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Elemental Shaman DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Glyphs (MoP 5.4.8)

Elemental Shaman Art Image
General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent and glyph choices forElemental Shamans in World of Warcraft MoP 5.4. We detail what each of the talents andglyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Elemental Shaman guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.


1. Talent Choices↑top

Level Choices
15 Nature's Guardian Stone Bulwark Totem Astral Shift
30 Frozen Power Earthgrab Totem Windwalk Totem
45 Call of the Elements Totemic Persistence Totemic Projection
60 Elemental Mastery Ancestral Swiftness Echo of the Elements
75 Rushing Streams Ancestral Guidance Conductivity
90 Unleashed Fury Primal Elementalist Elemental Blast
+ show color blind markers- hide color blind markers
  • Performance-enhancing
  • Survival
  • Crowd Control
  • Movement
  • Utility
  • Situational

There is no longer such a thing as a default build. Most of the talents arenow viable. They can easily be changed, thanks to Dust of Disappearance Icon Dust of Disappearance(and Tome of the Clear Mind Icon Tomes of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90).You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs betweenencounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics.Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does andhow they affect your play style.

2. Tier 1 Talents↑top

Tier 1 talents have been designed with your own survival in mind.

  • Nature's Guardian Icon Nature's Guardian will proc every time you receive a damaging attackthat brings you below 30% health (although not more often than every 30 seconds).When Nature's Guardian procs, it immediately reduces your threat towards yourattacker and increases your maximum health by 25% for 10 seconds (when theeffect ends, your health percentage is preserved).
  • Stone Bulwark Totem Icon Stone Bulwark Totem is an Earth totem on a 1-minute cooldown that grants you an absorption shield for 30 seconds.
  • Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift reduces damage taken by 40% for 6 seconds. It has a90-second cooldown.

Astral Shift Icon Astral Shift usually is the talent of choice here. Stone Bulwark Totem Icon Stone Bulwark Totemis viable when you need to absorb small amounts of damage for 30 seconds andNature's Guardian Icon Nature's Guardian can be quite powerful in fights where you often take damagethat brings you below 30% health, but its effect has the downside of not beingcontrollable.

3. Tier 2 Talents↑top

Tier 2 talents have been designed with crowd control and utility in mind.

  • Frozen Power Icon Frozen Power causes your Frost Shock Icon Frost Shock to also root thetarget for 5 seconds.
  • Earthgrab Totem Icon Earthgrab Totem summons a totem that remains in place for 20 seconds,rooting every enemy within 10 yards for 5 seconds, after which time their movementspeed is reduced by 50% (for as long as the totem is up and the enemies are within10 yards).
  • Windwalk Totem Icon Windwalk Totem grants immunity to movement-impairing effects to all party and raid members within 40 yards. The effect lasts 6 seconds. Notethat it also removes movement-impairing effects that are already appliedon players.

Earthgrab Totem Icon Earthgrab Totem and Windwalk Totem Icon Windwalk Totem are the best choices,depending on which one will be the most useful to your raid. Windwalk Totem Icon Windwalk Totemis basically a raid-wide version of Hand of Freedom Icon Hand of Freedom and can be usefulon many encounters. There often are other classes that can do a betterjob than Earthgrab Totem Icon Earthgrab Totem, so the opportunities to use it are ratherlimited.

Frozen Power Icon Frozen Powersuffers from only being useful on a single target, but in that particularcase (rooting a single enemy) the short cooldown of Frost Shock Icon Frost Shockmakes Frozen Power better than Earthgrab Totem.

4. Tier 3 Talents↑top

Tier 3 talents have been designed with totem cooldown and mobility in mind.

  • Call of the Elements Icon Call of the Elements, which does not trigger the global cooldown, resetsthe cooldown of your totems that have a base cooldown shorter than 3 minutes:
  • Totemic Persistence Icon Totemic Persistence allows you to summon a second totem of thesame kind, without destroying the first. It does not work with Fire totemsand you can only have the effect active on a single kind of totemat a time. This means, that you cannot have, at the same time, two Earth totemsand two Water totems.
  • Totemic Projection Icon Totemic Projection enables you to relocate your totems to a new location. Casting this spell does not trigger the global cooldown.

Call of the Elements Icon Call of the Elements should be chosen when neither of thetwo other talents can apply, although it will not work on totems that havea 3-minute cooldown.

Totemic Projection Icon Totemic Projection will be useful for moving your totems (mostlySearing Totem Icon Searing Totem, Magma Totem Icon Magma Totem, Healing Tide Totem Icon Healing Tide Totem, andStormlash Totem Icon Stormlash Totem) to a new location withoutspending a global cooldown for it. This talent is primarily meant forencounters with a lot of movement, although you can use it with greatsuccess to keep relocating your crowd-control totems(Capacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem, Earthbind Totem Icon Earthbind Totem, or Earthgrab Totem Icon Earthgrab Totem)as the enemies you are targeting are moving out of the area of effect.

Totemic Persistence Icon Totemic Persistence may be situationally useful, for example whenyou want to use Stone Bulwark Totem Icon Stone Bulwark Totem without sacrificing yourEarth Totem slot for utility.

5. Tier 4 Talents↑top

Tier 4 talents have been designed to improve your performance.

  • Elemental Mastery Icon Elemental Mastery increases your haste by 30% for 20 seconds. Ithas a 90-second cooldown.
  • Ancestral Swiftness Icon Ancestral Swiftness gives your next Nature spell an instant cast. It hasa 1-minute cooldown. Ancestral Swiftness also passively increases your spell haste by 5% and your melee haste by 10%.
  • Echo of the Elements Icon Echo of the Elements gives you a chance to duplicate your spells that dodirect damage or healing.

Echo of the Elements Icon Echo of the Elements is your default choice here, as it provides you withthe most DPS and it scales best (by far) with your gear.

However, if the encounter demands you to provide really heavy burst outsideof Bloodlust Icon Bloodlust / Heroism Icon Heroism / Time Warp Icon Time Warp, you can also useElemental Mastery Icon Elemental Mastery.

6. Tier 5 Talents↑top

Tier 5 talents give you a new healing cooldown or a new healing mechanics.

  • Rushing Streams Icon Rushing Streams causes your Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem to heal two targetsat once for 15% additional healing.
  • Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance causes you to heal up to 3 nearby injured party orraid members for 40% of the direct damage or 60% of the direct healing you do for 10 seconds. Thisability has a 2-minute cooldown.
  • Conductivity Icon Conductivity is a passive ability that causes you to increase the durationof Healing Rain Icon Healing Rain when you cast direct healing and damaging spells. However,this cannot cause Healing Rain to last longer than 40 seconds.

Ancestral Guidance Icon Ancestral Guidance should be your default choice here. It particularlyshines when the encounter requires burst healing support from you.

Conductivity Icon Conductivity can be useful, but only if the raid is stacked and isconstantly taking high raid damage.

Rushing Streams Icon Rushing Streams is not a good choice and should be avoided.

7. Tier 6 Talents↑top

Tier 6 talents have been designed to improve your performance.

  • Unleashed Fury Icon Unleashed Fury upgrades your Unleash Elements Icon Unleash Elements by makingit also increase the damage you do with Lightning Bolt Icon Lightning Bolt by 30% andwith Lava Burst Icon Lava Burst by 10% for 10 seconds.
  • Primal Elementalist Icon Primal Elementalist causes your Earth Elemental Totem Icon Earth Elemental Totem andFire Elemental Totem Icon Fire Elemental Totem to deal 80% more damage. They become regular pets(although they are not permanent) with abilities.
    • The Earth Elemental automatically casts Angered Earth Icon Angered Earth, Pulverize Icon Pulverize, and Harden Skin Icon Harden Skin. If you instruct it to, it will channel Reinforce Icon Reinforce on you, which will decrease the damage you take by 20% and increase the healing you do by 10%.
    • The Fire Elemental automatically casts Fire Blast Icon Fire Blast, Fire Nova Icon Fire Nova, and Immolate Icon Immolate. If you instruct it to, it will channel Empower Icon Empower on you, which will increase the damage you deal by 5% and increase the healing you do by 10%.
  • Elemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast is on a 12-second cooldown and will enable youto maintain a 66% uptime on a buff that changes randomly each time you refreshit: +3500 Critical Strike Rating, +3500 Haste Rating, or +3500 Mastery Rating.For Enhancement Shamans, the buff can also be +3500 Agility.The ability also deals a bit of damage every time you use it.

For a single-target encounter with little to no movement, you should useElemental Blast Icon Elemental Blast.

If the encounter requires you to move a lot, or if you often have to AoEdown adds with Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning, or you need a heavy damage burst, thenyou will go with Primal Elementalist Icon Primal Elementalist.

Unleashed Fury Icon Unleashed Fury is currently not performing as well as any of theother two talents and should not be used until Tier 16 Heroic gear levels,when it becomes the talent of choice for single-target fights.

8. Major Glyphs↑top

Below, you will find other glyphs that can improve your DPS, in specific situations.

  • Glyph of Chain Lightning Icon Glyph of Chain Lightning causes your Chain Lightning Icon Chain Lightning spell tostrike 2 additional targets, but it deals 10% less initial damage. This glyph isa significant DPS increase if your Chain Lightning hits 4 or 5 targets.
  • Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem Icon Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem reduces the cooldown and duration of yourFire Elemental Totem Icon Fire Elemental Totem by 50%. This means that your Fire Elemental Totem willhave a duration of 30 seconds (down from 1 minute) and a cooldown of 2 minutes and30 seconds (down from 5 minutes). This glyph may be situationally useful ina fight that does not allow you to DPS uninterrupted for 1 minute. Prior to Patch 5.4,this glyph was more potent, because it gave your Fire Elemental Totem a 3-minutecooldown, allowing you to line it up with other cooldowns.
  • Glyph of Grounding Totem Icon Glyph of Grounding Totem turns Grounding Totem Icon Grounding Toteminto a damaging ability that reflects a harmful spell back to itscaster.
  • Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace Icon Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace increases the duration ofSpiritwalker's Grace Icon Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 seconds, making it last 20 secondsin total. You will want to use this glyph when an encounterhas periods of movements that last longer than 15 seconds.
  • Glyph of Thunder Icon Glyph of Thunder reduces the cooldown of Thunderstorm Icon Thunderstormby 10 seconds, which will be very beneficial in AoE situations.

Finally, there are major glyphs that bring more utility to your spells.

  • Glyph of Capacitor Totem Icon Glyph of Capacitor Totem reduces the charging time of yourCapacitor Totem Icon Capacitor Totem by 2 seconds. This means that it will stun allenemies within 8 yards after 3 seconds (instead of 5 seconds, without theglyph). This can be useful if a pack of enemies needs to be controlledrapidly.
  • Glyph of Flame Shock Icon Glyph of Flame Shock causes Flame Shock Icon Flame Shock to heal you for30% of the damage it deals.
  • Glyph of Ghost Wolf Icon Glyph of Ghost Wolf makes you less susceptible to movement-hinderingeffects while in Ghost Wolf Icon Ghost Wolf form. This glyph can be useful in fightswhere you have to travel through areas that slow your movement speed.
  • Glyph of Healing Stream Totem Icon Glyph of Healing Stream Totem adds a damage reduction componentto your Healing Stream Totem Icon Healing Stream Totem spell, which can be useful if your raidwill be taking Fire, Frost, or Nature damage when you need touse Healing Stream Totem.
  • Glyph of Hex Icon Glyph of Hex reduces the cooldown of Hex Icon Hex by 10 seconds,which can be useful if you are assigned to crowd-controlling adds.
  • Glyph of Lightning Shield Icon Glyph of Lightning Shield causes you to take 10% less damage for 6 secondsevery time your Lightning Shield Icon Lightning Shield is triggered. Note that Static Shock Icon Static Shockcannot trigger this damage reduction.
  • Glyph of Purge Icon Glyph of Purge causes your Purge Icon Purge spell to remove1 additional Magic effect from an enemy target, but adds a 6-secondcooldown. It can come in handy ifyour raid ever needs to simultaneously remove 2 Magic effects from a boss.Note that in most cases, it may be better to just let Mages Spellsteal Icon Spellstealthe effects.
  • Glyph of Unstable Earth Icon Glyph of Unstable Earth causes your Earthquake Icon Earthquake toalso reduce the movement speed of enemies by 40% for 3 seconds(in addition to knocking them down).
  • Glyph of Wind Shear Icon Glyph of Wind Shear increases the cooldown of Wind Shear Icon Wind Shearby 3 seconds, but increases the school lockout duration it causeson the target. This glyph can be useful if having a 15-second cooldownon Wind Shear will not hinder your interrupting duties.

9. Minor Glyphs↑top

Minor glyphs are mostly cosmetic, although there are twoof them that might be situationally useful.

10. Changelog↑top

  • 17 Jul. 2014: Made the Tier 5 talent explanations less ambiguous regarding the value of RushingStreams.
  • 04 Feb. 2014: Improved explanations for Tier 1, Tier 3, an Tier 6 talents. Thanks to Tickle fromTotemspot.
  • 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
  • 19 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: removed Glyph of Unleashed Lightning and added Glyph of Lightning Shield Icon Glyph of Lightning Shield.
  • 22 Apr. 2013: Update following Leeds' review of our Elemental Shaman guide.
    • Improved advice for choosing talents from Tiers 4, 5, and 6.
    • Emphasized just how useful Glyph of Unleashed Lightning is.
    • Made Glyph of Chain Lightning Icon Glyph of Chain Lightning appear more appealing that was previously mentioned in the guide.
  • 04 Apr. 2013: Update following Purge's review of our Enhancement Shaman guide.
  • 27 Mar. 2013: Updated description of Nature's Guardian Icon Nature's Guardian to properly reflect the Patch 5.2 change.
  • 09 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.



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