The most popular opinion and most sensible on how to fix Elemental spec.

[Alastian]

As if you just quoted sims as opposed to raid data..

Oh no you.. you actually did..

/facepalm

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19
Sorry, shaman still seems okay to me (playing MM hunter).

[Oxna]

Ele needs something akin to a Markmanship hunters sniper training from Legion

[Jacob6875]

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/19
Sorry, shaman still seems okay to me (playing MM hunter).

You realize that in what you linked Elemental is the worst ranged class right ?

At least Marksmanship hunters have the option to switch to BM as Elemental I have no other ranged spec to switch to. My guild doesn't need anymore healers and definitely doesn't need anymore melee DPS.

Of course Marks should also be fixed but to say Elemental is fine when it is the 2nd worst spec in the game just makes no sense.

[kevincuomo]

Elemental needs a damage buff to its single target over its AOE... buff LB and make the maelstrom you gain from it MUCH higher so you can weave in Earth Shocks more.. it takes FOREVER on single target to gain Maelstrom.

[kamogawa11]

Ele needs unique utility not damage increases.

[spanos]

Basically give me what I was in WOTLK and I'll be happy. I absolutely hate LB doing crap damage and building up for ES. Doesn't even feel like the spec I fell in love with so long ago.

[Drunkenfinn]

Basically give me what I was in WOTLK and I'll be happy. I absolutely hate LB doing crap damage and building up for ES. Doesn't even feel like the spec I fell in love with so long ago.

Well, on the PTR Ligthning Bolt + Lightning Bolt Overloads are doing like 45-50% of your DPS or so.
And with all the extra overloads you'll usually have enough Maelstrom for a new ES after you've used up the 3 empowered LBs.

But it might get nerfed for PvP reasons cause it's just too bursty with Stormkeeper + Surge of Power as it is right now.

[Ele man]

After seeing what the majority of my followers would be interested in seeing and doing some extensive math myself(the majority would not understand the calculations here so will just say the results).


a flat increase of 20% to all damage spells would put Ele right in the position it should be.


the rest is up to your play style to capitalise on that.

Now it is becoming clear that there will not be much effect with such dps rise.
I do not think ptr buff is enough. However, apart from this, now raid meta is hard for mail armor class.
mail class is not required for raids. This is because it interferes with gear up of the raid team.
The current raid is too large to benefit from the absence of mail.
team without a mail class are much easier to gear up. This was foreseen at the time the tier set was deleted.

Our hope is that the pattern to use the Restoration's SLT is essential to the next raid incounter.
SLT is the only hope of mail. In the mail class, this is the only skill that other specs can not.
If raid team take a restoration shaman, team can increase the mail class TO for this spec

You need to request the addition of a raid buff to the mail class.
There is no mail in the Raid buff class. Whether hunter or shaman, raid buffs are needed.

I am going to ask this question on the next twitch Q & A. But I do not know if I can hear dev's answer.

[Voltsmasher]

My main issue with ele is how punishing it is to cast a spell. We have no quick burst spell for filler and no way to instantly Dodge incoming damage.

So even after haste improvements my quickest cast is 1.8 seconds.

Compare that to a mages that get scorch and blink and ice block.

So boil it down and it's really that we cannot damage on most fights due to needing to dodge. That feels bad. Not to mention that generally our casts don't have the burst to compensate for this constant interruption

[Mirean]

Haste issues will improve later in the expansion. It is a bad design, I agree, but on the other hand, I understand Ion's point - if we started with as much haste as at the end of previous expansion, how would that work in future patches?
I'm sitting at ~375 ilvl with roughly 25% haste and it's already manageable, 1.6sec cast time of LB/LvB isn't terrible. This number will get much better in next raid too.

One of the solutions I thought of would be to make shocks castable in ghost wolf. Even now, if you know the fight and know when you have to move, you can time it so that you basically lose zero dps, but you still suffer on longer movements, for example on zek'voz when you get the debuff. With this change, your rotation would remain roughly same but you would move 30-50% faster, which would help you get back to doing damage sooner.
Of course, this change would have big implications on PVP, so it would have to be balanced in some other way.

[freddy090909]

Haste issues will improve later in the expansion. It is a bad design, I agree, but on the other hand, I understand Ion's point - if we started with as much haste as at the end of previous expansion, how would that work in future patches?

You don't necessarily need more haste to speed up gameplay. As an example, if lightning bolt's cast time was 1.5seconds instead of 2, then the spec would play a lot faster, even though our haste stat would still be the same. Similarly you can have things like instant casts (LvS) or off-gcd abilities (like fire blast) which can help to make specs feel faster.

Really, I just think the thing that makes us feel slow is how many of our gcds are filled with 2 second casts. And, with Blizzard pumping more power into Lightning Bolt (the biggest offender), I'm not sure it'll improve much. And, it's even worse with AoE, which has two buttons and no procs.

[Ragnarocket]

My main issue with ele is how punishing it is to cast a spell. We have no quick burst spell for filler and no way to instantly Dodge incoming damage.

So even after haste improvements my quickest cast is 1.8 seconds.

Compare that to a mages that get scorch and blink and ice block.

So boil it down and it's really that we cannot damage on most fights due to needing to dodge. That feels bad. Not to mention that generally our casts don't have the burst to compensate for this constant interruption

Well Frost Shock is our "filler" spell while on the move...and yeah that really doesn't feel good since it's not a spell we're going to be fitting into a normal rotation anytime soon with Icefury so weak.

I'm still a big proponent of the idea that if they want us to be the turret spec we need some way of mitigating damage that isn't a wimpy 40% damage reduction on a 1.5 minute CD. Mages get Ice Block AND Blinks, mobility and invincibility while we have nothing in terms of mobility except for Ghost Wolf which silences us so there's no Frost Shocks anyway. I keep Frost Shock on my bars mainly for Mother when I'm getting pushed by wind and I'm not getting free Lava Burst procs or have Earth Shock charged up.