Anyone else feel like Blizzard screwed Enhance this patch?

Classes Shaman
1

I am sad. There seems to be a great disparity between this patch and last patch about how creamity crunchy it is to play this spec…

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2

A lot of Enhancment players would follow alongside you with this opinion. Expecially the majority of us expecting a buff to make our spec a competitive choice between other DPS Classes and specs.

Our 5% net buff was followed alongside a baseline ability nerf making us a less desired class over others who are STILL performing better than the DPS roles of the Shaman class as a whole. (Both Enhancement and Elemental)

I personally believe that after 4 expansions, we deserve at least something to make us on par with our competing classes _or what would be competing if we were worth our weight in salt.

They claimed there would be a 5% buff. And yet again, we’ve been bamboozled.

Blockquote: In addition to these changes above, we’re adjusting how many tooltips are generated. This may cause some websites to show that the damage or healing of almost every single Enhancement ability has changed. Do not panic; we are not lowering all of your damage and healing! This will be a behind-the-scenes data adjustment only.

Please also note that my current build is the same as the one I was using pre-8.1 and that my runs are not on a “Top-Tier Geared Shaman with 9000+ iLevel”. My item level at the time of testing is 360.

Details!: Prophet - Damage Done for Raider’s Training Dummy [6:35 EF] [TB: 2211123] Details!: Prophet - Damage Done for Raider’s Training Dummy [6:43 EF] [TB: 3211133]
1. [Stormstrike]: 620.1K (20.0%) 1. [Stormstrike]: 588.9K (18.2%)
2. Melee: 512.3K (16.5%) 2. Melee: 568.9K (17.6%)
3. [Stormstrike Off-Hand]: 309.3K (10.0%) 3. [Windfury Attack]: 312.8K (9.7%)
4. [Windfury Attack]: 289.9K (9.3%) 4. [Rockbiter]: 285.3K (8.8%)
5. [Rockbiter]: 283.6K (9.1%) 5. [Stormstrike Off-Hand]: 279.8K (8.6%)
6. [Lava Lash]: 270.1K (8.7%) 6. [Lava Lash]: 213.6K (6.6%)
7. [Fury of Air]: 203.8K (6.6%) 7. [Sundering]: 207.1K (6.4%)
8. [Flametongue Attack]: 158.5K (5.1%) 8. [Flametongue Attack]: 159.6K (4.9%)
9. [Crash Lightning]: 115.3K (3.7%) 9. [Crash Lightning]: 151.4K (4.7%)
10. [Searing Assault]: 109.2K (3.5%) 10. [Searing Assault]: 110.4K (3.4%)
11. Melee (Spirit Raptor): 97.1K (3.1%) 11. [Vile Bile]: 102.4K (3.2%)
12. [Vile Bile]: 67.7K (2.2%) 12. Melee (Spirit Raptor): 91.8K (2.8%)
13. [Flametongue]: 33.4K (1.1%) 13. [Lightning Shield]: 89.4K (2.8%)
14. [Heed My Call]: 20.9K (0.7%) 14. [Flametongue]: 30.8K (1.0%)
15. [Heed My Call]: 10.3K (0.3%) 15. [Heed My Call]: 30.3K (0.9%)
16. [Heed My Call]: 14.3K (0.4%)
1. Prophet … 3.10M (7.9k, 100.0%)
1. Prophet … 3.24M (8.1k, 100.0%)
Roughly 1.4k DPS lower in 8.1 vs 8.0.1

Please read the following taken from wowhead’s notes and make your own decision based on the actual numbers that are represented. The link to the article will be listed at the bottom of the post.

Abilities:

  • Crash Lightning Electrocutes all enemies in front of you, dealing [(32%19.2% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage. Hitting 2 or more targets enhances your weapons for 10 sec, causing Stormstrike and Lava Lash to also deal [(40%24% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage to all targets in front of you.
    Each target hit by Crash Lightning increases the damage of your next Stormstrike by 5%.
  • Flametongue Scorches your target, dealing (24.57%14.742% of Attack power) Fire damage, and enhances your weapons with fire for 16 sec, causing each weapon attack to deal up to (0 * Attack power) Fire damage.
  • Frostbrand Chills your target, dealing (15.1515%9.1% of Attack power) Frost damage and applying Frostbrand to them, reducing their movement speed by 50% for 3 sec. Enhances your weapons for 16 sec, causing your attacks to apply Frostbrand.
  • Lava Lash Charges your off-hand weapon with lava and burns your target, dealing (180%108% of Attack power) Fire damage.
  • Lightning Bolt Fires a bolt of lightning at the target, dealing
    Overcharge
    up to [13 * (14.0625%8.4375% of Spell power)]
    (14.0625%8.4375% of Spell power) Nature damage.
  • Rockbiter Assaults your target with earthen power, dealing (56.3062%33.8% of Attack power) Nature damage.
    Generates 25 Maelstrom.
  • Stormstrike Energizes both your weapons with lightning and delivers a massive blow to your target, dealing a total of [(179%107.4% of Attack power)% + (179%107.4% of Attack power)%] Physical damage.
  • Windfury Each of your main hand attacks has a 25% chance to trigger two extra attacks, dealing (18%10.8% of Attack power)% Physical damage each.

Talents:

  • Boulderfist Rockbiter’s recharge time is reduced by 15% and it deals 20%35% increased damage.

  • Crashing Storm Crash Lightning also electrifies the ground, leaving an electrical field behind which damages enemies within it for [7 * (3.2%2.688% of Attack power)] Nature damage over 6 sec.

  • Feral Lunge Lunge at your enemy as a ghostly wolf, biting them to deal (15%9% of Attack power) Physical damage.

  • Forceful Winds Windfury causes each successive Windfury attack within 15 sec to increase the damage of Windfury by 100%80% and the Maelstrom generated by 1, stacking up to 5 times.

  • Fury of Air Creates a vortex of wind 8 yards around you, dealing [(6.2244%5.25% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage every 1 sec to enemies caught in the storm, and slowing them by 30% for 3 sec.

  • Hailstorm Frostbrand now also enhances your weapon’s damage, causing each of your weapon attacks to also deal (3.51%3.159% of Attack power)% Frost damage.

  • Landslide Rockbiter has a 20%40% chance to increase the damage of your next Stormstrike by 100%.

  • Lightning Shield Surround yourself with a shield of lightning for 1 hour.
    Melee attackers have a chance to suffer (6%3.6% of Attack power) Nature damage, and add a charge to your shield.
    When you Stormstrike, it gains 2 charges.
    At 20 charges, the shield overcharges, causing you to deal 10%an additional (6% of Attack power) Nature damage with each attack and generate 100 Maelstrom over 10 sec.for 10 sec.

  • Overcharge Lightning Bolt now consumes up to 40 Maelstrom for up to 1200% increased damage, but has a 129 sec cooldown.

  • Searing Assault Flametongue now causes the target to burn for (90%54% of Attack power) Fire damage over 6 sec.

  • Sundering Shatters a line of earth in front of you with your main hand weapon, causing (312%187.2% of Attack power) Flamestrike damage and Incapacitating any enemy hit for 2 sec.

  • Totem Mastery Summons four totems that increase your combat capabilities for 2 min.
    Resonance Totem
    Generates 1 Maelstrom every 1 sec.
    Storm Totem
    Increases the damage of Stormstrike by 5%.10%.
    Ember Totem
    Increases Lava Lash damage by 10%.
    Tailwind Totem
    Increases your chance to trigger Windfury by 2%.

Links:
Note: Please delete the spaces between the initial website and the .com and the forward slash. I put these sites here to give credibility where it’s due and you cannot post url’s on the forums. Yes I’m circumventing a system to provide accurate data and sources.

wowhead .com /news=288624/patch-8-1-ptr-build-28440-class-changes-enhancement-shaman
us.battle .net /forums/en/wow/topic/20769719552#post-1

2 Likes
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As I enjoy spreading the word, you can use " ` " around links in order for it to post properly!

Ctrl + shift + C will also work.

For some odd reason… I just added your link into chat… forgot the tags, and it worked. Odd how picky the forums are sometimes…

You are forgetting the “aura” that was removed, and skills where seemingly nerfed to compensate for that… However. I do not think that the buff was 5%. some big talents got hit, like lightning shield… which dropped malestrom gen. Im not sure if people are experiencing it often but, it definately is a larger factor.

I support a proper rework , or redesign. Enh needs more love and, I honestly don’t think any patches can save it currently. Rip out the guts, and rebuild. Make enh great again

2 Likes
4

I would love to see them go back to using a two-hander proficiently, since that is all i get out of caches, these days.

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5

Bro they can’t balance or tune a class properly with the setup it already has what makes you think they could pull off getting a 2h option viable for a spec they still can’t seem to get right in any other way??

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6

they screwed shamans since bfa launch thats why i rolled bm hunter and i love it.if i want to melee i go suv hunter.

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7

hunters can’t heal. they also don’t throw meatballs and wreck faces. hunters have a lot of good parts though and i have a 120 hunter too. but if i were stuck sticking with 3 classes and could only play 3 toons it would be: this orc warlock, my orc shaman, and my tauren paladin.

i’ve thought about maining my shaman before. but blizz always craps all over them and then i think “why?” but forget about it. shaman has 3 great specs that are all fun and good. maybe not GREAT but good enough. unless you’re top 1% mythic/arena or whatever it doesn’t matter as you can complete content with any class.

2 Likes
8

ele shamans meatballs just tickle they dont do any dps at all…lol.

9

yeah OP it’s like post-vanilla all over again, shaman perpetually stuck in nerftown, population : us. I’m the last dps sham holdout in our group, everyone else has moved on.

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10

you are correct, if I didn’t raid or do mythic+ or pvp then I would have no complaints and be perfectly satisfied

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11

Instead of just stating the obvious and listing what’s wrong, maybe it’s time to give out solutions from people who play the class regularly. We’ve barked for too long without providing solutions in a meaningful, uniformed manor, that’s clear and concise. Let’s change that.

Reworks

Class/Spec
Enhancement Shamans will now benefit from Haste in multiple ways.

  • Some reworked abilities include Haste in the way they calculate damage.
  • Haste will also increase their base evasion (dodge) by a percentage equal to half of their Haste in all environments, while in PvP and in War Mode, this will increase the damage the Shaman takes by a percentage equal to a quarter of their Haste.

Abilities
Some Enhancement Shaman abilities will include Haste in their rework to reflect the benefit of Haste as a stat.
While these buffs seem overpowered, they are all pulling one major effect; Haste. If there isn’t sufficient Haste, there shouldn’t be a significant loss, but when there is more, there will be a significant benefit at higher gear levels.

  • Crash Lightning Electrocutes all enemies in front ofwithin 8 yards of you, dealing [(19.2%21.3% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage. Hitting 2 or more targets enhances your weapons for 10 sec, causing Stormstrike and Lava Lash to also deal [(24%26.5% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage to all targets in front of youin an 8 yard Radius around you.
    Each target hit by Crash Lightning increases the damage of your next Stormstrike by 5(1% + (.25 * Haste%))%.
    This change makes crash lightning an AoE ability instead of a 135 degree cleave, while giving us slightly more burst for multi-target (mainly PvE) as well as more sustain.

  • Flametongue Scorches your target, dealing (14.742% of Attack power) Fire damage, and enhances your weapons with fire for 1612 sec, causing each weapon attack to deal up to (0.25 * Attack power) Fire damage.
    This change allows the meaningful weaving of Flametongue as well as making the additional damage from your weapon’s Flametongue buff actually do damage. Multiplying 0 against anything still equals 0.

  • Lava Lash Charges your off-hand weapon with lava and burns your target, dealing (108%(79% + (.50 * Haste%)) of Attack power) Fire damage, this damage is doubled if your weapon is imbued with Flametongue.
    This change allows the ability to scale with your Haste, while still making it meaningful to spend excess Maelstrom which will be generated at higher Haste levels.

  • Stormstrike Energizes both your weapons with lightning and delivers a massive blow to your target, dealing a total of [(107.4%(102.1% + (.25 * Haste%))% of Attack power)% + (107.4%(102.1% + (.25 * Haste%))% of Attack power)%] Physical damage.
    This change allows you to scale Haste with the ability. More Haste = Stronger Shaman.

  • Windfury Each of your main hand attacks has a 25%(8% + Haste%) chance to trigger two extra attacks, dealing (10.8%12.4% of Attack Power)% Physical damage each generating (1 + (.25 * Mastery%)) Maelstrom per occourance/proc of Windfury.
    This change effectively makes Windfury our stabilizng compound wherein, if you have more Haste (which should be our prime stat anyway) you will generate more windfury procs as well as our main source of Maelstrom bonuses since Lightning Sheild’s bonus is gone.

Talents:
Some Enhancement Shaman talents will include Haste in their rework.
Other talents will see both buffs and nerfs to reflect their current position or potential viabiltiy increases.

  • Boulderfist Rockbiter’s recharge time is reduced by 15%20% and it deals 35%40% increased damage.
    This change should make this talent more competitive with other choices from the same tier.

  • Feral Lunge Lunge at your enemy as a ghostly wolf, biting them to deal (9%15% of Attack power) Physical damage.
    This change reverted the damage from Feral Lunge. While it’s movement is important, since it’s still on GCD, the damage should reflect a normal ability.

  • Forceful Winds Windfury causes each successive Windfury attack within 1520 sec to increase the damage of Windfury by 80%(50% + (.50 * Haste%))% and the Maelstrom generated by 1, stacking up to 5 times.
    This change makes the focus of this talent a strong benefit while allowing Windfury to generate Maelstrom as previously listed to reduce over-capping and becoming starved while allowing it to be a sustainable buff.

  • Fury of Air Creates a vortex of wind 8 yards around you, dealing [(5.25%6.2244% of Attack power) * ((Attack power + Offhand attack power) * 2 / 3) / Attack power] Nature damage every 1 sec to enemies caught in the storm, and slowing them by 30%increasing nature damage they take by 15% for 3 sec.
    This change makes this choice more suitable for PvE and for PvP. There is no need for a static Maelstrom dump for a snare/slow when we have frostbrand, and the damage increase makes it a competitive choice.

  • Landslide Rockbiter has a 40%45% chance to increase the damage of your next Stormstrike by 100%.
    This change is to make this choice more competitive with other talents in the same row.

  • Lightning ShieldWard Surround yourself with a shieldvisage of lightning for 1 hour.
    Melee attackers have a chance to suffer (3.6% of Attack power) Nature damage, and add a charge to your shieldvisage.
    When you Stormstrike, it gains 2 charges.
    When you proc Windfury, it gains 1 charge.
    At 2050 charges, the shield overcharges, causing you to deal an additional (610% of Attack power) Nature damage with each attack for 1015 sec.
    This change re-vamps Lightning Ward (previously named Shield) to be a more effective “Boost” instead of it being a static broken requirement that it was. Renamed “Ward” as it doesn’t reduce damage as the name “Shield” would suggest or intend.

  • Overcharge Lightning Bolt now consumes up to 4032 Maelstrom for up to 12001500% increased damage, but has a 98 sec cooldown.
    This change makes picking Overcharge as a talent potentially viable in it’s current state. Currently this build parses around 300-500dps lower than it should to be competitive, this change should help level that out.

  • Totem Mastery Summons four totems that increase your combat capabilities for 2 min.
    Resonance Totem
    Generates 1 Maelstrom every 1 + (.25 * Haste%) sec.
    Storm Totem
    Increases the damage of Stormstrike by 10%.(7% + Haste%)%
    Ember Totem
    Increases Lava Lash damage by 10%(5% + (.50 * Haste%))%.
    Tailwind Totem
    Increases your chance to trigger Windfury by 2%+ (.25 * Haste%)%.
    This change makes Totem Mastery a viable pick as Enhancement. It’s not viable in it’s current state, period. This makes it a more viable choice at higher gear/haste levels.

Closing Arguments
While some people may say that Enhancement is fine/fun, it’s not competitive with other classes.
Some may claim utility is key, but we are the squishiest, least mobile, and lowest dps class when compared to other classes with the same i-level.
When you can choose some other class for the Raid/M+ that can do the same job but with higher DPS, you would be crazy to not choose that option.
These potential changes may make us diversify our builds as well as be slightly more competitive based on our gear and making sub-primary stat choices more important adding complexity to our class/spec.

If you think these changes might be worth testing, please click the heart icon at the bottom of this post. I would really appreciate the help in spreading the word!
Obviously I can’t provide significant proof that this would improve Shamans, so developer input may be needed and we may need to collaborate as a community (of Shamans and NON-SHAMAN players) to find an equal balance for PvE and PvP!

Thanks everyone, MEGA! (Make Enhancement Great Again!)

Edit #1: Realized that some of the formulas were completely off and made the abilities DRASTICALLY worse. These have been changed to properly reflect the correct maths that would provide competitive improvements.

Edit #2: Forgot another one. If you’re curious, the math that was edited looks like this:
(1% * .25 Haste%)
And should look like this:
(1% + (.25 * Haste%))
PS: It’s fixed now.

6 Likes
12

You guys are definitely doing something wrong. I have been playing my level 118 shaman and almost beat a level 120 rogue with 140k HP with absorb shields. He had about 4k HP left.

As for my dps, it is really freakin great. One of my abilities literally takes like half of a caster’s health, lmao.

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Sub-120 comparisons carry no weight at all man. Trust me.

I don’t know how Shaman is going to be in 8.1, but this example means nothing to max level players doing competitive content of any kind.

3 Likes
14

100% true.

Sub 120 you get a “Boosted” buff that’s supposed to match you up to par with your enemy’s level rounded to the next 10’s bracket.

120 is a whole different ballgame. Hence why I’ve bothered going through and posting as much detail as I can about what is realistic and what isn’t, and my suggestions for changing it.

If Deadinside wants to hit 120, then compare his dps to when he was pre-120, then that’s more than welcome as his disappointment will be welcomed here with open arms.

15

PvP damage is not based on item level per se. There is a hidden scale so lower item levels dont get 1 shot. Basically think of it this way (i will be using simple number for demonstration):

You are at ilvl 400. You hit someone with ilvl 400 and 200k HP with Lava Lash. You hit for 40K and Lava Lash does roughly 20% damage. Then you hit someone at ilvl 300 and they have 100k HP with Lava Lash. You will hit them for roughly 20K. NOT 40K. This is to make a more level playing field. Now here is where ilvl maters.

You are ilvl 450. You hit someone with ilvl 450 and 250k HP with Lava Lash. You hit for 63K and Lava Lash does roughly 25% damage. You hit someone with ilvl 400 and 200k HP with Lava Lash. You hit for 50K and Lava Lash does roughly 25% damage. NOT 63K. Then you hit someone at ilvl 300 and they have 100k HP with Lava Lash. You will hit them for roughly 25K. NOT 63K or 50K.

So ilvl will increase the amount of damage that a particular ability does, but you wont see the same numbers against a lower ilvl or lower level player. It still allows for some skill to be involved. Of course this all happens in the background once PvP is enabled or engaged using a more sophisticated algorithm that what I have demonstrated.

In other words, the fact that you almost beat a 120 rogue that had 4k hp left is irrelevant and not a reflection of the state of the class due to hidden systems in place.

16

I’ve bothered to update my post (#11 in this thread) on the potential fixes that might seem reasonable to put us back towards what (at least what I feel) we should be represented as.

A complex piece of buff/support with comparable DPS to match other DPS classes. When done correctly, can provide good/amazing DPS while supporting the Raid/Party, but when done incorrectly, can have a serious detrimental impact on your personal output, making you less competitive, output wise.

If you’re reading this, the main goal isn’t to get sub 120 pvp straightened out. This is about 120 (Cap Level) PvE (mainly), but shows how these changes [might] affect PvP if taken into consideration.

Either way, please let me know what you all think by replying to that post. If you think it’s hot garbage, tell me! But expect that I want a reason behind your claim. I want a critical discussion that may lead to improving Enhancement, not just a p*ssing match.

If you read all of this, thank you for your time. I hope the game becomes more enjoyable in the near future.

17

Man oh man…we are a HYBRID class, meaning we can do multiple things. We will never be top dps in everything we run, which is a good thing. that being said, enhance damage in mythics is doing just fine. I get we aren’t the same class back in WoW’s hayday but we got what we got, and our damage is fine. Stop crying wolf-that’s what has gotten this game where it is now.

1 Like
18

Hybrid tax hasn’t been in a thing in forever. Stop spouting garbage.

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19

They got rid of template scaling in PvP.

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coming from WW whos entire damage now revolves around 1 ability, ya sure about that?