So thats it? Elemental shamans are just dead on arrival?

Dark-686720 · October 20, 2026, 1:58am

Any new information on changes to shamans from blizzard?

The following copy/paste is from one of my newer posts. its not the best, but it has features everyone will like for all three talent trees. It’s a huge buff to what wow shamans currently has to offer. And believe me, WE NEED IT.

Blizzard, please fix the shaman. I am sure you can still see on the forums, Elemental Shamans are still really feeling their spec is completely abandoned. Below is a bunch of changes that will make the shaman much more competitive, and not overpowered. I am nobody important, but i do a lot of modding. I love coming up with ideas! please take some time and bring this to the team!

GENERAL CHANGES/INFORMATION

Lightning Bolt - Casting time 2.5 , increase base damage, whatever mages dps will be, i think Lightning Bolt damage being 70% of that is fine. This will feed into your 5% hybrid tax perfectly.

Chain Lightning - Casting time 3.0 , increase base damage, whatever mages dps will be, i think Chain Lightning damage being 100% of that is fine. This will feed into your 5% hybrid tax perfectly.

Lava Burst - Cast time 3.5 , increase base damage, whatever mages dps will be, i think Lava Burst damage being 100% of that is fine. This will feed into your 5% hybrid tax perfectly.

Fire Nova - Massively increase damage

Lesser Healing Wave - Casting time 2.0

Chain Heal - Casting time 2.5

Healing Wave - Casting Time 3.0

Bulletpoints of this Shaman :

all 3 Critical strike talents are reachable, though it would be best to reach only two of those talents. Shamans love critical hits!
Elemental Shaman rotation : Flame Shock > Lightning Bolt x 3 > Chain Lightning > Lightning Bolt > Lava Burst > Lightning Bolt x 2 > Chain Lightning > etc… This rotation makes your damage like a wave, low, then high, then low, then high, and just slightly challenging. This wave is the key to higher dps, figure out the secrets to the wave and your dps will go up. What i typed as the rotation is only half correct, the further you go into the rotation, the rotation changes, and you have to add in your shocks.
Elemental Reach being the talent linked to the capstone just feels better, how can you be a master of the elements when you cant even reach your enemy?
The new version of Elemental Mastery, with Spirit Wolf instead of rage of the farseer, and Riptide, are far more viable in pve and pvp.
There was so many things i wanted to add here, but I g2g… Here’s the thing guys, weather or not players agree with everything in here, there is one thing that people have to agree, many, of what i have proposed here is a leaps and bounds better than what we have now.

Arguments for change :

Mage > frostbolt = 290 mana , 500 damage

Shaman > lightning bolt = 220 mana , 200 damage

Shaman > chain lightning = 315 mana , 280 damage

Shaman > lava burst = 265 mana , 350 damage

all spells at max rank. keep in mind a few things… Lava burst is a talent spell, it IS our highest hitting spell, with a 10 second cool down… frost bolt eats it for breakfast. and keep in mind… frost mages most likely wont be as strong as Arcane or Fire Mage in terms of dps/raiding…
Spell Power requirements are just insane. You need 500-700 Spell Power to hit BASELINE. Then, on top of all that, lets say we get NAX GEAR - which is end of Classic mind you - How much spell power is that? 300 with enchants on? come on. Also, this spell power issue can NOT be fixed with gear, because if you pump mail gear to 1000 spell power, a bit over the 500-700 needed to hit baseline, then paladins will just roll on that same gear. Paladins, with 1000 spell power holy shock or healing… completely broken.
The Rotation is very… very.. boring!
Shamans lost every piece of its identity! Elemental Shamans are the most fun when we Crit, and Chain lightning! You took away our talent that adds crit, and you nerfed our damage into the ground, all in the name of scared of burst damage in pvp. Why not this same argument against Pom Pyro?

ELEMENTAL TREE

TIER 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Convection - #NoChanges

Concussion - #NoChanges

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TIER 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reverberation - #NoChanges

[EMPTY]

Elemental Alacrity - Lightning Bolt cast time reduced by .17/.33/.5 Sec. Chain Lightning cast time reduced by .33/.66/1 Sec. Lava Burst cast time reduced by .5/1/1.5 Sec. Links to Lightning Overload

Call of Flame - #NoChanges

TIER 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elemental Focus - Your Fire, Frost or Nature critical spells grants you a stack of Clearcasting. At 10 stacks of Clearcasting, you next spell’s mana cost is reduced 100%

Trial By Fire - #NoChanges , MOVED.

[EMPTY]

Earth Bound - #NoChanges , MOVED

TIER 4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eye of The Storm - #NoChanges

Mental Quickness - 3 Points - Increases your spell damage and healing by up to 20/40/60% of your Intellect. Moved.

Lightning Overload - 5 Points - Gives your Lightning Bolt, and Chain Lightning spells a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to cast a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost, that causes 5% damage and no threat. Also increases Critical effect chance by 1/2/3/4/5%. LINKED to Elemental Alacrity and Elemental Fury. MOVED

[EMPTY]

TIER 5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lava Burst - #NoChanges , MOVED , NOT LINKED to Elemental Mastery

Elemental Reach - Increases the range of your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Fire Nova, and Lava Burst spells by 3/6 Yards, you Shocks by 8/16 Yards, and reduces the cooldown of Totemic Projection by 20 Sec. MOVED , LINKED to Elemental Mastery

[EMPTY]

TIER 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Elemental Fury - #NoChanges , LINKED to Lightning Overload.

[EMPTY]

TIER 7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Elemental Mastery - Each Lightning Bolt original cast grants you a stack of Lightning Fury for 30 Sec, up to 3 stacks. Casting Chain Lightning consumes all you Lightning Fury stacks, increasing damage by 25%. Each tick of Flame Shock grants you a stack of Latent Blaze for 30 Sec, up to 10 stacks. Each Stack increases damage by 10%.

[EMPTY]

ENHANCEMENT TREE

TIER 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earth’s Grasp - #NoChanges

Thundering Strikes - #NoChanges

Ancestral Knowledge - Increases your Intellect by 2/4/6/8/10%

Elemental Warding - 5 Points - Reduces damage taken from Fire, Frost, and Nature Effect by 3/6/9/12/15%

TIER 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guardian Totems - #NoChanges

Elemental Devastation - #NoChanges , MOVED

Improved Ghost Wolf - Reduces The Cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 1.5/3 Sec, it’s mana cost by 15/30%, and Ghost Wolf May be used indoors.

Improved Lightning Shield - #NoChanges

TIER 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elemental Weapons - #NoChanges

Mental Dexterity - #NoChanges , LINKED to Flurry , MOVED

Shamanistic Focus - #NoChanges

Anticipation - #NoChanges

TIER 4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toughness - #NoChanges

Flurry - #NoChanges , LINKED to Mental Dexterity and Feral Spirit

Stormstrike - #NoChanges , LINKED to Improved Stormstrike

[EMPTY]

TIER 5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spirit Weapons - #NoChanges

[EMPTY]

Improved Stormstrike - #NoChanges LINKED to Stormstrike

[EMPTY]

TIER 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Maelstrom Weapon - When you deal damage with a melee attack, you have a chance to reduce the cast time and mana cost of your next Lightning Bolt or Lesser Healing Wave by 20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 30 Sec.

[EMPTY]

TIER 7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Feral Spirit - Summons two Spirit Wolves under the command of the Shaman, Lasting 45 Sec. LINKED to Flurry

[EMPTY]

RESTORATION TREE

TIER 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Swift Recovery (Improved Healing Wave) - Reduces the casting time of your Lesser Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Healing Wave by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 Sec

Tidal Focus - #NoChanges

[EMPTY]

TIER 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mindfulness - #NoChanges

[EMPTY]

Totemic Focus - Reduces the Mana cost of your totems and any spells that summon or move them by 5/10/15/20/25%, and reduce their casting time by 10/20/30/40/50%

Improved Reincarnation - Reduces the cooldown of your Reincarnation spell by 15 min, increases your maximum health by 2.5/5% and increases the amount of health and mana you reincarnate with by an additional 15/30%

TIER 3----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ancestral Healing - #NoChanges

Healing Focus - Reduces the threat generated by your spells by 5/10/15% and gives your healing spells a 23/47/70% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.

[EMPTY]

TIER 4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tidal Mastery - improves your chance to get a critical effect with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%

Restorative Totems - #NoChanges

[EMPTY]

Water Shield - #NoChanges , MOVED

TIER 5----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Healing Way - #NoChanges not linked to Riptide

Natures Swiftness - #NoChanges

Mana Tide Totem - #NoChanges , MOVED

TIER 6----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Purification - #NoChanges LINKED to Riptide

[EMPTY]

TIER 7----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMPTY]

Riptide - #NoChanges LINKED to Purification

[EMPTY]

Miasma-2367458 · October 20, 2026, 2:01am

Yes they’re DoA, are you going to make a new thread every 3 hours until launch still?

Ragebar-2579721 · October 20, 2026, 2:03am

Elemental Shaman are dead because of Maelstrom weapon in enhance. That and Aggrend plays a Paladin

S4br1n4-2828317 · October 20, 2026, 2:09am

They’re looking dead unless there are some serious surprise changes.

Dark-686720 · October 20, 2026, 2:17am

yes. because this is the beta. duh? once it launchs, and it is doa, yea, im done if you dont like it, move on.

go tell everyone to stop posting about the BLACK ELVES. or experience. i mean the list is endless.

Miasma-2367458 · October 20, 2026, 2:18am

Likewise.

I do if it’s the same poster creating a new thread.

Dark-686720 · October 20, 2026, 2:43am

why would i have to? im doing LITERALLY what a beta is for. you want to shut people up. i would keep posting just to get at you, its my lifes dream lol.

thats a pathetic posting reason lol.

MangoHound-2118379 · October 20, 2026, 2:47am

Elemental is now a melee-caster hybrid that weaves spells in between Stormstrikes and auto attacks. That’s by far the highest dps playstyle that uses Lava Burst.

EntropyFan-2411704 · October 20, 2026, 3:05am

I think they have no idea what to do with Ele. Avg 125 base damage on chain lightning at level 60 lmao.

RedPilledJay-2756636 · October 20, 2026, 3:08am

I mean, isn’t that Classic? So many classes were just completely useless and just a few were good…

These dudes can’t even fix layering good luck on getting them to fix classes that really need it..

Just play this crap until something better comes along, we finally might have some hope around the corner.

Silmarill-1548127 · October 20, 2026, 3:10am

I’m sure there will be major balancing patches when a large number of people reach 60, and again when raids start.

EntropyFan-2411704 · October 20, 2026, 3:11am

Not really, even though elemental was crap in raids at least it was really good in group pvp. Now it’s crap in raids and obliterated in pvp.

Dark-686720 · October 20, 2026, 3:15am

i dont think so, they can see it now, and they still kept nerfing ele shaman even during beta.

Mumbo-3502392 · October 20, 2026, 4:01am

yes, now help us make new posts - we all want a fun game, paladins got tons of new cool stuff and synergistic talents - and i love that for them, im probably gona roll one as an alt -
why cant we get the same treatment as arcane mages/survival hunters and pallies? fun for all - our talents look like a dog spat them up

Mumbo-3502392 · October 20, 2026, 4:03am

youre a leech, not contributing anything but negativity and shutting down ideas when they pop up - worst kind of person tbh

Strydder-685961 · October 20, 2026, 4:03am

At least we can cast 4 totems at once with three different spells.

Modiby-3078805 · October 20, 2026, 4:04am

At this point I’m completely convinced there is intentionally a bias against this class. No way it could’ve been this poorly designed accidentally.

Mumbo-3502392 · October 20, 2026, 4:05am

just have to keep pushing for change brother - there are some really good ideas floating around out there:

Here are the actual numbers I’d propose:

Chain Lightning: Restore its Vanilla identity, dealing 18% more damage than Lightning Bolt, maintaining that difference through SP scaling. At 600 SP: LB ~624, CL ~737.
Earth Shock + Fulmination: Around 2,500–3,000 damage at full charges with 600 SP, inspired by SoD. I’d aim for roughly 4–5 full activations in a 2-minute fight, with up to 12% mana restored per discharge.
Elemental Overload: Increase proc chance from 10% to 20–30% for both LB and CL.
Elemental Mastery: +20% critical strike chance for 15 seconds, with double Lightning Shield charge generation during that window.

For perspective, Forever’s Fire Mage simulation shows Fireball averaging 1,724 damage and Pyroblast 2,662 per cast, although those averages aren’t directly comparable.

The point isn’t massive damage. It’s having a rotation with a goal: build charges through lightning spells, unleash Fulmination, recover mana, and repeat.

These are proposed tuning targets, not final balance numbers. And none of these mechanics are new to WoW.

Lightning Bolt: 100%

Chain Lightning: 118% (+18%)
Earth Shock + Fulmination: 400–480% (+300–380%)

Simple, rewarding, and faithful to Classic Elemental’s identity.

Primal-3122858 · October 20, 2026, 4:50am

It had a niche in raids as a ‘high’ dps hybrid that didn’t need a respec to offheal, along with ferals. If you didn’t/couldn’t use polarity shift for sapph that was meaningful. Visc too, i.e fights where the raid dtps suddenly increased by 50% or more. Yeah the damage was way lower than the big three, but the flexibility mattered to a lot of raid groups. Now it’s just trash.

Xadrian-2418692 · October 20, 2026, 4:51am

Atleast you have other useful specs, unlike rogues RIP