solution to Elemental sustained damage problem

[Barrun]

Bored with changes to Lightning Bolt scaling to balance elemental's damage, I propose: for elemental shaman Flame Shock should behave like Curse of Affliction. However, instead of the dot increasing in stacks over time, each Lava Burst on the target with Flame Shock on it increases the stack count by one. By doing this, Flame Shock dot damage would ramp up when the shaman has to focus one target for an extended period of time. This would have zero consequence in pvp as it wouldn't contribute to burst damage whatsoever.

What are other peoples ideas?

[PaintOnASign]

Again, I don't see how this is any more interesting then a "boring" change to Lightning Bolt. It's still as completely passive as just buffing LB. However, we don't actually know what they're doing, so speculating is pointless, as is making another thread about this.

[Mormolyce]

Sustained damage problems are the easiest to fix, you just tweak an ability/SP coefficient/whatever up by X%.

Personally I'd remove the whole "always crits" feature of LB and just double its base damage. Never understood why "always crits" was considered a good thing... all it does is devalue crit rating. Unless your spec has some ability which plays off crits, but Ele doesn't.

Actually I also don't like the way LB has both a CD and a proc. I find that kind of mechanic annoying and clumsy, leads to things like getting a proc half a second after it came off CD anyway which just feels crap. IMO there shouldn't be anything with a CD and a proc, just one or the other.

I also think Ele could use an overhaul, many abilities feel unimpressive and dated and it has a simplistic rotation which could use at least one new ability or mechanic in the mix.

[PaintOnASign]

Actually I also don't like the way LB has both a CD and a proc. I find that kind of mechanic annoying and clumsy, leads to things like getting a proc half a second after it came off CD anyway which just feels crap. IMO there shouldn't be anything with a CD and a proc, just one or the other.

You're basically describing the way LvB worked in WotLK (more damage, 12s CD). I say, no thanks. It was okay then, but I prefer to have some sort of mechanic that makes the rotation dynamic in some way, even if its minor. Plus, with Elemental Overload and Elemental Fury, more LvB are always welcomed.

I don't actually think Elemental needs an overhaul. The rotation is pretty basic, but they did add an ability in the mix. Elemental Blast fits very well with the Elemental play-style, I just wish it were baseline.

[Samiizz]

How about the proc resets LvB and Elemental Blast.

More Elemental Blasts should increase our dps slightly.

Mybe just decrease the proc change for Elemental Blast.

Or the proc would cause Elemental Blast CD to reset AND crit. << sounds OP

[Northy]

Substantial damage increases across the board, I don't care how so long as it gets done. As a bonus I'd like to see lower cast times, especially on Elemental Blast.

[Nebria]

Personally I'd remove the whole "always crits" feature of LB and just double its base damage. Never understood why "always crits" was considered a good thing... all it does is devalue crit rating. Unless your spec has some ability which plays off crits, but Ele doesn't.

crits are procing clearcasting which gives you a dmg, healing and mana cost buff and there are trinkets which proc on crits

[zenga]

How about the proc resets LvB and Elemental Blast.

I like that suggestion a lot. Problem being that elemental blast will be pretty much the required talent.

[Samiizz]

Elemental Blast should be base line.

A new talent should be there instead of it.

[Deleted]

I dont like the idea of resetting 2 spells with 1 proc.. I'd rather have a third effect to Lava Burst (the first two being reset cooldown and instant cast). Perhaps the third effect could be something like;
Lava Surge causes your next Lava Burst to be instant and leave a dot on the target for X % damage done over 5 secs.

A bit like Chaos Bolt.. It buffs the damage, but not the burst, so it shouldnt be much of a problem in PvP.

An entirely other way could be to add a Glyph of Lava Burst.
You Lava Burst now deals 20% less damage on impact but leaves a dot on the target for 50% of the damage done over 5 secs.The dot would have to work a bit like the fire mage ignite or whatever it's called.. So that if you throw 2 Lava Bursts in a row, you dont loose the damage of the first dot.

[Milkshake86]

Bored with changes to Lightning Bolt scaling to balance elemental's damage, I propose: for elemental shaman Flame Shock should behave like Curse of Affliction. However, instead of the dot increasing in stacks over time, each Lava Burst on the target with Flame Shock on it increases the stack count by one. By doing this, Flame Shock dot damage would ramp up when the shaman has to focus one target for an extended period of time. This would have zero consequence in pvp as it wouldn't contribute to burst damage whatsoever.

What are other peoples ideas?

You didn't really think this threw did you? Ascension ... this would basically mean 1 hex and the shaman is going to rape you, 1 ascension and all the instant LvB action that stack would grow immensely, why dont we just let blizz throw the 1 week b4 patch fix in and be op for a few weeks.

[Samiizz]

I dont like the idea of resetting 2 spells with 1 proc.. I'd rather have a third effect to Lava Burst (the first two being reset cooldown and instant cast). Perhaps the third effect could be something like;
Lava Surge causes your next Lava Burst to be instant and leave a dot on the target for X % damage done over 5 secs.

A bit like Chaos Bolt.. It buffs the damage, but not the burst, so it shouldnt be much of a problem in PvP.

An entirely other way could be to add a Glyph of Lava Burst.
You Lava Burst now deals 20% less damage on impact but leaves a dot on the target for 50% of the damage done over 5 secs.The dot would have to work a bit like the fire mage ignite or whatever it's called.. So that if you throw 2 Lava Bursts in a row, you dont loose the damage of the first dot.

You want it to stack?
What happens during Ascendance?
How many times would it stack?

I dont think we have a problem with burst.. its sustained damage.. AND damage during execute phases.

Make Elemental focus provide a stronger buff.. maybe 20% to 30%?
and during execute phase maybe lower all cooldowns of spells.. i.e LvB CD and EB cd halved. or just lower the CD of EB and make it crit.

A crit every 12 second wouldnt really push our dps up that much.

[Deleted]

As a bonus I'd like to see lower cast times, especially on Elemental Blast.

No, thanks. I am already sick with LvB under 1 second cast.

[kubuntu]

Bored with changes to Lightning Bolt scaling to balance elemental's damage, I propose: for elemental shaman Flame Shock should behave like Curse of Affliction. However, instead of the dot increasing in stacks over time, each Lava Burst on the target with Flame Shock on it increases the stack count by one. By doing this, Flame Shock dot damage would ramp up when the shaman has to focus one target for an extended period of time. This would have zero consequence in pvp as it wouldn't contribute to burst damage whatsoever.

What are other peoples ideas?

That woud make Ele more 1 target stuck and make bigger problem in PvP alsow , just increase all spel damage by X% or buff all exept LvB to not make LOL Videos about Ascendant "How ele shaman killed my ""

[Barrun]

Again, I don't see how this is any more interesting then a "boring" change to Lightning Bolt. It's still as completely passive as just buffing LB. However, we don't actually know what they're doing, so speculating is pointless, as is making another thread about this.

It would be more than passive because it could be maintained on multiple targets by properly managing Lava Burst. I think that's much more interesting than Lightning Bolt getting a slightly different SP coefficient. I agree speculating is pointless, but this is a discussion forum, for entertainment. Making another thread for entertainment is not pointless, if you don't like it, don't read it.

You didn't really think this threw did you? Ascension ... this would basically mean 1 hex and the shaman is going to rape you, 1 ascension and all the instant LvB action that stack would grow immensely, why dont we just let blizz throw the 1 week b4 patch fix in and be op for a few weeks.

Yea I suppose I didn't, I don't pvp so I assumed a single debuff such as suggested would be easily negated by dispel.

Modifying talents as a means of balance has the unfortunate consequence of forcing people to take that talent to be competitive as can be seen with the current state of warlocks grimoire talents. The suggested change wouldn't make ele "single target locked" as this would be sustainable on multiple targets giving a nice new dynamic to ele for multi-target(non-aoe) fights. I really liked the suggestion of having a residual dot attached to LB similar to fire mages, as well an execute phase mechanic, those could both be a much needed solution to the current problem; though the later could have the consequence of putting ele into a niche already more so than they are now.

[Mic_128]

getting a proc half a second after it came off CD anyway which just feels crap.

It's still an instant cast though.

[Northy]

No, thanks. I am already sick with LvB under 1 second cast.

Clearly, but successfully casting a Lightning Bolt or Elemental Blast in a competitive PvP environment should grant an achievement.

[Deleted]

An entirely other way could be to add a Glyph of Lava Burst.
You Lava Burst now deals 20% less damage on impact but leaves a dot on the target for 50% of the damage done over 5 secs.The dot would have to work a bit like the fire mage ignite or whatever it's called.. So that if you throw 2 Lava Bursts in a row, you dont loose the damage of the first dot.

Blizz doesn't like mandatory glyphs though. And that one would be mandatory.

[Deleted]

Blizz doesn't like mandatory glyphs though. And that one would be mandatory.

Yah, guess thats true although it would only be mandatory for PvE.. For PvP you would most likely want the burst damage instead (numbers might need tweaking).

[Deleted]

Chance to get an instant (off the GCD) Lightning Bolt proc when getting a 7th lightning shield?

Lightning Bolt proc to cause Earth Shock to do extra damage?

Maybe it'll be the Shaman review next year .