Elemental, What's the Veridct?

[Deleted]

Ele PvP wise is, dead. The new mastery breaks CC, lavaburst does less damage than a warriors auto hit, stonebulwark absorbs about one auto hit if dropped, ele has no mobility whatsoever, even if ele is left to free cast they hit like a wet noodle with most of the damage apparently coming from the new mastery which just doesn't fit itno PvP very well.

There is NOTHING absolutely NOTHING an elemental can do another class can't do better, while also doing several other things at the same time. There is no reason you would want an elemental over any other class whatsoever at any point in a pvp environment. They don't do dmg, they don't heal, they don't bring CC, in fact having an elemental holds you back instead of contributing to you because it needs to be baby sitted and peeled for as if it were a healer instead of a dps pulling their own weight.

[Deleted]

ITT: People not in top 0.5% guilds crying about not being guaranteed raidspot. If you are good player you are guaranteed raidspot no matter how poor ur class is.

[Sparkidy]

ITT: People not in top 0.5% guilds crying about not being guaranteed raidspot.

I think you'll probably get a lot of guilds who think they're better than they are who will be getting super anal about what classes they bring when they're really not at the level that it'll matter

[Deleted]

I think you'll probably get a lot of guilds who think they're better than they are who will be getting super anal about what classes they bring when they're really not at the level that it'll matter

He also happily ignores that playing a subpar specc/class most of the time just isn't fun. Sure you can gimp yourself doing so but why would you? It's like using a ground mount when you could fly instead. You COULD in theory do that but pretty much nobody choses to do so for obvious reasons.

[Sparkidy]

I'm not a PvPer, but I can absolutely see how Elemental is going to struggle there, based off what little I know about what's required to compete in PvP.

But PvE-wise, sure, playing a class that's in the doldrums can take away some of the fun. If all you're interested in is topping the meters all the time, then let's be totally honest. You'll probably want to pick up a mage or a warlock. But I can't stand playing those classes. I like playing my shaman. In fact, I like playing my shaman so much that I'm going to be motivated, I'm going to play it very well, and I'm going to have no trouble competing with anyone else in my guild. The token rebuttal to that is "but you could play a [whatever is currently top] and do even better, or "that says more about the deficiency of the [whatever is currently top]s in your guild".

But guess what? Aside from top 0.5% of guilds, if even that many, no progress was ever halted by not stacking an OP class, it's halted by the skill level of those who are there.

So I'm going to play my weaksauce shaman, I'm not going to be embarrassed about how I perform because I'll be fine, and I'll be damned if I don't have an awesome time while doing it. And I think for anyone who genuinely enjoys the play-style of shamans, they'll be in the same boat. Just be honest about your motivation.

[Blithe]

I like the fact that you can choose whether you want Multistrike or Mastery based on fight (high movement or not), but apart from that, just about everything else that's changed for Elemental just makes it all null and void, and especially when it comes to PvP where you're more of a sitting duck than ever before. It's the only hybrid that I don't have any hope for this expansion, even Balance and Shadow are doing much better, and they're usually worse off.

Kind of sick of the developer's making it obvious that they have no idea what they're doing with this class.

[Gadfang]

I feel like there's a revamp in the pipeline at Blizz, but they don't want to commit just yet. They've admitted to the fact that things like Shaman healing tier are "meh, but not broken", which indicates they're happy to let things continue while they work on more pressing issues.

It's not a nice place to be, but at least we're finally at a point where they're admitting there's room for improvement. Just seems they find Warriors and Hunters to be the much more pressing issue going into WoD.

Regardless, I'm still enjoying my Ele Shaman at the moment. It'll be nicer when we actually hit WoD and can build up some multistrike. As nice as our new mastery is in concept, I'm not sure I love the idea of 30-45% of my damage coming from what's essentially the equivalent of Hunter autoshot. Would like a bit more coming from my actual casts.

[Sparkidy]

Kind of sick of the developer's making it obvious that they have no idea what they're doing with this class.

Despite my positivity, I'm inclined to agree. It's clearly been kept operational rather than actively worked on for a long time now, whereas many other classes have been given much more obvious direction.

[Recom]

So I decided to resub 2 days ago to try the new stuff and gear alts. I wasn't thrilled with the changes during beta and after testing it a bit (including some mythic raiding), I have drawn my conclusions. Elemental isn't that fun anymore.

There are a few reasons as to why the spec doesn't feel as great as it was :

- damage sources are messed up, LvB is even weaker than in 5.4, LB is... well LB. Mastery is insane but that's not gonna stay.

- movement is horrible, refreshing FS or searing or using UF just isn't fun.

- multistrike took out the special feel of the spec, we'll have to see with wod items but so far, multistrike felt better as enhancement or on my mage.

For the first time since WotLK, I'm really thinking about either switching to enhancement or rerolling to mage or DK. I'm a little sad and I really hope blizz will do something for the spec either during wod or for the next xpac.

PS : I'm not saying the spec is bad or will be, I'm saying it doesn't feel as fun as it used to.

[Franzy]

DPS seems fine, just feels clunky and will need some time to get used to.

[Bapestar]

Ele PvP wise is, dead. The new mastery breaks CC, lavaburst does less damage than a warriors auto hit, stonebulwark absorbs about one auto hit if dropped, ele has no mobility whatsoever, even if ele is left to free cast they hit like a wet noodle with most of the damage apparently coming from the new mastery which just doesn't fit itno PvP very well.

There is NOTHING absolutely NOTHING an elemental can do another class can't do better, while also doing several other things at the same time. There is no reason you would want an elemental over any other class whatsoever at any point in a pvp environment. They don't do dmg, they don't heal, they don't bring CC, in fact having an elemental holds you back instead of contributing to you because it needs to be baby sitted and peeled for as if it were a healer instead of a dps pulling their own weight.

Wow your so negative, ele was never the strongest pvp class but its really not as bad as you are making it out to be.

[Deleted]

Well I am really enjoying elemental so far. I mainly raid resto, but for out in the world stuff I feel good about ele. I am really notiving the no moving part of the spec but that I can get used to, apart from that not much has changed. Mastery is really OP, but that will go down by the time we get to 100, and as for multistrike, we get way more of it as ele than the others do, and it does more damage for us aswell so I still think we are the multistrike overloards

[Blithe]

Despite my positivity, I'm inclined to agree. It's clearly been kept operational rather than actively worked on for a long time now, whereas many other classes have been given much more obvious direction.

A lot of the changes that Balance and Druid's in general have received, Elemental or Shaman in general could've received too but haven't for reasons unknown (Nature's Swiftness becoming baseline for Balance/Restoration, but Ancestral Swiftness staying as a talent for Shaman?). It's close to the point where I'm starting to see that they're playing favourites.

[whyabadi]

Wow your so negative, ele was never the strongest pvp class but its really not as bad as you are making it out to be.

Sadly, his or her observations are actually very accurate.

[Kuriyama]

Ran my first raid last night after 6.0.2 hit. My guild ran SoO Heroic to get a load of us our heirlooms and I came 2nd in almost every fight (we did a full clear which was quite weird). I was 2nd behind a Hunter (so they can now shut up about nerfs now they got stupidly buffed). I'm liking the new style of play. I've specced UF and it's a fun spec to run with instead of trying to get another cast off (EB). While I enjoy this DPS, I have no idea how it'll feel at 100. I get the general feeling we're going to be middle of the pack with DPS again?

I can also totally agree that our off-healing totally sucks. Every time I hit Ancestral Guidance, it did next to nothing, same as my Healing Stream Totem. So I just stopped trying to off-heal and focused on DPS.

[zire]

really dont like it much atm coming back after 1year break, going from a a fast paced, fluid & mobile spec, with some some higher hitting numbers to some more but smaller numbers, feeling over all slower, alot more stationary and not so smooth. dont like the nerfed AG also, really liked that talent before.

from doing only some bgs yet, there i miss the moving while casting the most. count to that that lavaburst feels realy really weak and fulmination with 15 stacks i have hardly anything i can do while try getting away from melee.

dunno if that changes at 100...

[Deleted]

ITT: People not in top 0.5% guilds crying about not being guaranteed raidspot. If you are good player you are guaranteed raidspot no matter how poor ur class is.

maybe your are right for the majority of cases but let me tell you from personal experience(i was looking for a guild 2 weeks ago) there were 3 guilds out of 7 that told me bluntly that they don't want ele shamans because they are shit in wod.Mind you those were guilds who were looking for dps and good players no matter what class you are... you know until i told them i am ele shammy with 14/14 hc which i took down 7-8 months ago.

[Deleted]

maybe your are right for the majority of cases but let me tell you from personal experience(i was looking for a guild 2 weeks ago) there were 3 guilds out of 7 that told me bluntly that they don't want ele shamans because they are shit in wod.Mind you those were guilds who were looking for dps and good players no matter what class you are... you know until i told them i am ele shammy with 14/14 hc which i took down 7-8 months ago.

Just shows how daft people are, you don't want to raid with people like that. Things like that only really matter when you are going for world 1st, outside of that its a load of crap declining people on what they think ele is going to be like in WoD. even if ele is low, I would rather take a good ele player than a bad demo lock.......

People need to look at the player over the spec

[Bapestar]

Sadly, his or her observations are actually very accurate.

They are somewhat accurate. Alot of those observations have all been the cons of the ele shaman for almost every expansion not just wod. The only things that are accurate is damage seems low, mastery sucks for pvp, and we lost mobility. He also said if you play a ele shaman your holding yourself back skillwise, which is a load of bullshit.

[whyabadi]

...Alot of those observations have all been the cons of the ele shaman for almost every expansion not just wod...

Ok.

Ele PvP wise is, dead. The new mastery breaks CC, lavaburst does less damage than a warriors auto hit, stonebulwark absorbs about one auto hit if dropped, ele has no mobility whatsoever, even if ele is left to free cast they hit like a wet noodle with most of the damage apparently coming from the new mastery which just doesn't fit itno PvP very well.

I don't know if Elemental Overload broke CC then. There might have been a short delay, but I really doubt it had a noticeable effect though I am not entirely sure. Lava Burst hit very hard then actually and definitely more than a warrior's auto attack. Stone Bulwark totem was used by many shamans in pvp especially in 2s where they played double dd combos. Try Stone Bulwark today and let me know what you think. Ele had good mobility then.
Here is an experiment for you. Duel a friend on your ele shaman twice. Once with only a Flame Shock every 6 seconds and letting the mastery do all the work, and the other time with your normal rotation. Calculate the difference and realize how little your "skill" is a factor in all of this.
This new mastery is completely counter-productive in a pvp environment. Burst is still important, and it is that combined with CC that lands you the kills, not freaking rocks flying at your target every a few seconds. It's simply like a dot that you can't even put on multiple targets.
I played an Ele shaman for like 9 years. Yes, that includes Vanilla. I really got emotional when I tried it in Beta, and not in a good way.