Elemental Shaman DPS Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Priority List
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. DPS Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Ascendance Build
    • 2.2. Lightning Rod Build
    • 2.3. Icefury Build
    • 2.4. Mythic+
    • 2.5. Lightning Rod Build
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
    • 1.4. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Ascendance Build
    • 2.2. Lightning Rod Build
    • 2.3. Icefury Build
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation
    • 1.1. Single Target Rotation - Ascendance Build
    • 1.2. Single Target Rotation - Lightning Rod Build
    • 1.3. Single Target Rotation - Icefury Build
    • 1.4. Multiple Target Rotation
      • 1.4.1. 2 Targets
      • 1.4.2. 3 Targets
      • 1.4.3. 4 Targets
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. Stormkeeper
    • 2.2. Lava Burst and Flame Shock
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Maelstrom Management
    • 3.2. Cooldown Usage
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
    • 4.1. Icefury Opener
    • 4.2. Ascendance Opener
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Odyn
  • 2. Guarm
  • 3. Helya
  • 4. Nythendra
  • 5. Ursoc
  • 6. Elerethe Renferal
  • 7. Dragons of Nightmare
  • 8. Il'gynoth, Heart of Corruption
  • 9. Cenarius
  • 10. Xavius
  • 11. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Icefury Build
    • 1.2. Ascendance Build
    • 1.3. Lightning Rod
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Why is Mastery Good in Patch 7.1.5?
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Critical Strike vs Mastery
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. ElvUI
    • 1.2. Weak Auras
    • 1.3. Boss Mods
      • 1.3.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.3.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.4. Name Plates
      • 1.4.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.4.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.5. Damage Meters
      • 1.5.1. Skada
      • 1.5.2. Details
    • 1.6. Extra AddOns
      • 1.6.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.6.2. Death Note
      • 1.6.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.6.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Generic Macros for Shamans
    • 2.2. Wind Shear
    • 2.3. Purge
    • 2.4. Macros for Elemental Shamans
      • 2.4.1. Mouseouver Earthquake
      • 2.4.2. Stopcast Gust of Wind
  • 3. ChangeLog
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonus
  • 2. Best in Slot List
    • 2.1. Trinket Notes
  • 3. Legendaries
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Elemental Shamans. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

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

About Our Author and Reviewers

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been written in collaboration with the team at Storm Earth and Lava, a group of Elemental theorycrafters that includes top players and prominent theorycrafters such as Stormy, Sadozai from Wizards IRL, and Gistwiki from Indestructible.

1. Tier 20 Set Bonus

• 2-piece bonus: Reduce the cooldown of Fire Elemental by 3.0 seconds when Flame Shock periodic damage deals a critical strike. This effect may occur once every 1.0 seconds.
• 4-piece bonus: When Fire Elemental is active, your Flame Shock deals 40% more increased damage over time and always critically strikes.

You will likely want to hold onto your Tier 19 4-piece bonus going into Tomb of Sargeras until you replace it will a full Tier 20 4-piece bonus, especially if you have access to Mythic (or Warforged lower difficulty) Tier 19. The reason for this is that the Tier 20 2-piece bonus is a little impotent by itself and until you have the 4-piece synergy it is generally better to keep the old set bonuses intact.

2. Best in Slot List

With the existence of Titanforged and Mythic+ dungeons, there is no such thing as a hard Best in Slot anymore. This is more of a guideline for the best pieces to keep an eye out for in your raid or dungeon (if applicable). Be smart, and if you find higher item level pieces with valuable stat combinations do not hesitate to upgrade to them.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Helmet of the Skybreaker	Demonic Inquisition
Neck	Locket of Splintered Souls	The Desolate Host
Shoulders	Pauldrons of the Skybreaker	Fallen Avatar
Chest	Hauberk of Frozen Mist	Harjatan
Cloak	Drape of the Skybreaker	The Desolate Host
Wrists	Pain-Singed Armguards	Goroth
Gloves	Gauntlets of Spiteful Haunting	The Desolate Host
Belt	Belt of Screaming Slag	Goroth
Legs	Legguards of the Skybreaker	Mistress Sassz'ine
Boots	Star-Stalker Treads	Kil'jaeden
Ring #1	Yathae's Thumb Ring	Sisters of the Moon
Ring #2	Scaled Band of Servitude	Harjatan
Trinket #1	Tarnished Sentinel Medallion	Sisters of the Moon
Trinket #2	Whispers in the Dark	Gul'dan

2.1. Trinket Notes

Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets and titanforged rewarded from Mythic+ dungeon grinding there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. Using the list below you should be able to extrapolate whether or not something is an upgrade for you. Trinkets at equal item level, in order of priority, are as follows:

1. Tarnished Sentinel Medallion
2. Unstable Arcanocrystal
3. Whispers in the Dark
4. Terror From Below
5. Tome of Unraveling Sanity
6. Charm of the Rising Tide
7. Stat Stick (Mastery)
8. Dreadstone of Endless Shadows
9. Padawsen's Unlucky Charm
10. Stat Stick (Critical Strike)
11. Erratic Metronome

3. Legendaries

Smoldering Heart grants a 0.20% chance per Maelstrom spent to grant Ascendance for 10 seconds. Likely the best legendary despite the variance in uptime.

Eye of the Twisting Nether causes damage from an element to increase damage 1.5% per stack for 8 seconds. Strong legendary overall. Should be used in combination with Icefury.

Pristine Proto-Scale Girdle is the best legendary for the Ascendance build. If this is one of your 2 legendaries you should talent Ascendance, unless the second legendary is Eye of the Twisting Nether. Very strong.

Uncertain Reminder is a strong DPS increase overall, allowing for greater synergy with Fire Elemental and Potion of Prolonged Power. A good choice after the aforementioned choices.

Soul of the Farseer grants Echo of the Elements passively. Okay legendary but nothing special overall.

Echoes of the Great Sundering gives Earth Shock a 50% chance to cause Earthquake to be free. The proc is only above Lightning Bolt in priority, as you do not Earth Shock enough to be in danger of overriding procs often. Always use the proc before casting another Earth Shock. Always cast Earth Shock over Earthquake even on 3 targets.

The Deceiver's Blood Pact has a 20% chance to refund the Maelstrom spent by Earth Shock. Second best legendary for single target and has amazing synergy with Echoes of the Great Sundering.

Al'Akir's Acrimony is an okay legendary for situations where sustained cleave and cleave damage is the priority. Not quite as strong as the shoulders/boots combo, but still good in Mythic+.

Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish can be a very strong DPS increase on AoE if these opportunities present themselves. While it is overall a fairly weak choice for single target, it could be a contender for parsing due to its "padding" potential on manufactured mass AoE scenarios. You should treat the effect like Stormkeeper; use it on cooldown, unless there is an opportunity for cleave or AoE in the near future.

4. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Hunters, Monks, Enhancement/Restoration Shamans, and Warriors
Mail Armor	Hunters and Enhancement/Restoration Shamans
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Balance Druids, Mages, Shadow Priests, and Warlocks

5. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 20 Jun. 2017: Added Tomb of Sargeras best in slot and Tier 20 section, updated trinket list.
• 14 Jun. 2017: Added Smoldering Heart and Soul of the Farseer to Legendary items section.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 20 Jan. 2017: Full update to BiS and legendaries.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated trinket and legendary rankings. Will update BiS list later.
• 01 Dec. 2016: Fully updated Legendary rankings.
• 21 Oct. 2016: Added trinket rankings to help with Mythic+ trinket determinations.
• 08 Oct. 2016: Updated BiS.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Removed trinket sims and added trinket recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.