I’ve been playing shaman for 20 years now, I’ve seen their lows and I’ve their highs.
We understand that every spec has the potential to do good damage depending on situation and setup.
Elemental Overloads were the reason I picked up shaman in the first place, 20 years ago, they have since been reduced to basically nothing. When the mechanic was first deployed it was something like a 20% chance to do 50% of the damage which was insane back then considering how important every single global cooldown was and it FELT awesome, simple, and just so fun.
In 2026, in PvP since most people just stack haste/vers for faster globals, its something like 25% chance to do 16% of the damage, When ascended it goes up to 21% damage and you get an extra overload, so 42% damage(with 25% chance), and with the apex talent each of those overloads has a 25% chance to overload again, so when going hard you very small(maybe 12%?) chance to do 63% extra damage with a lava burst, which feels so convoluted and unnecessary and sparce as it gets compared to other classes KILL buttons. Yet it gets worse by giving the option to allow lighting bolt to have another 50% chance to overload with a hero talent, then a regular talent allowing ONLY button pressed lava bursts(not overloads) a 15%(which feels like 9%) to give lighting bolt an extra overload.. this gameplay is just so overthought out and so UNFUN and UNINTUITIVE to play.. your buttons rarely do their max potential! every 3 minutes for 15s(Ascend)… that’s cool, every 12 minutes ill get at least 1 REALLY good tempest..
Meanwhile in arena you have DISC priest melting entire team’s faces topping damage and healing charts, on top of having whats essentially a frozen orb(from frost mages) that follows you around??
whereas ELE is kinda like when a child sticks a fork into an electric socket and gets a little Bzztzt, and learns a lesson, or the one of the VERY few who go to the hospital right after.
I guess my point is, just stop playing retail because Activision has no clue how to make a game fun, only addictive, and yes there is a difference. Also if any DEVS see this, the way overloads feel in 2026, you might as well just take the mechanic out, its just more digital vomit on the screen if more than 3 people are casting near you and in NO way does even overloading 3 times feel as impactful as it ever has in wows history. Instead just have it read “25% chance to do 16% extra damage” no need to overload, it does NOT feel like an overload. Keep it simple stupid.