The ele shaman nerfs look intense, but the outcry is by definition irrational. Let’s see what it actually looks like before we brown ourselves.
I would personally appreciate it if they made every rotation of every spec very difficult. Less focus on balance, more focus on skill. Balancing based on the statistical performance of the top players in the world while simultaneously catering to braindead rotations/specs is disingenuous at best.
It’s not irrational, that implies there is no reasoning/data behind the reaction. We already know what it looks like. We have current rankings/numbers, changes have been simmed, and that doesn’t include ascendance being fixed to further lower our single target. We simmed the PTR changes and knew it would be OP, it was even brought up in the PTR thread along with numerous bugs, but Blizzard didn’t do anything. Surprise! We were OP on release. So here we are again simming and finding that this will devastate the spec in any competitive content and there will be no surprise on Tuesday when the spec gets cratered unless Blizzard makes changes to the nerfs or gives us compensatory buffs. I’ve even done the simming myself instead of blindly trusting word of mouth and in 8 target pulls I get nerfed 26%, 5 target 22%, ST 10%. 10% on ST when we are already middle of the pack puts us dead last. Nerfing our M+ by 18%(1/3 st 2/3 5target) will put us at the bottom of current avg dps, but those lower specs are getting buffs so we will be doing Augvoker levels of damage without their buffs/utility. No one would take a an augvoker that can’t buff so no one will want elemental shamans.
This, a million times.
I’m all for skill expression, particularly in single target and smart use of abilities for movement. I’d love if our rotation encouraged more use of Lava Burst weaving, or Flux Melting was strong enough to actually be taken and used.
The initially intended nerfs were massive, and if you think that was warranted, you’ve only looked at the 20 highest damage seconds of a fight and not the rest of the raid boss or the key.
they should have just nerfed the trinket. its outperforming every other trinket in the game and only the shammys that had that trinket were doing the 100+ mil dps the rest of us are in line with the other dps