Guide: Elemental Shaman Rotation

Guide witten by Primalsin of Hellfire (Europe) for wow-europe shaman forums (original post).

Elemental Shaman Rotation Guide.

This is a guide to help beginning and advanced Elemental Shamans optimize their rotation to maximize DPS.

Latency, hit, resistances. I didn’t include these factors in my models just yet. DPS numbers I came up with are output of my self written simulator, lower and upperbounds damage range of all spells at different bonus damage values were compared to in-game results, being at least 99% correct.

Sometimes an upperbound would differ about 1 damage point due to certain in-game roundings I suppose. I took a close look at how CC worked and included Sundial of the Exiled, Abyssal Rune bonus damage trinket effects and Lightweave, actually modelled out and not added as static bonus damage.

Every possible damage increasing talent was closely looked at and modelled. I didn’t feel like adding any set bonuses, yet. So just standard 18 sec FS duration.

• Glyph of Lava, Glyph of Lightning Bolt and Glyph of Totem of Wrath used. Chaotic Skyflare Diamond as meta gem. 2568 bonus damage selfbuffed, 26.17 crit.

Rotations were spammed for over 10 years of actual non-stop casting each so deviations mostly are within 0.5 DPS.

DPS = Damage Per Second
LB = Lightning Bolt
FS = Flame Shock
LvB = Lava Burst
LO = Lightning Overload
*Small note on LO: Shamanism is added twice (30%) to the coefficient of this spell resulting in more than half damage as Blizzard claims in their talent tooltip.
CD = Cooldown
CC = Clearcasting

Let’s get started.

Let’s suppose I’m at 708 haste rating and I’m going to swap Totem of Hex with Totem of Electryfying Winds. I haven’t calculated uptime yet on this new totem but supposedly it’s 100% and now let’s assume it is. Giving me 200 extra haste. So I will be at 908 haste rating then and how do I “convert” this extra haste into extra DPS?

Well let’s start figuring out a rotation.

The most standard rotation is just spamming LB, a monkey can do it and it easily produces 3k+ DPS with just a bit of decent gear. The main thing that can improve our DPS over this rotation is adding the FS + LvB combo.

(LB only spam rotation): 4209.67 DPS (708 haste + Totem of Hex)
(LB only spam rotation): 4248.89 DPS (908 haste)

For you to determine optimal rotation it will be important to know how fast your spells are being casted. Talented LB cast is 2 seconds and CL, FS and LvB casts are 1.5 seconds. Now let’s add haste.

Actual percentage of haste = (haste rating / 32.79) + Wrath of Air Totem (5)
Hasted casting speed of spell = Non hasted casting speed of spell / (1 + (Actual percentage of haste / 100)

Giving 1.5798 sec cast for LB, 1.1849 sec cast for CL; FS and LvB at 708 haste.
And 1.5072 sec cast for LB, 1.1304 sec cast for CL, FS and LvB at 908 haste.

Let’s start out with a basic rotation.

(FS, LvB, LBx5, LvB, LBx5): 4829.34 DPS (708 haste + Totem of Hex)

LBx5 adds up to 7.9 seconds so it’s only a 0.1 wait for LvB to come of CD. Using LBx5 again after 2nd LvB for this rotation since LBx4 adds up to 6.32 seconds + 1.18 from FS means I’ll have to wait 0.5 seconds before casting LvB. Now let’s add 200 haste, new totem perhaps? Removing Totem of Hex from the setup. Same rotation again.

(FS, LvB, LBx5, LvB, LBx5): 4817.90 DPS (908 haste)

Hmmm… We just lost a bit of DPS from not really taking full advantage of the higher haste rating. Even though we made the rotation more compact it didn’t weigh up enough to the Totem of Hex. Since LBx5 after the 1st LvB is making me wait 0.46 seconds now for the 2nd LvB I’ll add another LB in the rotation.

(FS, LvB, LBx6, LvB, LBx5): 4918.15 DPS (908 haste)

A small DPS increase, showing that waiting for LvB without casting spells in the meanwhile produces lower DPS. Though by adding a new spell my rotation has increased in length, after LBx6, LvB has been of CD for 1 second. This screams for improvement.

This is were CL comes into play, as many of you know or heard/read, adding CL to your rotation will increase your DPS since CL must somehow do more damage. Well that’s not entirely true. Blindly spamming CL at will might actually decrease your DPS if you haven’t invested time in researching your optimal rotation at your own specific haste rating.

Well now, let’s start adding CL then. But where to begin? Well let’s just start by adding a CL after every LvB since that will guarantee CC uptime and will make my CL do even more damage.

(FS, LvB, CL, LBx5, LvB, CL, LBx4): 4968.43 DPS (908 haste)

Omg, yes it’s working, CL usage does increase my DPS. Well, actually it’s working, mainly because it makes the rotation more compact, producing more LvB’s in a longer period of time. And it’s LvB which increases our DPS over standard LB spam. Of course there must be room for making the rotation more compact. At LBx6, LvB was roughly 1 second of CD before I casted it.

Now by using CL, which casts in 1.1304 seconds at 908 haste, LvB is only 0.66 seconds of CD before I can cast it. An improvement. Now after the second LvB in the rotation, LvB was of CD for 0.67 seconds, now by using CL, LvB is only of CD for 0.29 seconds. Making the rotation more compact resulting in more DPS.

So now I suppose we can still increase our DPS since CL only has a 3.5 second CD and the rotation still allows for making it more compact. At this haste rating I have to get at least 3 spells in between before casting another CL.

(FS, LvB, CL, LBx3, CL, LB, LvB, LB, CL, LBx3): 4943.52 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LB, CL, LBx3, CL, LvB, LBx2, CL, LBx2): 4947.46 DPS (908 haste)

Depressing DPS drop, though second LvB is only 0.29 seconds of CD now. Adding more than 1 CL in between LvB’s lowers DPS. Let’s try shifting positions of the CL’s a bit. After LvB we have a 100% guarantee on CC uptime for the next 2 spells and since LB actually does more damage per cast it would be the wiser to cast a LB after every b. LB LO has a 33% chance to proc while CL only has a 11% to proc LO on single targets. Also, LB has a higher coefficient. Let’s see how that works out.

(FS, LvB, CL, LBx5, LvB, LBx5): 4937.22 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LB, CL, LBx4, LvB, LBx5): 4939.76 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LBx2, CL, LBx1, LvB, LBx5): 4944.65 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LBx3, CL, LBx2, LvB, LBx5): 4944.78 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LBx4, CL, LB, LvB, LBx5): 4949.77 DPS (908 haste)
(FS, LvB, LBx5, CL, LvB, LBx5): 4953.38 DPS (908 haste)

I just used 1 CL per rotation now just to check how the position of CL in the rotation influences DPS.

So as I already said, guaranteed CC uptime for the next 2 spells after LvB shouldn’t be wasted on CL as LB does more damage per cast. And how is casting CL rather than LB before LvB increasing my DPS?

First let’s see how CC works. OL procs CC but doesn’t consume it. Though if you want OL to be affected by CC it must be at 2 charges before the cast of the original spell since LO is treated as a second spell. Suppose CC is 0 and LB crits and procs a LO. Will the LO be affected by CC? Most logicaly, yes. But that ain’t happening, I’m not sure why, but it’s also the case with CL so I guess it couldn’t be related to flight time.

Casting LB before LvB increases the chance of CC uptime over casting CL before LvB. But casting CL before LvB “wastes” this decreased chance of CC uptime on only 1 spell instead of 2, since LvB guarantees CC uptime.

Imagine cast sequence CL, LB, LvB. And CL, LB and their possible OL would not crit, LB and LvB are calculated without CC bonus, “wasting” 2 spells. So this is where this marginable DPS gain comes from. This minimalizes the downpart of using CL in your rotation, which you are using to compact your rotation to get more LvB’s in over a longer period of time.

Dissected:

LvB
Cast 1 (CC2 guarantee)
Cast 2 (CC1 guarantee)
Cast 3 (Influences CC uptime on next 2 LB’s/CL)
Cast 4 (Influences CC uptime on next 2 LB’s/CL)
Cast 5 (Influences CC uptime on next LvB)
Cast 6 (Influences CC uptime on next LvB)
LvB

Knowing all this.

(FS, LvB, LBx5, CL, LvB, LBx5, CL): 4971.38 DPS (908 haste)

To make all of this quite simple. Figure out with your haste rating how much LB’s you can squeeze in between LvB casts in your rotation. You will see that you will either have to wait for LvB to come of CD or that LvB has been of CD for a small amount of time. Negative or positive CD so to say. If you find yourself with a negative CD ( even as small as 0.1 seconds ) add 1 CL. And with a positive CD just change your last LB to CL. Never wait for LvB. Only 1 CL in between LvB’s max.

Hope I was of any service. Mightyatom / Primalsin on Hellfire.

Guide:Elemental Shaman Rotation