Elemental Shaman playstyle and rotation guide

General Rotation:

With Aberrus Tier set:

The goal is to always buff Stormkeeper bolts with Surge of Power, Electrified Shocks and Lightning Rod while always buffing Elemental Blast with Master of the Elements and Electrified Shocks.

1. Storm Elemental
2. Flame Shock if it’s not on your target or is about to expire and you don’t have Surge of Power.
3. Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power and Stormkeeper
4. Stormkeeper if you have at least 116 maelstrom or at least 41 with an active Surge of Power. 102 or 27 maelstrom is enough with an Icefury charge left.
5. Frost Shock if Icefury is active while the target doesn’t have Electrified Shocks or it’s about to expire and you don’t have Surge of Power. 
6. Elemental Blast if you have Master of the Elements.
7. Icefury
8. Lightning Bolt with Surge of Power.
9. Lava Burst if maelstrom is 63 or higher.
10. Lightning Bolt

By following this priority and planning ahead of the 2-set Stormkeepers, you will be maximizing the damage of the Stormkeeper bolts and Elemental Blast.

A lot of times, you will get into a cycle where after an Elemental Blast, you cast 1-4 Lightning Bolts into a Frost Shock and then Lava Burst to put you at 75 maelstrom to repeat the process.

Without Aberrus Tier set:

The rotation for all the pure fire builds revolve around making the most use of Primordial Surge and wasting as few Lava Surges as possible without overcapping maelstrom.

1. Primordial Wave if the enemy doesn’t have Flame Shock.
2. Flame Shock if it’s about to expire and Primordial Wave won’t be ready before then. 
3. Lava Burst with Lava Surge from Primordial Surge and you can’t fit any other cast before the next tick of Primordial Surge.
4. Elemental Blast if your next cast is going to put you over max maelstrom and you have Master of the Elements.
5. Lava Burst with Lava Surge
6. Primordial Wave
7. Lava Burst
8. Elemental Blast with Master of the Elements
9. Icefury
10. Frost Shock with Icefury buff
11. Lightning Bolt

When playing the hybrid build you need to take Surge of Power into account, putting Lightning Bolt while affected by Surge of Power as the number 1 priority, and removing Icefury and Frost Shock from the list entirely. 

Openers:

Aberrus tier build:

1. Storm Elemental 3 seconds before pull
2. Lightning Bolt 
3. Lightning Bolt 
4. Icefury
5. Flame Shock
6. Frost Shock
7. Lava Burst
8. Elemental Blast
9. Lightning Bolt until 75+ maelstrom
10. Stormkeeper
11. Frost Shock
12. Lava Burst
13. Elemental Blast
14. Lightning Bolt
15. Frost Shock
16. Lava Burst
17. Elemental Blast
18. Lightning Bolt

This opener sequence has some variance to it because the 2-set triggers at different times between pulls within the first 5 seconds. If you were unable to fit a 2nd lightning bolt before the Icefury in the opener, you need to cast an additional Frost Shock before the Lava Burst at step 7. This also has to be done if neither Lightning Bolt overloaded to ensure that you reach 75 maelstrom after the Lava Burst.

This opener achieves buffing every Elemental Blast with Master of the Elements, every Stormkeeper with Surge of Power without overwriting the 4-set buff, and also doesn't waste too many Frost Shocks for better uptime of Electrified Shocks.

Both versions of the Fire Primordial Surge with Windspeaker’s and Mountains Will Fall builds have very simple openers:

1. Nature’s Swiftness at any point before pull.
2. Icefury 1.5 seconds before pull
3. Fire Elemental
4. Primordial Wave
5. Potion of Ultimate Power
6. Lava Burst
7. Frost Shock
8. Lava Burst
9. Lava Burst
10. Lava Burst
11. Elemental Blast
12. Lava Burst

The Hybrid build has a different opener since it doesn’t use Icefury.

1. Lightning Bolt so that it hits at 0 on the pull timer, very important for the maelstrom.
2. Fire Elemental
3. Primordial Wave
4. Lava Burst
5. Stormkeeper
6. Lava Burst
7. Lava Burst
8. Lava Burst
9. Elemental Blast
10. Lightning Bolt
11. Lava Burst
12. Lava Burst
13. Lava Burst
14. Elemental Blast
15. Lightning Bolt
16. Lava Burst

This means you get Surge of power for both Stormkeeper Lightning Bolts and don’t waste any Lava Surges from Primordial Surge. This opener might not work with too low levels of mastery or at too high levels of haste, at which point you just have to use one of the Lightning Bolts without Surge of Power.

Multi Target:

Aberrus Tier AoE build 4-5 targets:

1. Storm Elemental
2. Liquid Magma Totem
3. Stormkeeper
4. Earthquake if Echoes of the Great Sundering is active
5. Elemental Blast on a target without Lightning Rod
6. Chain Lightning

It’s ideal to pool maelstrom before Stormkeeper in order to get at least two Lightning Rods up for 40% more damage. 

If you’re hitting a single target ignore Echoes of the Great Sundering and just keep casting Elemental Blast.

With 2-targets it's normal single target rotation but utilizing Echoes of the Great Sundering and trying to have two Lightning Rods up as much as possible. Lightning Bolt is only cast with Surge of Power, otherwise Chain Lightning is the filler. 

With 3 targets the AoE rotation is the same but you cast Icefury and maintain Electrified Shocks.

At 6+ targets utilize Surge of Power with Chain Lightning and avoid casting Elemental Blast and Earthquake back to back.

Fire build:

For 2 targets:

Single target rotation, maintain Flame Shock on both, replace Lightning Bolt with Chain Lightning when Stormkeeper isn’t active.

For 3-5 targets:

1. Fire Elemental
2. Primordial Wave
3. Liquid Magma Totem
4. Stormkeeper
5. Flame Shock on any remaining target without it
6. Earthquake or Elemental Blast - Try to buff with Master of the Elements - Earthquake at 4+ targets.
7. Lava Burst with Lava Surge
8. Chain Lightning with Power of the Maelstrom and Master of the Elements.
9. Lava Burst
10. Chain Lightning

For 6+ targets:

1. Fire Elemental
2. Primordial Wave
3. Liquid Magma Totem
4. Stormkeeper
5. Flame Shock on any remaining targets without it.
6. Earthquake - if your next cast is going to put you over max maelstrom. Elemental Blast can still be used if there’s a big priority target.
7. Chain Lightning with Surge of Power.
8. Lava Burst with Lava Surge
9. Chain Lightning with Power of the Maelstrom and Master of the Elements.
10. Lava Burst
11. Chain Lightning

Surge of power should be spent on spreading Flame Shock when possible, Chain Lightning at 6+ targets and Lightning Bolt on 1-2 targets. It’s very important to pair both Stormkeeper Chain Lightnings at 6+ targets with Surge of power since it makes each cast hit 42 times instead of 30.

Lava Burst still retains a fairly high priority on AoE since triggering Deeply Rooted Elements is a ton of damage and gives you access to Lava Beam for a bit. 

Opener:

1. Fire Elemental
2. Primordial Wave
3. Stormkeeper
4. Liquid Magma Totem
5. Flame Shock - only if there’s a 5th target without it.
6. Lava Burst
7. Earthquake
8. Chain Lightning
9. Earthquake
10. Earthquake
11. Chain Lightning

If you saved maelstrom from the previous pull you want to cast an Earthquake at some point before the Flame Shock in order to get an extra one from Surge of Power, putting you at 6 for the maximum haste buff from Splintered Elements. 

Remember you have Totemic Recall to use in order to have Liquid Magma Totem ready for two packs in a row or potentially to place two in the same pack.

Playstyle

Elemental in Dragonflight has a more robust toolkit than it has had in many years.

It has more mobility than it has ever had before with Gust of Wind, Spiritwalker’s Grace with Graceful Spirit and Thunderous Paws.

Survivability wise it has lost a very powerful ability in Harden Skin which the Primal Earth Elemental no longer provides, it now instead retains part of the Shadowlands conduit that increases your max health while it’s active, reduced to 15%.

No longer is choosing Wind Rush Totem a loss of Nature’s Guardian. Brimming with Life is a fantastic new talent, Elemental Warding with Ancestral Defense provides some additional passive damage reduction.

Elemental retains its position as a robust caster that will survive a lot of damage but still doesn’t compare to the tankiness of Warlock. It still has very weak self-sustain and relies heavily on healers to stay alive.