Shamans: Ascendance

[Melarose]

Right now, I just feel like Ascendance is unoriginal.

Shaman are so flexible when it comes to lore. We are the damn masters of the elements and the best we get is a transformation into a reused ascendant model. It'd be cool if we transformed into a literal, unique elemental with a model designed JUST for us.

As for the actual spells, they feel lacking in thought process. I have little experience with enh, but with ele and resto its just a mindless part of the cd rotation. When I hit the button, it doesn't feel rewarding.. just mandatory. At least give us some other way of using it besides a one hit, 3 min cd. I wouldn't mind it having a shorter duration with a shorter attack/heal window just so I can have something that feels involved...

[Deleted]

I much preferred the way Enhancement played out in Cata over MoP. I liked us being all about steady dps with only very small periods of mini burst every 2 minutes or so. having said that, I was really looking forward to getting a real burst CD in MoP so we could actually have a way to kill people in pvp. What we got however was a burst cd that was/is way out of line and which changed us from being all about constant pressure to a spec that only really has a chance to kill people once every 3 minutes. I'm okay with the visuals and the fact we get some range during it's duration but I prefer they heavily nerf the damage it does but make it available more often and us getting reworked to deal good constant pressure again.

[Murderdoll]

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

I much prefer the burst window class than the Cata model of "I have absolutely no burst, if you make me swap from this target I will cry, If there is an add I will cry" (This is from the Enh PoV)

Its the lesser of two evils.

I think in ToT the burst was a bit over the top, its a bit better now.

[Kralljin]

Shaman are so flexible when it comes to lore. We are the damn masters of the elements and the best we get is a transformation into a reused ascendant model.

This spell is called Ascendance.
These Guys you are talking about are called Elemental Ascendants.
They gave up their physical form to become Elemental like beings. *The Shaman surrenders <his/her> physical form[..]*
You pretty much mimic this process for a short amount of time.

This Cooldown is very much lore tied, because it actually based off these Elemental Ascendants.

Call Ascendance boring, bland and totally boring CD to use but the model is goddamn fitting.

[BlissfulBlithe]

I much prefer the burst window class than the Cata model of "I have absolutely no burst, if you make me swap from this target I will cry, If there is an add I will cry" (This is from the Enh PoV)

Its the lesser of two evils.

I think in ToT the burst was a bit over the top, its a bit better now.

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

[Draenox]

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

I assume you are talking about PvP? Because enhancement has never been closer to the other melee specs than it is in this expansion. I played enhancement in the entirety of Cataclysm, and it was never at the top, mediocre is the best description. Rogues, Warriors, DK's you name it, all performed better at equal gear than enhancement did, especially during the Dragon Soul tier. On top of that, the rotation was the exact same from the pull to the ending, with our only CD being a band-aid fixed pair of wolves that we're tied into our final set bonus, with otherwise almost unscaled stats compared to their WotLK incarnation - if I remember correctly they did about 1k dps combined when they were up.

Now we have an overabundance of CD's, which adds some spice to the spec, you actually have something to manage other than mindlessly doing the same rotation until the boss drops.

I would NEVER go back to what enhancement was in Cataclysm, it's better than its ever been now.

[Raiju]

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

Enhancement PVE has only gone up since cataclysm. Cataclysm was a horrid simplification of wrath, with difficult to obtain weapons, low dps, bad aoe and bad target switching.

[Deleted]

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

Sorry but have to call BS on that one.

Allow me to break down Enhancement in a nutshell in Cataclysm:

- No AOE until Dragon Soul, only usefull at all in Yorsaj and whoring meters on Deathwing;
- No DPS CDs (I'm sorry but wolves did shit damage in Cata and they still do shit damage in MOP; Fire Ele didn't give Searing Flames so we were fucked on that one);
- No Raid CDs (No Stormlash, no Healing Tide, no Guidance)
- No reliable way to NOT lose DPS if the target moves and/or we have to quickly switch targets;
- No Legendary (Rogues got Daggers, all casters - that includes Elemental - had access to Tarecgosa and all plate users were carried by tentacles;

Based on the stuff I mentioned, our quality of life as a spec has at least tripled since Cataclysm.


On topic: Ever since Ascendance was made public knowledge everytime I looked at it I saw a Ethereal. It would be pretty awesome if we could transform more often and the output was toned down/some spells changed the way they work.

[Murderdoll]

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

Yeah I loved having no usable AoE. Loved having very little cooldowns. Loved being brought to T11 and T12 so I could interrupt on Halfus and Alysrazor and then do nothing.

We were so dependent on tunneling the boss throughout the whole expansion. If you honestly think Enhance was better in Cataclysm mechanics wise, DPS wise, balance wise ANYTHING. You have a serious case of rose tinted glasses.

[BlissfulBlithe]

Oh, sorry, did I have to spell out that it was PvP?

[Deleted]

Oh, sorry, did I have to spell out that it was PvP?

Apparently you do even though your post was perfectly clear in that regard.

I'm sorry that some of us like to be more impact full throughout a match instead of just once every 3 minutes and go sulk in a corner in between our burst windows. I'm not saying that MoP didn't bring a lot of improvements to the spec, because it did and especially pve wise it's gotten a whole lot better. But I didn't ask to be turned into a Ret Paladin when all I wanted was a burst cooldown while retaining the "steady damage all the time, provided you have uptime".

[BlissfulBlithe]

Apparently you do even though your post was perfectly clear in that regard.

I'm sorry that some of us like to be more impact full throughout a match instead of just once every 3 minutes and go sulk in a corner in between our burst windows. I'm not saying that MoP didn't bring a lot of improvements to the spec, because it did and especially pve wise it's gotten a whole lot better. But I didn't ask to be turned into a Ret Paladin when all I wanted was a burst cooldown while retaining the "steady damage all the time, provided you have uptime".

It's absolutely horrible in its current form.

"Burst! Did he die? Nah? Okay, coffee break. I'll be back in 3 minutes."

Admit PvE has improved a hell of a lot, but PvP has definitely gone backwards.

[waterdog001]

I would love a different model for Asendance. Maybe the elemental forming around you and being a specific elemental for your spec, aka fire for ele etc.

[KCguy]

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

It's one of the main reasons I love my shaman.

[Raiju]

I liked Enhancement a hell of a lot more in Cataclysm, we were able to go toe to toe with other melee, were competent against casters and we did fine in PvE. Hell, the only classes I lost against were Feral druids and death knights.

Elemental and Restoration have much more quality of life issues resolved in Mists though.

Maybe you should read your own post before acting as if others couldn't read it.

[Recom]

I much prefer the burst window class than the Cata model of "I have absolutely no burst, if you make me swap from this target I will cry, If there is an add I will cry" (This is from the Enh PoV)

Its the lesser of two evils.

I think in ToT the burst was a bit over the top, its a bit better now.

Does it have to one or the other ? Can't we have less burst (so more sustain) ? This goes for both enha and ele, our burst is just too limitative in terms of balance and encounter design. I'd be glad if they made it less powerful (but still powerful enough) and if it was more of a stance you attain trough combat instead of a plain old CD.

[Migrin]

I reached level 90 with my Shaman this week and played Resto and Ele only so far. I do have very mixed feelings about Ascendence. What I really do like about the CD in Ele is, that it affects my rotation. It is not just one of these percentage based cds that boost your output without you adapting your way to play. What I dislike a lot about it is the visual. For me personally it does not really fit the kind of artwork I relate to the lore of shamans in warcraft.

Off topic:
In general I feel very happy about picking up my shaman again. The rework to totems and general improvements to the class make it much more enjoyable. Healing seems to be extremely boring but I guess that's not a shaman related issue.

And about burst.. If there is one term that describes Shaman gameplay in the history of this game it is burst.

[Tinsoul]

It's absolutely horrible in its current form.

"Burst! Did he die? Nah? Okay, coffee break. I'll be back in 3 minutes."

Admit PvE has improved a hell of a lot, but PvP has definitely gone backwards.

This is not a problem with ascendance. Nor with shaman. This is the pvp model at the present time. How viable would enhance be as unholy DKs w/o necrotic strike?

[arcon]

I feel like a bad shaman. I switched from a laser chicken to my enhance (though I'm being pushed to ele) shaman and love using Ascendance.

[seasawl0l]

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?

TLDR if you are nostalgic about Vanilla/BC/wrath/Cata dont play the game. Things are different now. Either adjust or cry in a corner. Anywho I think enhance is in a good spot right now from vanilla-cata