Elemental 8.1 PTR Changes

[Raeph]

my plan for BFA was to lvl up my prot pally (For raids), my WW monk for alch and my shaman as ele to have fun.

My ele shaman is stuck at 113. I can't force myself to make time for him. Its too painful to level up at its current level. I don't imagine that max level will be any better. Single target dps is low, Multi-target dps is low, mobility is low, defensives are low. The only time I feel "powerful" as a spec is when I have someone else tank 6-10 mobs together and I can spam LB/CL enough to get EQ to cast, then for a few seconds I feel useful as stuff starts falling dead after a few moments.

Without a tank to support me I can only risk pulling 1-2 things at a time.

My monk on the other hand could easily pull 2-5 things and kill them as long as I had Touch of Karma and E/W/F up. Those "powerful CDs" are pretty much up for every large pull. There is no comparison to leveling between the two specs.

Oh and my monk at lvl 110 was nearly 30 ilvls lower than my Monk.

I hate to say it but ELe is kinda pathetic right now.

[Aquinan]

I'm pretty sure this was the case at the end of ICC, can anyone confirm?

I thought it was, stealth revert apparently. These *fixes* are a joke.

[RuneDK]

Shaman are doomed to eternal bandaid fixes.

I'm not really that impressed. These "improvements" seem minor and awkward. I'm still going to be a sitting duck in movement based raid mechanics.

Also, ffs why do we need both spell damage and physical damage in both ele and enh? It means we need both a DH and Monk for their debuff for the boost in damage.



Come on, this is an exaggeration and you know it. Play another class for like 5 minutes. You go ahead and enjoy your bandaid hotfix "positive step in the right direction", I'll go play several complete classes that don't need a rework. Is it better? Yeah, but after over a decade of failing to establish a real reliable set of mechanics for ele, I'm just tired of it. You think this will bring back all the top ele's who have walked away from the class? Very unlikely.

Enhance is also a mess as well, it basically comes down to stack haste and RNG Stormstrike spam. It's so boring and flimsy. It also needs a rework.

Can't wait for them to redistribute damage from SS to Rockbiter...maybe Lava Lash too.

[Tikishock]

Come on, this is an exaggeration and you know it. Play another class for like 5 minutes. You go ahead and enjoy your bandaid hotfix "positive step in the right direction", I'll go play several complete classes that don't need a rework. Is it better? Yeah, but after over a decade of failing to establish a real reliable set of mechanics for ele, I'm just tired of it. You think this will bring back all the top ele's who have walked away from the class? Very unlikely.

Enhance is also a mess as well, it basically comes down to stack haste and RNG Stormstrike spam. It's so boring and flimsy. It also needs a rework.

I play other classes and I enjoy my time with them but I just really like Ele/Resto shaman. I like a ranged dps/healer class. Im sorry you don't feel the same way. It sounds like you're done with the class and I can understand that and I hope you find a class that you do enjoy as much as I do with shaman.

I also agree with somebody else that I wouldn't mind a complete strip down and center the class on thing but Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. I still want to be a Sith Lord.

[Lambskin]

Sure, we shamans don't have all the functionality we had in legion, but popping down 3 or 4 earthquakes is enough AoE damage for me, and i can whip disc priests in PVP with careful purge useage. Shaman for me is all about feeling like godzilla, so I'm really excited for those new talents. The one thing I would like to see is just a slight increase to Icefury, both in damage and maelstrom generation, even just 1% increases would be enough.

[Northy]

I like the new talents ideas. Should help us in PVP as well. I'm worried earth shock damage will be pitiful though as it is the only spell in our kit with any PVP kill potential.

[blehmeh]

I play other classes and I enjoy my time with them but I just really like Ele/Resto shaman. I like a ranged dps/healer class. Im sorry you don't feel the same way. It sounds like you're done with the class and I can understand that and I hope you find a class that you do enjoy as much as I do with shaman.

I also agree with somebody else that I wouldn't mind a complete strip down and center the class on thing but Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. I still want to be a Sith Lord.

I've played ele since TBC, I enjoy ele the most but when compared to other classes it's subpar more then not. Who cares about fun when viability is the concern?

For example, why play ele when mage does everything ele can do but easier and better? Better dmg, better cc, spell steal, time warp, food, portals, int buff. For the offheals? Too situational to really matter.

I love ele too, but I'm a realist and can look at things objectively.

[zito]

what is with that surge of power flame shock application?

Are they actually just mocking us? You want flame shock no cd? Here you go take a talent for it and it has to proc

like what

[mrinvisable2]

who the hell asked tonerf earthshock, its already hits liket paper towell. and they still keep fcking earthen rage an useles talent 3 expansions in arow

[Northy]

what is with that surge of power flame shock application?

Are they actually just mocking us? You want flame shock no cd? Here you go take a talent for it and it has to proc

like what

I didn't read the talent as a proc I read it more as whatever spell you cast after earth shock will get that bonus

[Mordog]

Because the 2 new Talents - " Call of the Thunder" and " Surge" of Power" are not on the same row you can combine them.

Pool about 120MS, cast ES - cast FS - cast ES - cast FS ( and by now you still dont have triggered a CD on FS) so you can again FS a target, or push out LB/LvB for a nother ES wich will then allow to spread FS again.

To pool MS and get out 2 ES is actualy a kind of improvement to predictable movement, just pool and shock on the move.

With Surge of Power you need to think in advance what the fight need in the next moments or in the overall length of the fight.

Do you want to spread out more FS for cleave, or do you want some dmg right now by casting LB to get the additional overload effect on LB. Or is is important to squeeze in a nother powerfull CD with Fire(Storm)elemental wich would be triggered by LvB...


And you can enhance this by picking Aftershock.


We will se how good all of that works and wich other nuber changes are coming.

[Gasparde]

Because the 2 new Talents - " Call of the Thunder" and " Surge" of Power" are not on the same row you can combine them.

Pool about 120MS, cast ES - cast FS - cast ES - cast FS ( and by now you still dont have triggered a CD on FS) so you can again FS a target, or push out LB/LvB for a nother ES wich will then allow to spread FS again.

To pool MS and get out 2 ES is actualy a kind of improvement to predictable movement, just pool and shock on the move.

With Surge of Power you need to think in advance what the fight need in the next moments or in the overall length of the fight.

Do you want to spread out more FS for cleave, or do you want some dmg right now by casting LB to get the additional overload effect on LB. Or is is important to squeeze in a nother powerfull CD with Fire(Storm)elemental wich would be triggered by LvB...


And you can enhance this by picking Aftershock.


We will se how good all of that works and wich other nuber changes are coming.

Ye, sounds good in theory, is ultimately doomed to fail because they somehow can't manage to make interesting talents not be significantly worse than shit like High Voltage.

[Socialhealer]

Because the 2 new Talents - " Call of the Thunder" and " Surge" of Power" are not on the same row you can combine them.

Pool about 120MS, cast ES - cast FS - cast ES - cast FS ( and by now you still dont have triggered a CD on FS) so you can again FS a target, or push out LB/LvB for a nother ES wich will then allow to spread FS again.

To pool MS and get out 2 ES is actualy a kind of improvement to predictable movement, just pool and shock on the move.

With Surge of Power you need to think in advance what the fight need in the next moments or in the overall length of the fight.

Do you want to spread out more FS for cleave, or do you want some dmg right now by casting LB to get the additional overload effect on LB. Or is is important to squeeze in a nother powerfull CD with Fire(Storm)elemental wich would be triggered by LvB...


And you can enhance this by picking Aftershock.


We will se how good all of that works and wich other nuber changes are coming.

sounds amazing until you realise if there's that many targets you're just losing to an ele shaman casting CL CL EQ CL CL EQ, especially with EQ only costing 50 maelstrom.

[nothingsjim]

Call the Thunder - Your maximum Maelstrom is increased by 30, and the Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock and Earthquake is reduced by 10.

Surge of Power - Earth Shock also enhances your next spell:
Flame Shock: The next cast does not incur a cooldown.
Lightning Bolt: Your next 3 casts will cause an additional Elemental Overload.
Lava Burst: Reduces the cooldown of your Fire (or Storm) Elemental by 6 sec.
Frost Shock: Roots the target in place for 6 sec.

Surge of Power is basically Power of the Maelstrom from Legion, except we get to control when it happens this time instead of RNG.

Together with the reduced Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock from Call of Thunder, we will cast ES more often and use Lightning Bolt to consume the Surge, the increased Maelstrom generation will make it feel less like we're using a filler, and the automatic Overload may even make Unlimited Power viable.

Hell, I am looking forward to it.

[Aggrophobic]

These changes seem more like nerfs to me.
Heck, they even moved more damage to spells that can't be used while moving, making the class even more awkward to use.

[Mordog]

sounds amazing until you realise if there's that many targets you're just losing to an ele shaman casting CL CL EQ CL CL EQ, especially with EQ only costing 50 maelstrom.

Sure thing, but thats not how i meant it to be used.

You point out a total AOE scenario,,, i speak from cleave.


3 - 4 target, where our "AOE" is bad.

And to Sppread out targets like on many council fights.

On them you can push up you uptime on FS by a good amount.
Yes theoreticly you can keep FS already up on 3 targets all the time but then you got more room for "errors" or und predict happenings.

[Ele man]

I can not expect much. Changing talents? So what other strengths do ele have?
DEV does not know why ELE is fundamental why it is useless.
I honestly did not expect it, but DEV will not fix the useless ELE that has been repeated every season.
ele need to have an additional strength that clearly shows strength. This talents change isn't a answer.

It will be released at the next expansion pack, and at this time, ele will be asked to ask why it is so bad. WoD, Legion, BfA and so on.

[Socialhealer]

Sure thing, but thats not how i meant it to be used.

You point out a total AOE scenario,,, i speak from cleave.


3 - 4 target, where our "AOE" is bad.

And to Sppread out targets like on many council fights.

On them you can push up you uptime on FS by a good amount.
Yes theoreticly you can keep FS already up on 3 targets all the time but then you got more room for "errors" or und predict happenings.

pointless, elemental WAS bad at spread dps, pretty much the worst caster.

just bring a boomkin/spriest/afflction lock 40-50 ilvls lower, you'll destroy every elemental shaman everyday.

now FS has a cooldown? pooling 50 maelstrom on spread target fight? to get 1 extra FS up?

yeah sorry you're still being schooled by every balance/spriest/lock in the game, yup even Dennis who can't move out of the fire in LFR still wearing quest greens is going to kick your ass on a spread target fight.

FS NEEDS TO HAVE NO COOLDOWN, it's just the simple there is no other option than being a moronic class designer and not knowing what the fuck you're doing ~ blizzard 2018.

[Rezhka]

They can simply just revert back the spec to Legion's Argus 'patch. Are they overthinking shit?

[Deleted]

Holy shit I'm going to have to stop feeling sorry for shamans now. You're all just whining bitches that got exactly what you wanted and you're still saying that these changes are "pointless" or a potentional "nerf" Without even knowing the numbers and all of the talents. Pure speculations and you keep playing the victim. Maybe the class wasen't bad in the first Place, Its just a bunch of bad whining players that make up most of the class.

Hope they trash the dps specs so you will be forced to heal, Atleast those whom are playing resto shaman seems abit more level-headed.