Elemental Shaman - Experiments with consistency and flexibility
So with my recent break from Mythic raiding I've been able to have a bit of fun trying out some more unconventional builds while farming HC ToS. What I've found most irritating about Ele the whole expansion is the amount of RNG that comes with the spec, so I set out to try and find a build that's focused on being as consistent as possible while still being competitive.
Benefits of this build -
Extremely consistent damage output.
Highly mobile, plenty of instant casts to keep dps coming through tricky fight mechanics.
Zero reliance on getting lucky with procs (no Smouldering Heart or WitD)
on fights with interupts it becomes even stronger
it's a build that works extremely well regardless of whether a fight is ST or AoE.
Requires -
Tome of Unraveling Sanity (KJ drop)
Soul of the Farseer (legendary ring)
Crit, Haste then vers==mastery stat weights
Benefits from having Sephuz because of the perfect stats and mini-lust on fights with interupts, but not a necessity.
With my current gear Casino sims at 1.41 mdps, this build sims at 1.40 mdps so the ST difference is next to nothing. For AoE, this build SIMs about 3.5 mdps so about 800k higher than the Casino build and only 200k behind a full AoE LR build. This makes it really nice on fights where there's AoE or cleave but only for short periods during the fight (think KJ, DI, Harjatan, DH) as it lets you maintain excellent ST while still being able to take advantage of the AoE phases.
The burst rotation comes every minute with a minor burst every 30seconds from IF. To get the most out of this, you need to take as much advantage of the ToUS's on use as you can. The cooldown on this trinket is 1 minute so it lines up exactly with every Stormkeeper and LMT, and every 2nd IF. To use it follow this rotation -
1 - use ToUS
2 - with 5 seconds left of the DoT, drop LMT
3 - Cast IF
4 - Cast SK
5 - As you finish casting SK the DoT should drop off and you'll gain the Crit buff. While the buff is active dump all your IF charges and SK charges being sure to cast EB on cooldown still and weave any LS procs you get to further buff the damage from IF and SK, but not at the expense of losing casting these inside the crit buff window.
If you're maelstrom starved going into this window be sure to use your SK charges first to give you enough maelstrom for fully charged FrSs.
6 - Cast IF on cooldown. If you find you have to put off casting IF, then delay your next cast of ToUS by the same amount
to keep everything lined up.
As always, sim yourself, but if you're bored with the current builds and want to try something with really consistent and competitive output, give this a go.