Enhancement vs Elemental changes

[Rennegadelawlz]

Hey guys,

Not sure if you guys saw the ptr patch notes for enhancement earlier this week, but it’s a fair amount of changes that definitely leave enhancement feeling like we have more choices. Sad thing is, they “fixed” elemental first I think we got something like 4 changes?! Now I play both specs so half of me is happy, the other half is a little confused at blizzards work ethics on elemental. I mean does anyone else feel like the literally glazed over elemental? I’m not complaining about the enhancement buffs, but I have to give them kudos on it, it looked like they really looked at the spec. I think most of us would agree that it would be nice to see that kind of dedication to elemental.

Does anyone else agree or disagree?

I know I’m up to date on the patch notes, but I’m not sure if anything got changed underneath the radar on the ptr that hasn’t been posted for ele.

[o17ver]

If the Elemental changes basically leave us still:

Awful 2 target cleave
Awful aoe unless a large group lives more than 15 seconds
Awful dps with movement

Then I would at least hope ST we are near the top.

Otherwise I shall have to change class, literally no use turning up to mythic raids gimping your team.

[Jotaux]

As far as I know nothing changes for enhancement in PVE, the current choices are still the best and the 5% buff offsets the nerf to them. In PVP everything got buffed and its going to be really good.

[unbound]

Can't really comment on Enh Shaman changes, but Ele Shaman changes are basically garbage. I expect my Ele Shaman to remain benched.

[crakerjack]

Yea enhance isn't getting "Buffed" they're just nerfing what's meta and giving a 5% buff to compensate.

[Rennegadelawlz]

Yeah, I’m just commenting on the fact that enhancement is getting changes, and a lot more than expected, not a buff I just like that blizzard actually put in real thought towards changing them in any fashion. They barely touched elemental. Someone in another post on a different thread said something on the lines that elemental was going to get a free natures harmony buff? I’ve looked all over the place and cannot find this.

[Jotaux]

Yeah, I’m just commenting on the fact that enhancement is getting changes, and a lot more than expected, not a buff I just like that blizzard actually put in real thought towards changing them in any fashion. They barely touched elemental. Someone in another post on a different thread said something on the lines that elemental was going to get a free natures harmony buff? I’ve looked all over the place and cannot find this.

They put in no thought, they basically changed nothing in PVE because we will use the same talents for the same damage and buffed them in PVP where they are already very strong. It really makes no sense.

[chriseggroll]

For Enhance, they just balanced some of the talents, though probably not enough to even change what we use now. So it will still feel random and maelstrom will be pegged out.

For Elemental, the Stormkeeper change will be nice, but the buffed damage is only ST.

Considering the wait, it feels insulting. Talent changes do not equal "major rework"

[Hightotemz]

If the Elemental changes basically leave us still:

Awful 2 target cleave
Awful aoe unless a large group lives more than 15 seconds
Awful dps with movement

Then I would at least hope ST we are near the top.

Otherwise I shall have to change class, literally no use turning up to mythic raids gimping your team.

Shamans pretty much have to run M+ with a guild group, pugs would rather take a DH,mage or rogue that is 5-10 ilvls lower just because of the bad rep shamans have in general.

Hell they should be turning shamans into gods aka Demon Hunters for a patch just to get people playing them again.

[Terantrox]

First of all to get this out of the way:
Both of the speccs got screwed over, waiting till 8.1 to get changes which could and should have been introduced in far earlier as hotfix or probably even before launch.

Now to go into the Enhancement vs Ele:
Sorry, but if you think Enhancement got fair changes compared to Ele then you really do not know anything about the current specc. First of all these are all pure number changes to buff abysmal talents to at least get them closer to what they are supposed to be. Any simcrafter could have done these changes in half a day's of work. Nonetheless, we probably will keep running the same talents, which says everything about the quality of these "buffs". They also removed any interactivity Lightning Shield had with your playstyle by removing the Maelstrom generation. Nothing of this addresses any problems and all of these are purely number changes.

As for Elemental, while the changes might suck or at least not solve things, they clearly put in some actual thought into it. They shifted the damage profile and even redesigned 2 talents. In my opinion this takes more work and though than buffing the damage of obviously underperforming talents.

However, at the end of the day we all got the short end of the stick and what's the point of discussing which specc is worse off...

[kosajk]

Yeah, I’m just commenting on the fact that enhancement is getting changes, and a lot more than expected, not a buff I just like that blizzard actually put in real thought towards changing them in any fashion. They barely touched elemental. Someone in another post on a different thread said something on the lines that elemental was going to get a free natures harmony buff? I’ve looked all over the place and cannot find this.

Tbh i dont see any changes beside some numerical tuning, bringing talents closer is nice but not what ive ben waiting for, you can now chose any 1 tier talent and do simillar dmg thats all that changed pve wise, although LS as a pasive that work well with SS chainprocing i belive it will be still rather strong expecially that most of the time MW is there just to force you in keeping an eye on it to no overcap it and use RB from time to time when there is no procs for longer period of time.

about pvp side of changes im 100% sure that it will not go live for more than 2 weeks without being nerfed,
assuming it will even see live without geting tuned down, which is rather unreal...

[SirCowdog]

Kind of sad. I was hoping to maybe revisit shaman along with the new leveling changes with an allied race in 8.1. But typical Blizzard....shitting on shaman once again.

Seems like every time I start convincing myself to give WoW another chance, Blizzard shoots themselves in the foot again. Oh well....

[tru]

What do you expect when their top devs are working on mobile titles now... speak with your wallet and be done with it.

[Kralljin]

But typical Blizzard....shitting on shaman once again.

To be fair, either something is seriously draining resources out of the dev team or they're pulling a WoD on BfA and have a lot of their devs already focus on the next expansion.

Ion outright said there would be mechanical changes coming, which is a lot different from the usual "we think Shaman are fine" attitude.

Second, they also said both Prot and SP would receive mechanical changes, Prot pretty much just got Ignore Pain off the GCD and some numerical buffs, SP changes were (at least going by forum responses) also rather lukewarm.

Yeah, Shaman just stands out because as the usual suspect in terms of bad design as far as PvE is concerned, but right now class design / balance as a whole is just out of whack and 8.1 doesn't seem to fix that.

[Tock20]

Wasn't there some Ele specific azerite traits being added? I haven't really seen what those are yet.

[Kralljin]

Wasn't there some Ele specific azerite traits being added? I haven't really seen what those are yet.

https://ptr.wowhead.com/spell=286949/tectonic-thunder

Replaces Rumbling Tremors (Earth Ele trait) on every piece.
That is all, every spec just received a single new trait which then replaces one.

One of the reasons why i got hung up whenever i saw a dev talking about retiring some Azerite traitS and adding new Azerite traitS, the plural is misleading here.

[Tikishock]

https://ptr.wowhead.com/spell=286949/tectonic-thunder

Replaces Rumbling Tremors (Earth Ele trait) on every piece.
That is all, every spec just received a single new trait which then replaces one.

One of the reasons why i got hung up whenever i saw a dev talking about retiring some Azerite traitS and adding new Azerite traitS, the plural is misleading here.

To be fair---I really really really really really want that Azerite trait. I will trade in one of my kids for it. Looks sweetsauce!