Playstyle & Rotation
General Priority:
- Storm Elemental
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Primordial Wave
- Flame Shock - If it will expire before next Primordial Wave is ready
- Stormkeeper - At 74+ Maelstrom
- Earth Shock with Master of the Elements
- Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power
- Lava Burst - If you can Earth Shock after
- Lightning Bolt
The way this works out is that in general you cast Lava Burst to put yourself above 55 maelstrom, then Earth Shock followed by Lightning Bolt.
Stormkeeper wants to be cast at 74+ Maelstrom to guarantee Surge of Power for both casts, try to have this as it comes off cooldown rather than start saving after it’s ready.
For AoE it’s very similar however we forgo using Lava Burst entirely outside of triggering Splintered Elements. Chain Lightning replaces Lightning Bolt and Earthquake is used regardless of Master of the Elements.
When playing Stormbringer, make sure to use Tempest whenever available in AoE and ideally with Master of the Elements in single target.
Arc Discharge from Stormbringer also interacts with Stormkeeper making it do 40% more damage.If both Arc Discharge and Surge of Power buffs Stormkeeper at once it does double the damage it would normally do, assuming six targets exist..
Opener:
- Stormkeeper 3 seconds before bull
- Storm Elemental
- Primordial Wave
- Lava Burst
- Lava Burst
- Lightning Bolt
- Lava Burst
- Earth Shock
- Lightning Bolt
It’s not worthwhile to delay Stormkeeper in order to buff both casts with Surge of Power, this achieves one cast with Surge of Power and the other with Master of the Elements. For casts after this you should pool maelstrom so that you have enough to buff both casts with Surge of Power.
Multi Target Opener:
- Storm Elemental
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Primordial Wave
- Liquid Magma Totem
- Lava Burst
This can be done for basically every pack in a dungeon. Don’t use Primordial Wave or Liquid Magma Totem on packs that are almost dead, it’s paramount to have them at the start of each pack.
General Priority:
- Fire Elemental
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Primordial Wave
- Flame Shock - If it will expire before the next Primordial Wave is ready
- Ascendance
- Elemental Blast with Master of the Elements
- Lava Burst with Lava Surge
- Icefury with Master of the Elements, without Fusion of Elements
- Lava Burst at max charges or during Ascendance
- Frost Shock with Master of the Elements and Icefury buff
- Lava Burst
- Lightning Bolt
Opener:
The opener is extremely simple thanks to Ascendance
- Fire elemental before pull
- Primordial Wave
- Lava Burst
- Ascendance
- Lava Burst repeatedly
- Elemental Blast when enough maelstrom
Icefury procs should be used for Fusion of Elements effect but ignore Frost Shock while Ascendance is active.
Multi Target:
- Fire Elemental
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Liquid Magma Totem
- Primordial Wave
- Flame Shock - If not already at max of six
- Ascendance
- Earthquake with Echoes of Great Sundering and Master of the Elements
- Elemental Blast with Master of the Elements
- Lava Burst
- Icefury
- Chain Lightning
Multi Target Opener:
- Fire Elemental
- Liquid Magma Totem
- Primordial Wave
- Flame Shock - If any targets remain without it
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Ascendance
- Lava Burst
This can be done for basically every pack in a dungeon, apart from the Ascendance step.
Playstyle
General Playstyle
The goal when playing Elemental is the same as every other class, making the most of every cast. For Elemental this means taking full advantage of different buffs and procs like Master of the Elements, Sure of Power and Lightning Rod.
Master of the Elements should always be considered for your maelstrom spenders in single target as they are the most damage efficient abilities you have. In a build that heavily focuses on fire it’s also worthwhile to attempt to have this buff for every Icefury and as many buffed Frost Shocks as possible.
It’s not worth trying to weave Lightning Bolts and Lava bursts in any of the currently viable builds.
Surge of Power’s most interesting effects are the additional target for Chain Lightning, additional overloads for Lightning Bolt and additional Flame Shock. These all have very different use cases for single target; spend the buff on Lightning Bolt.
How you use the buff in AoE depends on target count as well as how long they are expected to live. In 6+ targets, spend it on Chain Lightning, less than that and it can be worth getting double Flame Shocks instead if the enemies are going to live long enough for the debuff to run its duration.
This also interacts with Stormkeeper making it produce 36 overload hits rather than 25.
Lightning Rod is a great funnelling tool when paired with Chain Lightning and Tempest, making 20% of their total damage also hit any target with Lightning Rod.
It’s possible to have multiple of these active in AoE and Earthquake is smart enough to apply to a target within its area that doesn’t already have it, but will prioritize current target if it doesn’t have the debuff.
Defensives
Elemental has access to three defensives. Astral Shift, Stone Bulwark Totem and Earth Elemental.
Astral Shift is in general the strongest of these three with a solid 12 second duration and short cooldown of 90 seconds, when improved with Planes Traveller. This should be what you use for heavy bursts of damage.
Stone Bulwark Totem provides a respectable absorb for upwards of 40% of your health when cast and then another smaller shield that refreshes to roughly 5% of your health every five seconds. This works best when the damage intake is over a longer period of time where you get the benefit of all the smaller shields More importantly this serves as something to cover potentially dangerous situations while Astral Shift is already on cooldown.
Earth Elemental provides 15% maximum health and 5% damage reduction through Primordial Bond for a full minute, assuming it doesn’t die. This might not help a lot for a short period of heavy damage intake, but it’s nice when it can cover multiple bad overlaps thanks to its long duration.