Shaman - Elemental

A few updates for patch 3.1, mainly in the Talents and Glyph-sections.
9/1/2009: Updating for 3.2 something may not work please tell me so.

Purpose

Elemental Shamans can deal a good amount of damage, and can also buff the raid with 5% crit and totems (mainly the awesome Totem of Wrath∞). All Shamans can also use Bloodlust∞/Heroism∞ every 5 minutes.

Abbreviations:

Lightning Bolt∞: LB
Chain Lightning∞: CL
Lava Burst∞: LvB
Flame Shock∞: FS

Talents

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfzAo0xxco:kbpMoc∞
With the 3.2.2 changes to your rotation you now will need to have convection no matter what spec as you will be burning through a lot of mana.

Ability Rotation

It can be argued that Elemental Shamans shouldn't use a real rotation, but rather a kind of priority system where you use the highest prioritized spell available. The priority would be:

Flame Shock (to renew DoT) > Lava Burst > Chain Lightning > Lightning Bolt

FS must be kept up the entire time. LvB (which will always crit) should be used as much as possible as it is the highest damage spell. CL should be used as much as your mana can manage. In 25-man raids I have no problems if I thunderstorm once in a while, but if you have an issue with mana then just use a CL after you LvB.
Elemental Mastery∞ should also be used when it fits best (preferably during Heroism/Bloodlust, try to cast a LB for the best effect of the instant cast), and Thunderstorm∞ can be used if standing close enough to boss, doing packs of mobs, or just to get mana.

A problem is that you may lose DPS by using a spell right before a more powerful spell, thereby delaying that spell. You may also find yourself waiting for one spell's cooldown to finish where you should rather have casted a weaker spell. In general, I believe it is considered best to simply keep casting all times rather than waiting for cooldowns, but you should watch your cooldowns and try to be smart about it. Also, it may be necessary to recast FS before its last tick if you would otherwise delay LvB.

With 3.2.2 Chain Lightning is a higher damage per casting second than Lightning bolt, so depending on mana available, this is a move to use as much as you can afford the hefty mana cost. As mentioned earlier, if you are low on mana just use it after LvB. If you are dpsing more than one mob, CL is a huge dps buff when attacking more than one target. However, if you have Heroism / Bloodlust just use LB. Because the spell coeficient for Lightning Bolt is higher than Chain Lightning, there is a point at which Lightning Bolt will do more damage on a single target than Chain Lightning. Using an addon, such as AfterMath∞ you can see which spell does more damage.

Key Cooldowns

Chain Lightning: 3.5 second CD - Use as much as you can afford the mana (3.5 second cooldown)
Flame Shock: 4 second Shock-cooldown - but you only need to refresh its DoT every 18 seconds)
Lava Burst: 8 second CD - should be used as much as possible. The more time this is off cooldown you are losing DpS.
Elemental Mastery: 3 minute CD - Crit buff, goes really good for haste buffs like heroism, but try to use it as much as you can.

Stats (In Order of Importance)

1. Hit - the hit cap is 17%, so we need 14% (367 Hit Rating) since we get 3% from talents. However, if you're a Draenei you will get an additional 1%, and you will get 3% if you're in raid with a Balance Druid or Shadow Priest.
2. Spell power
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike Rating

Critical Strike Rating is good, but falls behind the others as Lava Burst and Flame Shock get (almost) no benefit from crit rating until you start getting Tier 8 set bonuses. Once hit capped, spell power is considered the best stat as it is the only stat that boosts the FS DoT and greatly improves Lava Burst (and Lightning Bolt).

Haste rating is interesting because it (and your latency) decides how many CLs/LBs you can fit in between LvB cooldowns. There may be a specific amount of haste that grants you an extra cast, and another specific amount that gives very little.

Recommended Glyphs

Major Glyphs:
1. Glyph of Flame Shock∞
2. Glyph of Lightning Bolt∞
3. Glyph of Totem of Wrath∞

If you have 2-Piece Tier 8, the exact same buff as Glyph of Flame Shock∞ then replace it with Glyph of Lava∞.

If you have 4-Piece Tier 9, Glyph of Lava∞ will give more damage than Glyph of Totem of Wrath∞.


Minor Glyphs:
1. Glyph of Water Shield∞

The other Minor Glyphs don't matter a lot. I'd recommend Glyph of Renewed Life∞. Glyph of Ghost Wolf∞ may be good if you do PvP.
Glyph of Thunderstorm∞ may be an option if you don't mind losing the knockback for PvP. For PvE, it means that you will get slightly more mana and can cast Thunderstorm without worrying about knocking enemies back, but please note that the knockback may be an advantage if used correctly (for instance, on the adds on Gluth in Naxxrama's Abomination Quarter).

Recommended Enchants

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries∞ Requires Revered with the Kirin'Tor
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm∞ or Lesser Inscription of the Storm∞ Required rep with The Sons of Hodir
Cloak: Greater Speed∞ or Speed∞, Lightweave Embroidery∞ if you are a Tailor
Chest: Powerful Stats∞ or Super Stats∞
Wrists: Superior Spellpower∞ or Greater Spellpower∞
Hands: Exceptional Spellpower∞ or Precision∞
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle∞
Legs: Sapphire Spellthread∞ or Azure Spellthread∞
Feet: Icewalker∞ or Tuskarr's Vitality∞ If you can afford the loss in hit.
Weapon: Mighty Spellpower∞ or Exceptional Spellpower∞
Shield: Greater Intellect∞

Recommended Gems

Meta: Chaotic Skyfire Diamond∞
Red: Epic: Runed Cardinal Ruby∞ Superior: Veiled Monarch Topaz∞ or Runed Scarlet Ruby∞
Yellow: Epic: Reckless Ametrine∞ Superior: Rigid Autumn's Glow∞ or Veiled Monarch Topaz∞ or Reckless Monarch Topaz∞
Blue: Epic: Glowing Dreadstone∞ Superior: Vivid Forest Emerald∞ or Glowing Twilight Opal∞

Note that Runed Scarlet Ruby gives 1 more spell power than a combination of two gems would.

Recommended Consumables

Flask: Flask of the Frost Wyrm∞
Food: Fish Feast∞/Tender Shoveltusk Steak∞ or Snapper Extreme∞
Potion: Potion of Speed∞

Relic Slot

There are two levels of the relic slot, both of which are buyable with badges.
The first one you want to get is Totem of Hex∞ buyable with 25 emblems of Valor, easily gotten from heroics.
The only upgrade to totem of Hex is Totem of Electrifying Wind∞ buyable with 25 emblems of Triumph. These come from the Trial of the Crusader raid instance, Koralon the Flame Watcher, Onyxia, and from the daily heroic quest.

Additional Tips

Remember to manage your totems, and place them close enough to the raid.
Heroism should generally be used when the raid get most out of it or when you need DPS the most. In a non-phase fight, it may be used a few seconds after the start to ensure that everyone gets advantage of it in case of later deaths, and so mana-users can calculate their mana for the rest of the fight. Talk about who use it during fight with the other Shamans in the raid.

For professions, most of them gives some kind of bonus to your gear (gems, enchants, sockets...). I personally think Alchemy is great since Mixology∞ increases your flask's duration from 2 to 4 hours and increases its effect which is awesome if you are raiding for 3 hours or more. Jewelcrafting is also a great profession for the Dragon's Eye Gems

Sources and Other Resources

Elitist Jerks - Patch 3.1 comments: http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/binkenstein/326-elemental_patch_3_1.html∞
Elitist Jerks - Shaman: Elemental: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t20914-shaman_elemental/∞
Elitist Jerks - Shaman forum: http://elitistjerks.com/f79/∞
Elitist Jerks - Shaman Stat Weight Spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t37849-elemental_seic_spreadsheet_v3/∞
ElitistJerks.com - Elemental Rotations: http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t37210-elemental_rotations/∞
MMO-Champion - Shaman forum: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?board=33.0∞
Youtube - Shaman Doing Elemental Rotation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfPmoP6FCQM∞

Written by Draenors∞ of the guild High Voltage from Arathor EU.
Added to by Trustyn∞ of the guild No Chicks Allowed on Crushridge US