Need help about elemental spec in arena

[Mightyceasar]

Greetings fellow shamans,
I am getting bored of being a healbot in arenas so im planning to respec to elemental when season 3 comes. I have never done any serious pvp as elemental (I was enhancement pre-TBC and resto when TBC started until now). I guess season 3 are still couple of weeks away so I still have time to adapt the new playstyle. Therefore it would be greatly appreciated if other successful elemental shamans could share their experiences with me :)
English is not my first languege :)

Here are my questions:
1) How do u control your mana usage in 5s? Imo chain lightning is where the burst is from. Is it wise to cast when your target still has about 80% hp or so? I won't be running a 4-dps set up in season 3(most likely I will run a 2healer 3 Dps set up). so i figured that early use of chain lightning might not be a great idea. So when should I start to use chain lightning to its full potential?

2) I am currently using the engineering belt for arenas and it works extremely well, my question is: Is it still superior to continue to use this belt even as elemental?

3) This will probably be my spec as elemental http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hgczifMoVsxZx0xt0Lo, how do u comment this spec? any pros and cons?

Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thx in advance :)

[Jedik]

Try to limit your chain lightnings to when you think a target will die soon, you activated elemental mastery or you have a clearcast from a previous crit. It is very high in mana cost and will sometimes break cc. To manage mana, keep water shield up, have mana spring down if there isn't a hunter or rogue on the other team and get out of combat to drink if the situation allows you to.

I wouldn't risk the belt in 5v5. Having it fail would be detrimental to your team. 5v5 is a place where your healers will often save you when you are being focus fired. You shouldn't have to depend on the belt. However, if you were to do 2v2, you aren't often saved (since ele shaman usually play with dps classes and healing doesn't come from ourselves in big numbers) when going down and the belt may save you. 2v2 has quick, face paced games and having the belt fail will not hurt you as much. I use the belt in all world PvP, battlegrounds, duels and such, but not 5v5.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hEczqcMoVsxZx0xt0Lo

Concussion is very important. You need all the damage you can get. Imp fire nova isn't as important, it costs a lot of mana and will break cc in 5v5. Sure, it is a useful talent, but you will be casting many lightning bolts and shocks and +% damage is very useful there. Other than that it looks fine. Mine is tweaked just a little differently because I have different preferences, not anything that big of a change though.

edit: if you're resto for 2v2, disregard my statements on the belt and let me start again on that. Earth shield (if it isn't dispelled), nature's guardian and quick cast heals should be enough to keep you alive. The resilience, armor and +healing you get from the PvP belt will be more useful. Resto shaman participate in longer fights, elemental is more about burst and quickly keeping yourself alive just long enough to put out some more damage to take somebody down. As resto, you'll be wearing them down. Use the veteran's belt.

[Taifun]

Jedik, regarding your specc: Wouldn't it be better to slap this one point from Reverberation to Elemental Precision in order to reach the hit cap? Also at least one point from Totemic Focus to Ancestral Healing so it can serve as Dispel barrier. Sure, you can't keep it up all the time, but in critical moments like when your Priest (or any other class) get's nuked hard, getting this silly armor buff dispelled instead of BoP might save the team.

[Mightyceasar]

Thx for the great input guys :)

I spent 2 points into imp.nova totem mainly for non-arena pvp use because a 5sec fire nova is pretty useless against warriors and rogues and that 1000 extra dmg is pretty good. Because I am a tauren so i can use combos like fire nova -->war stomp to garantee a hit.

so my question is: Is it viable to do world pvp against rogues/warriors w/o imp.nova totem?

[Taifun]

It's nice to have imp. Fire Nova, since good Warrior will spamstring it, and Rogue will auto attack or anything like that.
But after all, I don't think 2 sec shorter ignite would help you much, I'm doing more than fine without it.

Short answer: Yes it is.

(I am 40/0/21 usually, just specced resto for some 2v2)

[Gnomeover]

Jedik, regarding your specc: Wouldn't it be better to slap this one point from Reverberation to Elemental Precision in order to reach the hit cap?

Helm Enchant, Racial, and Weapon is enough for the hit cap. So you don't need to talent it if you have these.

[Taifun]

Helm Enchant, Racial, and Weapon is enough for the hit cap. So you don't need to talent it if you have these.Racial is only for Draenei and OP is a Tauren.
Enchant+Weapon gives 2,3% hit and you need 3%, so point in there will solve that.

[Gnomeover]

ah silly!

[Mightyceasar]

Thank you Taifun for the info :D

1 more question tho: what meta gem are you planning to use when S3 comes? I am thinking of dropping the MSD and go for the new 3% increased crit.dmg one since MSD got nerfed and we have tons of instants (have to stomp 3 totems at least before the fight engages). The early proc of MSD is very likely to happen and leave the rest 40sec(or so) useless. What do u think about this?

[Mionee]

Yeah, dropping MSD too for the extra 3%dmg on crits. The MSD procs on NS and that's just stupid as the instant spell casted with NS uses the charge, I already hate it when it happens right now, it'd be even worse with a 45sec cd. :<

Hopefully, the 3%dmg will reduce the impact of the spelldamage nerf. Also remember that we couldn't exploit the MSD at its full potential (GCD/Bloodlust), so that won't be a great loss anyway.