Do Ele even have proper problems anymore?

[Disissparta]

Well, it seems that most of our problems to do with anything have been fixed. There are only 3 problems that I can even imagine, which are losing Astral shift, Earthquake and being forced to choose between Totemic Vigor and Ancestral swiftness (Not even much of a choice). It looks like we can DPS VERY well on movement fights, Popping elemental mastery to get a free LvB, Spiritwalkers grace for 10 more seconds, then Fulmination, and then you have 40% movement speed increase to get wherever the hell you need to go after. Lava burst overload and Lava surge add huge amounts of DPS, and Lavaburst seems like it will still. Our rotation will be changed, making it more fun, and hopefully more dynamic. So how do my fellow Elemental shamans feel about this, getting most of our problems fixed? And how do those Enhancement and Resto shamans feel about their changes compared to ele? Any going to reroll?

[Radux]

I'm definitely much happier how things are shaping up.

In terms of movement: SWG is nice but somewhat situational. The new LS improvements definitely help with movement situations. EM we already had, but is still nice. Completely agree with everything you said here.

Rotation: People complain that we're becoming too RNG. There is a difference between RNG dps and RNG rotation. RNG rotation is good/cool. It gives us something to watch -- not like now where we just have to watch for LvB cooldown and a long FS DoT.

My concerns (not touching PvP here because no one is 85 and able to test anything yet -- reserving my statement about it until later): My biggest issue is with LvB always critting. It completely devalues the stat for us. Not saying crit won't be a completely terrible stat, since we are losing a ton in the expansion. I know numbers haven't really been touched yet, nor is anyone raiding, but I hope the developers take a good look at coefficients/elemental scaling potential. I don't want to be left high and dry.

I'm not going to reroll. However, I'm still reserving my judgment on which class will be my 1st 80. If PvP turns out well, then Elemental will definitely be quite high on my priority list to level.

[lopk]

I'll be changing from resto mainspec to ele mainspec. I really like some of the changes; mainly that we have something to watch in our rotation (meaning lvb popping up off cd). I also like the changes with lightening shield - but I can't be sold on it until I try it out^^

[Kenai]

I mostly agree with you, but there's still one or two slightly more than minor issues bothering me. One, that you mentioned, is Earthquake. I'm not as worried about this since they mentioned they were working on making it better (and they did a very good job with Fulm imo, except for the glitch and the EShock range issues which are apparently being worked on).

The other is the Fire Nova talent. It is exceptionally terrible and I would like to see it removed or merged into one of the other Fire based talents and something else (better) put in it's place.

Elemental's movement problems are still there but they are now not really any worse than other casters, especially with SWG and Unleash Flame adding to Fulm and EM.

I'm going to keep it as an off spec since I still like Resto, but PvE wise Elemental should be better than fine at the start of the expansion. Hopefully they scale better this time and it doesn't turn into WotLK's end-expansion issues. I won't touch PvP since it's not my thing.

[Patchumz]

Compared to TBC (The expansion that started Blizzard's ideals of making every single spec viable in every area of the game), I don't really see any problem at all with Elemental now, the only thing I could see being annoying, is the lack of true AoE.. but Shaman were never very AoE-strong, so it's not really a concern. I'm looking forward to how amazing and fun Elemental is going to be in Cataclysm.

[Devious009]

PvE wise I reckon we're in a very good shape right now, thank you blizzard for an awesome new change to our rotation

I hope ( I just hope ) that there is going to be a new talent or a new added effect to an existing talent or a new glyph of some sort that will give us some survivability in PvP, something that doesnt make us feel we're easily zergable thats all Im asking

[Xunae]

the only problem ive got is theres almost no synergy between our fire and lightning spells. its starting to feel almost like 2 separate rotations competing for top spot

[Patchumz]

PvE wise I reckon we're in a very good shape right now, thank you blizzard for an awesome new change to our rotation

I hope ( I just hope ) that there is going to be a new talent or a new added effect to an existing talent or a new glyph of some sort that will give us some survivability in PvP, something that doesnt make us feel we're easily zergable thats all Im asking

Well, everyone will be quite tanky in cata, with 100k+ health, stuns won't mean the end of the world, you won't get insta-gibbed during one.. So I think we'll be fine

[Sterkrazzy]

i'm looking forward to all the changes so far, now if only i could get into beta

[Taalyn]

The Elemental Tree is still too bloated and doesn't follow the design intent Blizzard is going for in Cataclysm. We have zero filler points and the only choice is Totemic Reach over Ancestral Swiftness and we can only max out Totemic Reach if we forgo 1% crit or 5% mana reduc on spells. It's probably worth it but if we want to take Ancestral Swiftness over Totemic Reach, then there is no point in taking Elemental Reach which gives us 1 filler point. If we want to take both talents, Blizzard has to reduce the points in the Elemental Tree because we have to spend a minimum 34 points.

[Xunae]

The Elemental Tree is still too bloated and doesn't follow the design intent Blizzard is going for in Cataclysm. We have zero filler points and the only choice is Totemic Reach over Ancestral Swiftness and we can only max out Totemic Reach if we forgo 1% crit or 5% mana reduc on spells. It's probably worth it but if we want to take Ancestral Swiftness over Totemic Reach, then there is no point in taking Elemental Reach which gives us 1 filler point. If we want to take both talents, Blizzard has to reduce the points in the Elemental Tree because we have to spend a minimum 34 points.

yes ele is still way too bloated. we have 9 talents (18 points) in 3 consecutive tiers that are mandatory also drop points in convection we get a 60% chance when we do damage with LB/CL to restore 1% mana. (assuming CL has chance to restore up to 3% mana

edit: blue post on front page says 1% on rolling thunder should be 2% so up to 6% mana (based on wording of talent only) from a chain lightning

[Patchumz]

The Elemental Tree is still too bloated and doesn't follow the design intent Blizzard is going for in Cataclysm. We have zero filler points and the only choice is Totemic Reach over Ancestral Swiftness and we can only max out Totemic Reach if we forgo 1% crit or 5% mana reduc on spells. It's probably worth it but if we want to take Ancestral Swiftness over Totemic Reach, then there is no point in taking Elemental Reach which gives us 1 filler point. If we want to take both talents, Blizzard has to reduce the points in the Elemental Tree because we have to spend a minimum 34 points.

It's not too bloated, you can spend 34 points in every tree if you wanted to, and still have a very viable build with juicy talents benefitting your goal.

EDIT: Not that I'm saying it shouldn't be fixed up a bit, but it's not the end of the world atm.

[Xunae]

Certain parts aren't bloated but really the 3 tiers between elemental focus and earthquake are too bloated.

[Archimand]

as far as i see with movment issues being almost non exist, we will have shocks unleash elementals elemental mastery and spiritwalker grace to cast on the move then the only thing remain is to balance the numbers you can make rotation intreting and all but if the numbers isnt there its not fixing anything :P

[Deltrus]

You know, lava burst could get the shatter treatment and give 3X more crit when flame shock is on the target.

[Taalyn]

yes ele is still way too bloated. we have 9 talents (18 points) in 3 consecutive tiers that are mandatory also drop points in convection we get a 60% chance when we do damage with LB/CL to restore 1% mana. (assuming CL has chance to restore up to 3% mana

edit: blue post on front page says 1% on rolling thunder should be 2% so up to 6% mana (based on wording of talent only) from a chain lightning

Then they should remove Convection and let us use the points as filler. Elemental Warding would be nice to have.

Storm, Earth, and Fire can easily have the Storm portion moved to Feedback and the Fire portion moved to Lava Flows. Keep the Earth portion (Earthbind roots) as a 1 point talent.

I'm still going to bitch about Elemental Reach and how stupid it is that Elemental is the only caster class that has a range increase talent now.

[takolin]

Then they should remove Convection and let us use the points as filler. Elemental Warding would be nice to have.

Storm, Earth, and Fire can easily have the Storm portion moved to Feedback and the Fire portion moved to Lava Flows. Keep the Earth portion (Earthbind roots) as a 1 point talent.

I'm still going to bitch about Elemental Reach and how stupid it is that Elemental is the only caster class that has a range increase talent now.

And mages are the only class who need to spend 3 points on pushback protection.

[Patchumz]

And mages are the only class who need to spend 3 points on pushback protection.

Did they make it baseline? Or are Mages the only class that gets pushback reduction at all.

[Melonberry]

yes ele is still way too bloated. we have 9 talents (18 points) in 3 consecutive tiers that are mandatory also drop points in convection we get a 60% chance when we do damage with LB/CL to restore 1% mana. (assuming CL has chance to restore up to 3% mana

edit: blue post on front page says 1% on rolling thunder should be 2% so up to 6% mana (based on wording of talent only) from a chain lightning

http://www.wowtal.com/#k=l1kcgWt_Y.9vn.shaman
easiest spec I've made. Swiftness can be in reach or warding. That's about 3/41 points that you can play with and put in whatever.

[Narfwak]

Unless I missed something, Fire Elemental is still a really dumb design.