Do you guys like Unleash Elements?

[ro9ue]

Curious to know if there are any shaman players out there that enjoy this ability? I personally expected this to get the axe during ability pruning, and in its current form where it doesn't even deal damage for Elemental or Enhancement, it just feels ultra-maintenancy similar to a Rogues Slice and Dice and Paladins Inquisition, both of which got removed. (Its actually worse since the buff is much shorter, much like the old Paladin seals)

I don't mind it for Resto, but still remains one of my least favorite abilities. I think I actually would rather not even use it and take the slight dps loss for the other specs.


Maybe this should replace the Unleash talent and be something you can spec into if you like it?

[Menubrea]

No, I think it's horrible. Especially if you don't pick up Unleashed Fury, and even then I'd just rather see a different talent. We have enough buttons to press as it is. The movement perk should be moved to Earth Shock and Frost Shock respectively and the damage of Flame Shock should be improved to compensate.

While we're at it, remove the cooldown of Flame Shock to make target swapping more fluent and make the cooldown on Frost/Earth Shock be separate from Flame Shock.

[Lavindar]

Well, it was really useful when it did damage, with it's 40 yard range, now it has a bit of weirdness to it, but I still like the gameplay it provides during the fight.

[Alextros]

No, I think it's horrible. Especially if you don't pick up Unleashed Fury, and even then I'd just rather see a different talent. We have enough buttons to press as it is. The movement perk should be moved to Earth Shock and Frost Shock respectively and the damage of Flame Shock should be improved to compensate.

While we're at it, remove the cooldown of Flame Shock to make target swapping more fluent and make the cooldown on Frost/Earth Shock be separate from Flame Shock.

Well, See you later in BGs where I will be cannon-balling people with Lavaburst when I can, if Flame Shock gets no CD.
Having 5second CD aint that hard to prepare out with on target switching.

On topic: I think, it should deal damage again, or else it should just be made passive or make it more of a lesser CD (Abit more CD onto it, make it stronger) tbh

[Lothrik]

I'm sure it would garner less complaints if it either did a measurable amount of damage/healing, or had a massively reduced GCD.

[Deleted]

Blizz said we had too many abilities doing small damage and no hard hitters as a result.

Their fix was to remove the damage from UE only afaik, but everything still hits like wet noodles. Chaos bolts and executes are critting for 50k and more but the lava lash and stormstrike peak at around 20-25k?

The only time I felt like I had a really powerful ability was ascendance storm blast in MoP.

I don't want them to add dmg to it again because it would mean SS/LL just doing less damage again. I dont know man, we have too many damage sources. Something should change.

[Menubrea]

Well, See you later in BGs where I will be cannon-balling people with Lavaburst when I can, if Flame Shock gets no CD.
Having 5second CD aint that hard to prepare out with on target switching.

On topic: I think, it should deal damage again, or else it should just be made passive or make it more of a lesser CD (Abit more CD onto it, make it stronger) tbh

I don't see why not, Balance Druids are pretty much able to do the same thing with Shooting Stars. And it's not that it's difficult, it's just clunky.

[Murderdoll]

I think it should have been given the axe completely or had the entire spell baked into the Unleash Fury Talent - including the damage component.

At the moment it feels utterly useless.

[Zelk]

Blizz said we had too many abilities doing small damage and no hard hitters as a result.

Their fix was to remove the damage from UE only afaik, but everything still hits like wet noodles. Chaos bolts and executes are critting for 50k and more but the lava lash and stormstrike peak at around 20-25k?

The only time I felt like I had a really powerful ability was ascendance storm blast in MoP.

I don't want them to add dmg to it again because it would mean SS/LL just doing less damage again. I dont know man, we have too many damage sources. Something should change.

Chaos Bolts don't crit

[Deleted]

i hate it!

the movespeed buff is nice tho...

[ro9ue]

I just feel like they have too many abilities and the rotation is weird. Here's a quick comparison, feel free to correct any errors as I haven't done thorough research on EVERY class.

Assassin Rogue
Resource generators: Mutilate, Dispatch
Resource spenders: Rupture, Envenom
Additional AOE generator + spender: FoK + CT
Cooldown: Vendetta
Total combat buttons: 7

Retribution Paladin
Resource generators: Crusader Strike, Exorcism, Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, Execution Sentence
Resource spenders: Templar's Verdict/Final Verdict
Additional AOE generator + spender: Hammer of the Righteous + Divine Storm
Total combat buttons: 8

Frost Death Knight
Rune spenders: Obliterate, Blood Boil, Death and Decay, Howling Blast, Plague Strike, Soul Reaper
Runic Power spenders: Frost Strike
Extra stuff: Outbreak
Cooldowns: Pillar of Frost, ERW, Army
Total combat buttons: 11 (Note if you spec into Necrotic Plague, you no longer need BB, Plague Strike or Outbreak because it replaces both diseases and is applied to all targets with Howling Blast, dropping your button count to 8)

Fury Warrior
Rotation: Bloodthirst, Raging Blow, Wild Strike, Whirlwind, Charge(generally used only once), Execute
Cooldowns: Recklessness, L60 Talent, L90 Talent, Berserker Rage
Total combat buttons: 9 if you don't count charge, if you do, 10. Can get more buttons if you choose to spec into it.

Enhancement Shaman
Priority system: Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Searing Totem, Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, Unleash Elements
Additional AOE: Fire Nova, Magma Totem, Chain Lightning
Cooldowns: Ascendance, Fire Elemental, Spirit Wolves (Won't include Bloodlust)
Total combat buttons: 13

Im not going to keep going ,but you can see the point. Many dps classes, depending on how they spec can sit around 7-9 buttons for combat. Enhancement is base 13 and no way to lose any.

IMO here's a few ways to fix this:
1. Merge Searing and Magma totem to free up a button.
2. Make the talent 'Unleashed Fury' also bake unleashed elements passively into your Stormstrike, so when you use SS, you get the buffs you would normally get from an Unleashed-Fury-enhanced-Unleash-Elements. This frees up another button. This would put Enhancement at 11 if you talent into it.
3. This is probably controversial, but a few Enhancement talent tiers aren't very interesting. Maybe give an option to make a choice between a dps cooldown. Put Spirit Wolves, a short CD, Ascendance, a long CD, and maybe a passive option up against one another. This would free up at minimum 1 button, possibly 2 if you select the passive. Obviously these abilities would need to be tuned (buffed) around only having one of them.

• With those suggestions, you could choose your way down to 9 buttons. On the higher end of the spectrum, but much more manageable.

Thoughts?

[withoutaname]

Making unleash element as a talent isn't a bad idea. Blizz gets to keep the spell and an option for those that actually like it. I personally wish it disappear completely. Why do I need to press a button that uses a GCD just to do more damage? It's like saying I need to bake the bread before I eat it when there's already fresh bake bread.

[Stermsohe]

I don't hate it. Would I trade it for say, an execute? Definitely. But overall it does feel like an ability that has impact when used, to me. The animation is pretty great and it's interaction with FS/Nova is interesting enough when approaching aoe/ST situations. I dont feel like it needs to be pruned for the sake of being pruned unless they replace it with another ability.

[Tolstyj]

I like it animation with 2H maces.

[Hothgor]

I just feel like they have too many abilities and the rotation is weird. Here's a quick comparison, feel free to correct any errors as I haven't done thorough research on EVERY class.

Assassin Rogue
Resource generators: Mutilate, Dispatch
Resource spenders: Rupture, Envenom
Additional AOE generator + spender: FoK + CT
Cooldown: Vendetta
Total combat buttons: 7

Retribution Paladin
Resource generators: Crusader Strike, Exorcism, Judgement, Hammer of Wrath, Execution Sentence
Resource spenders: Templar's Verdict/Final Verdict
Additional AOE generator + spender: Hammer of the Righteous + Divine Storm
Total combat buttons: 8

Frost Death Knight
Rune spenders: Obliterate, Blood Boil, Death and Decay, Howling Blast, Plague Strike, Soul Reaper
Runic Power spenders: Frost Strike
Extra stuff: Outbreak
Cooldowns: Pillar of Frost, ERW, Army
Total combat buttons: 11 (Note if you spec into Necrotic Plague, you no longer need BB, Plague Strike or Outbreak because it replaces both diseases and is applied to all targets with Howling Blast, dropping your button count to 8)

Fury Warrior
Rotation: Bloodthirst, Raging Blow, Wild Strike, Whirlwind, Charge(generally used only once), Execute
Cooldowns: Recklessness, L60 Talent, L90 Talent, Berserker Rage
Total combat buttons: 9 if you don't count charge, if you do, 10. Can get more buttons if you choose to spec into it.

Enhancement Shaman
Priority system: Stormstrike, Lava Lash, Searing Totem, Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, Unleash Elements
Additional AOE: Fire Nova, Magma Totem, Chain Lightning
Cooldowns: Ascendance, Fire Elemental, Spirit Wolves (Won't include Bloodlust)
Total combat buttons: 13

Im not going to keep going ,but you can see the point. Many dps classes, depending on how they spec can sit around 7-9 buttons for combat. Enhancement is base 13 and no way to lose any.

IMO here's a few ways to fix this:
1. Merge Searing and Magma totem to free up a button.
2. Make the talent 'Unleashed Fury' also bake unleashed elements passively into your Stormstrike, so when you use SS, you get the buffs you would normally get from an Unleashed-Fury-enhanced-Unleash-Elements. This frees up another button. This would put Enhancement at 11 if you talent into it.
3. This is probably controversial, but a few Enhancement talent tiers aren't very interesting. Maybe give an option to make a choice between a dps cooldown. Put Spirit Wolves, a short CD, Ascendance, a long CD, and maybe a passive option up against one another. This would free up at minimum 1 button, possibly 2 if you select the passive. Obviously these abilities would need to be tuned (buffed) around only having one of them.

• With those suggestions, you could choose your way down to 9 buttons. On the higher end of the spectrum, but much more manageable.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of rolling UE into SS as a passive, though that poses a problem for Elemental and Resto, so I would rather see them simply roll in UE into UF entirely, letting it be a talent option and balance it accordingly. I would also swap Primal Elementalist with Liquid Magma and make the level 90 talent tier a 'choose how you want to change your rotation' tier. Heavy movement fight? Pick up UF. Lots of AoE? Liquid Magma. PvP or single target? Chose EB. If they don't want to do anything of the sort, at least take it off the GCD.

I to would like to see them remove Magma Totem OR chain lightning from the enhancement lineup. Hell I wouldn't shed too many tears if they got rid of BOTH of them. But they seem to want Magma totem to stick around, so lets at least make it more bearable. Increase its range and add a faded red outline circle to show what it can hit. A small QoL improvement would make it more practical to us.

Lastly, I see no reason for Frost Shock to do any damage. Remove its damage, take it off the GCD, and roll that damage back into our SS and LL abilities. This actually makes haste scale as well as it currently does far past the 50% threshold, and it would make Echo of the Elements more interesting as an added bonus!

[nazrakin]

I don't enjoy UF but I do enjoy the current pace and feel of the rotation. The reason Enhancement has "more buttons" is because we don't have a proper resource or generator. Simply removing and consolidating abilities is only going to lead us to a lot more waiting and hardcasting of LB, similar to what happened going for WOTLK to Cata.

As I've said before, I find UE innocuous. The horribly minuscule damage it dealt in the past is not something I miss. 99% of the time its used it the same way it always has. Also, Slice and Dice was not removed, Assassin Rogue get it free but Sub and Combat are still using it as they always have. Savage Roar/Tiger Fury/ Brew/Frenzy... pretty much every AGI DPS has a similar skill.

That said, Blizzard absolutely needs to sit down and rethink the entire Shaman class and start over on our talent tree which has only one decent tier that isn't a contradiction of everything the new system was suppose to accomplish. However, I doubt an overhaul like that will happen mid-expansion though.

[kaikoraimi]

IF UE were off the GCD, I would enjoy it much more. As elem, I really hate that it slows down my mob pulls (and when using Unleashed Fury, not being able to use the first second or so of the buff). As it is, it just feels clunky.

[Deleted]

It was the most non-sensical change they made. It's current functionality is the very definition of bloat. In MoP it was actually a spell that I liked a lot. If you were farming mobs on Timeless Isle for example it was an awesome long range tag to get at least one mob off the bloody auto-shot hunters. With the damage component it had it also gave you some feedback for hitting it. Now it's just a dead button push.

[Alltat]

For resto it's just clumsy, and getting any serious use out of it is very situational. They should have just removed it and have the talent that improves it give you the ability instead. No one would mourn the loss of the untalented spell anyway.

[Deleted]

It looks great on female draenei as you spin around, but i really want it to do some damage again... even 10 points or something for tagging mobs? Playing enhance.

Edit: currently i hate searing totem as it's just really boring. Remove searing totem and let magma stay for AOE, making somethingsomething so we dont use it on single target.