WoW Shaman Itemization refuses a clever title

Totem Talk is the column for shamans. By the way, here you can buy wow gold. This installment finds Matthew Rossi contemplating the incoming influx of gear and how current itemization affects shamans. Also, be sorry but you get Alliance shamans this week. You can't wait until you can race change to a dwarf.

The thing is this: You hate doing gear lists.

You could point out to others from time to time that with Patch 3.3 so close, you are effectively at the end of Wrath of the Lich King and therefore all sorts of new loot will be entering the game. Loot from the new five mans at Ulduar 10/25 quality! Loot from the new raid exceeding all previous Levels(WoW powerleveling)! You'll be awash in the best gear you will ever see until Cataclysm drops and you start it all over again. And of course they're right. It helps you to accept this if you imagine that cosmic entity spinning a giant head around with different faces on it like Reliquary of Souls.

The next couple of weeks, however, you are to look not at gear but at itemization itself and how it interacts with shamans. You are inspired by the change to Elemental Mastery, the talent in the elemental combat tree that currently grants 15% crit when activated as well as making your next spell instant cast. On the surface, this doesn't look like a bad talent all told, so why would you even want to change it? Because of the way shaman talents and spells interact, an extra 15% chance to crit is somewhat useless to an elemental shaman. Specifically, you are talking about Flame Shock and Lava Burst.

Because of these two spells and their interaction, elemental shamans can basically crit every eight seconds or so. They can guarantee an Elemental Focus clearcasting state to reduce mana cost by 40%. Stacking crit doesn't really do anything for them: they're going to crit anyway. Most of the elemental tree has synergy with spell haste in comparison, with abilities like Lightning Mastery and Storm, Earth and Fire already reducing cast time on various spells.