Elemental PvE DPS tree

[Dr. Doom]

Another hypothetic exercise, part of my collection of builds that I won't play but that I like to design nonetheless.

Was thinking how could a shaman maximise his dps while staying ranged in dungeons/raids.

Came up with the following tree:
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hE0uVcMqoZV0eb0x

The restoration trees are essentially there to get +3% spell hit and +5% spell crit with Lightning. Having cheaper totems can only help, and mana reduction to healing and some pushback defence can come in handy when offhealing is required.

Skipped Reverberation since swapping Shock cd from 6 secs to 5 secs seems very minor when your main rotation shall be lightning bolt/chain lightning casting anyway. Maxxed the damage on fire totems to add even more dmg.

Any feedback is welcomed.

[Setup]

COE/COR doesn't affect nature damage in vanilla, elemental itemization is lacking, and poor mana regen is a nail in the coffin.

[Aethelwulf]

Yes but Nature resist is actually lower because of the lack of CoS/CoE debuff. Bosses have base 145 Fire, Shadow, Frost, and Arcane resist, and 70 Nature resist because there's no curse to reduce nature resist. This is the default - there may be some variation depending on the boss.

Now, the default is to raid as resto honestly. But ele shamans actually have extremely good DPS on their lightning bolts since they have the spelldmg coefficient of a 3 second spell on a 2 second cast for lightning bolt (CL is 2.5 sec coefficient on a 1.5 sec cast, even better DPS coefficient on top of the high base damage for when you have those clearcasting procs) on top of all the ways their talents add crit, hit, and lightning damage, which can total +11%, +3%, and +5% respectively. The only problem is that bosses have nature resist and Shaman gear doesn't exactly have nature penetration, so really no Shaman does DPS in raids. If you want to go out of your way to DPS as Ele spec, you will need the following spell penetration gear:

Rune of Perfection (WSG) - 20 pen
Shackles of the Unscarred (AQ20 drop) - 10 pen
Stormcaller's Footguards (AQ quest loot) - 10 pen
Robes of the Battleguard (AQ40 drop, boss 2) - 20 pen
Ring of Swarming Thought (AQ40 drop, boss 1) - 20 pen

This will total 80 Magic Penetration, which is enough to penetrate a boss's nature resist down to 0. From what I can tell, bosses have 70 Nature Resist by default, and if your Warriors have Thunderfury then their debuffs will also lower nature resist by 25. Some bosses might have higher nature resist though. Once you get that penetration, you can surprise everyone by being monster DPS with your lightning bolts and chain lightning, although you do have mana issues to worry about. Once Naxx rolls around Shamans have more options for obtaining Nature penetration. Anyhow, to get that gear, get used to raiding as resto.

Ele Shamans have been used very successfully as DPS in Naxx. Until AQ gear arrived though it wasn't viable for vanilla Shamans to be raid DPS thanks to all the nature resist.

[Dr. Doom]

COE/COR doesn't affect nature damage in vanilla, elemental itemization is lacking, and poor mana regen is a nail in the coffin.

So?
Any talent move around you'd like to suggest or?

[Killstick]

Yes but Nature resist is actually lower because of the lack of CoS/CoE debuff. Bosses have base 145 Fire, Shadow, Frost, and Arcane resist, and 70 Nature resist because there's no curse to reduce nature resist. This is the default - there may be some variation depending on the boss.

The only problem is that bosses have nature resist and Shaman gear doesn't exactly have nature penetration

So you are saying that bosses have less NR to make up for the lack of a curse that lowers NR. But on the other hand you say ele shamans need extra penetration even then? Why would mages/locks not have the same problem since we all have 75 resist on the boss?

[Dr. Doom]

Yes but Nature resist is actually lower because of the lack of CoS/CoE debuff. Bosses have base 145 Fire, Shadow, Frost, and Arcane resist, and 70 Nature resist because there's no curse to reduce nature resist. This is the default - there may be some variation depending on the boss.

The only problem is that bosses have nature resist and Shaman gear doesn't exactly have nature penetration

So you are saying that bosses have less NR to make up for the lack of a curse that lowers NR. But on the other hand you say ele shamans need extra penetration even then? Why would mages/locks not have the same problem since we all have 75 resist on the boss?

I'd guess that there is no charge building element in elemental, like Winter's Chill or Improved Shadow Bolt, so you could use the penetration to compensate for that? No idea really, for what I've seen from elemental shamans, their dmg is always top notch, it's just that they have moonkin-esque problems with mana.

[Niini]

(For raiding) I think that the resto talent increasing totem range is a no brainer over reducing healing pushback, and reducing different types of magic damage is > clear casting following a crit

This would me my spec: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hEcuV0MqoZVbjz0x

I havnt raided ele on nost yet but did all through bc, wotlk and cata and will go ele once AQ is released and I can get the spell pen gear

[Aethelwulf]

So you are saying that bosses have less NR to make up for the lack of a curse that lowers NR. But on the other hand you say ele shamans need extra penetration even then? Why would mages/locks not have the same problem since we all have 75 resist on the boss?

Because they get magic penetration more easily (and those nature resists are merely base resists) plus they have better mana recovery. Besides, raids love the mana tide totem.

For a Shaman to become a competitive DPS dealer he not only needs the proper nature penetration (which is not particularly viable pre-AQ) but also enough consumables and buffs to keep his mana going while DPSing. In a raid like MC where people might not have much spell penetration, everything is easier to kill and mobs are nature immune.

[Niini]

Shammies get a heap of crit and hit however, and if you include spell pen in your pre raid BiS its not hard to get to 50 or so spell pen. Take a look here at spell pen options: http://vanillagaming.org/forum/index.php?topic=15951.0
Theyre quite achievable and there is clear gear progression through AQ.

The main barrier to ele is that some bosses are completely immune to nature damage but if your guild is happy with you off healing those bosses you should be fine. Mana issues are overcome with consumables so if youre happy spending the money try and talk a guild into having you!

[Thatoneguy]

Mana issues are overcome with consumables

Sorry, that's not enough. You will go oom even with consumables.