Cataclysm Changes - Elemental

[sambu]

the Q&A afterwards says..., "Q: What happens to the Lightning Overload talent? A: It provides a bonus to Elemental Overload."

for those still wondering about lightning overload

[Deleted]

Am I the only one thinking that our damage while moving issue didn't get fixed? 10 seconds with 2 min CD is nearly useless for big movement fights in PvE. =(

[Thartanos]

earthquake - interested to see what this spell is like but hoping for a name change. elemental moves already sound to much like a pokemon lets not add earthquake to that list

Its not a pokemon move earthquakes has been there in WC3 for long, during the campain thrall had it.

[Dark_Spirit]

Now not knowing how "earthquake" will play into our rotation in pve, i was hoping to see at least one more new spell for ele's in cataclysm. Cause I don't want to go from wrath where I'm casting lightning bolt repeatedly until lava burst or flame shock are off, to cataclysm doing the same thing. I'm really hoping that we get another spell to add to the rotation.

We will probably use "Unleash Flametongue Weapon" ( Deals instant Fire damage and buffs the shaman's next Fire attack by 20%.) as a part of our rotation. (before cast LvB ofc)

Earthquake will be just an aoe spell (maybe with extra slow or something) imo.

[Erax]

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

* Spell damage
* Spell Crit
* Elemental Overload


Elemental Overload: Your direct-damage spells have a chance to proc a less powerful 'bonus" version of the spell. This will work much like the current Lightning Overload talent, but would also apply to Lava Burst.

Why do we get crit?
Since we need haste more.

[Deleted]

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

* Spell damage
* Spell Crit
* Elemental Overload


Elemental Overload: Your direct-damage spells have a chance to proc a less powerful 'bonus" version of the spell. This will work much like the current Lightning Overload talent, but would also apply to Lava Burst.

Why do we get crit?
Since we need haste more.

Oh, great that you mention that...
Now, since you already know what we will be needing with Cata, can you give me the DEP of BiS of the first Cataclysm tier? And yeah, BiS 25m HC, not 10m or something like that.

On a more serious note:
I'm wondering... in the preview they gave us, we can see a very viable solution to the ToW/DP-problem, a solution which would work right now... so for now, they could just make ToW and DP give everyone 10% of their own SP, not of the Lock/Ele. That would at least solve one part of the problem.
To get rid of the last part, they'd just have to include ToW in our Fire totems, like they already wrote....
So this makes me wonder... why the hell didn't they do it already? >_>
They should just implement that change in the next patch... makes raids less dependant on having to have a Demolock.

[sambu]

in cataclysm, they've mentioned that it will be much much harder to "cap" hit, crit, haste, etc. So as much as we need haste now, you can't really say you know what we will and won't need in cataclysm. They've also said that we'll be more likely to focus on "balancing" our crit/haste instead of hitting the haste cap and then going for spellpower. We're not going to be sitting around with the 65-70% crit that we're getting in raids now.

Also, we'll be getting these changes before cataclysm comes out, just like before. I think we had them sometime around 1-3months before the last expansion. I know this doesn't help now, but it is so much easier for them to introduce the new coding with that, than put pieces of it in now (especially with some things still most likely being tweaked while beta tested).

[Deathhoof]

There will be no more hit rating on caster mail gear. There will be spirit and it will be converted into hit rating (and mana regen??) for elemental shaman. Other non-mail pieces, i.e. weapons, rings, necklace, cloaks will still have hit rating.

Nah, in order to get the spirit to MP5 conversion, you have to spend points in resto to activate the 2nd mastery bonus in resto, meditation, so spirit won't increase mana regeneration for elemental.

[whowherewhat?]

with the spirit>hit conversion...
I can imagine an expansion where the hit cap is so high (think DW melee high) that there's no feasible way of us reaching it. That way more spirit always = more dps, however to combat spirit stacking they'd probably have to do away with spirit gems and enchants on elemental gear...ugh i guess it won't work after all but hey, i tried

[Bluenose]

Didnt they say that they are only putting spirit on healing gear? They said that dps specs wont have to worry about spirit. Or was it something else

"which will appear on the gear they share with Restoration shaman"

Ye that kind of answers your question.

[Elemention]

I was wondering the same thing myself. If you can have both Lightning Overload and Elemental Overload, then (unless it has an ICD) you could theoretically proc both on Chain Lightning for 3 Chains at once... which only leads me to believe that Elemental Overload will replace Lightning Overload.

Remember, they're trying to get the boring static bonuses like x% modifiers into the mastery and away from talents...Guess that's what's happening here, new talents to replace Lightning Overload, which is after all a 'glorified multiplier'

[aikouka]

I'd assume that to avoid possible crazy random burst, an Elemental Overloaded Lava Burst would not be 100% crit (with FS up).

Earthquake will be just an aoe spell (maybe with extra slow or something) imo.

I thought of Earthquake having an extra (and slight) slowing effect as being a fantastic idea (and posted about it on the WoW forums). Blizzard could really work with this and add in a Major glyph that boosts the functionality by either increasing the slowing effect or having it snare/stun instead. They could also add in a minor glyph to boost Earthquake damage by a moderate amount while also removing the slowing effect (Blizzard seems to love trading effects for bonus damage/procs).

[Squib]

the way im reading that is its only going to be one cast while moving.

Actually, the way they wrote it obviously suggests that you can cast while moving for the 10 second duration. That wouldn't make any sense at all if it's just one cast since they can just write it as "your next spell is castable while moving." Then it'd be just a weaker version of Elemental Mastery, which wouldn't be in line with a level 85 skill.

[Radux]

Remember, they're trying to get the boring static bonuses like x% modifiers into the mastery and away from talents...Guess that's what's happening here, new talents to replace Lightning Overload, which is after all a 'glorified multiplier'

Actually, if you remember the original Blizzcon information regarding talent revamp, they stated they wanted MORE talents like Lightning Overload. They're not getting rid of it, as far as I can comprehend, they're just adding its bonus to the Elemental Overload Mastery.

[Zimzalabim]

I hope thats not the case or it will be a weaker version of elemental mastery

if that happens to be the case it will have to have a way lower cooldown than 2 minutes in order to be useful enough.

[Snoddy28]

In regards to the spirit conversion to hit talent and the increasing amount of amounts of spirit on gear, Blizzard has found a way to prevent it from being completely useless. I can't find the post, but Blizzard's solution is that each tier of raiding will require more and more hit rating. For example Tier 11 will take 11% while Tier 12 will take 14%, etc, etc. They are doing the same thing for boomkins who are in the same positions as ele shamans.

[Morningsan]

Totem of Wrath now will replace Flametongue Totem for all shaman, and dropping this totem will buff the group's spell power by 4%. Elemental shaman will have a talent that lets all Fire totems provide +10% spell power, allowing them to drop Searing, Magma, or Fire Elemental Totems without losing their spell-damage buff. The 4% and 10% buffs will be exclusive with each other and with the warlock's Demonic Pact, so you can't benefit from all of them at once. We're also considering letting Elemental drop Searing Totem at range.

Really nice change but does this mean that the spellpower will be based on the targets SP+10% instead of the current demonic pact where its based on the warlocks sp?

[mnyeh]

Don't get me wrong, earthquake sounds like a very sexy spell, but I wonder what this will do to Chain Lightning. On single target fights, Chain Lightning currently is getting less and less useful (I think as intended on single targets) because of higher Lightning Bolt coefficients. On multiple trash, shamans really need a spell like Earthquake to match Blizzard, Hurricane, etc.

But then where does the functionality of Chain Lightning lie? I like being a sith lord =(

[op3l]

I like the review, generally it addresses a lot of the problems with ele shamans today.

On the part about spirit being converted to hit. I think yes we will end up having a lot of hit, but I think if blizzard makes it so any hit% over the hitcap will instead be converted into % damage, it won't be that bad.

[Deleted]

Really nice change but does this mean that the spellpower will be based on the targets SP+10% instead of the current demonic pact where its based on the warlocks sp?

Yes, targets SP. It's way easier to balance that way, because otherwise they would have to make sure that Elementals and Demolocks always have ~the same SP and that for the whole expansion.

Don't get me wrong, earthquake sounds like a very sexy spell, but I wonder what this will do to Chain Lightning. On single target fights, Chain Lightning currently is getting less and less useful (I think as intended on single targets) because of higher Lightning Bolt coefficients. On multiple trash, shamans really need a spell like Earthquake to match Blizzard, Hurricane, etc.

But then where does the functionality of Chain Lightning lie? I like being a sith lord =(

3 target-fights.
Or something where AoE-damage is reduced. (Saurfang/Faction Champs)
On single-target, CL is only a tiny bit behind LB in terms of DPS and that's with great gear. The worse your gear, the better CL becomes.
So if you add even one more target than can be hit by a CL-jump, your priority, even with great gear, will change to:
FS(on target) > LvB > CL > LB, instead of ....LB > CL

I like the review, generally it addresses a lot of the problems with ele shamans today.

On the part about spirit being converted to hit. I think yes we will end up having a lot of hit, but I think if blizzard makes it so any hit% over the hitcap will instead be converted into % damage, it won't be that bad.

That won't really be the case.
They'll balance the spirit we get from gear so that you'll have several methods to meet the hit cap for each tier.
This means that a) every item we'll have will have Spirit on it and by that we'll reach the hit cap perfectly. (doubt it)
Or b) that you'll have a lot of Spirit items to chose from, and as soon as you're at hitcap, you'll take 2 to 4 (or whatever, just a number) items with haste/crit.
b) is about the same as it is now, just that you take Spirit instead of hit. And yes, they wrote that we'll still be able to take some Haste/Crit-offpieces and maybe even tier-pieces.
Oh and such a convertion of hit% over cap into % damage won't happen, I can guarantee you that.