Elemental. How good is it in pve?

[Deleted]

Basically the same
6% buff to spells: So we'll be bottom half ST instead of dead last (maybe we'll be better ST with the next tier bonus, we'll see)
EQ buff and CL nerf: afaik we will still CL spam for AOE so it's just a sustained AOE nerf
SK redesign: Actually somewhat good, more predictable burst AOE but no more SO on normal CL's means burst AOE potential (if you were really really lucky) is down and sustained AOE is down. Also, CL on ST lol

CL isn't being nerfed, they nerfed the spell power coefficient by 6% then slapped on a 6% dmg aura. It's a net neutral change.

They've also changed lightning bolt to benefit from the static overload proc so you don't cast chain lightning single target anymore after SK. The SK change is also not really a sustained aoe loss. Keep in mind stormkeeper empowers chain lightning by 200%, so it's doing triple normal damage. Static Overload has a 10% proc chance, so you'd have to cast 30 chain lightnings on average to get 3 static overload procs that equal the same damage of 1 static overload proc after SK. Of course if you factor in the chance of SK empowered chain lightnings proccing Static Overload it works out to be less than 30 chain lightnings for the same damage, but considering that when 7.3 hits we will be casting EQ a lot as well it's on average probably not a whole lot of difference. Also considering the scenarios where you would aoeing continuously for a whole minute are pretty rare this is almost certainly a buff to 90+% of scenarios.

Of course it does take away the chance at being obscenely lucky but I'd say it's worth it.

[Deleted]

The above post is correct, however it misses the key point, which is that our aoe was never over/under powered and therefore time spent iterating on it has been wasted.

What should've been worked on, is some form of mobility (LB on the move, which would give us something to fill GCDs with during movement and a chance to proc EF to refresh FS), utility (GoS baseline, either apt, est or htt added in its place) and tweaking astral shift to be less shit.

Being middle/bottom of the pack DPS wise is fine, as long as the spec brings something else to the table. Right now it is simply not the case and it IS NOT changing in 7.3.

[Deleted]

The above post is correct, however it misses the key point, which is that our aoe was never over/under powered and therefore time spent iterating on it has been wasted.

What should've been worked on, is some form of mobility (LB on the move, which would give us something to fill GCDs with during movement and a chance to proc EF to refresh FS), utility (GoS baseline, either apt, est or htt added in its place) and tweaking astral shift to be less shit.

Being middle/bottom of the pack DPS wise is fine, as long as the spec brings something else to the table. Right now it is simply not the case and it IS NOT changing in 7.3.

Sure, the constant chain lightning and earthquake balancing is a bit tedious and missing the point, but the static overload change is very welcome.

The dps bump we're getting is I think enough that you won't be benched for your dps numbers playing elemental (for now), so with that in mind I welcome this patch. But yes for elemental to be truly competitive in a mythic setting we would need some utility back. I think it's very unlikely we'll see lightning bolt on the move again, but the elemental focus/maelstrom interaction with flame shock is incredibly frustrating and I'm hoping that doesn't make a return next expansion since it's very odd that refreshing our dot while moving is often a dps loss.

[Das Bromo]

CL isn't being nerfed, they nerfed the spell power coefficient by 6% then slapped on a 6% dmg aura. It's a net neutral change.

They've also changed lightning bolt to benefit from the static overload proc so you don't cast chain lightning single target anymore after SK. The SK change is also not really a sustained aoe loss. Keep in mind stormkeeper empowers chain lightning by 200%, so it's doing triple normal damage. Static Overload has a 10% proc chance, so you'd have to cast 30 chain lightnings on average to get 3 static overload procs that equal the same damage of 1 static overload proc after SK. Of course if you factor in the chance of SK empowered chain lightnings proccing Static Overload it works out to be less than 30 chain lightnings for the same damage, but considering that when 7.3 hits we will be casting EQ a lot as well it's on average probably not a whole lot of difference. Also considering the scenarios where you would aoeing continuously for a whole minute are pretty rare this is almost certainly a buff to 90+% of scenarios.

Of course it does take away the chance at being obscenely lucky but I'd say it's worth it.

All damage abilities increased by 6% (with the exception of Chain Lightning)

I'm pretty sure that makes the CL changes a nerf.

Also last I heard, CL spam still beats using EQ on 5 targets, however I can't remember if that was before or after the SO changes. If CL spam is still optimal, it definitely is a nerf to sustained AOE. If not, net neutral or maybe a slight buff. That being said, EQ can rarely be used effectively in most encounters.

The changes are a step in the right direction considering it makes our AOE damage more predictable. But, the spec as a whole is still on the weaker side.

[Deleted]

I'm pretty sure that makes the CL changes a nerf.

Also last I heard, CL spam still beats using EQ on 5 targets, however I can't remember if that was before or after the SO changes. If CL spam is still optimal, it definitely is a nerf to sustained AOE. If not, net neutral or maybe a slight buff. That being said, EQ can rarely be used effectively in most encounters.

The changes are a step in the right direction considering it makes our AOE damage more predictable. But, the spec as a whole is still on the weaker side.

It's just the way Blizzard talk about the changes on the patch notes. What's actually happened is this:

Pre 7.3: Chain Lightning, 160% SP, 3% damage aura => 160*1.03 = 164.8
7.3: Chain Lightning, 150% SP, 9% damage aura => 150*1.09 = 163.5
Change = 163.5/164.8 = 0.992

So chain lightning does 99.2% of live damage which is a very slight nerf. Earthquake has received a 19% buff along with the increased damage aura going from 3 to 9%. I thought the current PTR sims were showing it is best to use earthquake and because of that overall aoe is up from live. But I haven't checked myself so I'm open to being wrong on that. And I agree that regardless of sims we might not be using EQ that much in a lot of scenarios.

Either way I'm pretty sure the static overload change is going to be pretty big in raids where we normally encounter burst aoe on a timer rather than pure sustained. From looking at logs I think the changes are going to put elemental in a pretty decent spot, even on single target fights like maiden and goroth. However we'll just be in the same boat as enhancement where we can pull our weight in terms of raw damage but we're still a poor choice due to survivability and utility.