Elemental vs. Enhancement in 6.2

[Moonlily]

I've always been Elemental, never tried Enhancement before, but I'm now considering making the switch... we've only done 5 bosses so far and I felt so useless as Elemental, especially on Kilrogg and Gorefiend... I had a look at logs and it looks like Enhancement is performing same or better on most fights, plus now with the 20% buffs... do you think it's worth switching?

[Mordog]

I've always been Elemental, never tried Enhancement before, but I'm now considering making the switch... we've only done 5 bosses so far and I felt so useless as Elemental, especially on Kilrogg and Gorefiend... I had a look at logs and it looks like Enhancement is performing same or better on most fights, plus now with the 20% buffs... do you think it's worth switching?

Same here!

These relativelie fast dying mobs at Gorefiend and Kilrogg are a huge pain in the ass.
Applaying Fireshock and the Mob is down, i cant do anything else....

But we have already an enhancer in the Raid....

Blizzard should just switch the 50% additional dmg while Fireshok is actice to the base dmg of Lvb.
So we still would have FS on our target for the proks but we would be a bit better on these targets....

[jayinjersey]

A) the 20% buff is still in testing
B) no...elemental is better SingleTarget and very close AoE if played properly



Enhance, the class I play love and cherish, really has no role in a raid anymore....if the raid leader had the option they should take the warrior over the Enh for the melee spot.

[Deleted]

The bottom line is that enhancement is for cool kids and elemental is for smellementals.

[Sandokai]

No roses on Elemental. I lost about 20% single target DPS as Elemental w/ 6.2. The beauty of Fusion isn't crackin', the Single Target is not good.

Meanwhile the AOE might be too good. It's just goofy.

Echo also doesn't seem to be proc'ing as much, something's different. At this point I'm too demoralized to look at the patch notes.

[freddy090909]

No roses on Elemental. I lost about 20% single target DPS as Elemental w/ 6.2. The beauty of Fusion isn't crackin', the Single Target is not good.

Meanwhile the AOE might be too good. It's just goofy.

Echo also doesn't seem to be proc'ing as much, something's different. At this point I'm too demoralized to look at the patch notes.

Echo doesn't even have a proc mechanic anymore, not sure what you're saying there.

I do agree that elemental could also use a little love. Anytime we can use earthquakes, we completely excel (including on single target damage), but otherwise we just feel so weak (particularly on the few fights that have a lot of rapid target swapping).

[Wavebossa]

No roses on Elemental. I lost about 20% single target DPS as Elemental w/ 6.2. The beauty of Fusion isn't crackin', the Single Target is not good.

Meanwhile the AOE might be too good. It's just goofy.

Echo also doesn't seem to be proc'ing as much, something's different. At this point I'm too demoralized to look at the patch notes.

Umm,

1. Why are you using Fusion?
2. Aoe is fine if you know where to expect mob placement (dk in raid helps)
3. Echo doesn't proc anymore, hasn't for a long time...

If your enhance is doing 20% more dps on single target than ele (pre enha buff), you are not playing Ele correctly.

EDIT: That said, I still play both enhance and ele in Heroic Hellfire Citadel as there are some fights where enhance's utility makes up for its poor performance. But, I am the top dps in my guild (in either spec) so I have that leeway. Ideally I would be replaced by an equally geared DK if I didn't have an ele spec.

[Last Starfighter]

No roses on Elemental. I lost about 20% single target DPS as Elemental w/ 6.2. The beauty of Fusion isn't crackin', the Single Target is not good.

Meanwhile the AOE might be too good. It's just goofy.

Echo also doesn't seem to be proc'ing as much, something's different. At this point I'm too demoralized to look at the patch notes.

This is in you're head. That is no possible way you list 20 percent. Storm ele is the best single target talent.

Echo doesnt proc. It has charges

[Moonlily]

Maybe it's too early to say, unfortunately I'm the only shaman in my raid group so I can't compare myself to anyone else, I was asking based on the data on Warcraft Logs so far.
I saw the 20% buff and thought it was going to bring a more visible improvement, but if you say it won't affect single target damage too much then I guess I'll just stick to Ele. Maybe I'll still build an Enh spec for those fights with high movement and lots of target switching... I wish we weren't so swamped with Healers so that I could play Resto, atleast I'd feel useful again xD

[Sandokai]

Yes, Fusion does suck, and I've had to use the twin Elemental for most fights (non AOE) - which works with the length a lot of the time. I'm probably making a mistaken assumption about where my lava burst procs have come from. The rhythm is just other. I'll have to look into it.

[Hemat]

Elemental is great on some fights but there's like 4 in a row our skill set is bad for.

Heroic Assault I was #2 dps just shy of 70k....reaver bottom 5 council bottom kormrok top 5 because of timing on hands well with EQ. Gorefiend is aweful. We suck on adds, and our burst is aweful compared to others. After that elemental is fine. Great on iskar great on zakuun great on xhul, great on mannoroth.

[Deleted]

Go Enhancement, Elemental is a dead spec now. We dont even have theorycrafters left willing to put in their soul into the project.

[chairmanmao]

Elemental is great on some fights but there's like 4 in a row our skill set is bad for.

Heroic Assault I was #2 dps just shy of 70k....reaver bottom 5 council bottom kormrok top 5 because of timing on hands well with EQ. Gorefiend is aweful. We suck on adds, and our burst is aweful compared to others. After that elemental is fine. Great on iskar great on zakuun great on xhul, great on mannoroth.

This was pretty much my exact experience.

[Fireplane]

Go Enhancement, Elemental is a dead spec now. We dont even have theorycrafters left willing to put in their soul into the project.

That's not true, Binkenstein still puts in a lot of effort into figuring out the math behind Elemental.

[Murderdoll]

Elemental if played right is in a better position than enhance. Not only from a damage pov but also simply because you are ranged.

[bennyv]

There's a few fights where Elemental is competitive.

Hellfire Assault
Iskar
Socrethar
Xhul'horac

Beyond that Elemental is more or less bottom of the meters.

As for Fusion, it's still currently the best single target spec and will improve dramatically with Class trinket. Storm is viable though.

We're currently 12/13N and 8/13H after two nights and I'm strongly considering the switch to Mage. The negatives significantly outweigh the positives.

Movement is paralysing, priority add switching is difficult, little to not ability to absorb mechanics, little utility off healing and not to mention, competing with the very competitive Hunters for loot.

The only positives is sustained aoe, but with raid ilevels increasing that benefit diminishes quickly.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm questioning my ability to retain my raid position.

Our Enhance is also is struggle town, but they have some light at the end of the tunnel. Seems as if their position is known well enough for changes to be in the pipeline. For Elemental, the situation is dark.

[Deleted]

That's not true, Binkenstein still puts in a lot of effort into figuring out the math behind Elemental.

Then you didnt read his tweets lately. He cut lots of features due to time issues.

[Deleted]

Gotta love the whole "elemental is fine, now excuse me while I switch specc/class to something else" crowd.

[Moonlily]

Elemental is great on some fights but there's like 4 in a row our skill set is bad for.

Heroic Assault I was #2 dps just shy of 70k....reaver bottom 5 council bottom kormrok top 5 because of timing on hands well with EQ. Gorefiend is aweful. We suck on adds, and our burst is aweful compared to others. After that elemental is fine. Great on iskar great on zakuun great on xhul, great on mannoroth.

Yep pretty much my experience, we only got to Gorefiend and I was well demoralized... but then I got to kill Iskar last night and my faith in Ele got restored lol, also healer Xhul, but it looked pretty good for Ele... I guess I'll just have to endure through those early-mid bosses :P

[Gistwiki]

Then you didnt read his tweets lately. He cut lots of features due to time issues.

I find it hard to blame that on a lack of interest when, if you've been following him for awhile, it seems clear that said time issues are largely due to medical issues. He's deliberately vague on details, but outside of him being snarky towards people asking questions he considers asinine (e.g. anyone asking for a BiS list, which is a concept he has disliked since I first read his stuff in BC) that seems to be the driving factor.

That said, I missed the first 6 bosses this week due to my brothers birthday being on patch day but iskar onwards through archimonde (11/13 H & cleared normal as a guild atm) seemed just fine. Fights we may not do as well on will only get better with core, and the only one I feel like we'll do very poorly on overall is gorefiend.