Elemental tree needs an overhaul. Ideas ITT

[Taan]

Greetings. Long story short - elemental tree and spells are stale and needs an overhaul.

1. Lack of DOTs.

Flame shock is the shaman's only dot and it's damage is pretty low. With the re-introduction of movement-heavy fight in cata as soon as you have to move - your dps drops drastically.
Not to invent a bicycle - tier 8&9 had some dots from bolts and LVB:

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=67228
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=64928

Suggestions: 1 - increase flame shock dot damage. 2 - add dots from tier 8&9 deep in the talent tree so it's only available for the elemental shamans.


2. Unleash Elements

Let's be honest - nobody uses it in the cycle. the GCD is just too much of a dps waste. The damage is also ridiculously low.

Suggestion: 1 - increase the damage and remove the GCD

3. Earthquake

It's not worth a point spend and wtf is an AOE as last talent in a tree.

Suggestion: 1 - Make Earthquake a baseline elemental spell (given upon choosing a tree), but remove the knock back effect. 2 - Add a talent similar to the mage's improved blizzard to add 10% chance knock back and a 100% chance of earth bind all targets.

4. New bolt

All dps casters have 2-3 magic schools to choose from if one of them is locked. Shamans don't. If nature is locked and LVB is on CD - your only option is frostshock if the shocks aren't on cooldown.

Suggestion: Add a "Stormfire bolt" kind of spell that will replace Lightning bolt for elemental shamans that will combine fire and nature damage (like mage's frostfire) and will work if nature is locked. This might be the final elemental talent instead of current earthquake.

5. New "wind shield" spell.

SWG-type of ability for a 1 spell like molten shield and scorch for mages.
When used allows casting of bolt spell. But spells cost more mana. in addition rolling thunder does not work so mana is spent quicker. Used when movement is needed. When movement stops - lightning shield and back to normal cycle


As a result we will have:

1. LB replaced with Stormfire bolt. SFB crits leave a dot dealing x% of SFB damage over x seconds
2. LVB leaves a dot "Your Lava Burst spell causes your target to burn for an additional 10% of your spell's damage over 6 sec."
3. Earthquake is a baseline spell. If talented - knocks back and snares
4. FS dot damage is increased
5. UE doe not consume a GCD and hits more.
6. Movement damage from some sort of "wind shield" spell. More mana for casts. 1 type of spell permitted.





Constructed critisism and suggestions appreciated

[theredviola]

I. An additional DoT

I like this idea of having a dot like from the previous T9 & 10 deep in the tree, especially since stand still fights become fewer and fewer as we get into raiding.

II. UE dmg and the GCD

The problem with upping the dmg and removing the GCD of this spell will screw with Enhan shammies damage. I personally think its fine where it is. I don't use it in my standard rotation, and as mentioned above, we have to move more during fights and so its quite good for those moments where we just have to take a step or two. Move-UE-stop moving-LvB, bam.

III. EQ being made baseline

Eh, I'm on the fence about this idea. While EQ is underwhelming for our last ability in the Ele tree, I think slightly upping the damage and giving it a small snare instead of a chance on knock back might be more beneficial.

IV. New "bolt" type spell.

I really don't think we need another thing to keep track of. LvB is an amazing big ability and LB is a great filler. We have our FS dot and ST constantly ticking away already (and with an additional dot would make it even better). I can, however, see this argument from a PvP standpoint more than a PvE one.

V. Wind Shield

No, I don't like it. It will become just as situational as SWG if the mana cost on the spells is to high; and if its to low, it'll be OP.

I do offer this suggestion:

FIX SEARING TOTEM FFS.

A way to accomplish this is to make FS only able to be on one target so that in multi-mob fights where you have to switch targets before the previous is dead (Like defense system in BWD) you don't have to pick up (1 sec) and thow back down (another 1 sec) your ST.

As for fixing it to where having ST more than 10 yards away THEN casting FS.... I don't know how they'd go about fixing that.... but it is quite annoying. A necessary evil though.

[Endus]

1> Why is "more dots" necessarily something we want?
2> It's great when moving. If you aren't using it, you either aren't raiding, or you're doing it wrong. Making it part of our rotation makes movement even worse for us.
3> We needed a ranged AoE. We got one that hearkens back to WC3, which is great. It's definitely worth the point over survivability talents you don't need if you don't stand in fires.
4> Or at least a way to handle being spell-locked better, it doesn't need to be another bolt spell. I agree this is an issue.
5> With the new LS mechanic, I don't think we really need a new shield.

[Crelle013]

imo elemental dmg is fine as it is. yee we aint the top dps class but still with my shitty gear i pull 16k dps in raids. today on Pit lord aragoth (spelled?) i pulled 17.5k dps. the only thing i would see as a wish was a talent that reduced the CD on our fire elemental totem since its a huuge dps boost and wont destroy pvp dmg.

[Taan]

IV. New "bolt" type spell.

I really don't think we need another thing to keep track of. LvB is an amazing big ability and LB is a great filler. We have our FS dot and ST constantly ticking away already (and with an additional dot would make it even better). I can, however, see this argument from a PvP standpoint more than a PvE one.

the idea is for it to replace LB in the rotation. so no need to track it as an additional thing. It is still important in pve to have something to cast if nature is locked

V. Wind Shield

No, I don't like it. It will become just as situational as SWG if the mana cost on the spells is to high; and if its to low, it'll be OP.

The idea is to allow casting 1 spell at a higher cost, but during movement to compensate the drop of dps on movement-intensive fights. SWG has 2 minutes cd and there are fight where you need to run ALOT during these 2 minutes. Shield or other way, but we need some way of damagin while moving without 2min CD. Mage scorch with no mana cost and casting while moving is not OP?

1> Why is "more dots" necessarily something we want?

If you have better suggestions to keep up with other casters on movement-intensive fights - feel free to suggest.

2> It's great when moving. If you aren't using it, you either aren't raiding, or you're doing it wrong. Making it part of our rotation makes movement even worse for us.

5k damage with a 15 sec cd is not something i would call great. Yes i use it while moving and no i am not using it in the rotation. That is kind of the point of my suggestion.

3> We needed a ranged AoE. We got one that hearkens back to WC3, which is great. It's definitely worth the point over survivability talents you don't need if you don't stand in fires.

No arguments here. it is a good thing we have an aoe spell. The bad thing is it is a 31-point talent, the damage is low and the mana cost is rediculusly high. I will choose chain lightning with a hope of overload any time.

imo elemental dmg is fine as it is. yee we aint the top dps class but still with my shitty gear i pull 16k dps in raids. today on Pit lord aragoth (spelled?) i pulled 17.5k dps..

I would like to see how you do your 17k on Cho'gall and Ascended Council

[Cairm]

You can't really solve all the shaman trouble in a single thread,. Or while your at it, go balance out your changes with all the other class's.

[Mudkiper]

If you have better suggestions to keep up with other casters on movement-intensive fights - feel free to suggest.

Spiritwalker's Grace.

---------- Post added 2011-01-07 at 01:25 AM ----------

I would like to see how you do your 17k on Cho'gall and Ascended Council

Our ele is pretty much constantly top 5 between 18-21k. If anything they require a small nerf.

[Hypernetic]

I think Ele tree is fine.

What shaman's need is an overhaul to totems. More self beneficial things instead of 2 to 3 of our totems being worthless in a raid.

[Feress]

We need a worthwhile last tier talent and more survivability in pvp. I honestly havent used earthquake outside of the Shoal mobs on the ramps in VP. Its completely useless in pvp because its a channel, and near useless in pve as an aoe because it costs a shitton of mana.

[Endus]

tIf you have better suggestions to keep up with other casters on movement-intensive fights - feel free to suggest.

We're honestly not that bad. Earth Shock w/ Fulmination, Unleash Elements, Spiritwalker's Grace. Ghost Wolf if absolutely necessary. If you're running so much that this doesn't cover it, you're doing something wrong. Movement is much less penalizing now than it was.

5k damage with a 15 sec cd is not something i would call great. Yes i use it while moving and no i am not using it in the rotation. That is kind of the point of my suggestion.

5k damage and 30% on your next LvB, which for me is about another 8k or so unbuffed.

It's not quite as good as an LB, used properly, but it's not so far off that it's a huge DPS loss.

No arguments here. it is a good thing we have an aoe spell. The bad thing is it is a 31-point talent, the damage is low and the mana cost is rediculusly high. I will choose chain lightning with a hope of overload any time.

The damage isn't low, and the mana cost is comparable to similar spells.

People keep saying that the damage sucks and the mana cost is huge, but that's simply not true. If I can fire Earthquake every 30 seconds on magmaw and finish the fight with 1/4 of my mana left or so, there's nothing wrong with the mana cost.