Opinions on 5.2 Elemental pvp

[Deleted]

Having gear levels a *lot* closer between the classes atm is helping to stop the outgearing face rolls, so now's probably the best time to get a feel for true balance. From what i've seen so far though, we're still not great against people who really know their class so i have a feeling it's not going to be a great season for us again.
One thing I am loving though is shamanistic rage; not for the dmg reduction, but because of it's glyphed effect. The amount of damage you can negate with it is truly godly and it's saved my hide more times than I can remember. As for our damage improvements, I would say they're mediocre at best, lightning bolt still hits worse than a holy pala's denounce and takes longer to cast. Having said that, it seems to scale very nicely as in Pve gear it's critting for almost as much as my LvB so it may be quite good in tyrannical.
Healing's definitely much much better now, especially as you can always guarantee a boost with LvB->clear casting.

[Kralljin]

That's the misconception imo: you don't constantly swap imbues. Let's assume you are specced into EB, hard swap on you by a melee. How many gcd's are you going to spend offensive over the next few globals? Or when you get trained by a rogue? Those are the gcd's where you imbue swap and unleash. There is little point imo to swap back to flametongue after the 5s rockbiter effect falls off to swap back when it's available again. Once the opportunity is there to go offensive again you swap back to Flametongue until they swap back to you.

I'd rather fill those GCD's with other stuff, also the 40% reduction is rather minor in a 3v3 match if 2 people train you, considering that you only take 40% less dmg from one person.

Secondly, Unleash Earth is a buff that can be dispelled, if you play vs a team that has a disc or RShaman you will get purged while focused.

Everyone is stacking full resilience (maybe that might change slightly due to the DR's now) for better survivability. I classify a tool like UE / imbue swapping, sitting in blood presence or defensive stance into the same category (admittedly it was less clumsy for warriors prior to 5.2 and dk's atm).

You are comparing 2 things.

Blood Presence and Def Stance are 2 baseline mechanics that reduce the overall dmg taken while you sit in the certain stance.

Unleash Earth may have a higher reduction but:
Lasts only 5sec.
Affect only 1 target.
Is Dispelable.
You have to choose this talent and you skip the ability to seriously burst outside of Ascendance.

A genuine question: how many of the people that don't like the talent for some reason have actually put the effort into playing with it enough games, to make sure that it's not just the inconvenience of something we are not used to - that bothers them? Or in other words have played enough games to get used to it

Because my offensive ability is even more vulnerable to dispels, i can't burst seriously outside of Ascendance and the Utility granted by this talent doesn't make up these 2 points.

[HeedmySpeed]

UF has its drawbacks for sure but I still find it more useful than a spell you don't really get the chance to cast. Once arenas open we'll find out. But about dispels? I don't feel many players will go for the dispel on a 5s buff especially since many players don't know what it is and isn't something like pw:s.

[zenga]

UF has its drawbacks for sure but I still find it more useful than a spell you don't really get the chance to cast. Once arenas open we'll find out. But about dispels? I don't feel many players will go for the dispel on a 5s buff especially since many players don't know what it is and isn't something like pw:s.

Good players will find out in the blink of an eye, and most definitely try to dispel when their dps pop cds. But dispels can be prevented as well by offensive CC. Counting on other players not knowing about a certain mechanic only really works with low ranked players. But then again I don't think UF vs EB is black and white, much depends what comp you run/playstyle and what comp you are up against. I plan on swapping back and forth between both.

[shos]

Hey guys. Rennegade here.

I was wondering how the rest of you feel we are going to perform in pvp this upcoming patch.

Lately getting in a RBG is insanely hard. Once again blizz has made it a search for mages and warlocks. However I feel that as elemental we are one of the best bg classes in game. Maybe I'm over exagerating but when I repetitively beat full malv locks and hunters in dmg when im full dread with two heroic pieces and two malv pieces. And no weapon from prestigious realms I feel the only reason im not getting into rbgs is beacuse of gear strictly. Gear is the key maybe but I have shown several people from 2200 + guilds that I can out perform or keep up with their top tier players.

So I feel bgs we will be fine, however still. Voice your opinions on bgs.

Now for arenas I honestly dont know how we are going to perform. I feel like cata ret in 4.1 barely any elemental s over 2200+ bracket this season.

Please respond!

Ele Shamans are just fine in PvP (Normal, Rated & Arena)! There is one thing only - dropping totems when silenced...
You just need to spec the Ele for PvP. We are no longer easy to kill and our ascendance burst is more than enough to obliterate any other class - when used at the right moment!
I think our biggest advantage is exactly what most people complain about ele shamans - we are STRICTLY situational. But in 5.3 we have ALL the cookies we need (but the totems when silenced).
I'll not focus on offense as we already excel at that. Defense was our weakness and it looks it is no more in 5.3

First the talent tree:
1. Nature's guardian - free instant heal for 25% max health (100K instant) - every 30 secs...
2. Wind-walk totem - everybody has short CD's for the other 2 choices here so I go with the wind-walk totem - 1min. CD
3. Call of the elements - this is strictly play style dependent. Perfect for glyph-ed grounding totem - double spell reflect...
4. Ancestral swiftness - instant hex mostly. Instant lava burst or heal also... But not that often! This really make the hex probably the best cc in game - every second hex is instant! And frogs take good damage...
5. Ancestral guidance - hard to use but can be quite powerful.
6. Primal elementalist - this is the way to go if you want to survive the first minute in the arena.

And now let's talk about us staying alive!
1. Lightning shield - constant 10% less dmg taken. (glyph-ed)
2. Shamanistic rage - 20 sec / 1 min (33% of the time) - 30% less dmg taken.
The average dmg mitigation is 20%... All the time!!!
And when focused there is Primal Earth Elemental with:
1. Harden skin - 10sec - 40% less dmg taken.
2. Reinforce - 1min (6x10) - 20% less dmg taken.

If you do the math - we can now mitigate ALL incoming dmg for 10 secs every 5 mins. (10 + 30 + 40 + 20 = 100).
And we can spread it much more evenly throughout the fight.

With instant hex and capacitor combined with the 4sec earth elemental stun... (For mele)
With double (glyphed) spell reflecting grounding and wind sheer... (for casters... or cats)
And thunderstorm does wonders when you have the high ground
Not to mention the rest of the totems...
You may go through the arena without a single non-instant cast until ascendance...

We are still situation dependent, proc dependent and crit bound but... It is probably the hardest spec to play and thus - the most interesting for me.
We have all the skills we need - it is just so hard to learn how and when to use them...

[Deleted]

If you do the math - we can now mitigate ALL incoming dmg for 10 secs every 5 mins. (10 + 30 + 40 + 20 = 100).
And we can spread it much more evenly throughout the fight.

Doesn't work like that. Also, harden skin only works on the elemental, not the caster as far as I'm aware.

We are significantly less squishy than in 5.1 but we now rely even more on casted spells whereas every other caster just seems to instant their way to victory with the exception of destro lock. I'd like to see either totems usable while silenced for elemental or a passive where lockouts and silences are reduced in duration by about 30%.

Could be overpowered but with 3 spells offensive spells on a 2 second cast time is just crazy in this day and age.

[Nebria]

Doesn't work like that. Also, harden skin only works on the elemental, not the caster as far as I'm aware.

it is right it is not working additive it is multiplicative however you are wrong with harden skin, it is given to the caster.

[Kralljin]

it is right it is not working additive it is multiplicative however you are wrong with harden skin, it is given to the caster.

There are 2 spells:

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=118337 (Harden skin, is the buff that Primal Earth Elemental can cast on itself)
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=118347 (Reinforce, is the buff that the Shaman gets if you let the Earth Elemental channel onto you)

[shos]

Then get the extra 40% from astral shift - loosing the 30sec heal trinket though (for below 30% health)