Ele in 7.1.5 - still meh or hidden improvements?

[Feroxxy]

Not that I've been struggling THAT hard in PVE strangely enough, but I've heard plenty of times that Ele shamans feel they are struggling, blizzard said they know, and now 7.1.5 comes out which are just saying "fuck your Ascendance build, go talent swap" ?

While I'm a bit annoyed by the fact I've gotta rework my talents and rotations, I'm not informed enough about the state of shamans lately to have a proper opinion. Maybe someone can shed some light on whether or not we're moving forward and not backwards?

[Paleaura]

Ele is in a great place in 7.1.5

[melodramocracy]

It's going to be better. Lots of fans of icefury now being a pretty significant contributor (I'm not one of them), but to an extent you'll be able to tailor your build to your preference and gear, which is nice.

Lots of gold is going to be spent on tomes by this spec starting tomorrow, so stock up (or make a bunch to sell).

[roflwaffle]

from what im hearing its coming back into its niche of great aoe and burst

[netherflame]

The problem this expansion so far hasn't really been that they were bad its just they had such horrendous single target, AoE is great as long as there is actual AoE to do. That really wasn't the case in EN at all so the spec suffered pretty heavily.

[Coldfire989]

elemental needed a LOT of gear to do decent until tomorrow. After the patch we now have two very nice builds to pick from either Ascendance or Icefury.

[WskyDK]

Not that I've been struggling THAT hard in PVE strangely enough, but I've heard plenty of times that Ele shamans feel they are struggling, blizzard said they know, and now 7.1.5 comes out which are just saying "fuck your Ascendance build, go talent swap" ?

While I'm a bit annoyed by the fact I've gotta rework my talents and rotations, I'm not informed enough about the state of shamans lately to have a proper opinion. Maybe someone can shed some light on whether or not we're moving forward and not backwards?

Fuck your ascendence build?
Ascendence is about to get fucking awesome.

[Coldfire989]

Fuck your ascendence build?
Ascendence is about to get fucking awesome.

This, the Ascendance and IF build are like 2% differnace

[Bugg]

This, the Ascendance and IF build are like 2% differnace

This is so far speculation and hopes.
We will see in NH.

[Huanak]

Ther are soooooo maaaaany spell to cast with icefury build!!!

[iddqd]

And for those guys who spam Mythic+ (like me), the "new" LR build with Elemental Blast and Liquid Magma Totem also seems to ve very promising!

[Wilwind]

This is so far speculation and hopes.
We will see in NH.

It's .8% now for pure ST with no movement (the benchmark for which single target talents are compared for output), and that's math, not speculation and hope. Both have their strengths and which one is better depends on the encounter since a patchwerk encounter has not existed since Patchwerk. Thx though.

[Bugg]

It's .8% now for pure ST with no movement (the benchmark for which single target talents are compared for output), and that's math, not speculation and hope. Both have their strengths and which one is better depends on the encounter since a patchwerk encounter has not existed since Patchwerk. Thx though.

Math and not speculation as you say, but still irrelevant since it's a simulation that has nothing to do with the reality of NH.

[Feroxxy]

This all sounds pretty interesting! I've also noticed that nighthold 9 out of 10 bosses have adds, so lets see if we're finally gonna show our huge aoe!

[Deleted]

This all sounds pretty interesting! I've also noticed that nighthold 9 out of 10 bosses have adds, so lets see if we're finally gonna show our huge aoe!

Seeing as neither of our new builds uses Lightning Rod, I'd say "Nice work Blizz! Bringing in AoE bosses right when we have to chose between ST and AoE, really appreciated".

[WskyDK]

Seeing as neither of our new builds uses Lightning Rod, I'd say "Nice work Blizz! Bringing in AoE bosses right when we have to chose between ST and AoE, really appreciated".

Won't be as bad for meatball since path of flame can spread flameshock

[Unidus]

Won't be as bad for meatball since path of flame can spread flameshock

That and just chain lightning/EQ still do massive AoE.

[Deleted]

A nice thing about elemental is we have good aoe innately without relying on talents. If it's a big aoe encounter we can run lightning rod and liquid magma totem and really crush it.

I've been playing around with sims and the difference between a lot of the talent choices is quite minor, so it's going to come down to the encounter as to what to run which is going to be great.

[melodramocracy]

My initial thoughts after a few varied runs this morning:


Mythic + build: Earthen / Ele Blast / LM Totem/ Ascendance

Low movement ST raid: Earthen / Ele Blast / Echo / Ascendance

High movmement ST raid: Earthen / Ele Blast / Echo / IF

All other talents (gust, AS, etc) stay the same no matter what. I did swap out some of my haste / crit gear for haste / mastery. Dropping a lot of haste just makes the spec feel way too sluggish

I'm not a fan of how Icefury works, but I'm sure I'll wind up relying on it in situations.

As for openers using ascendance.. i'm thinking fire elemental - prepot (pull) - BL - trinket / blood fury - Ele Blast - Flame shock - Ascendance - spam LB. Input on a better way would be appreciated.

[Hellfury]

3 more buttons to press, Icefury, Ele Blast and Frost shock