*****I have been playing Enhancement for 12+ years. This thread is intended for positive class balance and seeing that our favorite spec is developed in the right direction for future expansions and gameplay.*****
I believe we are in a good place right now. The rotation is really fun, we have decent mobility, and our AOE feels like it is in a good place. We are a mid pack single target DPS at best. Our AOE is decent but shouldn't be better than Elemental.
I really think we need more damage. I'm pretty geared and the maximum amount of DPS I can pull is like 1.2mil single target and maybe 2mil on AOE. Which is not bad but it's just not preferable. I get declined from groups regularly because why take an enhance shaman when there are demon hunters, death knights, and warriors. They pull way more dps and you can't use the excuse that they are purely DPS because they are also hybrid classes. Melee is already kind of a liability because there is a false pretense that this type of playstyle is harder to manage in high level content for healers and that they die more to mechanics. The numbers just seem really lackluster for how powerful I feel using these abilities. We have always been glass cannon burst with lackluster sustain.
I feel like our survivability needs tweaking even if it was something baked in like passive damage reduction or maybe they could reintroduce and rework Shamanistic Rage as a talent instead of Ancestral Swiftness. Back in the day, this used to reduce mana cost (I believe?) as well as providing another damage reduction. I think we can do better.
Right now as a talent, I've always hated Ancestral Swiftness because of how bland it is, a flat stat boost does not feel good when you're choosing a TALENT. Why not give a real talent?
Shamanistic Rage
2 minute Cooldown
All damage taken reduced by 30% and successful melee attacks have a chance to reduce the cost and global cooldown of your next ability by 50%. 15 second duration.
This would be interesting because rather than buffing our damage or giving us flat haste, we could effectively be more involved in our rotation, the change to reduce Global cooldown of our next ability means that we could spend MP faster at a reduced cost and put out more damage but have it be personal rather than class X gets X% buff on all their abilities. People who react and play better should be better.
We know Blizzard loves to bake in defensives with damage boosts so I believe this would fit right in with that situational usage they want us to decide on.
Even if you don't want to add this as a talent I still think it would be a good ability to implement to Enhancement AND Elemental in SOME iteration.
I think it's good to homogenize every class so that everyone is on an equal playing field and Blizzard obviously stands behind this philosophy, they've been doing this for years. However, I believe personal experience and how well YOU play should give you the edge. It's common sense, it is natural. If you are better you should noticeably feel like you're DOING better.
Another thing I would like to see personally, please just take away Mana, all spells should be exactly like healing surge, after a certain amount of maelstrom the spell cast should be instant but they shouldn't be limited by a *now* secondary resource that is essentially just clutter.
Removing mana would make Healing Surge much more powerful and contribute to our survivability in a balanced way, trading DPS resources for survivability is smart. At this time, mana is used for Healing Surge, Hex, and Purge?
Hex should still be cast but after a significant amount of MP should be instant cast, it already has a CD, so adding this would give the Shaman a choice, I can instantly hex someone but it's going to cost a massive chunk of my resources. In PvP this would be a good change, because it would reduce our burst capabilities while giving us more balance and versatility. Giving these choices to a player makes the game and the class more enjoyable and challenging.
Purge should not cost mana but should just be on a charge system with a set recharge time like Rockbiter. It is situational and strong. You should need to consider WHEN to purge rather than just spam until your mana runs out. The recharge time doesn't need to be long and by costing MP it could balance itself out, you just used Rockbiter to generate MP well Purge will cost as much as Rockbiter generated. You need to choose between your utility or saving MP for that DPS output.
This is just a few of the things we can do, what changes would you like to see for enhancement? Please help me create a civil discussion.
Please contribute to my thread on the official Shaman and class development forums:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20759295795
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20759155773