Why did Blizz change how Chain Lightning works?

[Aleksej89]

Don't get me wrong, i love the 5.2 chain lightning (no damage loss per jump) MUCH more than the current 5.1 one.

However Chain Lightning has existed in it's current form ever since vanilla WoW was released - some November 23 in 2004 if i am not mistaken.

For a very long time it did it's job (more or less) as the spam-able Shaman AoE spell, at least for Elemental.

And now, Blizzard suddenly decides it is time to change it... does anyone here know what was the actual (official?) reason for the CL rework?

[littlegram]

I do not know the "official" reason why it was changed. I can only guess it is to give us Elemental Shamans a stronger role, or niche - AOE.

We are pretty decent in the AOE department currently, while our single target damage is towards the bottom of all specs. I guess I liken it to Demo Locks - they have lower single target damage, but their AOE is some of the best in the game. They have a niche. Now Elemental Shamans may have more of a niche with stronger AOE.

We have very good burst, good AOE, and poor single target - we can't have everything! Though I would prefer strong single target damage over AOE...

My guess is that it was done to appease all the qq about our damage.

[Deleted]

the main issue was that chain lightning wasn't reliable if you needed to get 5 mobs down equally fast, especially in small group settings. your first target would take 100 damage, the second target 70 and the 3rd 49 damage, the 4th 34 and the 5th 24 damage. meanwhile, a death knight that does a blood boil on 5 targets hits them all for 100 damage. in the end, the shaman would do 277 damage where the DK did 500, so the shaman scaled worse with extra targets.

[Deleted]

We have very good burst, good AOE, and poor single target - we can't have everything!

Too bad 90% (random number) of raid damage hinges on single target output.

The comparison with Demo also doesn't really work out. At most, a Warlock needs to reforge his gear in order to be fully viable when going from Affliction -> Demonology. If we then consider Enhancement to be our single target spec, we'd have to collect a completely different set of gear.

[edlike]

Don't get me wrong, i love the 5.2 chain lightning (no damage loss per jump) MUCH more than the current 5.1 one.

However Chain Lightning has existed in it's current form ever since vanilla WoW was released - some November 23 in 2004 if i am not mistaken.

For a very long time it did it's job (more or less) as the spam-able Shaman AoE spell, at least for Elemental.

And now, Blizzard suddenly decides it is time to change it... does anyone here know what was the actual (official?) reason for the CL rework?

This is incorrect, anyway. Chain lightning always had a cooldown until 4.3 IIRC, where it was removed for elemental shaman only, which is much more recent than vanilla wow.

As far as your question goes, IMO it was REALLY good when the change was made and didn't need any sort of buff (ele were aoe kings) but it is not quite as strong as it was in 4.3. So as other posters have said they have changed it to be more in line with the aoe that other classes use.

[SamoTray]

This is incorrect, anyway. Chain lightning always had a cooldown until 4.3 IIRC, where it was removed for elemental shaman only, which is much more recent than vanilla wow.

As far as your question goes, IMO it was REALLY good when the change was made and didn't need any sort of buff (ele were aoe kings) but it is not quite as strong as it was in 4.3. So as other posters have said they have changed it to be more in line with the aoe that other classes use.

I'd much rather they make EQ do nature dmg so it would still be nice to cast when we have more then five targets the way it is now, and the way the new CL is goin to be u might as well jus remove it from ur bars >.> well u can still precast it but still

[gwenners]

The comparison with Demo also doesn't really work out. At most, a Warlock needs to reforge his gear in order to be fully viable when going from Affliction -> Demonology. If we then consider Enhancement to be our single target spec, we'd have to collect a completely different set of gear.

Demo can also multidot easily, which ele can't do.

[Deleted]

I do not know the "official" reason why it was changed. I can only guess it is to give us Elemental Shamans a stronger role, or niche - AOE.

We are pretty decent in the AOE department currently, while our single target damage is towards the bottom of all specs. I guess I liken it to Demo Locks - they have lower single target damage, but their AOE is some of the best in the game. They have a niche. Now Elemental Shamans may have more of a niche with stronger AOE.

We have very good burst, good AOE, and poor single target - we can't have everything! Though I would prefer strong single target damage over AOE...

My guess is that it was done to appease all the qq about our damage.

The thing is though that locks can spec into affliction on single target heavy fights without having to change thier whole gearset, elementals doesn't have that opinion.
This doesn't mean we should be awesome at everything ofcourse, but we should atleast be close to the middle.

Having niche's are fun, but not if they make the other parts of the spec bad.

[PaintOnASign]

I'm confused as to why anyone would complain about a buff. Elemental was already a great AoE/cleave specc, now you're even better. This does help Enhancement's cleave a bit too, though not nearly as much.

[mrinvisable2]

If you go on ptr with cds annlava beem i can pull up to 650 k dps with ele t15 2set on 5targets ( training dummy)imagine with tricks and pally hand and with just chain lightningbspam about 450-500k

And 2 ste bonus helps with 5+ adds

[Kazgrel]

They've basically shown that there are no sacred cows, for better or worse (not a jab at my tauren friends, mind you )

- Can't cast totems when silenced
- Longer CD on shear (after it had been 5/6 second cd for 3-4 years)
- Ghost Wolf speed reduction (from 40% to 30 after 3-4 years, maybe more)

Now the drop off on CL jumps is being removed. No complaints here, lol. A buff is a buff.

[Sarevokcz]

If you go on ptr with cds annlava beem i can pull up to 650 k dps with ele t15 2set on 5targets ( training dummy)imagine with tricks and pally hand and with just chain lightningbspam about 450-500k

And 2 ste bonus helps with 5+ adds

Yea and they are about to start fiddling with numbers. One of the first things for shaman will be CL nerf. I called it few weeks ago already and Im calling it now again.

[Endus]

Yea and they are about to start fiddling with numbers. One of the first things for shaman will be CL nerf. I called it few weeks ago already and Im calling it now again.

Even if they nerf CL down so that the total DPS on 3 targets is roughly where it was before the change, it's still a net gain overall, since it'll even out our AoE across the whole pack. I can appreciate the mechanical benefits of that change separate from any potential gain in numbers.

[Sarevokcz]

Even if they nerf CL down so that the total DPS on 3 targets is roughly where it was before the change, it's still a net gain overall, since it'll even out our AoE across the whole pack. I can appreciate the mechanical benefits of that change separate from any potential gain in numbers.

Or potential loss.
I like the mechanical change, I just dont see it going live as it is on ptr.

[Deleted]

If they nerf CL, i'd love to see that hit 5 targets baseline. And make the CL glyph to something like Forked Lightning.