Should I start BFA as a Shaman our wait till 8.1?

[Xruptor]

Sadly I'm facing this same dilemma. I have always liked the Shaman aesthetics and I do enjoy Resto shaman. But the current state of Elemental and Enhancement is painful. Not sure if I should just wait or move on to something else. It's disgraceful that they have Shaman at this state with release of BFA.

[Nyel]

Elemental on 120 is garbage. I had fun on my journey to 120 but the moment I hit 120 everything became... horrible.

[Xruptor]

Elemental on 120 is garbage. I had fun on my journy to 120 but the moment I hit 120 everything became... horrible.

That's sad news indeed I've been wanting to change my main to Shaman but all these posts are not making it easy. I'm currently sticking through it to 120. I enjoy the Resto shaman, but my Monk is looking better and better. Having to wait to 8.1 sucks and we don't even know if this will fix the issue.

[freddy090909]

I've personally taken a break from WoW because ele is just not enjoyable to me. I'm banking a lot on 8.1 to improve it, if it looks good on PTR I'll hop on live and level up. Otherwise, I'll just hold out for 9.0 and hope Blizz changes up their class design philosphy.

[Nyel]

Erm guys we're in the exact same situation like we have been in Legion. We should get a rework or buffs in 7.1 as well and it was quite disappointing as well. Don't expect anything from 8.1.

[Xruptor]

Erm guys we're in the exact same situation like we have been in Legion. We should get a rework or buffs in 7.1 as well and it was quite disappointing as well. Don't expect anything from 8.1.

I can't actually recall that. But I do remember Elemental having issues at start of Legion. I suppose a lot of us are just hoping things will be better in 8.1 since apparently they didn't get around to finishing the polish on the Shaman specs before BfA launch. This whole situation makes me a sad panda

[Nfinitii]

Elemental on 120 is garbage. I had fun on my journey to 120 but the moment I hit 120 everything became... horrible.

What made it so different at 120 when u enjoyed lvling as ele?

[fishoa]

Should've already rerolled whenever Binkenstein jumped ship. That dude was a diehard Elemental main and even he couldn't take it anymore. If you hung on then, hung on during Legion and hope they will get Elemental right this time, you're a sucker.

[Nyel]

What made it so different at 120 when u enjoyed lvling as ele?

I blame it on scaling. You just feel incredibly weak. And casting 2sec Lightning Bolts for 2k damage or your finisher (ES) dealing 10k damage when it takes forever to generate Maelstorm is really, really a let down and makes the spec horrible to play.

As a Monk my instant builder/spender deal twice the damage. Rising Sun Kick on a 9s CD deals the same damage as non crit Earth Shock and my FoF every 20 seconds as a cleave skill deals three to four times the damage of an Earth Shock I need 10 or more seconds to generate 60 Maelstorm for.

Every Ele skill feels incredibly undertuned, especially the Lightning Skills. Sure we can Overload and our crits hit harder but with 13% Crit or 30% Mastery in rather crap gear on 120 you barely see that. Scaling for Ele is broken imho.

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I can't actually recall that. But I do remember Elemental having issues at start of Legion. I suppose a lot of us are just hoping things will be better in 8.1 since apparently they didn't get around to finishing the polish on the Shaman specs before BfA launch. This whole situation makes me a sad panda

Yeah, Shadow and Elemental. Both specs I play at the moment... nevertheless Shadow feels still a lot more powerful.

[Deleted]

I dont see any issues with enhancement at all? I had alot of fun levelling from 110-120. Now im 336 ilvl and doing mythics.

Our ST and AOE is better than most, thats for sure.
We bring a AOE stun thats useable nearly on every(if its +4 mobs) or second group of trash mobs.
Tremor totem for those annoying packs who fears, and ppl are to lazy to interrupt it
Decent self healing if healer needs a break
Heroism
Short cooldown on interrupt
Slow totem
Hex

Im enjoying it, and im sure Elemental will be fine at some point.

[obesemidget]

I quest resto. Ele is really bad off. Lavaburst hits for 6k at ilvl 339. With flameshock on cd there just arent enough lava surge procs. Cant get enough maelstrom to fill in enough earthshocks to be viable.

[Riistov]

What are the main gripes people have about the spec? The viability or how fun the rotation is? or both?

Its perfectly viable, its just mechanically inferior to Legion. There are more than a few issues with that way Ele plays and feels currently. Number-wise, its middle of the pack.

[Xruptor]

Well it can't be that bad if after several hotfixes already they haven't touched the Shaman. That or they just plan to do huge changes in a tuesday patch or for patch 8.1. Either way I haven't seen any dev posts discussing that they are aware of the issues with shaman or what they plan to address.

[Deleted]

I have given up for now, over the weekend I tried Enh and I'm sticking to that untill a Elem is improved.
First time ever that I've led design dictate my choice, but atm Elem feels totally unfun and lackluster. Enh isn't perfect, but atleast I feel like stand a chance out in the world and can actually pack a punch without relying on 1+ min CD's. And it sort of has synergy among it's abilites, never expected that to be such a big deal.

[Xruptor]

I have given up for now, over the weekend I tried Enh and I'm sticking to that untill a Elem is improved.
First time ever that I've led design dictate my choice, but atm Elem feels totally unfun and lackluster. Enh isn't perfect, but atleast I feel like stand a chance out in the world and can actually pack a punch without relying on 1+ min CD's. And it sort of has synergy among it's abilites, never expected that to be such a big deal.

Now that there are tons more people geared and at 120. I wonder if gear upgrades has changed things for Shaman with folks getting higher gear and such. Or does it still suffers a lot compared to other classes?

[blehmeh]

I personally get really tired of people saying dumb things like "shaman are okay".

Let me say something, I've played Shaman more than any other class since TBC. The sad reality is that while I've wanted Shaman to be great, they've historically been very subpar. You could make the argument they are "okay", but the only way I'd let that slide is if you also say that everyone else is "overpowered".

As Shaman I can hold my own decently, only because I've played this class for so long, but compared to Shaman any other class I play I feel like I'm an unstoppable juggernaut. Even with no experience, I can just switch to anything else and my performance is improved dramatically. In PvE, PvP, leveling, you name it.

Truth is, most people who play this game are bad. So playing even a subpar class against people who aren't very good will still make you look like a god. It's easy to hop in a BG, or a dungeon and look at the dmg meters or your KBs, and go "See? It's not too bad". And that's what happens, people who play Shaman, and only play Shaman, do well against bad players and just say "we're fine". But then that one player who's actually good will come along and stomp you into the ground where you have absolutely no way to compete. Again this is either in PvE or PvP.

You will play your ass off and have no hope to catch up or be useful. Cool, we have heroism, but now mages and hunters have it too, who both do more damage in PvE and are better in PvP as well.

Honestly, I don't ever expect it to change. Honestly, the developers are straight garbage at balancing this game.

Watch 8.1 be just a numbers/maelstrom tweak, and not the rework that was hyped in the Q&A. Shaman will never be a top tier class. Ever.

[digichi]

I lvled my shammy to 120, got it to 330 ilvl, had some fun in dungeons and spent most of my world quests doing big pulls so i could benefit from my burst aoe CDs.. dungeons felt decent because the burst is nice, but everything else needs some real tweaks.

Like others mentioned, flame shock does nothing, lightening bolt, chain lightening and even lava burst just tickle non elites. Single target is just so painful. Theres nothing worse than getting 3 lava burst procs against a nonelite mob out in the world, and they barely leave a scratch. Earth shock is ok, but the amount of time it takes to generate maelstrom to get one doesn't justify it really. I'd love if lavaburst made a real stand again, id love to see procs generate a tonne of maelstrom and be some deadly crits. Im guessing if ele gets buffs in single target, their burst will get nerfed a little bit, but we will have to see. I don't main shaman, so others who have been with the class longer might have more insight on what synergizes best for the class.