Cata - Enhancement ZOMG SPAM

[SkyBlueAri]

Note: this could hav been posted before, but im not a regular on the shammy forums!

Anyone else see the problem with giving shammys more offensive abilities that enhancements rotation will be even more of a keyboard jam then it is now?
I mean theres very little time for us not to be casting something, so they giv us more abilities? I srsly hope blizz change the spec a lot so its more relaxed and doesnt make me feel like im on speed the whole time.
If anyone else has opinions about this inc problem plz post. If there is a solution to this that ive missed somehow plz post as well. Also if there isnt anything to counter this issue post ur ideas here. Because I can see the enhancement spec being really fuked up next ex pak if this issue isnt addressed.

[Laava]

Well Blizzard stated that they actually want to make it bit more player friendly by increasing Lava Lash cd, but I personally dont see it happening with lava burst and unleash weapon

[jb226]

I imagine that to whatever extent shaman are ultimately given more buttons to push (that they want to push), it will simply mean some buttons you're pressing now won't be worth pressing anymore. In particular I have a feeling that the magma totem / fire nova steps may end up eliminated or reduced, at least on single-target encounters. Remember that one thing Blizzard has stated is that they want people to press different buttons if they're fighting one person than if they're fighting a group. Both of those scream out multi-target abilities to me, especially Fire Nova. Using it on single target has never seemed like a good idea* to me, so at least that is something they can probably safely remove from your rotation. It likely wouldn't be hard to accomplish by simply jacking up the mana cost of the abilities. AE pulls--however rare or common they end up being--typically don't last long, so large mana costs during them aren't an issue -- but during a sustained single-target DPS scenario they could be.

There's only so many buttons you can press without massively long cooldowns on them. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

* From a gameplay perspective. I understand it is a DPS increase if used properly.

[LyskaWF]

Well Blizzard stated that they actually want to make it bit more player friendly by increasing Lava Lash cd, but I personally dont see it happening with lava burst and unleash weapon

Lava Burst will only take the place of a LB every 8 seconds; that will not have any impact (unless you're implying that prioritizing something above MW_5LB will be taxing on the player =x). I expect things to stay roughly the same barring further changes: they will increase the cooldown on Lava Lash, but Unleash Weapon, as you said, will essentially counteract any "breathing room" we may have gotten. One improvement I see is that they intend to make Searing totem superior for single target, which will take a couple of *mandatory* totem refreshes out of the rotation.

[Renzokuken]

Lava Burst will only take the place of a LB every 8 seconds; that will not have any impact (unless you're implying that prioritizing something above MW_5LB will be taxing on the player =x). I expect things to stay roughly the same barring further changes: they will increase the cooldown on Lava Lash, but Unleash Weapon, as you said, will essentially counteract any "breathing room" we may have gotten. One improvement I see is that they intend to make Searing totem superior for single target, which will take a couple of *mandatory* totem refreshes out of the rotation.

Keep in mind that our Mastery bonus is +Nature dmg(Though this may change before release). MWx5 LvB may end up being more for PvP burst than PvE DPS, also considering our mastery bonus may mean removing FS from our rotation. And hopefully they will address poor old Searing Totem, I miss him

[XemnasXD]

even if it wasn't nature damage LvB still doesn't do enough damage for Enh Shamans to consider using it in PvE maybe a FS+Unleased FT+LvB might make it viable for PvP but thats about it...

[M4d2m0A]

It does seem like we're going a lot more, I play a lot of different classes in pug raids and such and enh shaman has seemed to be the hardest to play. We have to watch 3 dps cooldowns (wolves, fire ele, shamrage) 2 timed buffs (magma, lightning shield) and 4 skill cooldowns (Stormstrike,lava lash, fire nova, shocks) also on top of that we have to use MWx5 everytime it procs with 4peice t-10 or it's a big potential dps loss.

Hopefully the biggest change will be letting us drop searing on single targets, that will give us a bit more freedom for GCD's. Fire nova shouldn't ever out dps any skill we have on single targets, which should give us time for the new unleash weapon. Lava lash needs some kind of buff other than pretty much making us use lava burst in our rotations, only reason to use lava lash now over fire nova is because it can proc MW.

I dunno it seems the class has gone totally the wrong way, comparing it to how it used to be.

[Zarios]

Personally, I love Fire Nova. Our priority list is not really that harder, just more to do than others. I hope these changes will make our spec slightly easier though, but with more to do.

[Jynks]

With no information about what will happen during the beta this is the same speculation that has been going on in these forums for weeks.

We do not know what the design for the class is. We do not know what changes to the talent trees and abilities are going to be made. Therefore, we do not know how the class is going to play.

Saying things like "we will use <x> ability under <y> conditions" is total speculation. There is no factual data around which you are basing your conclusions. Why not just wait and see, when we have actual data then we can start to talk about the implications of said data.

Having said all that I do not have high hopes for the class design they seem to be persuring, I am not sure any of the class desigers properley understand the issues with either the current piority list or the interactions between the abilities that result in the piority list being what it is.

[SkyBlueAri]

Personally, I love Fire Nova. Our priority list is not really that harder, just more to do than others. I hope these changes will make our spec slightly easier though, but with more to do.

Dont hav a problem with priority. Just at the amount of shit we hav to press in order to do really good dps. Enh is one of those classes who value quantity of abilities rather then quality. Take a hunter for example. Most dmg comes from 4 abilities. Auto-Shot, Steady Shot, Chim-shot/Explo shot and Serpent sting. These FOUR abilities make up a hunters core dps (not counting BM cause noone raids with BM). And ofcourse there are a whole bunch of lower percentage abilities that increase dps just that little bit extra. But for a shammy we hav our major dps abilities: Melee, SS, FS etc. But we hav sooo many lower end abilities that we count on to make our dps much better. I mean with a hunter if those lower end abilities didnt proc they wouldnt lose as much dps as we would if we didnt use our lower end.
All I want is blizz to make some of our moves so strong that its just a mana waste to use the others. This would make the class easier to play because there is less focus on moves and more on movement and tactics (no flaming that a really good enh shammy can do all at once). Blizz really needs to get inventive to make the class better imo.

[Vargarii]

Dont hav a problem with priority. Just at the amount of shit we hav to press in order to do really good dps. Enh is one of those classes who value quantity of abilities rather then quality.

This isn't put properly. The priority stress is entirely for maximizing dps, not doing decent dps to begin with. Enh is actually fairly forgiving about hitting the wrong buttton a few times, and where your dps goes from there. In a similar notion to what you mentioned with hunters, a shamans top 4 dmg is usuall from white dmg, windfury, lightning bolt, and flametongue. The only control you are putting down on that is staying on melee range and hitting lb. Even if i went a few abilities further, it'd depend on what you hit and when because the rest of the abilities themselves don't have a huge dps margin between them (easily 1-2% between anything under top 5-6 abilities, and there are more than 10 dmg sources to include, and even all that varies from fight to fight, and sometimes attempt to attempt.)

This is why they intend to make the system more reliant on abilities in order to make a larger gap between skilled/unskilled enh shaman. While it does take effort to do maximim dps, it doesn't take much to get it done as long as you are using those gcds.

What I hope for, is that they make our dmg a little less random(so much is proc based) and look for ways to help us out with our movement issues, because if bosses take the direction of icc, that 10 sec cooldown won't cut it alone. All we can do is wait and see, though. I have high hopes for Cata, though.

[SkyBlueAri]

yeh sorry missed a few spells there, but u get the point.

[eeva]

I hope we stay "GCD capped". I love the way Enhancement plays now. Making the spec easier will be lame imo.

[SolSphere]

I stopped reading 1/3rd the way down so f it was mentioned OH WELL ITS GETTING MENTIONED AGAIN!!! HAHAHAAH


They want the Turret totem (what? I can't remember all of their names) to be stronger damage than magma totem, FOR SINGLE TARGET!!!!

[Deleted]

even if it wasn't nature damage LvB still doesn't do enough damage for Enh Shamans to consider using it in PvE maybe a FS+Unleased FT+LvB might make it viable for PvP but thats about it...

Where is the post that Blizzard made that says what damage LvB will do in Cataclysm. I must have missed it. Either that or they haven't posted it yet and you are missing the point that they have already said practically every number will change in Cata. So its perfectly possible that LvB could be massively better than LB who knows. We just don't have the info yet.

[XemnasXD]

Where is the post that Blizzard made that says what damage LvB will do in Cataclysm. I must have missed it. Either that or they haven't posted it yet and you are missing the point that they have already said practically every number will change in Cata. So its perfectly possible that LvB could be massively better than LB who knows. We just don't have the info yet.

So basically you're saying that in order to make it viable they'd have to change the damage of LvB, a statement that is basically the implied conclusion of what i posted anyway. And your point was....???

[SkyBlueAri]

Mmk so if they are "changing" LvB how will they change it to be less attractive to enh shammys and still keep it for ele shams? Not a condecending statement, just a question on how blizz will change the spell for ele and make it less desireable for enh.

[Barky]

Mmk so if they are "changing" LvB how will they change it to be less attractive to enh shammys and still keep it for ele shams? Not a condecending statement, just a question on how blizz will change the spell for ele and make it less desireable for enh.

they will probably make all those 'Increase the power of your lava burst spell by X% amount deeper in the ele tree a lot higher, meaning that an enhancement cannot get them to get as much of a damage boost as well as lowering the amount of spellpower the LvB itself scales from for Enh, making it more talent focused in the ele tree to be worth a use.

It might stay instant, but it will probably only be used as a gimmick / pvp if you have FS up on the boss / player and you want an instant +9% melee crit with elemental devastation

who knows, as a beta isn't out, this is total speculation

[SkyBlueAri]

Yeh but its still only one spell, we still hav a gazillion others that need changing (slight hyperbole)

[SolSphere]

Mmk so if they are "changing" LvB how will they change it to be less attractive to enh shammys and still keep it for ele shams? Not a condecending statement, just a question on how blizz will change the spell for ele and make it less desireable for enh.

Well I hope they don't considering they have a statement out saying that the plan right now is for MW5 to include LvB and LB...