Enhcance shaman Shock help.

[Deleted]

Hey there
Ive been playing enhance for quite a short time and i would love to know what the procedure is when your shocks get out of sync. Do you munch your FS and ignore a ES for one cycle or do you carry on as normal and lose 1-2 seconds of FS and then carry on as normal after that?

Thanks in advance.

[Orrion]

You Flame Shock whenever you use Unleash Elements. Otherwise, you Earth Shock.

[Kurzior]

Your priorty when it comes to shock spells is always: Unleash Elements + FS > ES. Depending on whether you took points in Wind Shear (1s reduced shock cd), you'll still have occasional overlap between FS and ES. The only time you should ES before FS, or can even afford to, is if your FS has at least 6-7 seconds remaining, and even then its questionable. The reason being, if you don't have FS on the target, your Searing Totem will stop firing, if only briefly, and cost you LL dps in the long run.

The short answer, you should be refreshing FS every time you have Unleash available. Its not worth the dps loss of having it fall off, even for a second or 2.

[Deleted]

Is it not worth waiting a few more seconds so you dont munch your existing Flame shock?

[Imadraenei]

Is it not worth waiting a few more seconds so you dont munch your existing Flame shock?

Someone did the math on this, and showed that even if they clipped 3 or 4 ticks it was still fine.

Cast Flame Shock if Unleash Fire is up, otherwise Earth Shock. The remaining duration on Flame Shock is of no importance.

[Kurzior]

Someone did the math on this, and showed that even if they clipped 3 or 4 ticks it was still fine.

Cast Flame Shock if Unleash Fire is up, otherwise Earth Shock. The remaining duration on Flame Shock is of no importance.

It comes back to how Searing Works. With Wind Shear fully talented, you have have to use your ES at least 5 seconds before FS will wear off, otherwise the DoT will fall off, and you will lose at least one tick of Searing. 6 seconds if you have 0 points in Wind Shear. Also, even if you manage to perfectly time your last ES so that FS will have 1 tick left after the cooldown comes up, you'll most likely have a higher priority ability (SS or LL) off cd at this time too. Its just all around safer to clip a few ticks of FS in order to make sure the DoT has 100% uptime rather than risk trying to squeeze in an extra ES.

[Imadraenei]

It comes back to how Searing Works. With Wind Shear fully talented, you have have to use your ES at least 5 seconds before FS will wear off, otherwise the DoT will fall off, and you will lose at least one tick of Searing. 6 seconds if you have 0 points in Wind Shear. Also, even if you manage to perfectly time your last ES so that FS will have 1 tick left after the cooldown comes up, you'll most likely have a higher priority ability (SS or LL) off cd at this time too. Its just all around safer to clip a few ticks of FS in order to make sure the DoT has 100% uptime rather than risk trying to squeeze in an extra ES.

Wait, what? How does Searing Totem/Flames have anything to do with clipping Flame Shock?

[ktalinus]

Wait, what? How does Searing Totem/Flames have anything to do with clipping Flame Shock?

pulled from the tooltip - "...The totem will prefer to target enemies that are afflicted by your Flame Shock or Stormstrike effects." If it goes willy nilly attacking something else its a considerable dps loss from lava lash.

[Imadraenei]

pulled from the tooltip - "...The totem will prefer to target enemies that are afflicted by your Flame Shock or Stormstrike effects." If it goes willy nilly attacking something else its a considerable dps loss from lava lash.

I never thought about that, but then again I've never had problems with Searing just jumping to other targets when Flame Shock wears off.

[Against the Modern World]

Is it not worth waiting a few more seconds so you dont munch your existing Flame shock?

I usually do this, and if FS has a long time when Unleash in ready, I just UE+Lavaburst (Eye of Purification in MH).
And usually I try to do UE, then cast Lavaburst+FS (only when old FS is still rolling, so LB is a guaranteed crit). This way I think UE buff affects both Lavaburst+new Flame Shock.

[Deleted]

The reason being, if you don't have FS on the target, your Searing Totem will stop firing, if only briefly, and cost you LL dps in the long run.

No it won't. If flame shock falls off a target that, does not make searing totem stop shooting. Searing totem will stop shooting when there is nothing to shoot at in range. The ONLY time flame shock will STOP shooting (note: to stop shooting it must have already been shooting) is when you are attacking a target dummy which REQUIRES flame shock on the target, don't know why but it does.

If you were to engage a boss and drop your searing totem once actually in combat with the boss and in range, it will shoot until it's duration is up. Flame shock and Stormstrike are there to help the searing totem target the correct enemy, it acts as a way of (supposedly) making searing totem change targets without having to redrop it.

Many people complain about searing totems AI, but once you learn it it's actually very easy to use. Fire Elemental is a different matter as it's a free moving NPC that is summoned and has a cooldown that doesn't allow for mistakes.

[Falling]

Personally I just let it drop, I keep the UE->FS->ES rotation going all the time, never altering it.

[Psilo.]

For me i refresh FS at 3-6 seconds depending on other prio CDs. usually i pop ES always round 6-8 seconds left on FS without fault.