Have you actually used earthquake?!

[Spongy]

you cant really "only" use earthquake to aoe, the only way you can keep up with the mana cost on it, its to cast glyphed chaing lightning with clearcast > earthquake >chain lightning> quake, etc .
This way chain mana cost is about 3k, and "should" return above 5.5k mana per cast (rng based) but i dont see why the earthquake doesnt benefit from the clearcast mana cost reduction, that would at least give us the chance to use earthquake somewhat more often without going oom in 30 seconds

I dislike everything you have said. The whole oomquake is total crap. Its oomquake when your badly geared and don't have the appropriate mana pool to cope with the spell. In aoe situation (now I class a aoe situation as 6+ generally) its perfectly bloody fine. Its damage scales and ticks faster with more haste you get. If you can do more damage some other way you clearly arn't killing many raid bosses and wonder why it doesn't kill all the adds in 1 cast. 1 person is not suppost to aoe a set of adds down themself its a group. Although yes in PvP you don't even spec but in PVE there is nothing wrong with it. With a magma and a earthquake I can easily push over 25k dps on a aoe pack. Now would you say thats bad?

[Dethday]

This was stated in the last EQ thread:

Feel free to talk about it's usefulness (or lack there of, if you please) or how to utilize it or the justification of the talent point. But just coming in and saying something like "This is terribad. Blizzard are dumb for this talent" or anything remotely close will get a ban.

IMO Panda isn't stupid enough to do this he is simply starting a constructive discussion.

<3 you panda (play Amnesia more pls)

[Endus]

This was stated in the last EQ thread:

Feel free to talk about it's usefulness (or lack there of, if you please) or how to utilize it or the justification of the talent point. But just coming in and saying something like "This is terribad. Blizzard are dumb for this talent" or anything remotely close will get a ban.

I think I was the mod that broke down and posted that tirade.

Basically, Earthquake is pretty much in line with the other similar channeled AoEs for other classes. The mana cost, relative to damage done and CC effects, is pretty much equal.

For instance, look at Earthquake compared to Blizzard.

Earthquake costs 60% of base mana, Blizzard 74%. It's cheaper.
Earthquake's CC is there, but less reliable and effective.
Earthquake does 460 base damage every second over 8 seconds, working out to 3680 base damage. Blizzard is at a base 2448. Even if we assume the mage is Frost, and has the +25% frost damage as a result, that's only 3060 base damage.

I haven't run the numbers to determine exactly what Earthquake's spellpower coefficient is, but I imagine it's similar to Blizzard's. If anyone knows of data on that, I'd appreciate it.

Sure, it doesn't find uses in every fight. Neither does Blizzard. That doesn't mean it's a useless spell. It may be a bit underwhelming for an end-of-tree talent point, but that doesn't make it useless garbage.


And frankly, people who are running out of mana from moderate use of Earthquake are doing something wrong. On my guild's earliest attempts on Magmaw, we were hitting the Enrage timer, and I was popping Earthquake on most of the lava parasite spawns, and not going OOM. Glyph Thunderstorm, use Thunderstorm liberally, use a mana pot if you need to, make sure you're getting a mana regen buff even if it means you have to drop Mana Spring to get it. If you aren't doing those and you're running into mana problems, do those first. If you aren't, you've got no room to complain since you're refusing to use the tools Blizzard provided to help you. It's like mages complaining they'd go OOM without using Evocate or mana gems.

[Rehea]

I dislike everything you have said. The whole oomquake is total crap. Its oomquake when your badly geared and don't have the appropriate mana pool to cope with the spell. In aoe situation (now I class a aoe situation as 6+ generally) its perfectly bloody fine. Its damage scales and ticks faster with more haste you get. If you can do more damage some other way you clearly arn't killing many raid bosses and wonder why it doesn't kill all the adds in 1 cast. 1 person is not suppost to aoe a set of adds down themself its a group. Although yes in PvP you don't even spec but in PVE there is nothing wrong with it. With a magma and a earthquake I can easily push over 25k dps on a aoe pack. Now would you say thats bad?

im not saying i go oom from using earthquake

what im saying its you cant really do magmaw and only ONLY earthquake to dps the parasites, because you are gonna end up oom before you notice, while for example a frost mage gets clearcasting from using blizzard so the next blizzard is free, or a moonkin hurricane triggers omen of clarity so the next hurricane is free aswell. while our clearcasting doesnt even consume a 40 % reduced cost on earthquake, i think thats a small help we could use and its not asking too much (compared to other classes)

[Lorune11]

im not saying i go oom from using earthquake

what im saying its you cant really do magmaw and only ONLY earthquake to dps the parasites, because you are gonna end up oom before you notice, while for example a frost mage gets clearcasting from using blizzard so the next blizzard is free, or a moonkin hurricane triggers omen of clarity so the next hurricane is free aswell. while our clearcasting doesnt even consume a 40 % reduced cost on earthquake, i think thats a small help we could use and its not asking too much (compared to other classes)

Not sure about mages but Omen doesnt affect mushrooms or hurricane

[Bloodpyre]

It's actually quite useful on The Gyreworm boss in Stonecore. When he casts the crystal stuff, throw an earthquake on the spot and it burns them all in seconds.

This, also used it on the last boss in Stonecore along with magma totem to get the rotten to the core achievement, also use it for the little crocolisks in Tol'Vir on the 2nd boss. But other than that I wouldn't use it on anything less that 5 targets it just seems like a major waste of mana.

Point is, it can be useful for dealing with adds who have medium to low health pools.

Sorry if these things were mentioned before, didn't have time to read much before posting, work work :|

[Nekokami]

I had to use EQ on many situations, as mentioned above in stonecore, Maloriak, Magmaw, and Halfus. On those occasions, you have to take into account that the stun effect counts a lot since you wanted those mobs to be grouped into one place as long as possible. Usually by the burn-phase in the Maloriak encounter, I am OOM and could only spam lightning bolt in hope of mana return.

In all aspects, it's a spell that we, as elemental shamans, feel glitchy and unworthy for being the end talent in the ele tree. However, we have to consider that we have so many spells and totems to choose from for a particular fight. EQ is just one of them and it's useful in certain situations.

Same for me - i found it usefull in some cases like Magmaw larvae - Conserving mana during normal phases, EQ larvae, max dps rotation on vulnerable phase. Yes, it is a huge mana sink, but in some situations it's worth it. Wouldn't want to run into Magma totem range at Magmaw pre-nerf, would you? The knockdown? Useless in pretty much all cases, its "close to decent" for e.g. the trash in BoT [those caster packs at the beginning], but way too unreliable to get a better grade.

I think having it as the "ultimate" in our tree is just irrelevant. Imagine getting EQ as a 'You are an Elemental Shaman now" benefit and, as the 31point talent, having to take Lava Burst. Wouldn't change anything at all, but could you argue against Lava Burst? IMHO, which one is the 31-pointer and which one isn't is just cosmetics.

[Midnax]

Not too long ago i was in a random, ended up being SFK and the shaman actually refused to use anything but Earthquake on all of the trash :x

[goozen]

And frankly, people who are running out of mana from moderate use of Earthquake are doing something wrong. On my guild's earliest attempts on Magmaw, we were hitting the Enrage timer, and I was popping Earthquake on most of the lava parasite spawns, and not going OOM. Glyph Thunderstorm, use Thunderstorm liberally, use a mana pot if you need to, make sure you're getting a mana regen buff even if it means you have to drop Mana Spring to get it. If you aren't doing those and you're running into mana problems, do those first. If you aren't, you've got no room to complain since you're refusing to use the tools Blizzard provided to help you. It's like mages complaining they'd go OOM without using Evocate or mana gems.

Pesonaly i wouldnt glyph TS even if you have mana issues as its knockback is very usefull in PVE (yes also raids) and anyway you should have some sort of mana buff from someone else in the group and if not then a mana spring totem anyway is better for the raid then your healing stream.
EQ is a ok but just not a very usefull spell, as in PVP its way too RNG and expensive to be used. PVE wise, as people have said it only good if you have 5 or more adds up and actually on fights like magmaw where the adds are not tanked the RNG stun can cause the mobs to be more spread out and make AoE less effective.
If you could choose between EQ and say have EB root 100% i can see alot of people not getting EQ anymore

[Whitcher]

I know the % was dropped but in actual use I would have to say the chance is much higher. Not sure if it is affected by hit chance or mastery, but in my use almost every mob is knocked down at least twice during a single cast. I imagine there will be times though when it does nothing but cause some damage, but it has come in very handy for me while in groups.

I agree I do not believe I would use this spell in PvP except as a last ditch effort both due to the mana cost as well as the channeled aspect. If it was a cast and forget spell I might be more inclined to use it occasionally.

I personally would not say this is a waste of a spell though. It seems that Cata has turned many spells into situational spells that can and should be used in specific situations as opposed to using it just to pass time till another spell is off CD. I do not use it often, but I have found it to come in handy.

~Rev

That 10% is per mob. If you throw an earthquake at a pack of 5 mobs, the chances of one being knocked down is much higher.

In my experiences, the only thing I ever use this spell for is the crystal shards in Stonecore.

[Snuggli]

Has its uses in Arena PvP. My Ele partner throws it round corners when a healer is LoS'ing on extremely low health and trying to heal. We've won quite a few games from the 10% stun on Earthquake.. more than you'd imagine, infact.

Now, remove the stun and you've got Hurricane for Druids. Now that's a useless spell.

[elossa]

mass add controll as people already said, soloing/questing/harvestin.

[Deleted]

From a PvE raid only perspective

It's not spammable and it's situational, 2-3 casts max at any one given phase, for example green during Maloriak, any more than this and you will be teetering on the edge of oom at the end of the fight. Damage wise its.... meh.... you will never come anywhere near half decent locks, mages, druids, dk's.. hmm well just about everyone else, and thats even with magma, nova, Eq, nova, Eq rotation.

I was actually thinking of this build removing Eq completely as with the other classes in the raid, my aoe doesn't really seem a necessity and it would probably be more 'raid efficient' to take less damage for our poor healers (currently standard convection & Eq build)

[Antares]

I use it to AoE. Troggs in HoO for example.

[sham4life]

I don't use it very much but like many before me have said there are a few encounters with adds that I have found this to be useful. So even though I may not like the idea of it being our 31 talent (wish it was base line, because I do like the spell it just shouldn't be the 31 pt talent.) it is still a semi useful tool in our book of spells.