Upcoming 3.2 Elemental Shaman Changes

Patch 3.2 is on the horizon and I want to go over a few interesting updates from the patch notes, as well as tier set bonuses for Tier 9. First item to point out is any instance and/or raid that dropped Emblem of Heroism or Emblem of Valor will now drop Emblem of Conquest! This is a great update to gear up newer level 80 players or alts. Also, they can still be converted down to Heroism or Valor if you’d like.

Now for the relevant elemental shammy changes, my notes are in italics!

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems. Starting DPS earlier is going to be great, and with the 4 different sets, you can have a few PVE and PVP versions. If you’re dual-spec with Resto when you switch it can have it’s own separate sets for PVE and PVP.
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards. Again, possibly starting DPS earlier. This will help me in our Thorim fight as our tank takes the second mini-boss up the stairs, he sometimes gets away from me.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed. Much needed change for PVP, but I’ve yet to see how much it could possibly help. Except for Thunderstorming opponents off cliffs Ele Shammies are kind of gimped.

Tier 9 Set Bonuses

Elemental 2P Bonus: Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9 sec.

Simply spamming Lightning Bolt only does 3-400 less DPS on target dummies, and this is because of the GCD waiting on Flame Shock. By lasting 9 more seconds, it will boost DPS by a decent amount more over LB spamming. However, losing the 4P bonus from Tier 8.5 is going to hurt. It may be better to simply wait till you have 4P T9.

Elemental 4P Bonus: Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%.

With the combination of FS lasting longer, this will really boost dps.

Rotation is still a priority system: FS>LBur>LBolts

No other Elemental changes so far! For the full patch notes Wowhead as always has a well formatted layout. Here’s the link!