Cataclysm [Elemental] Beginner's questions

[Thorag]

Hello fellow shamans, I have a few questions here that might seem a little stupid for an experienced player, but i've been playing wow for a very short time, so i'll still ask :)
I'm currently going for the pve gear, doing normal dungeons for the moment. Elemental spec, already lvl 85.

- First, what gear setup should i go for ? As spirit/hit is an essential stat for ele shamans and the specific ele t12 is missing spirit, I've been thinking about a 4pc ele/1pc resto combination. Is that a good idea, and what piece of gear should i take as resto version ? Or do trinkets/rings/necklaces and others provide enough spirit/hit to cap 17% ?

- About dungeon running, should i always use 4 totems at the time, or use only searing/fire elemental and mana tide/healing stream to keep my mana, as it's really running low fast with my current gear level ?

- About cooldowns, I suppose I have to use elemental mastery as soon as it's available, and keep bloodlust for the bosses. What do I do with my trinkets ? Put them in a macro and use them as soon as possible too/keep them for the bosses ?

- Is the combination mace/shield better than a staff ?

That's all i had in mind, no need for long answers of course since those are very "simple" questions. Thank you in advance for answering ! :D

[Wownerd]

1. At low gear levels I used enchants, gems, trinkets, rings for the extra hit needed to cap.

2. Unless it is a pack of mobs that will be dead really really fast I always use my totems

3. I use a macro for trinkets for bosses but if there is enough time use them and for them to be available for boss then feel free

4. at low gear levels use whichever is better combo of what you have, make sure to keep the best mace shield in your bags if you are using the staff so you can switch if you get a good upgrade, I had a nice pair and got a staff, disenchanted my mace and shield, then got an even better mace and wished I hadnt de'd the shield, so basically keep them while you are still gearing up

im no pro, but i try to help :)

[Ironelf]

1. FL geared you shouldn't have problem with spirit I think. Just reforge to spirit some stats (crit) if needed. VP pieces that you can buy have plenty of spirit so you may get those as soon as possible.

2. I noticed also mana issues at lower iLvl, so I glyphed Thunderstorm to 35 sec CD and used it all the time when it was off CD. It helps a lot. Also make sure you Lightning Shield is active (and glyphed ofc) so you gain mana with Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt. Glyph Chain to hit 5 enemies instead of 3 and it could be pretty nice mana-filler when there's a lot of mobs running around.
You don't really need totems when clearing trash mobs, but on bosses use the ones with buffs that are not already provided by group/raid. Mana-spring certainly helps provided it's used for longer time and not just for few seconds on trash.

3. You may macro trinkets to elemental mastery if CDs will be similar (Elemental mastery will usually drop below 2 mins CD, even to 1 min if you use chain a lot).

4. As long as it's PvE it doesn't matter if it's mace+shield or staff. Armor doesn't mean that much unless you tend to end up tanking mobs because of too much aggro, but even then shield won't mean much.
Just pick whichever combination gives most stats (don't count armor).
(For PvP it's almost a must-have to equip a shield)

[Rokna]

Also, if you are over the hit cap with the spirit you get from gear, it's a good idea to reforge the extra spirit to mastery (i don't remember right now, but i think that the spirit required to get hit cap is like 1900). Crit isn't very useful for ele shaman, so u might want 2 reforge that too. Imo, Mastery>Haste>Crit (once you reach the hit cap). About the shield, Ironelf is right, but i personaly prefer using a shield in case something goes wrong, and trust me, things can go wrong all the time. And remember that flametongue totem does not stack with totemic wrath, but u might want to use flametongue anyway to avoid ninja pulling in some situations. For bosses go with fire elemental and searing when fire ele is on cd

[Thorag]

Thanks a lot for all your answers :D