4.0 Elemental Shaman Builds

[Greythan]

Seeing a lot of variations. Wondering if those who've had time to play since 4.0 hit could share their thoughts on PvP builds for elemental shaman x4 groups. Haven't had time to play myself so curious as I get back into it.

Thanks in advance.

[BrothelMeister]

Well, It'll be easier to list the talents NOT to get these days:

I'm avoiding: Either [Call of Flame] or [Convection] Depending upon your mana situations, vs. how much you love the Lava Burst ( I really don't care for it, and was able to get 2K without caring for it, so call me the underdog )

Next, Skip [Lava Flows]. Again, I know I'll get rage for this, but in my experience, the control that you have by having all 4 shaman casting in 100% synchronization, vs instead having 1 or 2 casting 30% faster because their flame shocks were dispelled, is much more important than having even your largest nuke hit 12% harder (note the bonus damage goes up by 24%, meaning the damage goes up by 12%). The flame-shock DoT damage from this talent is irrelevant, since DoT damage is not what gets a boxer kills.

For PvP, [Lava Surge] is a bad thing to get as a boxer, since rarely will flame shock stay up very often, and even less rare is the opportunity that all 4 shaman will have Lava Burst reset together, thus this talent is a waste for us.

[Earthquake] is GOOD to get unless you've tried it enough to know you don't like it.

Skip [Totemic Wrath] on all but 1, or if your more concerned about losing a character, 2 toons. Id suggest getting it on the toon least likely to die, which means, don't get it on your main.

For enhancement tree, fill in [Elemental Weapons], and put the last 2 points where-ever.

If you're dying a lot, try [Ancestral Resolve], otherwise, just throw them in [Improved Shields] so that Fulmination hits harder.

[zenga]

This spec is what I use to box (5x ele shamans).

When i run 4 ele + resto I take out the stoneclaw totem glyph and replace it with chain lightning glyph. I only play bg's by the way, no arena.

Still unsure what works best for me, 2 points in elemental warding or 2 in resto tree for anc resolve.

Contrary to the above poster, I'm a big fan of lava surge & lava flows. But I guess to each his/her own; but I'm still not convinced of fulmination in pvp for my playstyle. It's very situational but I'm leaving it there for now to test it some more.

[Kruschpakx4]

main http://wowtal.com/#k=K-wSC_i.a6d.shaman.
toons http://wowtal.com/#k=l3AxydC.a6d.shaman.

shocking/thunder/lava/lighting shield/lighting bolt/elemental mastery glyph

[BrothelMeister]

Anyone else noticing that Thunderstorm hits for twice what it used to?

I've been getting 11k Tstorm crits, and I'm definitely finding it useful as a damage spell, even in PvP, to be worthwhile cast all 4 at once.

[Boylston]

I have alternated between using Round Robin thunderstorms and popping 4 at once since the spell was first introduced. Honestly, I really like the 4 at once approach. The only exception is places where I may want to be able to bounce a few different people off a cliff.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but when I pop all at once, the small delays between the casts going off seem to push people much farther away at times.

Anyhow, I don't think there's a "wrong" way to use it, but if the damage is significant, I think there are good arguments for using all at once. Fire Nova+Thunderstorm is a pretty nice combo when a couple melee swarm you.

[Ualaa]

I made mine, so the macro was round robin unless I pressed it with a modifier key.

Commas for delay is out, so that macro is broken.
But it will be a very simple matter to make two mapped keys, one sending to all clients and the other as a round robin.
Use the same keybinds as before, since I already know those.

[BrothelMeister]

Yea, when you pop multiple Tstorms close together, targets seem to go atleast twice as far away. I thought maybe this would only work if I kept it on round robin, and dropped them in quick succession, but if the extra knockback distance still works when I have them all set to go on the same key press, I think I'm going to change to that.

The arguments for 1 at a time Tstorm always sounded good in theory, but I've always found myself blowing them all at once to get a finishing kill in anyway.