Greetings,

there are quite a few “hidden” techniques we can employ while playing Elemental Shaman. One could also call them irregularities. Or bugs. Pick your fancy.

Some contribute damage. Some cost us. So here is an unordered list of things you can be aware off.

📉 Buff consumption order of Lava Burst

  1. Ancestral Swiftness
  2. Lava Surge

This means if you activate Primordial Wave with Ancestral Swiftness at zero Lava Burst charges and then cast Lava Burst, you will cast an instant Lava Burst because of Ancestral Swiftness but the Lava Surge will stick around and could potentially get overwritten by a natural Lava Surge proc.

How to play around this?

Have 1 stack of Lava Burst before casting Ancestral Swiftness and Primordial Wave. Because this could mean a delay of the CDs, it’s not necessarily a gain to do so.

📈 Buff consumption order of Lightning Bolt

  1. Stormkeeper
  2. Arc Discharge

This means if you cast Tempest into Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning you’ll cast the later empowered by both buffs, BUT consume only Stormkeeper. Therefore your follow-up can be the same spell again, this time empowered only by Arc Discharge.

How to play around this?

Try to combine Stormkeeper with upcoming Tempest casts without idling the CD too much. It might be easier to sit on Tempest for a short while instead. Otherwise, just know you’ve “won the game” if both effects line up accidentally.

📈 Rolling Thunder and the 4th charge of Stormkeeper

When Stormkeeper gets refreshed there exists a small delay in buff application that allows to queue a spell inside that window and gain a benefit from Stormkeeper while stacks of the buff are still forming.

How to play around this?

Start casting Stormkeeper while having Stormkeeper buff from Rolling Thunder proc on you. Queue Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning into it. That spell will fire off immediately and you will still have all 3 of your Stormkeeper charges left.

📈 Double usage of Storm Frenzy

If you have Storm Frenzy once and cast two Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning back to back both will have the reduced cast time.

How to play around this?

Cast two Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning back to back. Sweet! Note that if you have 2 stacks of Storm Frenzy then you can only get an extra “fast cast” from last stack remaining.

📉 Disappearing Storm Frenzy

While casting a spender usually grants Storm Frenzy for a follow-up cast, if said spender is an instant and the player casts a non-instant Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning beforehand, then Storm Frenzy disappears without buffing anything.

How to play around this?

Don’t hardcast Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning before spending Maelstrom with Earth Shock or Earthquake or instant cast Elemental Blast (Nature’s Swiftness or Ancestral Swiftness). Instead cast something like Lava Burst beforehand.

📈 Maximizing buff synergies

We finally have some burst again after years of a damage curve like this:

Nice! But we also have multiple buffs to juggle. Namely:

Each has a different duration and impact. Casting them in a wrong order will waste parts of their uptime and therefore cost damage.

How to play around this?

Cast them in the following order:

  1. Storm Elemental
  2. Stormkeeper
  3. Primordial Wave
  4. Ascendance
  5. Lava Burst, ‘ere we go.

📈 Ancestor summon delay

Summoned ancestors have a delay before they start casting. Also to note: Ancestors cast on player cast hit. Both effects in combination mean casting Primordial Wave in close proximity to the target will hit it before the delay is up resulting in no Ancestor casts.

How to play around this?

Stand further away. Roughly at max range. If you do so each active Ancestor will cast two of their Lava Bursts when Primordial Wave hits. Why two? Because Primordial Wave hits and a Flame Shock also hits.

📈 Random Liquid Magma Totem targets

Liquid Magma Totem applies up to 3 Flame Shocks. Which targets will get the dot is random. So when casting Liquid Magma Totem into Primordial Wave on a fresh spawn you need to quickly identify a non-Flame Shock target to cast the later. Otherwise the Flame Shock is “wasted” (overwritten instead of also active on another target) and you lose out on another potential 4% haste from Splintered Elements.

How to play around this?

Let the game figure it out. As long as 3 or more non-Flame Shock are around Liquid Magma Totem will apply its Flame Shocks to new targets. Therefore cast Primordial Wave first, followed by Liquid Magma Totem. Continue with a Lava Burst and you can enjoy 22% haste straight away.

Bonus points: If you play Farseer, casting Primordial Wave first will also allow the summoned Ancestor to cast their Lava Burst at each Liquid Magma Totem applied Flame Shock target. It’s free damage.

And that’s it for now. How to play around this? You do or you don’t. Just suffer with this knowledge.

Yours sincerely,
Bloodmallet
MadBubble