Killstick wrote:1) If spellpen is such a big deal i think it will be rather easy to pick up. You should atleast be able to get like 60 without TF debuff. Imagine you get this 60 spellpen what are your major secondary stats to go for (hit, crit, spelldmg)?
I would imagine that with the extra reduced casting time of shaman spells the stat of choice would be spell power. Ayz posted a google docs spreadsheet that you can see
here that might answer the question better.
Killstick wrote:2) Mana problems; can't a large portion of our mana problems be solved by going heavy on the consumes? If you whole guild does this to max DPS it will also play into the advantage of an ele shaman.
You can calculate your average mp5 from consumables, I believe it's 162 with the following:
Mageblood Potion
Mana Spring Totem (untalented)
Demonic Rune
Major Mana Potion
Nightfin Soup
Your average -mp5 from casting Lightning Bolt is quite easy to calculate also:
Base_Mana_Cost*0,8*2,5
So for rank 10 it's:
265*0,8*2,5=530
Killstick wrote:3) In light of the mana problems and the good coefficients its important to be casting 24/7 rather than going max rank, going oom and waiting for regen. So you would indeed need to do some math on how long the encounters last and what rank can be spammed. I'd always build a margin into this as you will be droppig supporting totems and might want to have enough mana for a max rank NS at all times.
That's true. It would be best to know the average kill time of each boss for your guild and prop a chart detailing your average time before going OOM for each rank, with a little extra as you say.
Killstick wrote:4) It would be unlikely but a big luxery if you were grouped with another resto shaman who can provide improved spring and mana tide. Also you wouldn't be spending mana to drop these.
That's indeed quite luxurious. I'm not sure many raid leaders would be willing to do that but if they are they could see whether different ranks of totems stack while they're at it, might make it more worthwhile if they do.
Killstick wrote:5) Does Chain Lightning serve any purpose in the rotation (even downranked) in a longer fight vs single target? I see it working in short DPS races where mana isn't an issue and fights where there are multiple target but no idea about single bosses.
The base damage of Chain Lightning is higher than Lightning Bolt, resulting in higher DPS. It should be worth it to cast a maximum rank Chain Lightning on Clearcasting procs even against single targets.
Killstick wrote:6) Are shocks used at all? Be it max rank for DPS (long or short encounters) or lowest rank for CC proc? Or is the GCD just a dps loss?
Shocks have a coefficient of 1,5/3,5=~43%. Lightning Bolt has a 3,0/3,5=~86% coefficient. Taking 0.5 seconds longer to double the amount of spell damage your spell receives seems like a good tradeoff. A rank 5 Lightning Bolt only costs 105 mana untalented and would be a better choice for Clearcast proccing.
Killstick wrote:7) Flametongue/melee: Do any encounters come to mind where the use of melee seems likely because you cannot cast (Silences, hugging boss, reflective shields)? If you are going to melee (not all the time but some) would you concider a weapon, gloves, enchant that proc with spelldmg?
There's nothing particular that comes to mind. It was mostly an idea on how to combat the lack of spell pen before AQ40 as well as make a melee shaman playstyle more viable. The fire resistance in MC and BWL would make this spec difficult to use there as I doubt Frostbrand is any good. The best venue I find for this is AQ40 while you're collecting spell pen gear.
Of course if someone has information on the workings of Frostbrand (chance to proc and spell power scaling) it'd be nice to take a look at.
Killstick wrote:9) Gearwise i think 1 ele shaman could soak up alot of loot that is less desirable for clothies or just some good leather/mail loot they cannot use.
There are indeed a few items here and there that would be easy for shamans to grab. If it's true that spell power benefits them more then there might be some items out there that are generally discarded due to lack of other stats that they could grab for example.