How would YOU fix Ele scaling?

[whowherewhat?]

I've heard alot of QQ about elemental scaling in 25man raids and have just noticed it myself when my ulduar geared DK (that i recently brushed off and starting goofing around on) was almost on par DPS-wise with my 2pc t10 somewhat-icc geared shaman. This started me thinking about how I personally would help Elemental shamans with scaling...

-note- I'm not really comparing talent trees at all, I don't have the time or brainpower to think through all of that

All other caster dps (Shadow Priests, Warlocks, Mages, and Boomkins) have a talent or ability that allows their spell power to scale with some sort of other stat:
Warlocks have http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47893
Mages have http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=43046 for all specs and http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=31588 for arcane
Shadow Priests have http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51167
Even Boomkins have http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=33591
So even at similar gear levels, we gain only from SP while all other casters benefit from SP and other sources.
Would it be so hard to implement a similar ability for Elemental Shamans since we are the only caster without this type of scaling factor?
That's where my idea to fix scaling originates from: just like Arcane mages and Boomkins I'd have a scale factor based on Intellect (this would somewhat discourage shamans from taking cloth gear because "elemental shamans don't need cloth you wear mail" right? :). I would either have a talent similar to our resto tree's http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=30869, or simply add an int->SP factor to ToW that only affects the Shaman dropping it (if it was raid-wide it would probably be too OP and kill the idea of raiding with a Demo lock).

This is just the ideas rolling around in my head this afternoon, but I'd love to hear how mmo-champ shamans think they would help ele shamans scale maybe a little better

[Baabinator]

Hmm!

(I love replying to threads like these, and I got multiple ideas to fix 'em)

Unrelenting Storm now:
Regenerate mana equal to 4/8/12% of your Intellect every 5 sec, even while casting.

My version of Unrelenting Storm:
Regenerate mana equal to 4/8/12% of your Intellect every 5 sec, even while casting. And your Lightning bolt, Chain Lightning and Thunderstorm spells have a 40% chance to increase your spellpower by 4% of your total Intellect for 12 seconds. Stacks up to 2/4/6 times.

Doesn't increase our potential pvp burst TOO much, while still allowing a rough 100% uptime in pve.

Lava Burst Now:
You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 1192 to 1518 Fire damage. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal a critical strike.

My version of Lava Burst:
You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 1192 to 1518 Fire damage. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal an additional 40% Fire damage over 4 seconds.

This will increase the value of our crit rating, and in effect probably increase our dps as well

[Hoodi]

I really dont understand the elemental QQ when i see elemental shamans doing almost 10k dps .. whats the problem here?

[Marath]

I really dont understand the elemental QQ when i see elemental shamans doing almost 10k dps .. whats the problem here?

we dont scale with raid buffs... at all, thats the problem. We will do the same sort of damage in 5, 10 and 25 man instances.

Personally I think my dps is pretty decent, i am happy where i am on the meters. I still think we need some sort of scaling buff though.

Not a sp buff though, I think we should get a int to haste or int to crit buff... I would prefer haste, I would even like to see a spirit to haste change... say 20-30% of our spirit as haste, that would at least make the spirit weapons, rings etc more attractive to us.

[whaleface]

You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 1192 to 1518 Fire damage. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal an additional 40% Fire damage over 4 seconds.

I'm starting to think something like this is really needed, the auto-crit was fun for a while, but this makes so much more sense in the long run. Another beef I have with LvB is the huge dmg range - with the same buffs I might LvB for 12k, and 8 seconds later cast another for 17k. Bringing up the low end a little wouldn't hurt.

[krasgoth]

Try playing a demo warlock.

Your soulfire goes anywhere from a 7k normal to a 25k crit, depending on which of your trinkets & abilities are firing.

[Arzamas]

Kind of a shot in the dark. I think they are looking to fix Elemental scaling in the next expansion. They are dropping spell power off of the gear and giving spell power by intellect. Arcane intellect + BoK will now benefit Elemental Shamans better.

[Baabinator]

we dont scale with raid buffs... at all, thats the problem. We will do the same sort of damage in 5, 10 and 25 man instances.

Personally I think my dps is pretty decent, i am happy where i am on the meters. I still think we need some sort of scaling buff though.

Not a sp buff though, I think we should get a int to haste or int to crit buff... I would prefer haste, I would even like to see a spirit to haste change... say 20-30% of our spirit as haste, that would at least make the spirit weapons, rings etc more attractive to us.

Only problem is, we don't have ANY use for spirit AT ALL

Since we're NEVER in mana issues.

[evan_s]

Not a sp buff though, I think we should get a int to haste or int to crit buff... I would prefer haste, I would even like to see a spirit to haste change... say 20-30% of our spirit as haste, that would at least make the spirit weapons, rings etc more attractive to us.

Anything scaling off spirit for elemental shaman would be a bad change. There is 0 mail gear itemized with spirit at all and if it scaled well enough to make it useful off of rings/cloaks etc then it would be scaling too well when using cloth/leather armor with spirit on it and would just encourage elemental shaman to use lower classes of armor even more.

Looking at what mail gear is available some sort of talent that gave some sort of dps improvement based on mp5 might be good. This would help with itemization issues making a lot more mail armor desirable to elemental shaman. Maybe something like every point of Mp5 also adds 1 point of haste?

[Torture]

Scaling Intel - Damage which would allow us to benefit far better from raid buffs.

ToW to % - I think everyone and their mum have suggested this. Alternatively, make ToW a buff which applies to our other fire totems rather than a totem in its own right.

Weapon buffs as %

Scaling is the intrinsic problem with Ele atm. Well, that and item designers on crack. I could overlook the shocking itemisation if they would only address the scaling issue, at the beginning of WoTLK it looked like we were finally going to be up there electrifying faces, it's just a shame that didn't last.

[Shylah]

My Lavaburst:
If a crit occurs lavaburst does: dmg *normal crit multipliar+x
x= crit rating of shaman

crit mulitpliar normal: *1.5
with elemental fury: *2
with lava flows: *2.24

my idea plus a shaman with 20% crit rating: *2.44
with boomking 5% crit buff: *2.49
and so on

[jontaxe]

It's a bit late in the expansion to try to do anything with spirit. Ignore it.

Change lightning bolt back to a 3 sec. cast with 1 sec. off from talents. Just like fireball, frostbolt, shadowbolt, etc. etc. Make it scale better with SP and haste. And by "better" I mean "better than it does now, ie, still worse but not as worse as fireball"

Get rid of or completely revamp lava burst. First, lengthen it's cast time and talent it back down, like, again, a good number of other nukes in the game. As it stands now, its baseline 2 sec cast time gives it a relatively crappy SP coeff, it's cooldown makes haste all but useless, and its autocrit makes crit useless while also making it a pvp nightmare. Get rid of it. Make it a pyroblast clone with a hot streak mechanic, make it so lightning bolts decrease its cooldown, whatever. Its current form blows, though.

Either balance us around searing/magma and get rid of ToW, or balance us around ToW and get rid of searing/magma. While we are at it, make searing better at single target than magma. Seriously. WTF. And be affected by haste.

Int -> Spellpower. Everyone else has it. Either that, or take 2/3s of the int off of mail gear and replace it with spellpower. I might take the mana talents then. Or chug a pot.

Why do we have the lowest crit damage multiplier of any caster except arcane mages?

More general: Why have melee (and hunters) so greatly outpaced caster DPS at this point? It is now commonplace in our raids to have all the casters under all the melee.

The quick and dirty way to do it that's a little bit unique? Make some changes to lava burst, then let int increase lightning overload's chance to proc by some amount.

[Deleted]

Intellect -> Spell Power (will come in cataclysm, /cheer for that)
Flametongue or Totem of Wrath scaling.

[isadorr]

All of these are fun ideas but why not just give elemenal a execution phase like every other caster class in the game? 12% more dmg done when target is under 35% health would be a nice buff and shouldnt affect any of the pvp at least not anymore than any other caster class in the game with the same talents. I have always wondered why elemental never had a execution talent.

But as far as four piece tier10, why not just add a dot on every hit with lava burst but it needs to hit hard enough so that it is a actual upgrade from 2p t10. If not we will be back to where I am with helm,chest t10 and then going after offset pieces which I think is rather pathetic and very unprofessional of the developers for shamans.

[thumbwarriordx]

Why do we have the same crit damage multiplier of any caster except frostfire mages?

fixed it for you. not sure what you're smoking.

[jontaxe]

fixed it for you. not sure what you're smoking.

Fire mages have a 2.54 crit multiplier on fireball. Higher than shaman on both LvB and LB (which are different from each other). Further, no 2 caster classes have the same crit multiplier.

I shot off at the mouth when I said shaman were lower. They are only lower than fire and FFB mages, as far as I can tell. But it's flat wrong to say that everyone except FFB mages has the same multiplier.

That being said. I do like my idea of int increasing lightning overload chance. Not to toot my own horn, but it rules.

[Razorlor]

Fire mages have a 2.54 crit multiplier on fireball. Higher than shaman on both LvB and LB (which are different from each other). Further, no 2 caster classes have the same crit multiplier.

I shot off at the mouth when I said shaman were lower. They are only lower than fire and FFB mages, as far as I can tell. But it's flat wrong to say that everyone except FFB mages has the same multiplier.

That being said. I do like my idea of int increasing lightning overload chance. Not to toot my own horn, but it rules.

The multiplier must be lower for shaman, LB and LaB are shorter casts than fireball. In addition, ele shaman are already extremely potent in arenas, any increased damage on LB or LaB and it will be too much.

It will have to be some sort of dot (or the suggested lightning overload proc chance with int since it is lower on pvp gear).

[gamingmuscle]

All of these are fun ideas but why not just give elemenal a execution phase like every other caster class in the game? 12% more dmg done when target is under 35% health

Balance druids don't have an execution phase =P

[jontaxe]

The multiplier must be lower for shaman, LB and LaB are shorter casts than fireball. In addition, ele shaman are already extremely potent in arenas, any increased damage on LB or LaB and it will be too much.

Crit damage multiplier has nothing to do with cast time and everything to do with talent trees. Spell power coefficient is what normalizes cast times.

And frankly, not to derail this thread, but fuck the arenatards. At this point pvp is so busted that trying to fix it before cata is pointless anyway... I'm not a pvp hating idiot, I used to pvp constantly in vanilla/TBC. (~15k HKs on the main, probably that many more combined among my retarded alts.) But it's so broken now as to be no fun at all.

[Razorlor]

Crit damage multiplier has nothing to do with cast time and everything to do with talent trees. Spell power coefficient is what normalizes cast times.

And frankly, not to derail this thread, but fuck the arenatards. At this point pvp is so busted that trying to fix it before cata is pointless anyway... I'm not a pvp hating idiot, I used to pvp constantly in vanilla/TBC. (~15k HKs on the main, probably that many more combined among my retarded alts.) But it's so broken now as to be no fun at all.

It's part of the game, if you don't like it, tough shit, but it's there and Blizz balances pve around it (see prot warriors).