Enhancement Shaman change PTR 8.1

[Puupi]

I was hoping for an overhaul in the rotation but I've been let down yet again...

I guess will see if they do anything for the next expansion. If they didn't change the rotation this patch I highly doubt they will do it for the rest of the expansion.

Yeah I wish they'd remove Stormbringer, reduce cooldown on Stormstrike, balance the maelstrom gain and give more oomph to Lava Lash.

So that the end result would be a dynamic flow with the resource instead of sitting at 100 maelstrom or being out of maelstrom and making Lava Lash an actually worthy button to press when Stormstrike is on cooldown.

Crashing Storm could use some readjustment as well.

[nothingsjim]

Ignoring the lack of change to Enh mechanic wise, has anyone done the maths? Will the 5% overall damage buff make up for the nerf to Forceful Wind/Lightning Shield? Will our raw damage output actually go up or down?

Because frankly, I am fine with the Feast or Famine playstyle of Enh Shaman. All the suggestions I saw regarding the Enh "Fix" are about turning it into a rotational build and spend spec like Fury Warrior or Ret Paladin, which imo is just boring. We already have so many of these kind of spec (heck, even Elemental was like that, with only Lava Surge Proc being a little RNG), I rather Enh be different instead of just a Fury wearing Mail.

[kosajk]

so much PvE crying, meanwhile Turbo just got even scarier

yea like there will be no changes 1 week after 8.1 going live tuning down things in pvp, op pvp shit is going down fast for some strange reasons (although not for DHs, priests and rogues for even stranger reasons)

[melodramocracy]

A bit disappointing for sure. Was hoping for some real talent swaps and changes. Nobody likes to use Overcharge and the change I'm reading here is not gonna make any more people use it. It would be a cool ability but it just isn't strong enough.

Agreed completely. I like seeing FoA buffed, but I'm also a bit let down about the lightning shield nerf. Still, overall these are all good things.

[trm90]

I still don't get why Stromstrike doesn't go on the charge system with 2 charges baseline and adding an extra charge on some talent (or just 3 baseline)

No idea, Ele has the exact same problem with Lava Burst as well (we can spec into Echo but on live/PTR it's not doing super well either).

And good grief, why is so fucking hard for them to increase the Maelstrom cap? It's such a simple numerical change that will go a really long way in improving the flow of the spec, even if it doesn't "fix" it.

Pre-Legion Enhancement was so much nicer to play, actually fit the battle mage fantasy and had a bit more nuance to it and wasn't as frustrating with RNG. It was weird as hell but it was unique.

[Skildar]

The problem is that Ion outright said there would be mechanical changes coming with 8.1...

why are you quoting me exactly? oO'

[Kralljin]

why are you quoting me exactly? oO'

Because Blizzard would be stupid to sell basic talent balance as "first step".

[lummiuster]

A bit disappointing for sure. Was hoping for some real talent swaps and changes. Nobody likes to use Overcharge and the change I'm reading here is not gonna make any more people use it. It would be a cool ability but it just isn't strong enough.

If you PVP you should try it. So you only cast Rockbitter/StormStrike/Lightning bolt (flametongue if you have nothing else). It is very great to have an easier rotation, it gives you more time to use utility abilities like hex/ghost wolf/earthbind totem which makes you better.

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i still wont be inviting shamans to groups. still 100% useless class. glad blizzard pretty much deleted a class from the game this xpack.

It is great, you are saving them from playing with a toxic leader. In raids following mechanics matter more than 5% extra dps. Same with dungeons (the stun totem is totally worth it). But please dont invite enhance, it really sucks to play with people like you.

[Skildar]

Because Blizzard would be stupid to sell basic talent balance as "first step".

ok, read my post again... I'm not saying they're right to do so or any of what they've done.
I don't know how they're gonna call those changes, "first step", "only immediate recourse", who cares... It's just something so people can't say that they haven't done anything, despite it not handling the core issue.

[swordy]

Yeah I wish they'd remove Stormbringer, reduce cooldown on Stormstrike, balance the maelstrom gain and give more oomph to Lava Lash.

So that the end result would be a dynamic flow with the resource instead of sitting at 100 maelstrom or being out of maelstrom and making Lava Lash an actually worthy button to press when Stormstrike is on cooldown.

Crashing Storm could use some readjustment as well.

They should just tune them to what they were like in MoP, that was a great time to play Enhance.

[Sxzi]

Just curious, what level keys do you run? Could you link your .io?

Enhancement Shamans are not terrible. You just gotta play the class well. I recommend to those experiencing struggles with Enhance to download the rotation addon Hekili. I still use it all the time. I experiences little maelstrom wastage and generally have plenty of maelstrom for my abilities. I would link my IO and Warcraft logs but because I am new to the forums it won't let me. If you would like to view my performance I am Sxzi on Proudmore. My Warcraft logs are probably the best place to look

[Nitwit]

I experiences little maelstrom wastage and generally have plenty of maelstrom for my abilities.

You wasted 21% of your maelstrom on mythic Taloc and 27% on mythic MOTHER, so in an ideal world you could have used 1/0.79 = 26.6% to 1/0.73 = 37% more malestrom spenders; however, this is not possible due to the way the spec is designed (we physically can't press that many more buttons due to the GCD (time) constraint imposed by the game, and a large portion of that maelstrom is wasted while we're spamming a free ability).

So, yes, you do "generally have plenty of maelstrom" for your abilities - a trivial achievement since our resource is entirely broken and we're supplied with way more of it than we can use.

[Sxzi]

You wasted 21% of your maelstrom on mythic Taloc and 27% on mythic MOTHER, so in an ideal world you could have used 1/0.79 = 26.6% to 1/0.73 = 37% more malestrom spenders; however, this is not possible due to the way the spec is designed (we physically can't press that many more buttons due to the GCD (time) constraint imposed by the game, and a large portion of that maelstrom is wasted while we're spamming a free ability).

So, yes, you do "generally have plenty of maelstrom" for your abilities - a trivial achievement since our resource is entirely broken and we're supplied with way more of it than we can use.

Mythic Taloc and Mother are fights that will generally have more maelstrom wastage as you are using rockbiter and flametounge for ranged attacks when you cannot get within melee range. If you look at other fights within WoWAnalyser you will see the wastage is lower if none at all. Good fights to look at are Fetid and Vectis, and usually Zul and Zek (depending on RNG)

[Nitwit]

If you look at other fights within WoWAnalyser you will see the wastage is lower if none at all. Good fights to look at are Fetid and Vectis, and usually Zul and Zek (depending on RNG)

No, I won't. Enhancement physically can't spend maelstrom during stormbringer chains because stormbringer-SS is free. You cannot "outskill" that (it's your top priority ability). You will waste maelstrom, guaranteed. 20-30% of it. Zekvoz and Zul should have even higher waste because you're using Crash Lightning on those fights (= more stormbringers).

[Hightotemz]

I just can't understand how they can considers nerfs when Demon hunters in M+ are just OP as anything right now. Some meta groups are even running 2 Demon hunters.

[Tradu]

This is my problem with the buffs as well. Don't get me wrong I'm more than happy to see something really but when they came out and made the announcements it made it sound like they were going through testing more mechanical changes simply because they said they needed a lot more time. These are number tweaks. Theoretically these are the dials they could just adjust to try and fine tune our numbers. Surely this requires some testing to get correct but does it take 4-8 months to do? I highly doubt it.

It mostly seems like they realized "oh shit, the patch is going live soon and we didn't do any of the stuff we said we'd do for Enh, so let's at least do something real quick. That way the players can't say they got ignored."

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I still don't get why Stromstrike doesn't go on the charge system with 2 charges baseline and adding an extra charge on some talent (or just 3 baseline)

Raging Blow is what Stormstrike should've been.

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If you PVP you should try it. So you only cast Rockbitter/StormStrike/Lightning bolt (flametongue if you have nothing else). It is very great to have an easier rotation, it gives you more time to use utility abilities like hex/ghost wolf/earthbind totem which makes you better.

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It is great, you are saving them from playing with a toxic leader. In raids following mechanics matter more than 5% extra dps. Same with dungeons (the stun totem is totally worth it). But please dont invite enhance, it really sucks to play with people like you.

Those aren't mutually exclusive.

[Revelations]

Problem is that problem is rotation above damage. Bumping damage is nice, but why did this require FOUR months?

Exactly what I said - they take too long.

[micgre8162]

True, literally everyone is overreacting, you are correct, shamans are fine. If only more people had your vision.

I've been playing my Enhancement Shaman more the past few days. He's poorly stat-ed, poorly geared, and his azerite traits are a dumpster fire. I still have more fun on him than I do my Arms Warrior, even though the warrior is in almost the exact opposite situation. Take the Zul fight for example. On my warrior, I'm attacking Zul, the big add, bloodhexer, or cleaving damage around. Basically having no more interaction with the game than a damage script provides. And if I'm completely honest, a damage script would probably do a better job than me. On my shaman, I was attacking everything my warrior was, but also hexing bloodhexers, using purge on the minions, and putting out tremor totem when needed. My damage wasn't as good as my warrior's, for a bunch of reasons, but overall I had a much better time.

[Unholyground]

I mean I don't even play Shaman this expansion and I know the #1 issue they have; Rotation is too much around Stormstrike and everything else feels like shit to press.

Yep, it is really annoying too. I still manage to have fun but holy damn does it feel dumb.

[Deleted]

It's bait.

he took it