Cataclysm Ele in PvP

[Jakkre]

Hi,
is ele shami a viable spec in cata pvp?
I did a few bgs on Warsong and they seem to be super weak compared to wotlk.
The dmg is low and they run out of mana super fast.
Do they have some major bugs or are they just bad on cata?

[Ironelf]

It's very viable in BGs especially as a supporter for a flagger or being flagger itself. Of course nuking people is also pretty easy if you don't have rogue or warr on you. I can do 50k+ crits on geared players and I don't even have full Cataclysmic gear. Also, with right talents/glyphs you can be pretty tank-ish and take quite a few good hits. I would even suggest to play with extra dps trinket instead of medallion because you got Thunderstorm, Tremor Totem and Grounding Totem and those are pretty much your trinket.

Going OoM is pretty hard and it rarely happens to me. Only scenario that I can think would make you go OoM is when you spam Chain Lightning on single target, but that's not very often.
Use your Thunderstorm often and wisely and you should be good with mana.
Of course if you don't have gear it could also explain why you go OoM...

One more thing: When Eye of the Storm happens you will LOVE your shaman :D

[Izrafel]

Not only EotS xD LM in AB as well ;p

[thebotz]

Cataclysm in general requires a higher average amount of global cooldowns to kill someone compared to wrath, and full burst combos include more globals. Flame shock + lava burst doesn't cut it now, you have to add in unleash elements. You get a more powerful instant with fulminate, but you have to load that up instead of having a decent damage frost shock every 5 seconds.

You can still pull off crippling damage just like in WotLK, it just takes more complicated combos to pull it off. Your old combos become weaker, but you get new ones (no cooldown on chain lightning -> epic cleaving + loads up fulminate fast as hell).

And that's not only elemental shamans, other classes have it so as well (for the most part). Shadow priest for example still has the same 3 DoTs + mind blast/mind flay, but they now have to consider their shadow orbs that increase mind blast damage and increase DoT damage after being consumed, + archangel mechanic that increase DoT damage from mind flay usage but consumed to increase mind spike/mind blast/mind flay damage on a 90 second cooldown. And the addition of mind spike as an alternative that has to be used in the right situations.

Elemental gets unleash elements, cooldown resets on lava burst with a talent (though I've skipped that as an mboxer and still do well with 1 shaman), loading up their instant's damage for crippling unloads that crit harder than lava burst, lightning bolt while moving, no cooldown on chain lightning, everything while moving (even rezzing!) for 15 sec/2 min cooldown. Plenty to make up for the fact that a single unenhanced lava burst is now weaker compared to wrath.

Elemental is a spec that is known to be able to run oom in an arena setup, even without off-healing or getting mana burned (high rated priests will piss you off quickly with that, I assure you). You just have to manage your mana well, mostly by never using chain lightning on a single target.

Ya, that's why mboxing becomes weaker in cata. The combos you need to pull off to get an insta-kill with 4-5 toons are more complicated + there's more AoE CC that isn't fear added in.

Players that know how to play elemental to even a decent degree are surprisingly rare in cata, but a freecasting elemental shaman is arguably just as scary as a freecasting arcane mage. They'll both spam you with 5 digits numbers that will make your health pool vanish before you know it. Elemental though, unlike arcane, has visuals that give justice to their rampage (hey lol, slight spark on your chest, jk that's a 60K arcane nuke), potent AoE cleaving, and much more mobility.

Not sure if a week is considered a necro, but whatever, I don't care.