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Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 05:57 AM
Shaman gear by slot (PvE)

In general, it's important to keep in mind that unless you're raiding, you don't really need much +hit and the +hit you do need, you'll get whether you like it or not (tier8 pieces for instance). Heroic bosses are considered lvl 82, which means that with +hit talents and draenei bonus, you need a grand total of 53 hit to cap +hit. You'll get 120 hit from chest and helm alone, so you may actually consider not spending points on some of the +hit talents in the elemental tree, although keep in mind that these are also the threat reducing talents (Elemental Precision), so only do that if your tank has a healthy threat lead at all times.

Most important stat is spellpower, after that haste rating, after that crit rating and finally mana per 5 / int. You don't need to gear for int or mp5 though, once you're decently geared, neither int nor mana regen will be an issue.

I have not included triumph gear, but I will once 3.3 hits. The badges you get for the daily heroic can be spent either on a Totem of Electrifying Wind (I would just go with totem of hex though) and save up for tiered shoulders / gloves for the very nice 2-set bonus (9 sec increased duration on flame shock - which means no recasting of flame shock for most encounters).

Back: Kurisu's Indecision / Deathchill Cloak

Chest: Conqueror's Worldbreaker Hauberk

Head: Conqueror's Worldbreaker Helm

Feet: Lightning Grounded Boots (expensive) / Boots of the Crackling Flame / Barkhide Treads

Ring: Sinner's Confession / Titanium Spellshock Ring

Hands: Gloves of Augury / Gloves of Dismal Fortune

Legs: Leggings of the Weary Mystic / Leggings of the Snowy Bramble

Main hand: Mariel's Sorrow / Spectral Kris

Neck: Symbol of Redemption / Frozen Tear of Elune

Boots of the Crackling FlameBarkhide TreadsShield: Protective Barricade of the Light

Shoulder: Mantle of the Eternal Sentinel / Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale / Valorous Earthshatter Shoulderpads

Trinket: Abyssal Rune / Darkmoon Card: Illusion / Sundial of the Exiled

Waist: Windchill Binding / Girdle of the Dauntless Conqueror

Totem: Totem of Hex

Shield: Protective Barricade of the Light

Shaman glyphs (PvE)

EJ suggests that ToW glyph is better than Lava until a certain amount of spellpower is achieved. Keep in mind though, that only the shaman who casts the ToW totem gets the buff, which means you either have to have all shaman use ToW, or they all have to cast two fire totems (one for the buff, a second for the "real" totem). Glyph of Lava is more bursty, which is nice for PvP.

I'd suggest going with Glyph of Lava and once you get the tier8 2-set bonus (for helm + chest), you can omit the glyph of flame shock and replace with Glyph of Totem of Wrath.

The minor glyphs are mostly a matter of preference and convenience. Since mana isn't really an issue for me, I don't bother with Glyph of Water Shield, but if you find yourself a bit pressed on the mana bar, replace it with one of the component savers (= bag space savers).


Major

1. Glyph of Flame Shock
2. Glyph of Lava / Glyph of Totem of Wrath
3. Glyph of Lightning Bolt

Minor

1. Glyph of Renewed Life
2. Glyph of Water Breathing
3. Glyph of Water Walking

or

4. Glyph of Water Shield

Shaman PvE talents

Not a lot to say about talents - it's pretty cookie cutter:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfzAo0xxco

Alternately you can go something like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qzdItGfzAZ0xxco

And spend the remained on totem improvements, spread out on each shaman (ie. one gets enhancing totems, another guardian totems), but IMO it's not really worth it since the impact of your totems on the tank is fairly minor in heroics.

Shaman gems

Meta: For your meta gem you want Chaotic Skyflare Diamond for the incesased critical damage.

Red slots: Runed Cardinal Ruby (+23 SP)

Yellow slots: Reckless Ametrine (+12 SP, +10 haste rating)

Blue slots: Glowing Dreadstone (+12 SP, +15 sta)

You need two blue gems for your meta gem requirement, but if you're pressed on socket bonuses you can use a Nightmare Tear although the T8 pieces should give you the blue slots you need and besides, most socket bonuses suck.

Enchants

Fairly straight forward. You pretty much want to prioritize spell power and haste. I haven't included tradeskill-specific stuff like JC gems, LW fur lining, BS sockets etc.

Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47898)

Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60692)

Feet: Enchant Boots - Icewalker (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60623) / Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47901)

Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44592)

Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60714)

Shield: Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60653)

Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60767)

Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm / Lesser Inscription of the Storm

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries

Legs: Sapphire Spellthread

Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle (not really an enchant, but hey...)

Professions

Your main priorities is having an enchanter on your team for enchants and disenchanting. You want to get that ASAP. Other than that, the following professions yield bonuses significant to the shaman team:

- Leather working: Fur Lining - Spell Power (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57691) (+46 spell power compared to bracer enchant)
- Inscription: Master's Inscription of the Storm (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=61120) (+46 spell power compared to Greater Inscription of the Storm )
- Jewelcrafting: Runed Dragon's Eye x 3 (+48 spell power compared to Runed Cardinal Ruby x 3)
- Blacksmithing: 2 extra sockets (+46 spell power with Runed Cardinal Ruby x 2)
- Enchanting: 2 x Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=44636) (+46 spell power)
- Alchemy: Mixology (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53042#comments) (+46 spell power when using flask of the frost wyrm, +47 with flask of the north)

Herbalism, Skinning and Tailoring all yield less usefull benefits than the above.

Engineering deserves special mention. If you have the cash to level this, it's great. It has a lot of nifty bonuses, not to mention rockets that provide burst, wormholes, mail boxes, repair bots etc. I'd recommend having at least one engineer on your team, if you can afford it, get 5 :-)

As for the first mentioned professions, they all pretty much provide the same bonus, so the secondary bonuses should decide what you choose:

- Leather working: Crafting (can create mail items for shammies), although these are easily obtained elsewhere.
- Inscription: Cheap to level plus no faction grind for Sons of Hodir shoulders.
- Jewelcrafting: Can make gems for the rest of the team and dragon's eyes for selling with daily quest (+100g per char per day)
- Blacksmithing: Slots are colorless so you can get you mandatory blue gems in without losing socket bonus
- Enchanting: Enables disenchanting and enchanting of group members item, but seconday benefits doesn't stack
- Alchemy: Transmutation for extra gold, cheap to level
- Mining: Profession bonus is extra health, corresponding to the bonus of other professions. This isn't useful for the shaman, but it's nice for the tank, so it's a definite option. Also, there's a melt option for some extra gold on a daily basis.

I'd recommend going with inscription for the lazy factor (cheap, no faction grind) and engineering if you can afford it, otherwise I'd spread leather working, jewelcrafting, enchanting and alchemy across my chars. Jewelcrafting is a nice secondary option also, because of the daily quest, but remember to have an enchanter on the team always.

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 06:00 AM
Emblem of Triumph gear

Even though we're bound to waste some itemization points on +hit, the 2- and 4-set bonus are very nice (even after the 4-set nerf) for PvE. Kilt + gloves yield 140 +hit, and you need 105 (with draenei) or 131 (without) for heroics. Still, the wasted points are worth it in my opinion for the set bonus, especially since the current dropped mail items on the PTR seems to be aimed towards resto (lots of +mp5). Still, if one prefers to farm the drops (and risk the clown-suit-look) that's a definite option.

Chest: Nobundo's Tunic of Conquest - resto version, but better stat distribution than the elemental equivalent (which has +hit)

Hands: Nobundo's Gloves of Conquest

Head: Nobundo's Helm of Conquest

Legs: Nobundo's Kilt of Conquest

Shoulder: Nobundo's Shoulderpads of Conquest

Finger: Band of the Invoker and Heartmender Circle - neither are ideal statwise, but still way better than Titanium Spellshock Ring and Sinner's Confession

Trinket: Talisman of Resurgence gets honorable mention since it's very nice, even though int are of questionable use for elemental shaman (compared to +spell, +haste, +crit), but the /use effect is _very_ nice, so it'll replace my sundial unless something better drops in the instance.Talisman of Resurgence

Drops from 5-man instances in Icecrown

Shield / off-hand: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/49821/protector-of-frigid-souls/ / http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50309/shriveled-heart/

Waist: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50314/strip-of-remorse/

Finger: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50313/oath-of-empress-zoe/

Neck: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50211/arcane-loops-of-anger/

Quest rewards

Mace: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50051/hammer-of-purified-flame/

Ualaa
11-03-2009, 06:07 AM
Very nice write up, thank you.

I like the usual/typical leader to have Tailoring.
Just for the extra cloth found, when this toon loots.

I like to have each gathering profession on the team.

And I agree, every team should have an enchanter.
This should be mandatory for any that will instance.
So you can DE the drops that aren't an up to anyone.

Alchemy transmutes, Inscription glyphs or Jewelcrafting for the daily are nice.
But personally I'd spread the professions around, rather then everyone go with Jewelcrafting.
As a profession nerf will then really hurt your team.
The exception would be Engineering across the board for PvP teams.

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 06:15 AM
Very nice write up, thank you.

I like the usual/typical leader to have Tailoring.
Just for the extra cloth found, when this toon loots.

I like to have each gathering profession on the team.

And I agree, every team should have an enchanter.
This should be mandatory for any that will instance.
So you can DE the drops that aren't an up to anyone.

Alchemy transmutes, Inscription glyphs or Jewelcrafting for the daily are nice.
But personally I'd spread the professions around, rather then everyone go with Jewelcrafting.
As a profession nerf will then really hurt your team.
The exception would be Engineering across the board for PvP teams.

The gathering professions + tailoring is really nice to have when levelling up, but once you're settled at level 80, money is no longer an issue. Just doing the dailies will yield 1500g per day and since the gathering professions don't have useful side bonuses for shaman, I like to skip them and take the stat bonuses instead, but I guess that's a matter of preference :-)

The exception is mining, with the +sta bonus, which is nice for the tank, so that is a definite option - I guess I should have included that (will edit),.

Khatovar
11-03-2009, 06:17 AM
Links show up as the quality of the item. Glyphs are common quality items, so the Wowhead links are white.

Acolyte's Pants <~ Poor
Aboriginal Bands <~ Common
Adept's Gloves <~Uncommon
Acidic Walkers <~ Rare
Alanna's Embrace <~Epic
Andonisus, Reaper of Souls <~ Legendary
Alex's Ring of Audacity <~ Artifact
Aged Pauldrons of The Five Thunders <~ Heirloom

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 06:21 AM
Links show up as the quality of the item. Glyphs are common quality items, so the Wowhead links are white.

Acolyte's Pants <~ Poor
Aboriginal Bands <~ Common
Adept's Gloves <~Uncommon
Acidic Walkers <~ Rare
Alanna's Embrace <~Epic
Andonisus, Reaper of Souls <~ Legendary
Alex's Ring of Audacity <~ Artifact
Aged Pauldrons of The Five Thunders <~ Heirloom

I guessed as much, my wondering was more in regard to why that is the case when the forum bg-color is also almost white :-)

Khatovar
11-03-2009, 06:34 AM
I think you gotta blame the people who do the wowhead whatchamacallits for using the white. You can get around it by making it a regular link. It'll still have the hover popup, but it will have a regular link color :

This is a Glyph for Mages called Arcane Barrage (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45738)

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 06:44 AM
I think you gotta blame the people who do the wowhead whatchamacallits for using the white. You can get around it by making it a regular link. It'll still have the hover popup, but it will have a regular link color :

Glyph of Arcane Barrage

I was too lazy to do that, so I just wrapped QUOTE tags around them, making them a bit more readable :P

ZooljinX
11-03-2009, 10:20 AM
Very nice writeup, thanks a bunch!

offive
11-03-2009, 12:47 PM
Thanks for the guide.

I would recommend the following gear tools:

For general rankings of gear: http://www.maxdps.com/shaman/elemental.php
and
Get the addon called Pawn and set up a profile on your tank for elemental shamans (and on one of the shamans) so you can quickly get a gear rating for comparison. Sample pawn settings for Ele (one if your hit capped and one if you’re not):

( Pawn: v1: "Elemental": Intellect=0.249, RedSocket=32.384, CritRating=0.745, ColorlessSocket=32.384, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1.415, BlueSocket=16.896, YellowSocket=31.046, SpellPower=1.408 )

( Pawn: v1: "ElementalHit": Intellect=0.249, RedSocket=32.384, CritRating=0.745, ColorlessSocket=32.384, MetaSocket=75, HasteRating=1.415, BlueSocket=16.896, YellowSocket=31.046, SpellPower=1.408, HitRating=2.445 )

http://pawnmod.trenchrats.com/viewtopic.php?t=216

Pawn is a great addon for leveling toons to make very fast gear choices. "Do I want that new gear or should I go for max sell value?"

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 12:56 PM
I don't like maxdps, because they take a loong time to update after new talents, items etc. For instance, they haven't updated arcane mages for WotLK yet :-)

As for pawn, I don't really know it - I'm sure it's a good add-on, but my guide is aimed at level 80 and pseudo-BiS for boxers :-)

Bollwerk
11-03-2009, 01:04 PM
Totem of Electrifying Wind >>>>>>> Totem of Hex

I strongly advise getting the Totem of EW before any T9 pieces.

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 01:28 PM
Totem of Electrifying Wind >>>>>>> Totem of Hex

I strongly advise getting the Totem of EW before any T9 pieces.

Obviously it's better - no one is debating that.

Nobundo's Shoulderpads of Conquest >>>>>>>>>> Mantle of the Eternal Sentinel - also, T9 2-piece bonus is very very good for boxers. It may be a matter of preference, but it's not a matter set in stone :-)

Whowantstoknow
11-03-2009, 03:08 PM
Not a bad guide but It probably not a good idea to do a pseudo bis as it depends.

For example bis right now is probably 4pc t9 and merlin chest but if you do not have time to get 4pc t9 before 3.3 then giving up 2pc t8 is probably a dps loss (depending on glyphs)

I haven't seen the new emblem gear yet but my current plans for 3.3 are 4pc t10 and crafted legs.

Which brings me to cloth crafted gear is usually better itemised. Currently I am wearing cloth chest, bracers, belt, boots. Grab the haste version if the cloth pieces and try to get crit or hit (or both) as secondary stats

Fuzzyboy
11-03-2009, 03:27 PM
Not a bad guide but It probably not a good idea to do a pseudo bis as it depends.

For example bis right now is probably 4pc t9 and merlin chest but if you do not have time to get 4pc t9 before 3.3 then giving up 2pc t8 is probably a dps loss (depending on glyphs)

I haven't seen the new emblem gear yet but my current plans for 3.3 are 4pc t10 and crafted legs.

Which brings me to cloth crafted gear is usually better itemised. Currently I am wearing cloth chest, bracers, belt, boots. Grab the haste version if the cloth pieces and try to get crit or hit (or both) as secondary stats

Yeah, agreed. Also, once your gear is at a certain level, it's pretty much overkill for anything but raids, since no 5-man instances require that level of gear anyway. Except for HToC, pretty much all 5-man instances can be completed with blue gear, although achievements is another matter of course :-)

yaki
11-04-2009, 02:24 AM
I know the aesthetics are off, but wouldn't Iron-bound Tome be an improvement over Protective Barricade of the Light?

Fuzzyboy
11-04-2009, 11:19 AM
I know the aesthetics are off, but wouldn't Iron-bound Tome be an improvement over Protective Barricade of the Light?

It's probably near a tie - since you can't enchant off-hand items, you missing out on like 60 int

yaki
11-04-2009, 05:49 PM
65 after the enchant and 5/5 AK. But this comes down to the "staff vs. 1H+OH" argument again - spell power vs. stats. For DPS, power is generally king if you have enough not to go OOM or drop dead in a mild breeze. For healing, the int and mp/5 would be more tempting.

15 spell power isn't tons, so you're not exactly going to be hurting with the shield in either case.

I've been making use of PVP gear (Furious offset, Wintergrasp or Deadly depending on which has more SP) as an easy way to get moderately high ilevel epics. This will generally be -hit +resil over other options...but you don't need that much hit anyway if you're not gearing up for raids, and it is still present on a number of pieces. Also, the extra survivability helps with boxing since it gives you some extra breathing room if your attention was elsewhere.

BobGnarly
11-04-2009, 05:57 PM
65 after the enchant and 5/5 AK. But this comes down to the "staff vs. 1H+OH" argument again - spell power vs. stats. For DPS, power is generally king if you have enough not to go OOM or drop dead in a mild breeze. For healing, the int and mp/5 would be more tempting.

15 spell power isn't tons, so you're not exactly going to be hurting with the shield in either case.

This is one of those cases where the intangibles add up, imo. Strictly speaking, you're right, it's an upgrade. But gaining int, mp5, and ton of armor is worth it to drop 15sp, hands down.

Nice writeup, fuzzy. A few things I would maybe disagree with, but they're all so minor that they aren't worth mentioning.

Whowantstoknow
11-04-2009, 06:36 PM
This is one of those cases where the intangibles add up, imo. Strictly speaking, you're right, it's an upgrade. But gaining int, mp5, and ton of armor is worth it to drop 15sp, hands down.

Nice writeup, fuzzy. A few things I would maybe disagree with, but they're all so minor that they aren't worth mentioning.

In terms of pure dps int is a very poor stat - unless you are using CL on cooldown and the fight lasts longer than ~3 mins you should have no mana problems as an Ele sham - this means even with losing the int enchant the shield is a poor way to go - mind you the tome is not great either.

At my gear level I have theorycrafted that the highest dps off hand from non pvp or raid sources is actually a blue

Temple Crystal Fragment

the relative value of haste does vary more than other stats though so what is best for me is not necessarily best for someone else

Ualaa
11-05-2009, 04:54 AM
I'm planning on using Titansteel Guardians (main hand) and Iron-Bound Tome (off hand) on my 5x druid team, once they hit 80th. Hopefully the armor on the tome helps the Moonkin form a bit.

Hurricane
11-05-2009, 09:10 AM
Very nice guide.

But you might consider glyph of stoneclaw. Extra absorb sheild so you can dps the few seconds extra without healing.. For me it helps _alot_ against black knight on heroic.

BobGnarly
11-05-2009, 05:20 PM
Yeah, I hear ya, that's why I called them "intangibles." I guess what I really meant is that, while they don't strictly help your DPS in a significant way, they add up in less frequent or tangible ways.

I don't like drinking, and thus, when we're down to something like 15sp, I like int and mp5.

As you say, this is all just personal preference though.

Raigirin
11-11-2009, 07:05 AM
Nice guide and thread,
my shammies are level 76 now, so I can smell the end game coming up.

Fuzzyboy
11-15-2009, 06:32 AM
Updated with emblem of triumph gear

Fuzzyboy
11-20-2009, 06:34 AM
Updated with 3.3 PTR drops