Enh in WoD - easier or the same?

[Gyrotex]

Hi all,

I haven't played my shammy for ages and was wondering if with all the ability pruning, etc, Enhancement plays a bit easier than it does on live?

By "easier" I mean rotation, number of keybinds, etc.

Thanks.

[Nitwit]

Roughly the same. You don't need to apply your weapon imbues every hour, and lightning shield currently doesn't do anything significant for us on the beta (even though we still have access to it). You also don't have to worry about dropping earth elemental anymore, since they nerfed its DPS into irrelevancy, and stormlash totem is gone, too. Other than that our core priority is unchanged (frost shock replaces earth shock).

[Gyrotex]

Roughly the same. You don't need to apply your weapon imbues every hour, and lightning shield currently doesn't do anything significant for us on the beta (even though we still have access to it). You also don't have to worry about dropping earth elemental anymore, since they nerfed its DPS into irrelevancy, and stormlash totem is gone, too. Other than that our core priority is unchanged (frost shock replaces earth shock).

Thanks.

Sounds like people without twitchy fingers and snake-like reflexes should stay Elemental then...

[Omanley]

Thanks.

Sounds like people without twitchy fingers and snake-like reflexes should stay Elemental then...

I'd say it would become faster, and more complicated. We have new flurry, which reduces gcd and most cds (SS, LL, UE, Shocks, FN) dependant on haste.
If we reached 1s gcd at some point (very likely), this would mean 50% faster playing, basically. There's also new EotE (spells make next SS/LL/Frost Shock/FN not incur it's cooldown), LL perk (FS ticks reset LL cd) and MSW perk (20% extra damage per stack => higher priority).
There's also the removal of WF icd, which means more wf procs => more msw procs => more lb/eb/cl to unleash.

If you think enh is frantic atm, WoD will blow your mind, I believe. The new t17 set bonuses also reduce Feral Spirit cd when using SS. If we assume a ~6s or so SS cd and it being highest prio, that'd be 10 or more (EotE) SSes a minute, reducing Feral Spirit cd by 50+ seconds, almost halving it from 2 to one minute, making them 50% uptime.

[Deleted]

I'd say it would become faster, and more complicated. We have new flurry, which reduces gcd and most cds (SS, LL, UE, Shocks, FN) dependant on haste.
If we reached 1s gcd at some point (very likely), this would mean 50% faster playing, basically. There's also new EotE (spells make next SS/LL/Frost Shock/FN not incur it's cooldown), LL perk (FS ticks reset LL cd) and MSW perk (20% extra damage per stack => higher priority).
There's also the removal of WF icd, which means more wf procs => more msw procs => more lb/eb/cl to unleash.

If you think enh is frantic atm, WoD will blow your mind, I believe. The new t17 set bonuses also reduce Feral Spirit cd when using SS. If we assume a ~6s or so SS cd and it being highest prio, that'd be 10 or more (EotE) SSes a minute, reducing Feral Spirit cd by 50+ seconds, almost halving it from 2 to one minute, making them 50% uptime.

I really dont know the viability of the suggestion someone from Blizzard also gave, but you could stack some other stat rather than haste if you don't like the frantic speed. At least with some luck, something like mastery is still a very good stat so you could minimize the amount of haste you have if you don't like the short CDs/GCDs and rather want harder hitting stuff instead.

[Blithe]

I really dont know the viability of the suggestion someone from Blizzard also gave, but you could stack some other stat rather than haste if you don't like the frantic speed. At least with some luck, something like mastery is still a very good stat so you could minimize the amount of haste you have if you don't like the short CDs/GCDs and rather want harder hitting stuff instead.

If that suggestion was on the front page, that was referring to Elemental of how they're going to love stacking multi-strike but stacking mastery will also be viable (in regards to both multi-strike and mastery changes).

Haste will still mostly always be the best statistic for Enhancement in PvE, especially since it's the one we're attuned for.

[Nythiz]

If that suggestion was on the front page, that was referring to Elemental of how they're going to love stacking multi-strike but stacking mastery will also be viable (in regards to both multi-strike and mastery changes).

The Blizz suggestion that Coreldan was talking about was specifically for enhancement. Someone mentioned how they disliked the new flurry as it was much alike to Sanctity of Battle (paladin passive doing the same thing). Blizz replied to that, that they could just ignore haste and stack something else.

Blizzard said they were going to balance the secondary stats better so that it's more preference oriented; but I don't see how haste wont be the best stat for enhancement if you look at what it's going to do for us.

Haste will still mostly always be the best statistic for Enhancement in PvE, especially since it's the one we're attuned for.

That's not really how it'll work oddly enough. They are going to balance secondary stats AFTER taking the attumenent into consideration (simplistically said: Since we get 5% more haste, haste will be 5% worse). Which kinda makes it sort of pointless in my eyes.

In fact I've never really understood why they even came up with this idea. What use is making one stat 5% more effective if your ultimate goal is to make them all equally valuable anyway. The whole thing just creates unnecessary bloat and confusion.

[Raiju]

That's not really how it'll work oddly enough. They are going to balance secondary stats AFTER taking the attumenent into consideration (simplistically said: Since we get 5% more haste, haste will be 5% worse). Which kinda makes it sort of pointless in my eyes.

In fact I've never really understood why they even came up with this idea. What use is making one stat 5% more effective if your ultimate goal is to make them all equally valuable anyway. The whole thing just creates unnecessary bloat and confusion.

Yes, but that is also with the consideration that attune stats are intended to be optimal. Ofcourse they're going to balance things after all mechanics are considered - doesn't mean they will intentionally make a stat equal or stronger than haste though. They never said it would be equally valuable and more importantly for players who don't go looking on websites - attuned stat basically tells them what they should be going for ingame with a guarantee that even if its not their best stat, it's likely close to it (and most likely best)

[Blithe]

The Blizz suggestion that Coreldan was talking about was specifically for enhancement. Someone mentioned how they disliked the new flurry as it was much alike to Sanctity of Battle (paladin passive doing the same thing). Blizz replied to that, that they could just ignore haste and stack something else.

Blizzard said they were going to balance the secondary stats better so that it's more preference oriented; but I don't see how haste wont be the best stat for enhancement if you look at what it's going to do for us.



That's not really how it'll work oddly enough. They are going to balance secondary stats AFTER taking the attumenent into consideration (simplistically said: Since we get 5% more haste, haste will be 5% worse). Which kinda makes it sort of pointless in my eyes.

In fact I've never really understood why they even came up with this idea. What use is making one stat 5% more effective if your ultimate goal is to make them all equally valuable anyway. The whole thing just creates unnecessary bloat and confusion.

So there was another post about Enhancement instead? I see.

Flurry's an amazing change and definitely doesn't force us into Haste, but you've got to admit Haste is an all-round great statistic for PvE. I don't exactly change statistic priority unless I'm in PvP where it actually matters. If I have enough up-time I could use a Haste build, if I need some pure burst damage I could go mastery or crit, and if I need stronger damage and healing I can use crit.

[Nythiz]

So there was another post about Enhancement instead? I see.

Flurry's an amazing change and definitely doesn't force us into Haste, but you've got to admit Haste is an all-round great statistic for PvE. I don't exactly change statistic priority unless I'm in PvP where it actually matters. If I have enough up-time I could use a Haste build, if I need some pure burst damage I could go mastery or crit, and if I need stronger damage and healing I can use crit.

I agree flurry is amazing and I also admitted that haste was probably going to be all round great (if not by far the best) in my post.

Yes, but that is also with the consideration that attune stats are intended to be optimal. Ofcourse they're going to balance things after all mechanics are considered - doesn't mean they will intentionally make a stat equal or stronger than haste though. They never said it would be equally valuable and more importantly for players who don't go looking on websites - attuned stat basically tells them what they should be going for ingame with a guarantee that even if its not their best stat, it's likely close to it (and most likely best)

I dont know. There are a few specs that have very weird stat attunements.
Not to mention that stats will often prefer a specific balance rather than just focusing on a single one. Plus most people will look up a guide or some kind of stat priority anyway.
This seems rather far fetched mechanic to implement if all you want to do is point the most casual of casual players in the right direction.

[Raiju]

I dont know. There are a few specs that have very weird stat attunements.
Not to mention that stats will often prefer a specific balance rather than just focusing on a single one. Plus most people will look up a guide or some kind of stat priority anyway.
This seems rather far fetched mechanic to implement if all you want to do is point the most casual of casual players in the right direction.

They stated the intention is for attuned stats to generally be the best stat (not necessarily always). That's reason enough in itself before we even consider that the attuned stat may be expanded as it already has been done for elemental.

[Omanley]

I really dont know the viability of the suggestion someone from Blizzard also gave, but you could stack some other stat rather than haste if you don't like the frantic speed. At least with some luck, something like mastery is still a very good stat so you could minimize the amount of haste you have if you don't like the short CDs/GCDs and rather want harder hitting stuff instead.

Considering reforge is a goner come WoD, you will likely have trouble avoiding haste, for the most part. And from a performance-POV, it'll likely be a considerable loss to avoid haste. For the most part, the flurry effects are just speeding the whole thing up, not changin the game play. Gameplay changes come from new EotE and FS perk (that said, the perk is already avaiable as t16 tier), so if you do not take EotE as a talent, not all that much is changing, except speed and maybe priorities of what we already have used.

[Nitwit]

Considering reforge is a goner come WoD, you will likely have trouble avoiding haste, for the most part.

You still have considerable control over your secondary stat balance through flask/food buff/enchants (also gems, but those are rare)

[RippedLife]

is easier even possible with enh?

[Blithe]

You still have considerable control over your secondary stat balance through flask/food buff/enchants (also gems, but those are rare)

Flasks and food buffs seems like a bit of a stretch in PvP, so that only leaves enchants and gems, right? Seems like we're a bit bottle-necked, if you ask me.

- - - Updated - - -

is easier even possible with enh?

Who knows? This is usually my reaction whenever I come back to playing Enhancement after a long break:

[Raiju]

Flasks and food buffs seems like a bit of a stretch in PvP, so that only leaves enchants and gems, right? Seems like we're a bit bottle-necked, if you ask me.

You can enchant any stat on each piece of enchantable gear iirc.

On top of that, didn't they say there'd be more variety in pvp gear?

[Arinnaya]

Obviously levelling content is levelling content, but so far it hasn't felt all that different to live. It's a pre made character so it's mostly 500 gear but it's playing very similar to live, which I personally believe is a good thing.

[Blithe]

You can enchant any stat on each piece of enchantable gear iirc.

On top of that, didn't they say there'd be more variety in pvp gear?

The amount of gear that can have an enchantments or gems put on them will be significantly reduced than today. I heard they were going to add variety to PvP gear, but I don't know what. As far as I already know, we're at least not getting any tertiary statistics which kind of sucks.

[Raiju]

The amount of gear that can have an enchantments or gems put on them will be significantly reduced than today. I heard they were going to add variety to PvP gear, but I don't know what. As far as I already know, we're at least not getting any tertiary statistics which kind of sucks.

It could be added later, although not from any vendor source. Regardless tertiary stats are really a minor thing compared to choice of secondary stats.

[Blithe]

It could be added later, although not from any vendor source. Regardless tertiary stats are really a minor thing compared to choice of secondary stats.

That's true also.