Elemental Raiding - Or how to pewpew like a pro

Before I get into any specific Uldaur boss tips, I think I should cover basic strategy everyone should know on their job in a raid. I'll start with a quick overview of the basics of elemental DPS. As a note, right now something is wrong with elemental that has yet to be pinned down. Once 3.1 was released I noticed a drop-off in my personal DPS after going dual-spec. At the time, it was attributed to some bugs with the system that are now supposedly fixed. However, elemental DPS is still not back where it was. There are several massive threads on the WoW boards discussing the issue with multiple developer responses that seem to verify something is off, but they are not sure what. Hopefully they will fix the bugs or tweak our numbers up a bit to compensate. I used to be able to maintain 4k on a target dummy with only self buffs, but that has dropped to around 3.6k. It is tough to get a side-by-side comparison, as I have not set foot back in Naxx 25 to see my Patchwerk numbers, which was always the best measuring stick for pure raid DPS. I'm still able to do solid DPS since I know the class and try hard, but I am usually not top of the charts anymore.

Spec:
The first thing that you can do is to have a proper spec. I prefer a 57/14/0 build. Here is a link to my PVE raid build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEh0qcdItGfzAo0xxco:kbpcmM
This build basically takes all of the DPS talents in ele and skips the one talent aimed at enhancement and all of the more PVP focused talents. Moving over to the enhancement tree we snag the extra int just to move to tier 2, then you want the extra 5% crit from Thundering Strikes. In Tier 3 you can grab the extra spell damage from flametongue and might as well spend your last point to make your shocks cost less mana. When properly talented, elemental shaman rarely have mana problem due to all the cost reductions, regen, and clearcasting procs.

Glyphs:
Flame Shock - This is the bread and butter of your DPS rotation. You need to keep Flame Shock applied to your target at all times. This increases the duration, which is nice, but more importantly it does not make Lava Burst consume the DoT.

Lightning Bolt - 4% increased damage from Lightning Bolt. Since LB is a good chunk of your DPS, you need this glyph.

Totem of Wrath - Gives you a buff for 30% additional personal spell damage from your totem. It should also be noted this buff lasts 5 minutes, regardless of if your totem still exists or is in range. This works out to be more DPS than either of the other 3rd glyph choices (lava or flametongue).

Minor Glyphs - These don't really matter for DPS. Some people like the thunderstorm one to remove the knockback, but I find the knockback useful in various situations. I use it on Deconstructor adds that I see slipping through and on an occasional trash mob that I may have peeled off a tank by accident. I recommend the reincarnate glyph just to save the embarassing, "Umm...oops no ankhs."

Gear:
Gear is obviously an important part of your character. Rather than just naming off some best in slot list most will never gather, I will just briefly cover the relative importance of the DPS stats for an ele shaman.

Hit Rating - This is the most important stat right up to the point where you do not need it anymore, then it becomes worthless. Many people do not clearly understand hit and how much you need of it, so let me try and clarify. When fighting a boss, they are considered to be 3 levels higher than your character. This means assuming you are naked and have no buffs (sexy!), you have an 83% chance to hit your target. The first thing to do when building your gear list, is to get to 100% hit. Each 1% to hit translates into 26.23 rating. So in order to cover the entire 17% miss chance with hit, you need 446 rating (I will round them up like this from now on). Wow, that seems like alot! Ah yes my friends, it does, but that is assuming we have no buffs or talents. If you specced correctly, you will have elemental precision which is a flat +3% chance to hit. Next question, are you alliance or horde? Alliance means you are a Draenei and have Heroic Presence which gives you another free 1% to hit. So here are your hard hit caps:

Horde: 368
Alliance: 342

Those numbers mean you will never miss on a boss. But wait...there is more! Who do you raid with? Does your raid group run with a Shadow Priest or Boomkin? If so, they bring some additional hit buffs. Misery or Improved Fairie Fire both provide 3% to hit. Assuming you can rely upon your fellow raiders to be there and provide this buff, you would be wasting gear points on hit if you were at the hard cap I gave you above. So now what would you need?

Horde with raid hit buff: 289
Alliance with raid hit buff: 263

These are the hit caps I suggest you gear for with a well constructed raid. I actually carry an extra set of gloves that are enchanted and geared for hit for the few times I happen to be in raid without a Shadow Priest or Boomkin. When you are in Heroics or Naxx, you will likely have to gem for hit to make the numbers. Ulduar gear seems to have a few items that are heavy with hit, so that will change. I am a bit over the cap now myself with my 2 Tier 8.5 pieces.

Spellpower - The most important DPS stat after hit is spellpower. It affects ever single one of your spells. Any gems you do not need for hit should be spellpower.

Haste - Haste is the next best DPS stat after spellpower. I never go out of my way to find it, but Blizzard will give you plenty of it on your gear. It is never necessary to gem for it. As a note, hitting 500 haste is considered ideal for our rotation so we can squeeze in 5 lightning bolts before a lava burst. I will discuss the rotation more below.

Crit Rating - Never go out of your way for crit, but it will be on plenty of your gear regardless. While crit is always nice to have, it does not effect Lava Burst at all since we always crit with the spell anyways. So every point of crit is doing you nothing at all for those casts. It also does nothing for Flame Shock DoT ticks UNTIL you get 2 piece Tier 8.

Rotation:
The rotation and situational awareness are what seperates 2 equally geared players. This is the fabled "Player Skill" that everyone talks about. When someone is doing 1500 DPS in epics, they likely have no clue as to what their class should be doing for a rotation. For our rotations, you will usually lose DPS if you stick with a set number of casts for spells. In most boss fights you will have to move at some point, and that will throw everything off in the first place. Also any lag or varying haste levels or procs will throw everything out of whack as well. Therefore I live by the priority system. Basically, when all of your abilities are off cooldown, which order do you hit them in?

Flame Shock > Lava Burst > Lightning Bolt / Chain Lightning (filler)

Flame Shock should always be up and ticking. It gives you both the nice DoT, and is mandatory for Lava Burst crits. It is important to understand you only renew it when the last DoT ticks off unless you have nothing else you can do. It is more DPS to be Lava Bursting and Lightning Bolting rather than renew an already ticking Flame Shock that still had time to go.

Lava Burst is your free crit. Besides the damage it does it will always trigger your crit proc talents like elemental oath and clear casting. If it is off cooldown it should always be cast immediately (unless you need to renew Flame Shock)

Lightning Bolt - This is your main spam spell. While you wait for Lava Burst cooldowns or Flame Shock to tick you will always be slamming this button. Once you hit 500 haste you can typically fit in 5 lightning bolts during a full Lava Burst cooldown.

Chain Lightning - This is no longer "more" DPS than Lightning Bolt. It in only used to fill in a rotation at certain haste levels. It basically casts half a second faster than a regular Lightning Bolt. If you only have 1.5 seconds until Lava Burst is ready, it is technically best to squeeze in a CL rather than waiting or casting a Lightning Bolt which wastes .5 sec that should be going towards Lava Burst. While this is technically correct, it is difficult to get a feel for it and if you are new to raid DPS I would recommend going straight Lightning Bolt spam and ignoring CL. Once again, at certain haste levels you will never need to touch CL. I rarely use it outside of times it will hit multiple targets. If you want to completely maximize your output with Chain Lightning, spend a significant amount of time at a practice dummy getting it right.

General Tips:
A dead shaman does no DPS. The most important thing in a boss fight is to be aware of the abilities he is using and to react appropriately. This usually boils down to are you standing in something that is killing you? Then move!

Use movement time appropriately. If you have to run or are flying through the air from a punt, you cannot be casting most of your DPS spells. Use that time to renew your Flame Shock or re-drop totems if needed.

Use your cooldowns wisely (elemental mastery or trinkets). Always have your cooldowns available for use during heroism. You get the most out of it by squeezing in as many casts as you can while it is up, and heroism is your best opportunity. If you know it is going to be more than 3 minutes into the fight before heroism is used, than pop it early so you can use it multiple times.

Come prepared to every raid. Bring your flasks and food. If your raid provides feasts, it is usually good form to spend some time outside of the raid helping to farm up some mats for them. I also always carry potions of speed. It is a free mini-heroism for yourself. On a long fight, I time my cooldowns for the heroism, and then when they are back up again chug a speed potion while I pop them.