Lightning Bolt

From WoWWiki

Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt 2.5 sec cast 30 yd range 13% base mana Mana Casts a bolt of lightning at the target for X to Y Nature damage.
Usable by
Class	Shaman
Properties
Type	Offensive
School	Nature
Cooldown	GCD
Talents
Improvement talents	Call of Thunder, Convection, Concussion, Elemental Focus, Elemental Fury, Storm Reach, Elemental Precision, Elemental Mastery, Lightning Mastery, Lightning Overload, Mental Quickness, Stormstrike, Tidal Mastery, Nature's Swiftness, Nature's Blessing, Shamanism
Other information
Ranks	14

Shamans know that lightning can strike twice in the same place.^{[TCG src]}

Lightning Bolt is a Nature-based direct damage spell. It is the only spammable damage spell for the Shaman and one of the primary damage spells for elemental Shamans.

Rank table

Rank	Level	Mana Cost (base mana)	Damage	Cost	Cast Time
1	1	13%	13-15	Free	1.5 sec
2	8	13%	26-30	1	2 sec
3	14	13%	45-53	9	2.5 sec
4	20	13%	83-95	22	2.5 sec
5	26	13%	125-143	36	2.5 sec
6	32	13%	172-194	72	2.5 sec
7	38	13%	227-255	99	2.5 sec
8	44	13%	282-316	1 62	2.5 sec
9	50	13%	347-389	2 16	2.5 sec
10	56	13%	419-467	2 70	2.5 sec
11	62	13%	495-565	3 42	2.5 sec
12	67	13%	563-643	5 76	2.5 sec
13	73	13%	595-679	18	2.5 sec
14	79	13%	715-815	18	2.5 sec

In World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game.

Notes

It uses the lightning animation instead of the normal nature animation.
When compared to a Mage Frostbolt, this does slightly less DPS. However, when coupled with Lightning Mastery, Lightning Bolt can do more damage at 2 sec cast. However, Frostbolt may be more effective with it's chill effect on enemies, useful in both PvP and PvE.
Has traveling time, so can be combined with Chain Lightning or a Shock which are instant for spike damage.

Improvements

Convection reduces the mana cost of Lightning Bolt.

Concussion increases its base damage, while Stormstrike increases the damage of the 2 next nature spells after it by 20%.

Elemental Focus talent would give you the Clearcasting state after landing a critical strike with a Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell, that reduces the mana cost of your next 2 damage spells by 40%.

Elemental Fury increases your critical strike damage bonus.

Eye of the Storm reduces pushback suffered from receiving damage while casting by 23, 46 and 70%.

Elemental Reach increase your Lightning Bolt range.

Call of Thunder, Thundering Strikes and Tidal Mastery each increases your base spell critical strike chance, while Elemental Mastery gives you a 20% increased critical strike chance and 20% lower mana cost for 30 seconds.

Elemental Oath increases your spell critical strike chance by 5% for 15 seconds after hitting with a spell critical strike.

Mental Quickness increases your spell power by an amount based on your attack power.

Elemental Precision increases your chance to hit with spells while reducing your spells' threat.

Lightning Mastery, Maelstrom Weapon and Nature's Swiftness each reduces its cast time.

Lightning Overload gives your Lightning Bolt spell chance to cast a second, half damage spell of the same type at no additional mana cost and with no threat of its own.

Glyph of Lightning Bolt increases damage by 4%

Shamanism increases damage gained from Spell Power.

Tips and tactics

This is a good spell to start the fight and pull enemies until level 75 when you can learn Lava Burst. Untalented and used against a foe with no speed boosting abilities at max range, you can cast 3 Lightning Bolts in the span of time it takes for a mob to reach you. You can even cast a shock just as the 3rd Lightning Bolt finishes casting to max out damage against a pulled, incoming mob.
It is also more likely to use during combat because of its 2.5 second casting time as opposed to other classes' similar function spells (Shadowbolt, Fireball), and is fairly mana-efficient.

Past changes

In Patch 2.3, cast time reduced to 2.5 (from 3.0 where applicable), mana costs reduced, benefit from spell damage have been modified to maintain the DPS of the the previous, longer casting time.