True Guide On How To Play Ele Shaman for PvP.

[wiseoldenemy]

True Guide On How To Play Ele Shaman for PvP.

I've seen many guides in my years, leveling guides, talent guides, build guides, gear guides... but how many true guides that actually teach you how to play are there? Well you've stumbled upon one right now. This guide is going to go through each and every dueling matchup, multiple opponent fights, battleground strategies and more. Of course, it will also discuss the usual talent builds and gear choices. Now you may ask, who am I? Who is this guy telling me he can show me how to play? I've spent over 500g trying out various specs, from enhance to ele/enh hybrid, to heal/enhance hybrid, to heal only spell power build, even a mana efficient healing build. I've also spent countless hours dueling here and on retail, and of course pvping in TBC arena and so on until I quit in cata.

Lets start off with the basics, talent point build. The one and only build you should go:

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hE0zAcMqZZVfcb0xo

I take 10% Convection since its just better than the 10% damage reduction or Earth's Grasp. 10% more mana will 90% of the time equate to two more lightning bolts or at least 1 more shock/CL than without it. This is definetly a game changer in BGs and 1v1s, as opposed to 10% damage reduc in a damage type thats not often used.

Next, I get eye of the storm because it's simply superior to Healing Focus, if anyone used Healing Focus before they would know how unreliable it is. I take out 2 points from Reverberation so I can get Storm Reach, which is a must.

In the Resto tree, I get Imp Reincarnate since its great for wpvp or even a bg, nice for clutch moments or repairing mistakes. Ancestral healing is a must, since as ele you will have high crit chance, and this will basically make you win vs a rogue. Totemic Focus is useless since it doesn't work on fire totems, and you won't be using any buff totems for PvP, while PvP totems are cheap in mana. I refrain from taking Totemic Mastery, because it will only benefit poison cleansing totem, which a good rogue will simply shoot it anyway, it doesn't work with fire totems and Tremor is already 30 yards.

Gear Choices:

I will be giving two choices of gear for each slot, one easy to get the other hard, the first one easy, second hard.

Head: Crimson Felt Hat, StormCallers Diadem/Helmet of Ten Storms

Necklace: Barbed Thorn Necklace, choker of the fire lord

Shoulders: Rank 10 Shoulders, Deep Earth Spaulders

Back: Frostwolf Advisor's Cloak, Anything with more spell power

Chest: Zandalarian Augur's Hauberk

Wrists: Zandalar wrists, or anything with more stats/spell power

Hands: rank 10 gloves, Anything better

Belt: Frostwolf Cloth Belt, Mana Igniting Cord

Legs: Rank 10 legs, T2 Legs

Feet: Any feet with either good stats or spell power

Rings: double Advisors rings, Eye of Orgrimmar, or any epic spellcaster ring.

Shield: any shield with stats or high armour really.

Trinkets: typical PvP trinkets, like reflectors and such, and possible any of the on use spell damage trinkest. Briarwood reed is good too.

I don't make gearing too specific or give any "bis" type of things because I believe there isn't really a "bis" for pvp. You should always have different gear for different match-up or situations (wpvp bg duel). Take my list as simply examples of gear. Not to mention gearing is hard in vanilla, so most of the time you take any spell power gear you can get. Don't be afraid of using cloth gear either.

Now for the weapon, some people might disagree but I say that you MUST have a fast dagger no matter what. I would first choose a white dagger with 1.3 attack speed rather than Lok'amir il Romathis, for the reason that most of the time *MECHANICS > STATS* in pvp. Remember that. With a fast dagger and rank 1 searing totem, I can prevent a mage from casting poly infinitely. It also prevents warlocks from casting if your on them in melee range too. Extremely important.

Weapon: any fast dagger, Fang of Venoxis, Mindfang, MC spellpower dagger, Hand of Edward, or if you can get it, Claw of Chronomaggus.

So for gear, just aim for spellpower, stamina and intellect. The important thing is you need to have more than 4.2k health to survive burst from geared players, and if you can get more than 4.5k mana for longetivety. again, if you're good with MECHANICS you can beat people naked (assuming they aren't super good and they aren't in naxx gear). But if you are starting out, stats first spellpower later.

How to play:

-Battlegrounds-

People say elemental shaman runs out of mana, they have horrible mana efficiency, they only burst. Those people are what I like to call noobs. On the contrary, I beleive elemental shaman to be one of the best longetivety classes in battleground fights. Look at lightning bolt. 238 mana with the 10% reduc, and once you get good spell power it will hit 700s normal, 1.6k crits. We will average it at 900 damage just as a guess, 238 mana for 900 damage. at 4.5k mana thats probably 25 lightning bolts with clearcasting counted in. 900*25 = 22500 damage. thats about 6 kills worth of damage. In battlegrounds, you should be spamming lightning bolt only, using positioning as your MAIN FORM OF DEFENSE. positioning is the biggest thing here. Next, use your shocks as support, not damage so use rank 1 earth shock and frost shock unless you are forced to use it for damage or you KNOW you can burst someone down with LB+CL+shock. Most of the time I still have 25% of my mana while mages are oom. As for totems, put up grounding earth bind OR put a stoneclaw on top of you (stoneclaw takes out stealth) and also rank 1 searing totem, and of course good ol' posion totem. Under any circumstances never use buff totems, they are a waste of mana and time. And last but no least PURGE! Purge everything you can, especially mages warriors and priests. I would say this is more of a priority than spaming lightning bolt even.

-Duels-

-MAGE-

This is one of my favourite match-ups because it is the most skill based one. You must start each and every fight with one purge. You will still have enough time to earth shock poly, and its the most efficient move you can do in the beginning since you have to clean a mage before you an do anything to it. If he still has shield up, use rank 1 earth shock on the poly. NEVER use grounding totem willy nilly before a fight unless you know you can stack it by getting the cooldown again when you fight the mage. Now, if a mage uses fireblast, instantly put down grounding totem and start casting. He has no way to get rid of it unless he wands which will give you more than enough time to get a cast off without fear of counterspell. Next, make sure you try to get into melee range at all times, and have rank 1 searing constantly up. If he knocks it down just put it up again, its only 25 mana for you. If he is clean, this will prevent him from casting anything since the cast won't go off until your earthshock cd is up. If you are frost nova'd, but have searing totem up and the mage is clean, SPAM RANK 1 LIGHTNIG BOLT. This will prevent any casts from going off since its 0.5 cast time. It will also force a counterspell which could mean game over for the mage. The most important thing in this match-up is to not get CS'd. Now, let's go over what happens if a mage blanket silences and polys you. This isn't a bad thing, it means the mage has made a mistake. Once he attacks you, you have a window of no fear of CS, usually bout 5 seconds, which means you can completely heal his burst away. So right when they start bursting you from poly, start casting heal and if he uses firebolt, put down grounding and then clean/burst him down and win. If you are below 50% hp at all times, its usually better to heal unless you know you can kill him. Other tricks are the grounding totem weaving trick, so if he tries to use rank 1 frostbolt you are out of the range of grounding, and go back in when he poly's or CS. You can also make use of fake casting through the fight to bait CS. Just try not to get poly'd without a forced CS, but even the its not the end of the world. For grenade usage, use it after he uses a blanket CS on you, as you know he will start casting and if you time it right you will interupt him, which will completely waste his CS and GG you win. Use ice reflector when he tries to burst you under CS or just to do some damage to him.

-ROGUE-

This is a match-up were you must remain calm, or you lose. The rogue will constantly be pressuring you, so making use of fake casting, nades and kiting is the most important. You should always have searing, poison totem and earthbind on the ground. If he kills them just put them up again. Rogues usually open up with cheap shot, and try to build combo points for a full kidney shot. These are easy to take care of, if they drop below 25 energy, you must HEAL. He cannot kick you and just that one heal will put you miles ahead. Rogue relies on killing you by not letting you heal at all, and if you do get that one heal you will be able to stabilize much easier. Now, if he gets 5 combo points and kidney shots you, trinket that right away, and frost shock him to kite. if he vanishes, try to predict when hes gonna open and use stoneclaw totem, otherwise if it didn't knock him out of stealth, start healing. A good trick is to fake a heal and then put down stoneclaw as he would want to stop the heal. This whole matchup will depend on if you can heal and stabilize or not. Most of your damage will come from lightning shield and shocks. Use nades to get a heal or two off if you couldn't otherwise, but make sure your searing totem doens't break the nade. if he takes out your poison totem, frost shock him and run, try to time it so he blinds you as your totem pulses, which is every 5 seconds. So frost shock, totem, then run 3 seconds and go back so he tries to blind you.

-WARLOCK-

Hardest matchup, and this is because Warlocks are just OP. Key things in the matchup are CONSTANT EARTH SHOCK INTERUPTION, try to stay at melee range with searing to stop spell casting, try to predict coil with grounding (kinda hard with this lag) and using fear totem AS THE FEAR GOES OFF (also hard, but lag actually makes this easier lol). You cannot cast in this matchup, throw that idea out the window. The only time you can cast is if he wastes his counterspell stupidely, and you are high hp, then simply burst him down. Facing SL warlock, make sure to purge soul link off his pet. Shadow reflector is very nice, use it on a coil if you can see it and server isnt lagging, or use it if you are silenced to relect his burst on him. This could win you the match. So, most of your damage comes from dagger melee, and shocks. You should use nature swiftness to heal, and finally after CS is gone you can cast.

-WARRIOR-

Easy. Use fire nova 3 sec before duel starts, or anytime in a normal scenario, frost shock as they charge, and simply deadzone kite with frostshock if you can with this lag. Cast a chain lightning anytime you feel you can, like if he tries to go back for an intercept you can get one off in time. Otherwise, if he intercepts trinket it AFTER HE USES HAMSTRING or any other global cooldown spell, incase you get hamstringed again. Then, frost shock earthbind and burst him down with lightning. I've beating rank 14 warriors consistantly on my blue geared ele.

-HUNTER-

Hard if you don't know what to do, easy if you do. MAKE A FREAKIN SIT MACRO, get eye of the storm off his auto attacks/pet attack and simply start casting. Start with windwall obviously. IF HE RUNS AT YOU, put down grounding. A good hunter will eat the grounding with his pet so fake it and put another wind totem down, and use grounding as hes in range of scattershot. OTHERWISE, if he takes out grounding again, use icereflector right away since if he scatters you he cant trap till ice reflector is over, which then he cant trap you since no scattershot. Then, just /sit and keep casting and win. Make sure to dispell poisons though put posion totem up. Also, frost shock and keep melee range/deadzone if you need to heal or stop any more damage. You can also use frost resistance totem too.

-DRUID-

This is all about longetivety. Use rank 1 searing constantly as he has to use bear auto attacks to take it out. Purge constantly, use ONLY lightning bolt for damage until you need to burst. The main thing here, is SPAM PURGE WHEN YOU THINK HE WILL NATURE SWIFTNESS. This will take out his NS heal and you win. If he bashes, trinket it right away and spam purge as he will probably NS after he realizes you trinketed bash, then just burst him. Most of the time you can outlast him even if he gets his heal off if you have been using your mana good. Use lightning shield too and auto attacks. Against feral I have no experience since I haven't faced any.

-PRIEST-

Spam purge, this is an easy matchup. Clean up the priest, GROUNDING TOTEM mindblasts, interupt holy/healing spells. Otherwise interupt mindbast too. You can either kill him with burst, or waste all is mana by healing and grounding spells. If he runs at you put down tremor and time it so when he fears tremor pulses. Use Auto attacks + searing to interupt if his fear is down. Use shadow reflector or nade if he silences you.

-PALADIN-

Longetivety, you win easily though. Otherwise, you can time a good burst to kill him or catch him off guard. Use the other tips I've said like against druid and stuff.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

-SHAMAN-

(ele vs ele)
Ah yes, the most skill based matchup in the universe. Searing totem takes out grounding, if you see your searing is up and he puts grounding just start casting. Make sure to bait earth shocks, or use auto attacks(hopefully you dont crit) to interup. PURGE FOR NS when you think hes gonna heal, use nades if you can get a clean one to cast a burst, use earthbind if you need to kite him for a bit. USE RANK 1 LB to take out grounding, very nice idea.

(ele vs enh)

Same thing, just kite with frost shock you should win easily.


-Multiple Opponent Fights-
Start off by getting good positioning, if its vs casters use LoS, if its melee put earthbind. Use chain lightnings and nova totems, and frost shocks to kite, while always watching your hp. In multiple opponent fights, CC like poly and blind you don't really have to watch out for. ALWAYS keep moving, never sit in a stun trinket it right away, keep kiting, interupting and make sure you use reflectors. Againts 2 mages, ice reflector is a must, same with against s priests and warlocks for shadow reflector. Nades are great for this too. you can be more bold with casting or other things that you might get punished for in a 1v1 since people are more likely to get caught offguard. Don't think about mana retention, just do as much damage as you can while keeping as protected as you can. The higher the damage and gear you have is, the better your 1vX is going to be, exponentially.

GENERAL TIPS:

- Use rank 1 lightning bolt to interupt casting, and bait out CSs
- Stoneclaw takes out stealth
- Use hearthstone to bait out CSs
- SPAM PURGE AFTER LIGHTNING BOLT when facing mage or priest, or anyone with shield as this will take out shield before any lightning bolt hits, even if they put a shield up as the lightning bolt is flying.
- if mage hasen't used iceblock, try to fake it out since you don't want to waste 500 mana on nothing with CL, or at least use a LB
- get good at fake casting, Ele has no other way of cast protection (cc or stuff)
- use positioning, ele has no way of recovering from positioning mistakes
- use auto attacks, they still do good damage
- MECHANICS > STATS, use things with mechanics like reflectors, or pet trinkets. Always better than pure stats.

Thanks for reading my guide and I hope it helped you get better at Elemental Shaman.

[Thatoneguy]

Cool guide, I really like the thorough duel descriptions and the tips at the end.

BG's
I also think that you can be a lot more specific in the BG guide though. Now it reads as if the goal is to (mostly) get a good K/D ratio. For example: if you're going to soloQ up in WSG you can watch the map and adjust your playstyle based on what your team does. If they all go out on the attack it's best to sit back and defend the flag, if the team already have 5 defenders go on the offense, etc.

Dueling Enhancement Shaman
I don't think you can easily Frost Shock kite an Enhancement Shaman and win. They will make sure to start the duel 'in your face' and because both parties have the same slow mechanics he's not going to let the Elemantal Shaman go.

Fighting Hunters
Keep an eye out for their Viper Sting, it will screw you over in the long run. Get decursive with the macro so you can dispell Viper Sting the second it hits you. If he insist on casting Viper Sting it's a good idea to challenge it, Hunters go oom much faster casting Viper Sting than a Shaman goes oom decursing it.

Another tip:
- When you're dueling against a class that can purge magic effects (Priest / Shaman) keep an eye out for their dispell habits. Most players love to spam dispell, you can use this to your advantage and keep casting Rank 1 Lightning Shield to make them go oom. Once they realize 'oh he's using Rank 1' you can switch to the maximum rank.

To counter this tip: if you see you see an opponent that keeps buffing himself while he uses <100 mana, don't purge the effect. Chances are (very) high that he's baiting Purges to make you go oom or (for whatever reason at the time) force GCDs out of you.

[wiseoldenemy]

Cool guide, I really like the thorough duel descriptions and the tips at the end.

BG's
I also think that you can be a lot more specific in the BG guide though. Now it reads as if the goal is to (mostly) get a good K/D ratio. For example: if you're going to soloQ up in WSG you can watch the map and adjust your playstyle based on what your team does. If they all go out on the attack it's best to sit back and defend the flag, if the team already have 5 defenders go on the offense, etc.

Dueling Enhancement Shaman
I don't think you can easily Frost Shock kite an Enhancement Shaman and win. They will make sure to start the duel 'in your face' and because both parties have the same slow mechanics he's not going to let the Elemantal Shaman go.

Fighting Hunters
Keep an eye out for their Viper Sting, it will screw you over in the long run. Get decursive with the macro so you can dispell Viper Sting the second it hits you. If he insist on casting Viper Sting it's a good idea to challenge it, Hunters go oom much faster casting Viper Sting than a Shaman goes oom decursing it.

Another tip:
- When you're dueling against a class that can purge magic effects (Priest / Shaman) keep an eye out for their dispell habits. Most players love to spam dispell, you can use this to your advantage and keep casting Rank 1 Lightning Shield to make them go oom. Once they realize 'oh he's using Rank 1' you can switch to the maximum rank.

To counter this tip: if you see you see an opponent that keeps buffing himself while he uses <100 mana, don't purge the effect. Chances are (very) high that he's baiting Purges to make you go oom or (for whatever reason at the time) force GCDs out of you.

Well I didn't wanna explain bg strategies, only strategies of Ele sham in a bg style group fight. And, basically you are a damage dealer so the more damage you deal the better. Of course you can always heal someone who needs it, and I explained to use rank 1 shocks as support, or to burst when you see it. For enhancement shamans, if you start a duel normally it should be at 25 yard range lol, otherwise its bm, but since both shamans have 50% slow enh should never catch up esp with good grounding totems.

Good tip on the rank 1 lightning sheild againt purge spammers.

[Kikeron]

So you kill people on duels by chipping away their HP with dagger?

[defleshed2]

yes thast the play style so they are pushed back for any casts