting in a few seconds, unless its vital. In this case you have to communicate with your partner/s to help you out with peels.
#2. Managing your mana when off healing is, drink every time you're under 4k~ mana unless you're getting tunneled in this case just spam Water Shield.
#3. You don't have to necessarily have Flame Shock on your kill target to land a kill, so don't spam it on CD if it gets dispelled a lot because smart people will see your pattern and will use that against you, dispelling it.
#4. Drop a stoneclaw totem when you see an arms warrior popping sweeping strikes, the AoE of it will attack the totem and the totem will stun him for 3 seconds.
#5. When you're being tunneled the best way to force them to play defensively without casting anything is purge, dispel their shields and buffs. Be aware of the CDs your opponents and your team mates have. Use ground totem to get most CCs or mitigate some damage against casters. Learn pillar humping.
#6. If you want to get better don't use too many add-ons, I only use 3 - Gladius,'Interruptbar and Omnicc. #7. Purge is your best friend, don't ignore it.
#8. Against classes with Fears, make sure you're tremor totem isn't in the open and not near you, otherwise it'll get stomped and you feared. If you're playing 2s with a healer and there's a melee on him/her and they are destroying your Earthbind or you have to keep Tremor up, use [Frostbrand Weapon] as your weapon enchant and melee them as much as possible this will slow them and they'll eventually give up or rage quit.
#9. You can buff a totem that's in combat to get in combat.
As I said above I don't want this to be very detailed because there are just so many more tips and tricks that I can give you but most of them come from experience, thus why I'll end with this.
I've concentrated on arenas due to the fact that there aren't any decent elemental shamans at the moment doing arenas and hopefully this will help them improve.
Don't be shy, if you have any feedback I'll take it.
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