Need help with ele sham in arenas

[Isine-outland]

As title says I’m playing ele shamy and I’m turbo hardstuck in the 1400-1600 bracket. (2v2)

Tried some 3v3 but it feels like the same story.

I struggle the most against melee classes who have infinite mobility these days and all apply a healing reduction and a nasty slow. It’s like impossible to kite.

So I thought i might ask here for some help beacuse I really don’t know how to deal with melees at this point. Specially monks, warriors, rogues.

I’m literally clueless on how to get ww monk off me when they have answer for everything that I throw at them and they themself apply like a 50% slow all the time. Warriors are like the same story but atleast they have a window when they can’t just spam condemn and Rogues just hit & run & re-stealth.

Running away from these is impossible and neither I can chase after their healers who are running circles around pillars not letting me get a cast off on them.

I know how to do the elemental burst combo but in many cases most of the players just run and los the moment i use stormkeeper or they just pop a defensive and live thru it. I pretty much use lasso on cooldown and try to utilize my totems to my best ability but it really feels like a lost cause against the melees. I can do well against mages/locks/boomies but monks and other melees just wipe the floor with me.

I was really close getting that 1600 couple days back but then I got back to back arenas against 40K people and well can’t do much when they just snap me out of existence like thanos.

I usually play with disc priest or holy pally.

[Spuddo-ravencrest]

I was having a similar problem earlier in the season. DO NOT USE ELEMENTAL BLAST IN ARENA. If you get kicked on elemental blast, you are locked out from EVERYTHING, which is when you are 100% dead.
If you are playing against Melee classes, important to always keep your distance.

Spirit Wolf talent (instead of Earth Shield)

Ghost Wolf - ensure you can press it on a keybind easily.

Maintain Frost Shock on the person you’re trying to kite. (Helps by tagging them as they approach)

Bait a kick, MAKE SURE YOU HEX! You can also tag a frost shock after the hex (it won’t break the cc) and ghost wolf away.

Earthbind totem - place it near your enemy but away from you. That way, if they try to kill it, they have to move away from your general direction.

Really important against WW to use Astral Shift when they start their burst as you share a similar CD with defensive as their offensive abilities.

DO NOT OVERLAP DEFENSIVES - Earth Ele, Astral Shift, healer abilities.

Grounding totem - use when you have a feeling the RET pally will HoJ you (usually as they’re running towards you with wings blazing)

Thunderstorm - use when WW casts Fists of Fury / Arms approaches with Thunderbolt stun / when Ret gets a HoJ and begins his burst window.

Lightning Lasso - use this to get some distance or use on warrior mid-charge

Make sure your teammates help peel you. This is often what separates good players from bad. Arena is a team game!

Example:
GHOST WOLF > FROST SHOCK > GHOST WOLF > EARTHBIND TOTEM > GHOST WOLF > LIGHTNING LASSO (run run run)

Hope this helps!

[Spuddo-ravencrest]

Also, if your health pool and gear is lower than the average in your bracket, play with Gladiators Emblem (increases health when used) this can help when the defensives are on CD and can give you those extra few seconds to CC / Kite away

[Isine-outland]

Thanks for the tips. I guess i will need to watchout for stacking defensives which is usually what I did since the burst some comps have had me almost instantly dead. I suppose astral shift + trinket should be enough then.

[Ghetx-ravencrest]

Don’t play 2’s as ele.

That’s for pro players.

Play 3’s because its much better.

Pick proper healer,and another teammate to give you air to breathe.

Imagine playing with hpala/rogue or hpala/warrior or even hpala/hunter.

You would have so much freedom to do as you please.

Play with same people always,don’t change teammates often,build up that synergy and use mic.

Sadly,there aren’t many ele shaman arena videos,nor guides,like you have for mages,rogues,hpalas and resto shamans,and ele shaman is not that good atm,because of low mobility.There’s so much cc’s in the game atm,its real hell for beginner casters,especially ele shamans.

Those rank 1 eles you see,keep in mind,they are playing with other rank 1 players,for years.

Try gearing yourself in rated bg’s first,get proper ilvl,because most players you face in arena are 213-220 ilvl since 2 months ago.

Get 1400 in rbg’s,upgrade all gear to 207 ilvl,then push for 1600 rbg,because you don’t even lose any rating up to 1400,and you get like 80 ratings for wins at 1400-1550.

After that stop with rbg’s,let that be your ilvl upgrade rating,while playing arenas.

Its all about gear and having proper stats.

[Spuddo-ravencrest]

I understand where you are coming from, however I don’t necessarily agree with all the points made.

If you have teammates you can play with consistently, then go for 3s if you want to push rating.

However, do not solely rely on 3s to improve.

2v2 is also a very good way to improve numerous things;

• Reaction times
• 1 on 1 situations
• Practicing CC chains when being focused (as this will improve fake-casting ability)
• Knowledge of how other classes and specs play

2v2 is stressful this patch as the offensive abilities and burst windows are strong. Without quick reaction and knowledge of other classes, it is tough. Therefore I’d recommend playing 2v2 for the gameplay and lessons without a concern for rating, using it to improve.

Use 3v3 for serious arena if trying to climb rating.

Elemental is in one of the best positions it has ever been in the history of WoW (RIP MoP Ele).

Three really good YouTubers/Streamers that have helped me improve:

• Tiqqle
• TreesapJake
• Barokoshama

Even just watching streamers and YouTubers of other classes will help you improve as many of them say what they’re doing and why.
Some personal favourites:

• Xaryu (Mage)
• Pikabooirl (Rogue)
• Anboniwow (Spriest)
• Snupy (Druid)
• Savix (Paladin)

Keep at it. Enjoy it and you’ll see improvements in no time!

[Procharger-ragnaros]

If training you and you dont jave the skill to kite them with wolf form then you should try finding another hybrid dps with you. While you facetanking the other dps will delet them. For this you must be supergood at fake casting.

[Dsgtshg-die-aldor]

Funny I have the exact opposite problem. I play War/WW/Pala and we always lose vs Ele teams.

We do pretty well against other melee cleaves or RMP but almost always lose vs Ele/Mage or Ele/Boomkin

Any tips on how to kill the shaman? Is going for the mage still the right thing to do?

[Isine-outland]

Most of my casts are usually interrupted by cc rather than actuall interrupts. I can fake cast here and there but really I don’t think it’s problem here. My biggest issue is to shake off those super mobile melees off me. Facetanking can work but WW monk and warrior both have healing reduction so they eventually win because my healer has to heal more and runs out of mana sooner.

You say kite them with wolf but like those monks have dashes/charges 24/7 so no point even running away from them. Not to mention my casts are like 1.5 sec or longer so that gives them more than enough time to catch up and stop me from casting anyway.

[Spuddo-ravencrest]

Got to also consider that monks and warrior both have CDs on their mobility spells too.

Warrior has 2 charges + leap
Monk has 2 rolls, Flying kick and Tigers Grace
Ret has steed x2 and BoFreedom

Another tip with kiting is to use pillars to your advantage:

E.g. Warrior charges you > kite to pillar > stun him > move around pillar > warrior leaps > charges > slow/stun again

This warrior now has no more mobility for at least 10 seconds, which gives you time to respond with:

Spiritwalkers Grace > CC on the heals > Burst Rotation > Mixed with Frost Shocks as the warrior plods towards you helpless…

Same goes for monk.

With ret, dispell BoFreedom, stun on charge, grounding HoJ and throw their wheelchair back at them.

With Melee-Healer comps too, try and get the enemy healer out in the open away from a LoS point. Using space to your advantage to kite melee whilst keeping the healer in sight for a CC.

Don’t chase unless a kill is definite, as they will deliberately lure you into a choke point that’s in favour of the melee.

Control the space, control the game!

[Procharger-ragnaros]

No war using 2charge. Monk always on target thats true.
So in my opinion elesham in 2s should play with shpriest retpal or boomy.

[Spuddo-ravencrest]

As an elemental shaman, you can dispell curses; includes hex, and dispell magic abilities such as Mindcontrol with Purge.

Do not allow their burst window. It’s a long build up and can be avoided fairly easily.

If you see a shaman casting Stormkeeper, try and LoS until the Stormkeeper buff has faded.

If that’s not possible, KILL SKYFURY TOTEM and make sure your healer dispells Flame Shock off the kill target.

Lava Burst goes from 8k crits to 2k non-crit when the target has no flame shock active. If you dispell flameshock as they start their burst, it messes up their rotation and can’t pump out the huge damage.

Always prio convoke against balance. Hide from incarnation as starsurge’s will crit you 14k.

Big tip against Ele - kill all grounding, capacitator, Earth Bind and Skyfury totems.

[Isine-outland]

Ret is usually fine even when they play unbound freedom. Lasso allows me to kite them everytime they try to engage. And those who dont play unbound can’t reach me usually so that’s fine.

Most warriors in my bracket play Venthyr to spam Condemn. So running away from them feels kinda hopeless since it’s a 6sec cd + they have their normal charge + heroic leap. So either I have to tell my healer to not top me over 80% which seems silly or realistically I have a 6 second window to do something, which is not much considering I have to gain distance first so at the end prolly like 3 seconds to work with i guess. Gonna have to try and see formyself how this works out

Monks… idk man they are my nightmare. They’ve got root, slow, stun, incap and all their mobility. It’s just monkaS. I gues i will have to try harder against them but sometimes I feel like it might be better to just facetank them and try to kill them before they kill me

I also noticed people purge my Spiritwalkers Grace which is quite annoying too.

[Brodanyo-burning-legion (Brodanyo)]

I hope you don’t play these two trinkets you currently wear. In arenas you should play BM and Insignia. The only circumstances you don’t play BM is when you are sure you won’t be the target Ele/Affli/H Pala or maybe but less likely Ele/Fire/H pala. Vs meeles you keep Frost Shock on them and utilize GW that can’t be slower than walking speed. So technically you can even kite WW. The most important thing is to kite their CDs. Ele in 2s is kinda boring as it kills in high dampening or if the enemy makes mistake. In 3s if you play with Arms or WW you have to rely on partner a lot and proper setups. Easiest comp to leave this CR would be probably Ele/Boomy/H Paladin but it’s hard to find good Boomy these days that do something outside Convoke.

[Cyndariell-silvermoon]

I’m not too familiar with ele shaman but if you can’t kite them you should at least pull them to a place where you want them to be (often in the open so that their healer needs to expose himself to heal the meele who’s training you while your healer can heal you from a save position). I guess you should try to kill the dps but if the healer isn’t careful you might surprise them with burst as well since ele shaman burst is really scary.

If your healer gets tunneled he’s the one who should move into the open so that you can free cast on your opponents. Can’t really help you with warries, as disc (my mate plays affli lock) I hate playing against them too, it’s so hard to heal through their heal debuffs and constant atom dmg from condemn, so you’ll end up losing on mana if you can’t control the warri. Maybe try to cc the warri and swap on the healer, I don’t know. Monk and rogues are at least squishy and can be bursted quite fast but warri is really tough and you can’t rely on setups only because they’re really disruptive. Try to do some setups with the help of your healer outside of stormkeeper too.