So, buffs in the hotfix were nice but we are still not doing as good as I hoped. I have a few quick and simple suggestions to help boost our damage.
First tho, I have to talk about our scaling. Enhance Shaman design is rather clunky and suffers from problems with scaling. Why exactly is Haste our main secondary stat when so few abilities are effected by it? Other classes who have resources and stuff get much more out of haste then we do. I used to think our simplistic rotation (with no real depth like a resource) was a positive point about the Enhance spec, but these days it seems to be holding us back as we can never have on demand burst by pooling resources, or our talents can't drastically effect our playstyle/gameplay like other classes with resources. We have lower CD's, but that is only so useful. Like Ret pally for example, haste does the same thing to reduce CD's but it also increases HP generation so they can get off more finishers. For us, its just more CD usage... and often times you will have abilities ready regardless of the lower CD from haste, like thru EotE those double attacks give plenty of time for your other abilities to finish their cd. This wastes some of hastes benefit.
Our other secondary stats are also not very impactful. It just seems like we don't get any bonus benefits off stuff like multistrike or crit. I'm not suggesting we should revolve around something like crit, cause then we would have problems like what fury warr or fire mage have with gear, but some bonus benefits would be nice. I see other classes have procs that work off multistrike, but not Enhance. And for crit, even something simple like our old Elem Devastation would work where a spell crit could buff our melee damage.
Maelstrom Weapon:
This is our other main benefactor of haste. More melee swings means more MW5 procs. One thing I have always hated is hardcasting MW when it is below 5 stacks. I don't find this fun or interesting at all, plus it goes against the whole idea of a melee class when you have to sit and cast a spell to do competitive DPS. The MW perk that gives 10% dmg per stack helps with this a bit, but its not enough IMO. I think they should add some bonus effect at 5 stacks.... like say you consume MW at full 5 stacks, you get a buff that increases the damage of your next SS.... or really any kind of buff for temp boost in stats or boost an ability's damage or proc something. Whatever it is, it would be a reward for using MW at 5 stacks and make you want to reach MW5 again as fast as possible to continue getting that bonus. This makes MW5 feel more like a finisher with a nice reward at the end.... kind of like how Ret gets a chance for a free Templar's Verdict after using Templar's Verdict, or can proc a free Divine Storm after using Templar Verdict.
Static Shock:
I personally think Static Shock should be brought back. Our LS is currently useless... and while this passive wasn't very fancy, it atleast utilized LS in some way by linking it to our melee attacks, and it was a way for haste to scale better as more haste = more melee swings = more LS procs. It does not have to be a huge portion of our damage, it can be very small infact.... but anything would be better then nothing regarding LS orb damage. I would suggest some variation on it tho, for example...
Static Shock - Has a 30% chance to proc a LS orb on your SS, LL (mebbe Shock spells too) and a 10% chance on melee swings.
The %'s can be adjusted. Not sure if shocks should be included but I added it anyways. This basically gives LS orbs a chance to proc off both your melee abilities or melee swings.... and since both are effected by haste, this will improve the value of haste. It also feels more "active" instead of passive since its not just melee swings but also your active melee abilities which makes the LS orbs feel more significant as it indirectly boosts the damage of your melee abilities. Could also make it work off multistrikes from SS and LL, which would improve scaling of multistrike.
Other suggestions:
- -Bring Earth shock back. This has good synergy with SS crit buff, and ES does more damage then FrS. This will give us more damage overall since ES will be hitting harder and critting more. It also keeps the shock trinity, with ES as our main direct damage shock and FrS for utility like snare/roots.
- -Make Ascendance scale with Mastery again, and bring back its old spell animation. This should be our main BURST CD.... currently it is just more passive damage. We already have Feral Spirits and Fire Elem for passive damage CD's, we lack a strong burst CD. Ascendance should be that CD. Since it was apparently too bursty before, just make it scale with only 50% of mastery or something like that.
- -Make ULE do damage again. Just like before, give it a 40yd range and based off weapon damage doing physical MH and fire OH. This was basically Shaman's version of a Pally Judgement, but better until they randomly ruined it by removing the damage component. It makes no sense that as a melee we cast ULE for just a buff, every ability/gcd we use should do damage. The damage should be buffed tho.... this is a 12-15 sec CD, so I never understood why the damage was always low. Make it do good damage that is similar to a SS or LL, so it feels good to use it as well as being a good source of damage while moving. If no target is selected, then make it self cast for the buff only... which will still let you use it whenever you want and get the perk for a sprint effect.
- -Revert the -50% nerf to EB damage for Enhance. I don't really know why this exists... but it should do normal damage. I feel like the other 2 talents on that tier put out more DPS and EB is just for the buffs which are too random while you should be able to rely on good damage, that it currently doesn't do.
- -Give Shocks and Windshear a 30yd range baseline. No explanation needed, this is long overdue.
I feel like these changes are not very big or complicated, and most are actually things we have already had but tweaked in some way. But it would increase our overall damage and hopefully improve our scaling. There are ofcourse alot of PVP issues too... but for now I would atleast like to our PVE damage to be solid and well rounded and I think these changes are a good way to go about it.