Shamans: Ascendance

[Ralikon]

This could be seen as a rant thread, complaining about a class ability is never awesome. In any case, I was thinking of returning to my Shaman, when one decides whether or not they want to play a class, they think of the abilities/spells, how the character looks with armor etc.
When I was thinking about the class, although it will never (personally) be any where near as fun as Enh was back in wrath, its still a decent playing class, with one exception, Ascendance. Think about the way the spell works, it enhances everything and makes you a big laser turret essentially, for me how boring is that? Not to mention the weird elemental thing you turn into just feels very Cata-esque, which for me, just brings up a lot of bad vibes for the class.

TL;DR I dislike almost everything about these types of spells (increased ability output spells), the fact you are almost always relying on these CDs to ever get a kill, or to fall back on in a trouble situation to heal. Going into WoD, the elemental thing you turn into just doesn't make sense to me or feel right in any way. So maybe we can try to get the appearance changed?

What do you guys think?

[mittacc]

I really like the model

[Txiv]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. You don't like a buff spell? You don't like the visuals used? You don't like the lore background? It seems your issue is with shamans in general. We are a 3 minute burn class ( as opposed to say a smooth damage sp or crit proc dependent boomie/fire Mage). Ascendance plays well into all three specs design intentions

[Ralikon]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. You don't like a buff spell? You don't like the visuals used? You don't like the lore background? It seems your issue is with shamans in general. We are a 3 minute burn class ( as opposed to say a smooth damage sp or crit proc dependent boomie/fire Mage). Ascendance plays well into all three specs design intentions

I specifically said I didn't like anything about it haha, so yes all that would fit into "anything".

As far as the lore background goes, does it have to look like how it looks now?

And for being a 3 minute burn class, do you like being that? I mean think of how ridiculous that sounds, watching Enh in arena when they use their CDs and don't win, they are almost pretty much useless. And being a "3 minute burn class" is new, they weren't always like that by any means, if WoD is taking us back to lower health pools (which is great), would it be foolish to hope for the abolishing of these idiotic "x-min burn classes"

A suggestion I'd make, a glyph to not change appearance, they have it for Boomkins (kinda).

[Lavindar]

I specifically said I didn't like anything about it haha, so yes all that would fit into "anything".

As far as the lore background goes, does it have to look like how it looks now?

And for being a 3 minute burn class, do you like being that? I mean think of how ridiculous that sounds, watching Enh in arena when they use their CDs and don't win, they are almost pretty much useless. And being a "3 minute burn class" is new, they weren't always like that by any means, if WoD is taking us back to lower health pools (which is great), would it be foolish to hope for the abolishing of these idiotic "x-min burn classes"

A suggestion I'd make, a glyph to not change appearance, they have it for Boomkins (kinda).

About the visual aspect, I don't really dislike it, but I would like it to be less human and more tauren(I play Tauren of course)

On the Burst thing, I can understand how you feel, it was a complete 180º turn from cata, where we didn't have aby form of burst, and now we are a full on burst class, but in my case I really liked the change.

[Ralikon]

About the visual aspect, I don't really dislike it, but I would like it to be less human and more tauren(I play Tauren of course)

On the Burst thing, I can understand how you feel, it was a complete 180º turn from cata, where we didn't have aby form of burst, and now we are a full on burst class, but in my case I really liked the change.

For me I feel like huge burst spells like that just doesn't feel all that fun, there is no mystery to it right, like for example when you get a crit it's a big thing. Oh wow I just crit huge, but that crit will NEVER be as high as it is as critting with steroids (long cd spells). This is especially not as fun with lower health pools, I just don't see how that would fit.

[aarrok]

I like the idea and the form looks ok I guess. Only lasts for like 10 secs, so don't really see it. But as far as the use of it, I just don't get the feel for it. I play as Enhancement. Have since WoLK and loved the play style and feel. But that one CD is just....buzz kill for me. I mean, Resto has its spell duplicated, and you can see it. Ele gets laser beams and no CD on LB, you can see and feel the power in it too. But Enh kinda got shafted I think. You turn into it and get 2 stormshocks (20 lightning bolts hit from 30 yds away) Your see it hit 2 times and don't really feel it. Could have done something like no CD on SS. Would have been awesome then I think.

[Txiv]

My experience is all pve so I cannot speak for how it works in pvp context.

I do like being an xmin burn class in that it allows for strong mechanic specific burst. Not every fight calls for this but some do and it's nice when blizz diversifies class roles and boss mechanics. Gives everyone a chance to shine rather than Mage/rogue being strongest on every fight In the past.

We did get the spell in direct connection to the shamans in Cata using it, just like how wind lightning elementals played a roll in mop and now we get those. I like the notion you learn and grow as an adventurer. I wouldn't be opposed to a glyph for appearance swap as it wi be fun for some but I don't feel the spell is out of place.


What I was trying to point out was ascendance wasn't something tacked onto shaman but the class is pretty much is built around it (if you are going for high Dps). If it's something you don't enjoy , which is perfectly fine , shaman will not be fun for you

[Ralikon]

My experience is all pve so I cannot speak for how it works in pvp context.

I do like being an xmin burn class in that it allows for strong mechanic specific burst. Not every fight calls for this but some do and it's nice when blizz diversifies class roles and boss mechanics. Gives everyone a chance to shine rather than Mage/rogue being strongest on every fight In the past.

We did get the spell in direct connection to the shamans in Cata using it, just like how wind lightning elementals played a roll in mop and now we get those. I like the notion you learn and grow as an adventurer. I wouldn't be opposed to a glyph for appearance swap as it wi be fun for some but I don't feel the spell is out of place.


What I was trying to point out was ascendance wasn't something tacked onto shaman but the spell it pretty much is built around (if you are going for high Dps). If it's something you don't enjoy , which is perfectly fine , shaman will not be fun for you

It's just that though, right there Shaman wont be fun for you, that hurts because I played this class in BC, and now it is so different, but I suppose change is inevitable sometimes.

I think if they were to integrate into the class as a random chance proc where when you are in combat it randomly happens for a certain amount of time. THAT would be more fun and bring a lot more chance and life into it. Imo, enh doesn't play well when things are almost always predetermined.

[Carlosdanger]

Ascendance felt very uninspired. If they go through with an ability reduction and this one's on the chopping block I wouldn't miss it. If they have keep it in some form, just bake it into something else as a proc.

[LTCrystallite]

Ascendance's model feels uninspired, but I actually love how it functions for all 3 specs, because it's not just a + dmg/stat boost, it's more about synergy.

Enhancement = 30 yard range auto attack and stormstrike, with all of it being nature dmg (benefitting from your mastery and not being affected by armor). That's AMAZING.
Elemental = Lava Burst city.
Resto = Duplicate healing.

The idea is great, but I really wish the model was more... Shamanistic, and not as Cata remnant.

[Gozzu]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. You don't like a buff spell? You don't like the visuals used? You don't like the lore background? It seems your issue is with shamans in general. We are a 3 minute burn class ( as opposed to say a smooth damage sp or crit proc dependent boomie/fire Mage). Ascendance plays well into all three specs design intentions

We havent always been a 3-minute burst class, and i hope we will get fixed, because as a design it's just terribad.

[Lavindar]

We havent always been a 3-minute burst class, and i hope we will get fixed, because as a design it's just terribad.

Opnion based, I really like the burstness we have now, I never want to go to the way we worked in cata...

[Volitar]

I hate everything about Ascendance, really keeps me from loving my Shaman again.

[fenrez]

For Resto/Ele I think the spell is really nice. For Enhance the fact that so much of your damage is tied to it is more so an issue with the design of the spec rather than Ascendance itself. Personally the biggest issue I have with Ascendance is that you can't /cancelaura it so you have to wait the full duration to be able to mount.

[Dristereau]

I like it, it's a fun spell. Then again I have played a Ret since 3.3 and relied on Wings to do any damage at all since.

[Bullettime]

Putting so much of your DPS into a cooldown isn't a very good design.

It's fine for some classes and specs to have more burst than others, look at Beast Mastery Hunters and Demonology Warlocks, but when you get to things like Shaman and Paladin, it goes to the point where it simply doesn't feel good. 15 seconds of absolute total godmode followed by a miserable feeling lull.

[Rayaleith]

I've been away from shaman for really long (warlock main but shaman is my "second" class and main in TBC and half WotLK) but enhancement and elemental were always the ultimate burst class. This is the niche. Buffer bot with burst capability. It was always like that. Not a 3 minute burst but if you go back from Vanilla up to here, there was always about burst. Whoever saw the arena finals, you saw what a shaman could do when was the time to burst!

[flak]

We havent always been a 3-minute burst class, and i hope we will get fixed, because as a design it's just terribad.

Fuck that. Being given cooldowns was one of the best things to happen to enhancement in MoP - Fire elemental was even a dps loss in cata. Having no burst and no aoe was incredibly dull.

I really don't see what's not to like. Activate ascendance, grow in size and rise from the ground, slam your target with lightning FROM RANGE and do massive damage over its duration. Please explain how that is 'terribad'.

Putting so much of your DPS into a cooldown isn't a very good design.

You really think 10-12% is high? When there are specs that have upwards of 70% of their damage from one source?

[Raiju]

Fuck that. Being given cooldowns was one of the best things to happen to enhancement in MoP - Fire elemental was even a dps loss in cata. Having no burst and no aoe was incredibly dull.

I really don't see what's not to like. Activate ascendance, grow in size and rise from the ground, slam your target with lightning FROM RANGE and do massive damage over its duration. Please explain how that is 'terribad'.



You really think 10-12% is high? When there are specs that have upwards of 70% of their damage from one source?

From a PvE perspective, this. While I dislike ascendance visually, the cooldown style of play is fantastic imo.