Elemental Blast for Restoration (PvE) one of those what the hell?

[Griffon]

1. It's effect is pure earth, fire, frost.
2. It can only be cast on enemy target.

Now as a Restoration Shaman, I'm used to my spells being, well of the water? Perhaps earth, but that's okay..

Problem is, I never target enemies ever when I'm playing my Restoration Shaman, so why can't we use Elemental Blast on friendly target to gets it effect?

It's such a dumb design choice. It's a talent that is completely the same for Restoration, as it's for Elemental.

At least other classes get some kind of alternation when changing from their damage, tank spec to healer spec. Sigh.
Not a single Shaman talent changes when you change spec from dps to healer. (Current max level 90, live talk)

[Deleted]

Its not true that Resto Shaman never target the enemy. Lightning Bolt is a fairly common spell to cast, as is Flame Shock if you have the mana for it. I agree Elemental Blast does suck for Resto though, because the buff is pretty useless, certainly not worth the cast time, and its damage isn't enough to warrant the mana cost. I think if they made it free to cast, and always give Spirit if you are Resto, then it might be a worthwhile choice.

[Heywes]

I use Flameshock, Lavaburst and Lightingbolt a bit when healing.

I always target enemies because I use mouse over for my heals.

But I agree, Elemental Blast in its current state does not feel worth it. That tier is rather meh. The far left talent isn't bad, I use it. But I would like to see Elemental Blast modified a bit to make it more a potential choice. I understand that not every talent should be desirable. But, if it perhaps granted spirit for healers, I could be an interesting spell to use while healing.

[Deleted]

I use Flameshock, Lavaburst and Lightingbolt a bit when healing.

I always target enemies because I use mouse over for my heals.

But I agree, Elemental Blast in its current state does not feel worth it. That tier is rather meh. The far left talent isn't bad, I use it. But I would like to see Elemental Blast modified a bit to make it more a potential choice. I understand that not every talent should be desirable. But, if it perhaps granted spirit for healers, I could be an interesting spell to use while healing.

Yeah, I think the *idea* of Elemental Blast is meant to be so a healer can be a bit more offensive, but the only situation that would really be useful enough to warrant a talent choice would be in PvP. However, Elemental Blast is absolutely terrible in PvP because of the shared lock out it has. If it is going to be appealing to healers, it needs to provide something neither of the other two talents in the tier can. Both increase throughput by increasing the healing you do by X%. Elemental Blast could be made a throughput talent for healers by giving a Spirit boost. The mana regen could make it so that you are able to spam more of your 'expensive' heals, as the way healing in WoD is meant to work is that if you cast your 'cheap heals' you basically gain mana whilst casting, more Spirit = more time casting the expensive ones = more throughput.

I think that would definitely make it appealing, especially in the earlier tiers where mana is an issue, but wouldn't make it OP because if you don't have mana issues you wouldn't use it, and it would still have the shared lock out preventing it from being taken in PvP.

[Deleted]

With most (if not all?) classes having some form of interrupt or silence, there's been less need for us to target enemies, especially if you don't need the mana from Lightning Bolt spam. At the same time, I'd consider not targeting enemies (possibly due to your set-up) as a bad habit that you should probably try to break. Interrupting, purging, and DPS-ing a bit while regening mana are all part of our arsenal.

I do agree that Elemental Blast is a pretty odd choice for us, though. I'd be okay with an offensive talent for healers, but it needs to do something other than get us locked out of Nature or hit the target like a malnourished elemental kitten of sorts (since I don't imagine we're getting much in terms of cast-time reduction or damage modifiers).

I think I'd be happier with a talent adding a Smite effect to our Lightning Bolt, i.e. a small heal (can be split among targets in the enemy's vicinity, if they don't want it to be smart). Or it could put a buff on us, increasing our healing by a modest percent for 10 seconds. Not very creative, but I don't think they'd give us a powerful instant or a stackable DoT or anything which could be realistically cast in PvP and actually do some damage (or at least mildly inconvenience the person it's cast on).

[Deleted]

1. It's effect is pure earth, fire, frost.
2. It can only be cast on enemy target.

Now as a Restoration Shaman, I'm used to my spells being, well of the water? Perhaps earth, but that's okay..

Problem is, I never target enemies ever when I'm playing my Restoration Shaman, so why can't we use Elemental Blast on friendly target to gets it effect?

It's such a dumb design choice. It's a talent that is completely the same for Restoration, as it's for Elemental.

At least other classes get some kind of alternation when changing from their damage, tank spec to healer spec. Sigh.
Not a single Shaman talent changes when you change spec from dps to healer. (Current max level 90, live talk)

it's the same as solace for priests

[Anzen]

Yep, it's borderline useless for Restoration. Probably an oversight, though it hardly matters since both UF & PE are so strong. Most classes have talents which will always be borderline useless to a certain spec, look at the level 90 mage tier interaction with their specs.

[Aviators]

While I do agree its useless, you can always set focus the boss and set a focus cast macro for EB

[Griffon]

Yep, it's borderline useless for Restoration. Probably an oversight, though it hardly matters since both UF & PE are so strong. Most classes have talents which will always be borderline useless to a certain spec, look at the level 90 mage tier interaction with their specs.

Look at the level 90 talents for Paladin, Priest, Druid, Monk..

They have either talents that change to fit the spec, or.. they have spells that can be used both on dealing damage to enemy, and healing, depending on target, etc.

Even in Warlords of Draenor, some of these abilities cut their damage away, just healing.

But for Shaman, no change at all.

Restoration will keep Elemental Blast as a talent choice for healing (damage spell?) such a poor choice, seriously. At least let us chose to use it on enemy or friendly target and give it healing, so it works like Chi Bounce!

[shammypie]

Look at the level 90 talents for Paladin, Priest, Druid, Monk..

They have either talents that change to fit the spec, or.. they have spells that can be used both on dealing damage to enemy, and healing, depending on target, etc.

Even in Warlords of Draenor, some of these abilities cut their damage away, just healing.

But for Shaman, no change at all.

Restoration will keep Elemental Blast as a talent choice for healing (damage spell?) such a poor choice, seriously. At least let us chose to use it on enemy or friendly target and give it healing, so it works like Chi Bounce!

it would be incredibly useful if the damage it did also healed an ally for the amount of damage. However this may have made it mandatory.

[Smolderos]

Works for Proving Grounds with Focus macro. Elsewhere it's useless.

[blackblade]

Yeah, I think the *idea* of Elemental Blast is meant to be so a healer can be a bit more offensive, but the only situation that would really be useful enough to warrant a talent choice would be in PvP. However, Elemental Blast is absolutely terrible in PvP because of the shared lock out it has. If it is going to be appealing to healers, it needs to provide something neither of the other two talents in the tier can. Both increase throughput by increasing the healing you do by X%. Elemental Blast could be made a throughput talent for healers by giving a Spirit boost. The mana regen could make it so that you are able to spam more of your 'expensive' heals, as the way healing in WoD is meant to work is that if you cast your 'cheap heals' you basically gain mana whilst casting, more Spirit = more time casting the expensive ones = more throughput.

I think that would definitely make it appealing, especially in the earlier tiers where mana is an issue, but wouldn't make it OP because if you don't have mana issues you wouldn't use it, and it would still have the shared lock out preventing it from being taken in PvP.

It always bothered me that multi-elemental spells were at such a disadvantage simply because they lock you out of both (or all) schools.

[Deleted]

Its alright but compared to the other choices in that tier its not as useful. Its a shame I like the idea infact it'd be nice as some kind of heal then we get the stats after and scaling stats not flat stats.

[Sarevokcz]

it's the same as solace for priests

solace is instant, actually regens mana and heals low HP target for 100% of damage done... EB is cast, multischool suspectible to lockout, doesnt heal or regens and the buff is so small its not worth casting over an actual heal... I dont know how solace is popular now, but if its isnt picked up much, it has everything to do with the other two talents being much more versatile for regen purposes, not with solace being bad.

[Aviators]

Cans someone on Twitter ask if they are going to improve Elemental Blast for resto? I could have sworn they said they would take a look.

[Dracodraco]

To be fair, though, elemental blast is fairly useless for all specs in current-tier gear. Back in T14, when you had maybe 7-8K of a stat, 3.5K was a *ton*. The issue with EB in it's current state isn't that it's "weak"; it's that it didn't scale. As players got stronger and got more stats, it became weaker (especially versus the other two choises that are both percentage based buffs).

This being said, if you aren't targetting the boss, you're doing something wrong anyway. Resto shamans have some pretty decent utility (purge and ranged interrupt), which getting in the habbit of using will only make you a better player. Get mouseover macros or a click-to-heal addon (personal recommendation would be vuhdo) instead of targetting to heal. It cuts out a step, and makes you far quicker to react (you go from: Move mouse->click target->click heal - to: Move mouse->click target with the key wanted heal is bound to. 1/3 of the steps removed).

[Zixan]

It always bothered me that multi-elemental spells were at such a disadvantage simply because they lock you out of both (or all) schools.

On the flip side, no matter what school you're locked out of (bait with healing surge/LiB) you'll always be able to cast EB.

[Avada Kedavra]

It would be hella annoying is why.

If i got pelted in the face with a EB every 10 seconds or w/e making this loud ass slam noise that all up in my business, i would be...annoyed/wanna punch the resto shaman in the throat.

but it should be castable on friendlies imo

[Raghnar]

The problem of EB is it competes with Primal Elementalist and Unleashed Fury, two talents that increases our healing output. While EB can increase our healing, he can only be cast when heavy healing is not needed, making the two other talents far more best choices.

If not reworked, EB should compete with talents that increases our DPS support (in the same way that the 75 tier talent increases the healing support for Ele and enhance). Otherwise, EB should be greatly reworked to compete with UF and PE.

[Blithe]

It'd be good if you could use it on either enemy or ally so that you can use it to damage or heal, but also get the secondary effects.