Burned Out on Elemental Shaman – Too Much, Too Fast

Classes Shaman
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I’ve mained Ele for a while, but it just feels exhausting. What used to be a fun, impactful caster is now a frantic mess of cooldowns, RNG procs, and button bloat.

Rotation Fatigue & RNG Overload
Between Stormkeeper, Ascendance, Icefury, Primordial Wave, and all the random procs, you’re constantly under pressure to press things in the exact right order—or you risk tanking your DPS.

APM Is Way Too High
Elemental sits near the top in APM among caster specs when played optimally. Between procs, spell weaving, and constant priority juggling, it’s a nonstop flurry of inputs. Add overloaded keybinds, shift modifiers, totems, interrupts, and movement abilities… and it just becomes too much—especially when the payoff often feels mediocre compared to other classes with simpler rotations.

Mechanics vs. Flow
Every time I have to dodge or reposition in a dungeon, the entire flow can fall apart. High-value windows get completely wrecked if I’m forced to stop casting or sidestep a ground effect. Even with Spiritwalker’s Grace, it still feels punishing. And once I fall behind, it’s like trying to push a boulder uphill—momentum vanishes, Maelstrom generation stalls, and recovering feels painfully slow.

Icefury Is a Chore
I hate Icefury. It doesn’t feel fun or rewarding—it just feels like something I’m forced to cast to keep Maelstrom going. Frost Shock weaving is clunky, awkward, and takes up even more brain space on top of everything else.

It’s Not Me—It’s the Spec
I’ve tried to stick with it. I’ve watched streamers, read guides, used all the addons—but the reality is, this spec is just overdesigned and punishing right now. You have to play like a robot with perfect inputs just to keep up, and even then you can still get blown out by specs pressing a handful of buttons on repeat.

:persevere: I miss when Elemental felt smooth and fun. I’m sorry to vent, but right now it just feels like a mental marathon every time I queue up. I’m worn out trying to keep up with all the procs, buttons, and perfect timings.

Is anyone else feeling the same way? Or is there a build out there that still feels fun without turning into a full-time job?

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When did elemental feel smooth and fun?

And I honestly have no clue about how it’s a “full time job”

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I think Elemental feels great now. But in general I prefer higher skill ceilings because I think it’s fun to improve. :man_shrugging:

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^Agreed. Ele is the most fun caster right now imo.

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Destro is way more fun. So is Frost

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If I had to give my opinion of Elemental it would be that Ascendance is way too powerful and holds too much of our damage, the spec tree is super boring with very little as far as active options to change up playstyle(especially with pw getting wrecked), not enough instant casts in the age of fights that require constant movement, and the tab/target flame shock gameplay needs to go. Until we get a way to spread flame shocks easily and effectively like enhancement, all the flame shock talents are simply “better than nothing”. Farseer is still awful and needs re-revamped.

I’d actually say that I think pre-revamp elemental was better imo with the elemental spirit gameplay. Given how high up in the tree it is you would think it would play a much larger role in our gameplay. As soon as this season ends we go back to not really talenting for elementals because they aren’t great without a lot of uptime and since they took that away it’s wasted talents. Hopefully we get some love in the next major patch as it wouldn’t take a ton to make elemental super fun/interesting. Until then it’s a few moments of fun with ascendance and then 3 minutes of boring slog until it comes back up.

4 Likes
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Which high skill ceiling classes are you referring to compared to elemental shaman?

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I main’d ele in season one until they change the stat priority then it was difficult for me to enjoy it. It felt too punishing, clunky and just no sustained damage outside of ascendance.

I now play resto on my Shammers and it’s about 100x more fun imho

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Season 1 pre revamp was quite possibly the worst version of ele I have ever seen

Pressing one button 15 times a row is horrible design

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I’ve been playing ele for 8 years and without a doubt this is the worst iteration of the spec in that time frame. The change to pwave alone is a warcrime. Not to mention that using Ele blast as a spender in AOE is just aweful. Echoes of great sundering was a legendary no one used in legion for a reason (because its unfun). The devs don’t care.

2 Likes
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I don’t know how you can claim it’s worse than the one button fire or one button lightning variations

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I’m right there with you.

I currently have a love-hate relationship with Elemental. When it works — when you get those Ascendance procs and everything lines up — you feel like an absolute god. It’s smooth, explosive, and genuinely fun. But most of the time, you’re just sitting there praying for a proc that never comes, and your whole rotation feels sluggish and punishing in comparison.

For me, Elemental was at its most fun back in Mists of Pandaria. The spec had flow, the rotation was engaging without being overwhelming, and it just felt good to play. Now it feels like I’m wrestling with the UI and modifiers more than actually enjoying the class.

The other big issue is the lack of a viable fire-focused build. Fire used to feel iconic — Lava Burst used to matter. Now it’s just a button you hit while waiting for the real action to happen, and that’s a shame. The spec has so much fire flavor, but none of it feels impactful in the current meta.

I want to keep playing Ele. I really do. The fantasy is still there. But right now, the execution is wearing me down more than it’s drawing me in.

Here’s hoping Blizzard gives Elemental the attention it deserves in the next round of tuning.

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Ele has been getting non stop attention. And they intentionally went out of their way to get rid of what you are hoping will come back. It had a lot of attention before TWW launched. Then another round of attention in season 1. This is probably the most attention ele has had regularly, since…i dont know when.

The entire point was to remove a singular element build. They did that.

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In MoP, the Elemental AoE rotation was to only spam Chain Lightning. You only casted Earthquake when there were 8+ targets.

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I can claim it because it was more fun to play. Also, is there a reason you reply to me every single time I post here? Clearly we fundamentaly disagree on how ele should be designed. You like clunky gameplay and I like fluid gameplay. It is what it is.

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Sorry for having a discussion. I didnt know this was a “only post if you agree with me” thread.

Thats not how it works and it wasnt needed.

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but its obviously much worse are you kidding me? really? i can’t think about a world that a single person if put to play the game and learn the lava burst rotation or the echoes rotation would think that the echoes one is funnier, this is just absurd

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It’s more fun to hit the same button 15 times j a row?

Nah man. That was the worst design

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I feel the same way. Cooldowns are too long. One pack youre on top, next pack on bottom.

Cooldowns should be shorter with more spell power baked into each spell

Remove lightning and flame shock.

Make lava burst aoe and apply flame shock in aoe.

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That’s nothing. With one-button rotation you can hit the same button 1500 times in a row!

1 Like