Elemental Shaman Group Utility

Classes Shaman
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This is a list of group utility abilities for all DPS classes.
-This is only counting base and spec abilities, not talents or PVP talents.
-Does not include movement/melee/cast speed slows, nor interrupts/stuns/CC.
-Doesn’t include things like Conjure Refreshment, Portals, Slow Fall, Water Walking.

Death Knight: Anti-Magic Zone, Battle Rez
Demon Hunter: Chaos Brand
Druid: Stampeding Roar, Battle Rez, Heals, Remove Corruption (Curse+Poison)
Hunter: Bloodlust, Misdirect
Mage: Arcane Intellect, Bloodlust, Remove Curse
Monk: Heals, Detox (Poison+Disease), Windwalking
Paladin: Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Concentration Aura/Crusader Aura/Devotion Aura, Lay on Hands, Cleanse Toxins (Poison+Disease), Heals
Priest: Dispel Magic, Leap of Faith, Mass Dispel, Power Word: Fortitude, Power Infusion, Purify Disease, Vampiric Embrace, Heals
Rogue: Tricks of the Trade, Shroud of Concealment
Shaman: Bloodlust, Cleanse Spirit, Healing Stream Totem, Tremor Totem, Windfury Totem (Enhancement), Heals
Warlock: Demonic Gateway, Healthstone, Battle Rez
Warrior: Battle Shout, Rallying Cry

Let’s do a break down of Elemental’s group utility:

Bloodlust: Has little value since Mage and Hunter also have it and the two of them make up about 28% of all DPS according to RaiderIO. The chances of there not being a Mage or Hunter in your group/raid/random BG are small.

Cleanse Spirit: Only cures Curse. Most other hybrid cleanses remove 2 things instead of only 1.

Healing Stream Totem: Heals 1 player at a time, for around ~750, for a total of around 7000 health for its duration. The main benefit here is that it’s instant cast. Kinda meh for a 30 second cooldown and 7000 heal over 15 seconds.

Tremor Totem: Has little regular use, very niche.

Heals: We have some of the worst hybrid heals in the game next to Monk. Druid and Paladin hybrid healing is spectacular. Enhancement’s instant heals are good.
Shadow Priests get a decent cooldown and get to DPS while doing it.

A quick mention of Earth Elemental: This thing could tank some stuff in the past, but that no longer seems to be the case, as player tank threat is too high or something. You’ll see it tank stuff up to a point, but I haven’t really noticed it pulling aggro off of tanks in a while.

Anyhow, Shaman used to provide some of the most and best group utility in the game. I have no desire to be a totem robot again, but it would be nice if Elemental brought SOMETHING to the group by default like most classes do.

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The point of the earth elemental isn’t to tank everything. It’s to take some heat off the tank and healer.

While the healing stream totem isn’t a huge amount of healing it is decent for something that only eats a global once every 30 seconds.

Cleanse spirit I never use but that’s because curses are pretty rare in Shadowlands.

But you left out earthbind which is really nice on bomb mobs in PF and DOS. We can kite with the best of them so if the earth or tank goes down we’re not dead. Throw spiritwalker’s grace on top of that and we can kite even better.

As I tell people who complain about ele go play destro lock for a week. You’ll be running back here in no time.

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Dungeons in SL are riddled with curses… Curse is easily the best dispel this xpac

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Interesting. I’ve not noticed but probably because I haven’t done M+ yet.

Blew the first 3 weeks of the expansion on a destro lock. So the ele is kinda new.

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Damn dude, should’ve just switched to affy they’re like the best spec in game rn

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All I read is that the rotation is awful to play. I’d rather play RNGJesus (Ele) than that.

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The third line of the post “-Does not include movement/melee/cast speed slows, nor interrupts/stuns/CC.” There are more slows than anything else in the game. Ele does have an efficient one, but we aren’t the only one.

Except like I said in the post, it isn’t doing that because it isn’t tanking anything. It only tanks when you’re doing content with bad/undergeared tanks.

Healthstone+Demonic Gateway+Battle Rez are pretty much the best raid utility in the game.

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We also have a dispell without cd, wich is nice on at least 2 dgs from the top of my head (mists and necrotic wake). Earthbind has been proving quite useful on the spiteful affix. Reincarnation can save some time after wipes, aside from the obvious benefit of being a brez that doesnt trigger the group cd on brezs. Also earthquake has the ocasional knockdown, wich is good but not much to brag about.
So we have some things going for us, but i’d never complain about getting more utility, being responsible for meaningful change on how the group deals with challenges is VERY rewarding.

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Also forgot Windrush Totem.

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I was just thinking this when picking an alt. It was between hunter and shaman.

It used to be that i would always go shaman because of group utility.

Then i realized: there’s very little that an ele shaman brings that a hunter doesnt. And hunter has cool tricks that shaman doesnt.

So, hunter it was

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We aren’t the only one.

2nd line of the post: “-This is only counting base and spec abilities, not talents or PVP talents.” This was about base default class/spec group utility. If we bring talents into the equation, the list increases for most everyone else too.

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