The times of pure Lightning Bolt spam are finally over: at level 75 the Elemental Shaman will learn the new spell Lava Burst, which perfectly fits into the Shaman's spell rotation and does massive amounts of damage. The big advantage of this spell, apart from the fact that it is greatly enhanced by the talents, is the automatic critical hit it will score whenever the Flame shock effect is active on the target. In order to facilitate this the range of Flame Shock has been increased, so the Shaman doesn't have to stand closer to the enemy than other casters.

This automatic critical hit reduces the value of crit rating on gear, but this little downside is alleviated by the advantages. Especially since other talents and effects are triggered by critical hits. There is, for example, the buff Elemental Oath, that is triggered by a critical hit. This buff gives every raidgroup member a 5% bonus to their critical spell strike chance - an effect the Totem of Wrath had in Burning Crusade. This totem has now been changed to provide additional spellpower and debuffing enemies within its range so they are more likely to receive any critical hit.

An interesting innovation is the new 51 point talent, Thunderstorm. This talent returns some mana to the casting Shamane and does some damage to enemies in a small radius around the caster. This damage will knock the enemy players a few yards back. This effect makes for some interesting new PvP tactics, and it didn't take long for a video to surface where a single Elemental Shaman wiped out a full alliance raid by blasting them off the Thunder Bluff elevators.