Is elemental fun?

[Ishixaph]

The spec scales stupid well with gear. For instance you might see a 300dps increase from a 30sp gain, in the upper gear levels.

what? do we scale "stupid well"??? I have to disagree there. I think the scaling is terrible the only thing that really changes your dps output is if you have a demolock or not in the raid.
You see, we only gain dps from pure dps stas like haste, crit and spellpower. We get very little from int(only crit) and nothing from spirit. Other casters scales from int and/or spirit.

On topic: I just love my elemental shaman I wouldn't trade her for any class/specc. You should try it out, but as already stated, its hard to master the specc.

//ishi

[Boarhunter]

Yes, elemental is the best thing eva

[jontaxe]

what? do we scale "stupid well"??? I have to disagree there. I think the scaling is terrible the only thing that really changes your dps output is if you have a demolock or not in the raid.
You see, we only gain dps from pure dps stas like haste, crit and spellpower. We get very little from int(only crit) and nothing from spirit. Other casters scales from int and/or spirit.

Its not that we don't benefit from Int/Spir, because the net +DPS of BoK on those is negligible.

It's that lava burst is a fixed cooldown spell. It does not scale with haste or crit and its a pretty big chunk of damage. It's why they've had to keep buffing the talents that prop it up.

[Scrototems]

Some people love elemental but mostly that are the people who have never tried out enhance. Myself i think Enhancement is > all, but if you are bored with Enhancement you could try out elemental without a full set of ele gear if you like it you respecc and farm more gear and if you dont you just stay Enhance ;D

[Intiriel]

Yes, it is fun!

[Dudits]

I have been elemental since 2.0 and it has not yet been boring nor have i ever really wanted to go to a different spec. but thats just me.

[Volitar]

Reading this thread made me love teh shammy again was thinking about changing mage to main not no more sucka

[Poppasan]

Oh well... I might try ele and put my enhancement gear in bank

[Jenerena]

What truly draws me back every time to my ele shaman is how different she feels than other casters (cept arcane mages possibly). The ability to switch targets on the fly at almost no loss of dps (with such a short ramp up time) lets me shine on multiple target fight. Dpsing while moving is elemental's weak point for sure, but finding creative ways around this handicap (e.g. liberal usage of creative fire totem placement+fire nova, lots of saronite bombs, thunderstorm and frawst shawk) make the class still a very difficult one to truly master. Plus thunderstorm LoSing healers in arena =win

I agree with this, I played a warlock for over a year before rerolling to my shaman a few weeks ago, and it is a breath of fresh air not having so many procs, cooldowns, and dots to watch that I had playing demonology. Of course, it is alot more simple and very boring on tank and spank fights, my warlock always stayed interesting, but I found myself watching my dots, procs so much I was often a little blind to what was actually going on in the fight. Think LK, Putricide. Playing elemental feels alot more comfortable as you're not constantly worried about things dropping off, watching your pet, etc. I can pay much more close attention to the fight.

The sustained burst is very nice, it can get very repetitive but it's always there when you want it, making target switching an easy task, without having to reapply an extra dot or two. And the cast times are 'fast' so it feels very quick and exciting. Always loved the feeling of having high haste, especially teamed with a high base cast time.

Sinaesthetic, I think you will actually be surprised how much dps other casters lose when moving also. Don't say dots, if your dots are ticking away on a boss whilst moving your overall dps actually decreases. As a warlock the only things I could do on the move is corruption and life tap. For a shaman, thunderstorm and flame shock, and flame shock actually does damage on cast. Moonkins can only moonfire, insect swarm. Mages are also limited. So I think that statement is flawed. Trinkets/tier bonuses aside, as a class we have very little active procs that aren't under our control. As a warlock, molten core often procced as I was about to move, now that is frustrating. Shamans have EM and racial (berserking, in my case) under their control. As well as bloodlust, though that is sort of irrelevant.

Overall, there are pros and cons. I never enjoyed enhancement because I'm not a melee player, I play casters/healers, and as melee I felt uncomfortable. Definitely give it a go though, I did the same with enhancement and decided to switch back, you have that option. Good luck!

[Sinaesthetic]

what? do we scale "stupid well"??? I have to disagree there. I think the scaling is terrible the only thing that really changes your dps output is if you have a demolock or not in the raid.
You see, we only gain dps from pure dps stas like haste, crit and spellpower. We get very little from int(only crit) and nothing from spirit. Other casters scales from int and/or spirit.

On topic: I just love my elemental shaman I wouldn't trade her for any class/specc. You should try it out, but as already stated, its hard to master the specc.

//ishi

I dont think you understand what scaling means.

You basically just said "we only gain dps from dps stats." I said we scale really well from gear. wtf would i be talking about if i meant we scale well from gear that didn't have the stats we were looking for, as if I implied that ele would scale well with spirit and intellect-- i might as well have implied that attack power and strength could have helped us out too. I also said that gear can be a bitch for us too, because we dont care about int and spirit and most the dps clothie garbage has it. But that has nothing to do with scaling. And on another note, the nice thing is that the resto stat priorites are so close to the ele stat priorities, that pieces are interchangeable most of the time at the mid raiding level. You can have an ok ele set with half resto items and vice versa, trade MP5<>hit

Regardless, what I was saying is that something as low as 19sp would noticeably increase your dps, where with other classes, it is negligible. 15 haste is noticeable. 1% crit is noticeable. That is the scaling i was referring to.

[Paniikki]

here's my suggestion on how to test if ele is fun.
get a proper specc, grind some badge gear, go to WG fort while it's under the control of opposing faction, fly on a platform high enough above the WG fort door, wait till some nab tries to stab you, thunderfuck, /pat, /spit.

gets me thru the awful queue times to BGs on our battlegroup.

[boneschaman]

yes!

[Dalacia]

I find it fun. Only time I get to go Elemental though is for Saurfang. But when I want to PvP, I like to do ABs and knock people off the Lumbermill ;D

[MrSplash]

Please no trolling for making such a topic, I don't want to gear up for 2 months (well 2 days ;D)

So i've been enhancement since start of WoTLK, even while leveling. Since I want to try something new i'm wondering is elemental fun? Or should just stay enhancement? ???

Enhancement is probably one of the most fun DPS specs, due to how fast paced the priority & so on is, I can't play elemental due to how dull it is in comparison as I've been playing Enhance since early BC after re-rolling Shaman.
If you've been playing Enhance since WoTLK began, don't roll ele because you will die of bordem the second you raid as it.

[Nyssie]

I like both. So much so that I have two 80 shamans, one is elemental/resto and one is enhancement. They are both equally fun for me. I get to see the big bursts and flying lavas on one and whack things with my windfury weapon on the other.

[Shadowysaint]

What truly draws me back every time to my ele shaman is how different she feels than other casters (cept arcane mages possibly). The ability to switch targets on the fly at almost no loss of dps (with such a short ramp up time) lets me shine on multiple target fight. Dpsing while moving is elemental's weak point for sure, but finding creative ways around this handicap (e.g. liberal usage of creative fire totem placement+fire nova, lots of saronite bombs, thunderstorm and frawst shawk) make the class still a very difficult one to truly master. Plus thunderstorm LoSing healers in arena =win

This person accurately described how i feel about my sham when i roll as ele

[scvd]

Anything else?

Elaborate

[Boonzorsx]

If you played enh, no it is not ( unless u are lazy ). Ele is not as near as challenging as enh, and you WILL get bored after some time. The only reason to play ele is if u really like big numbers, if u enjoy the spec and if ur lazy ( ele does less damage than enh also ).

[op3l]

I like elemental shaman and always had. For me what made ele shaman appealing is the fact it's a caster class that is the turret type unlike the other casters.

We have to stand by our totems, and we're kind of tied down to it like a base turret. We'll do good damage without them, but where we truely shine is when we can plant our feet, drop the totems, then blow away the enemy.

In a raid, you have to plan where you want your totems and how you want to move. You can't just run around endlessly like other classes cause if you run too far out, you will have to redrop totems. If you need to redrop totems, you need to make sure where you're dropping them won't be out of range in a few seconds or something. So it's a different kind of game play than other ranged classes.

Also CL Overload Proc is just pure awesome sauce. Moar pew pew!

[Northy]

Elemental is a one trick pony and will get rick-rolled 1v1 against most classes.

Fun? ya i spose, but also frustrating.