Originally Posted by
Zixan
Dude desert, someone needs to take away your "High Overlord" Title..
I don't even know where to start.
SWG >>>> Ice Flows.
Ice Flows only will allow you to cast one spell while moving every 15 seconds. Yes, you have 3 charges. If you'd like to spend all of it in one place, you get 3 spells every 45 seconds. For the former, you could easily use a Earth Shock, Searing Totem, Lava Surge, Flame Shock, or Unleash Flame. Whichever of those 5 benefit you the most at that given time. Keep in mind with Lighting Shield stacking three times as high, it doesn't have to be even half full for it to be a good choice in spells on the move, and with our "Pandemic" like effect with Flame Shock, we have the flexibility to cast Flame Shock with about 9 seconds remaining on the dot, with no loss. For the latter, glyph SWG and you have about 4-7 spells you can cast while moving every minute, depending on your haste. That's a little better. Without the glyph, you can cast constantly for 15 seconds with no penalty. That is absolutely untouchable by Ice Flows.
If you are using SWG with Ascendance solely because it is a DPS cooldown, you're not using it to its fullest potential. If you actually pay attention and look for spots to plant for 15seconds, and not move, you'd be surprised how much of a crutch SWG can be for Ascendance. Right now, it's alright (but not optimal) to always use SWG with Ascendance, because every other scenario is could be less of an increase, therefore seen as "bad." However, in Warlords, this will not be the case. SWG will be a much much more effective cooldown than it is now. And it will require a smart player to utilize well. You yourself said that you want to be using abilities to play as best as you can involving movement. This is that.
You're throwing the word 'clunky' around way way too much. First of all, it's subjective, which means it has nothing to do with how the spec feels to other people. "clunky" is the word people use to dissociate themselves when they say the don't like a spec or ability. You not liking the playstyle has nothing to do with the developers having spent thousands of hours designing the spec. There's a lot of things also that come under the hood to make sure it stays viable. If you just "Buff Lava Burst" than you'll get horrific haste scaling, very little crit scaling, and a lot of rotational glitches, especially once you start getting gear. Specs have to be balanced with each other at every possible gear level. This makes every change a heavily calculated process. Everything is like a house of cards. Changing one things in effect changes its relation with everything else. Imagine playing Jenga, but you can't see the other pieces as easily.
Irisia has a great point. Shamans all around are crying their eyes out, assuming they're going to be dead last in every fight because they have to move. This simply wont be the case. Blizzard took out our movement while casting with Lightning Bolt, and essential put its damage right back with Molten Earth. Its quite hilarious, actually.