First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude for the continued interest and willingness to improve elemental shaman in this expansion. I have been playing elemental shaman for over 10 years, and I believe there has never been so much improvement. Thank you for all these patches.
But, I want to analyze the negative aspects of the current rework. I appreciate the attempt to make the rotation involve using a variety of skills. However, that doesn’t mean these changes should be interpreted as good.
- Talent build
First, let’s address the changes to ASC. ASC is making Overload significantly stronger.
I believe that ASC has become a CD primarily for AoE, due to the Overload mechanism of CL. CL’s Overload increases linearly with the number of targets. Overload from 6 targets is double that of 3 targets, and this is even more true when considering SK. (Of course, we will naturally use SK along with ASC.)
A 6-target SK CL with Surge results in 36 Overloads. How many Overloads happen with 1 target? 3.
Making Overload this powerful leads to this problem and will turn us into an AoE monster.
Now let’s look at DRE. I think DRE is currently undertuned. The proc chance is too low for something triggered by a Spender. But when you examine the mechanics, this too is primarily an AoE talent. That’s because in AoE situations, we are inevitably able to use more Maelstrom, and during ASC, we can use even more Maelstrom, leading to more ASC procs. From here, it enters the realm of RNG. The more ASC procs, the more Maelstrom we get, and the more ASC procs again. This version is worse because we need more targets to use more Maelstrom.
let’s move on to discussing LR. Looking at the changes to ASC, we can see that it has now introduced a CD that can cause a surge in AoE DPS. LR amplifies this. The increased duration of LR means that we can now maintain LR on many more targets, making us much more sensitive to Maelstrom generation and requiring more preparation time for AoE.
The number of LR stacks directly amplifies our AoE DPS. Now, with more than 5 targets, we can maintain LR, but it requires a huge amount of Maelstrom, leading to an enormous DPS boost.
What’s the result of all this? Currently, on the PTR, we can achieve over 5 million DPS on 5 targets with 610 gear. We’re an AoE monster. But if just one target is removed? Our DPS drops by half.
In the end, we’ve always been sensitive to the number of targets, and the new talents amplify this even more.
This means that the weaknesses of the CL mechanism, which was already a problematic mechanic for ele shaman, have been further magnified.
With proper tuning, ele shaman will become useless if there are fewer than 5 targets.
Now, shall we look at other options? But there are no options. The talents related to summon elemental are no longer viable choices. With Skybreaker gone, it’s already hard to choose, and they’ve even patched the duration. devs’ve completely killed off the related talents.
What about EoGS? At a time when Spender DPS has been severely weakened, choosing to enhance Spenders is not a good option. Beyond that, EoGS has already been just an AoE choice since the Dragonflight expansion. It doesn’t provide meaningful performance.
How about Erupting Lava, the new talent for LvB? Surprisingly, it’s completely useless. The DPS increase from this talent is laughable.
In the end, the talents we can choose converge to PW, ASC, and LR. Ultimately, I realize there’s no motivation to choose Fire Elemental.
In the end, we are only left with the AoE-enhancing nodes to use. So, how much can tuning actually improve things from here?
- Numbers
As mentioned above, if things are released as they are now, dev will need to adjust the numbers of many damage skills across the board. This will be a very difficult process, and I have serious doubts about whether it will be done properly. The overly strong AoE needs to be toned down, and the ST DPS needs to be increased.
On the current PTR, FOL, which used to boost our ST DPS, has been changed, and the DPS contribution from Elemental and Ancestor damage has disappeared. While I’m not completely certain, I estimate that we’ve lost over 10% DPS, which I believe has rendered us unusable in raid teams.
I’m especially concerned that, due to the excessive AoE DPS—particularly the performance of CL and ASC—the ST DPS will decrease further, or that in a LvB-focused build, we will be unable to perform any AoE at all.
- My suggestion
Concept of ASC is interesting, and I think people will like it. To reduce the overly strong benefit in AoE situations, it would be better to increase the number of additional Overloads during the proc state by one and reduce the Overload damage benefit compared to the current level. This will help balance the excessive DPS gains in AoE situations and align it better with ST DPS.
Proc rate of DRE should be increased. Since Spenders are not being used much overall, the proc rate of DRE is currently too low. I think Elemental should be built around ASC and other choices.
Add a target limit to LR. The increase in LR’s duration allows for more targets, and since DPS is doubled based on the number of LR stacks and the number of CL targets, it’s a very risky mechanic. Increasing LR’s percentage a bit while adding a target limit would be a reasonable adjustment.
Elemental has been overly nerfed. I think removing Skybreaker alone would have been sufficient. The value of investing in related talents is now gone, which is excessive. In that case, significantly increasing Elemental’s base damage and giving CD usage more value would be ideal.
Damage of skills should be adjusted significantly overall.
In my opinion, most skills will need to be adjusted. Just listing what comes to mind:
- significant buff to LvB
- buff to FS (With Skybreaker gone, preserving the value of Fire Elemental is necessary)
- buff to Spenders (EQ, ES, EB)
- nerf to CL
I believe this is the baseline needed to bring the character back to a balanced state.
Again, I believe that these changes are generally on the right track. I’ve highlighted some concerns about certain mechanics, and I hope that by addressing these, the spec will become more enjoyable.