Elemental Shaman: First Impression of the New Elemental Talent Trees in Dragonflight

Dragonflight Posted 2022/08/12 at 8:00 AM by HawkCorrigan

To learn about the best PvE talent builds in Dragonflight for this class, and export these builds into the game, please check out our Elemental, Enhancement, and Restoration Shaman class guides:
Elemental Shaman Talent BuildsEnhancement Shaman Talent BuildsRestoration Shaman Talent BuildsShaman Dragonflight Class TreeShaman Dragonflight Talents - What's New?

On the healing side we get , a party wide Mana Restoration, triggered by our damage rotation.

The middle includes Stoneskin Totem (a party wide physical damage reduction) and Tranquil Air Totem (a party wide knockback immunity), as well as Poison Cleansing Totem.

Lastly on the right, the community favorite Gust of Wind sees its return, giving Elemental a way to counter knockback, cancel fall damage, and jump gaps.

Shaman Dragonflight Class Talent Tree - First ImpressionsAs a quick disclaimer:Astral ShiftPlanes TravelerAstral BulwarkElemental WardingSpirit WolfBrimming with LifeNature's GuardianStoneskin TotemGust of WindThunderous PawsFrost ShockImproved Lightning BoltNature's FuryFire and IceView on Dragonflight Talent TreeProblems of the Shaman Tree:

In my personal opinion, the totems being limited to your party introduces friction in how your structure your raid parties, and does not seem necessary for balancing.

Totem Maintenance is boring and even totems should have a good palpable payoff. Having to regularly press a button like Mana Spring and not seeing any effect outside of logs would be a problem. Anti-Magic Zone solved this a lot better in my opinion, combining an impressive visual with a noticeable effect.

In general most of our utility options like Earth Shield, Healing Stream Totem, Stoneskin Totem or Mana Spring cost us a good amount of GCDs putting a DPS cost on our utility that adds up pretty quickly. This just means that we will need to try to minimize the usage if it's not necessary or broadly beneficial to our group, which is a bit sad.

Elemental Spec TreeElemental Shaman Talents for Raiding - What's New?

Lightning Rod and Power of the Maelstrom came back from our legion artifact. Lightning Rod has been improved so you are able to choose your funnel target Power of the Maelstrom also works on AoE now.

Lava Shock and our old Fire Elemental passive got a paint job and came back in the form of Magma Chamber and Searing Flames. This improves our funnel potential in spread cleave situations a lot.

We get some new mechanics improving our mastery and the scaling thereof in Echo Chamber and Mountains Will Fall. This will allow our spenders to overload, fixing some issue with our stat scaling.

Icefury got some new upgrades in the form of a choice node Electrified Shocks/Flux Melting that brings it into our AoE rotation or improves our "weaving the elements"-gameplay.

Primordial Wave got some better consistency with Primordial Surge and Rolling Magma.

Shaman Dragonflight Spec Talent Tree - First ImpressionsSurge of PowerFlux MeltingWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceDeeply Rooted ElementsFurther BeyondDeeply Rooted ElementsSpiritwalker's GraceSurge of PowerLightning BoltView on Dragonflight Talent TreeElectrified ShocksLightning RodIcefuryIcefuryView on Dragonflight Talent TreeEchoes of Great SunderingStorm ElementalDeeply Rooted ElementsLiquid Magma TotemPrimal ElementalistPrimordial WaveElemental EquilibriumView on Dragonflight Talent TreeLava BurstChain LightningSurge of PowerSkybreaker's Fiery DemiseFire ElementalPrimordial WavePrimordial SurgeSplintered ElementsView on Dragonflight Talent TreeChain LightningLightning BoltSurge of PowerAftershockSurge of PowerElectrified ShocksFrost ShockSwelling MaelstromElectrified ShocksLightning RodStormkeeperFlash of LightningFlash of LightningWind ShearAstral ShiftCapacitor TotemStorm ElementalProblems of the Elemental Tree:

Elemental Blast is missing a clear use case and just exists in limbo in the current iteration. I and most other people in the community are not quite sure what the intent is behind the spell. To me it feels like it should be an AoE option but it does not actually seem to work well in the AoE rotation at first glance. This opinion is not confirmed with sims or any other hard data yet, so I might potentially be wrong here, but I can't think of a situation where I would consider taking Elemental Blast in this talent tree. While I like introducing Elemental Blast as a spender, having it keep it's cast time makes it a lot more awkward to use and essentially eliminates at least half of our movement in AoE.

On a similar note, Further Beyond exists in a state where it is unlikely that you can actually get a lot of value out of it. While the idea of not having your spenders be a DPS loss during Ascendance is definitely a good one, the payoff might need to be slightly bigger, but this is a balancing issue that should be fixable at a later stage quite easily.

The spec tree could use another 1-2 point node for "Lightning AoE" on the left side of the tree to be able to skip Icefury in my personal opinion. If you are trying to do a "Lightning build", skipping the right side of the tree, you need to pick up either Swelling Maelstrom or Icefury to get to 20 points.

Elemental Shaman Dragonflight Talents for Raiding - How Strong is it?Final Thoughts on the Elemental Shaman Talent Trees

Comment by ScaicoolThis is awesome, from elemental to restoration, even enhancement, shaman seems to be on the go to be one of the most entertaining classes to play!

Also, the cycle of iteration on these builds is just... insane? It gives me the feeling that Blizz could have released those first alpha tree versions with one or two improvements on their sleeves, just for us to be awed. Idk.Comment by ekrietlowI'd really like a full lightning build of some kind. Dont get me wrong, the constant lava burst is fun when it happens, but there are already fire mages and destro locks doing that.

Nobody slings bolts but us.Comment by ekidnaI feel like there needs to be a "Cloudburst" talent in the Elemental/Enhancement spec trees. We have lots of healing utility, but it's pretty costly. So a talent that stores, or passively releases, damage from heals would be nice. Give a benefit to casting, for instance, Healing Stream every 30s. Or Stoneskin redirecting the damage reduction. I have played shaman since Vanilla, and it is kind of sad to see our uniqueness watered down so much...Comment by StormfiendGreat commentary on the Ele tree. Nice job.Comment by endolexI very much agree. I really like the Elemental Tree, I absolutely LOVE the Restoration Tree, and I'm pretty sure I'll also dabble in Enhancement again in DF.
What I don't understand and what hasn't been really commented on: What use are Maelstrom Weapon + Flurry in the class tree for Restoration + Elemental Shaman...?Comment by CodemagusWhat kind of math leads to stoneskin totem being 2.5% damage reduction? 10% at 50% uptime is 5% which is already more than devo provides. Factor in that constant physical damage isn't a likely scenario so you'll most likely have it up for 100% of the time that anyone besides a tank is taking physical damage makes that talent great when physical damage is a factor. Even using it on cd for a tank is effectively 5% damage reduction (50% better than devo vs phys), not 2.5%. Otherwise, good analysis imo.Comment by BalukiI feel like changing Stoneskin Totem from 10% damage reduction for 15 seconds to 30% damage reduction for 5 seconds would make it much more useful. It would cause us to use it more strategically to deal with damage spikes, rather than just dropping it every time it's available.Comment by CodemagusI feel like changing Stoneskin Totem from 10% damage reduction for 15 seconds to 30% damage reduction for 5 seconds would make it much more useful. It would cause us to use it more strategically to deal with damage spikes, rather than just dropping it every time it's available.Comment by BansheesveilTranquil Air Totem (a party wide knockback immunity)Comment by BalukiI love how these new talents give us so much flexibility and customizability for different play styles and tasks. You won't just be an Elemental Shaman, you'll be a Lightning Elemental Shaman, and/or a Fire Elemental Shaman, and/or an Overload Elemental Shaman, and/or an Ascendance Elemental Shaman, etc.

It finally feels like Blizzard gives a damn about us! The past several expansions have made me feel like an unwanted afterthought.

Side note: I really want them to change the transformation form of Ascendance, or give us the option to change it with a glyph (like Balance Druids have with Glyph of Stars). That's always been the thing I dislike the most about that ability. I want something that actually looks like my character: special effects instead of a completely different model.Comment by FableZuWhat kind of math leads to stoneskin totem being 2.5% damage reduction? 10% at 50% uptime is 5% which is already more than devo provides. Factor in that constant physical damage isn't a likely scenario so you'll most likely have it up for 100% of the time that anyone besides a tank is taking physical damage makes that talent great when physical damage is a factor. Even using it on cd for a tank is effectively 5% damage reduction (50% better than devo vs phys), not 2.5%. Otherwise, good analysis imo.Comment by AuriTranquil Air Totem (a party wide knockback immunity)Comment by JellycakeTranquil Air Totem (a party wide knockback immunity)Comment by fatalelementbut i hate icefury