Method Elemental Shaman Guide - BFA 8.1.5 - Stats Races And Consumables

Stat Priorities

Stat priorities

Our secondary stats are outlined below. Please bear in mind that stats can differ per player based on YOUR stats, make sure to sim yourself.

Single Target:

Crit > Vers > Haste > Mastery

Cleave:

Haste > Vers/Crit > Mastery

Critical Strike

Elemental has a 250% crit multiplier, the other specs have 200%.
Crit overall brings big value, maybe too big and has some interesting interactions.
Crit does not scale with Lava Burst. Only during ascendance will crit add damage to Lava Burst. Since crit is our main stat it makes Lava Burst weaker in relative the more and more we get.

The 250% crit modifier also does not affect all the damage we deal:

Our elemental crits are 200% crit.
Trinket procs are 200% crit.
Azerite traits like Heed my Call are 200% crit.

Mastery

Mastery: Elemental Overload has very big scaling issues.
Just like crit it does not affect everything, currently mastery is a very poor stat.
Fire/Storm Elementals do NOT gain dps from mastery.
Spenders are not affected by mastery, this includes Frost shock and Flame Shock.
Many talents do not gain from mastery or will devalue mastery.
Mastery overloads no longer have a general rule of how much MS they generate.
While the damage is 85% of the cast it can also crit independently.
Overloads no longer have a fixed percentage for generation.

Mastery devalues mastery. With this, I mean that mastery also adds regeneration, because of this you will be casting more spenders and these do not get empowered by mastery.

The number represents the amount of maelstrom generated:

Haste

Haste lowers both our Cast time and GCD.
Haste values differ a lot based on the talents we choose; talents like Storm elemental increase the value of haste, whereas, talents like Icefury lower the value of haste.
Because elemental currently has a lot of instant casts with the current build, sometimes primal elementalist is not played.
Haste loses a large amount of its value compared to last patch, which is why currently versatility is pulling ahead.
Basically think of it like this, if you don't actually cast, Haste only gives you 50% of the full effect. This is a "poor" way of saying it, but hopefully makes you understand why haste is less valuable right now.
Also, although haste lowers the tick for Flame shock, aka gaining some value in cleave fights, it also lowers the value again for the exact same reason, as it's even more instant cast globals.

Versatility

Vers has no real interactions.
Right now it's good because its the only stat that actively increases all damage we do.
Our elementals, Lava Burst and spenders work with versatility.
Vers got slightly better since Igneous Potential cause it empowers Lava Burst.
But overall it's more about haste losing value rather than vers massively gaining it.

The best way to calculate stat priorities for your character is to "sim" your character

Find out how to sim

Races

Horde: Tauren > Highmountain > Zandalari (kimbul) > Panda > Goblin > Trolls > Orc > Mag'har orc

Alliance: Dwarf > Kul Tiran > Panda > Draenei > Dark iron Dwarf

Enchants

Weapon: Deadly Navigation / Quick Navigation / Versatile Navigation based on your sims.

Torrent of elements is a PURE single target option only. At the moment no fight in Dazar'alor is pure single so I do not recommend to use this at all.

Ring: Pact of Critical Strike / Pact of Haste / Pact of Versatility based on your sims.