Class Tuning August 22nd

Classes Shaman
1

Shaman

  • Elemental

    • Lava Burst damage is now increased by 12% in PvP combat.
    • Lightning Bolt damage is now increased by 45% in PvP combat (was 31%).
    • Volcanic Surge now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 35% (was 25%) and increases the damage of Lava Burst by 55% (was 45%).
    • Skybreaker’s Fiery Demise now increases the critical strike chance of Flame Shock by 25% in PvP Combat (was 50%).
    • Fire Elemental now causes Flame Shock to deal damage 15% faster in PvP Combat (was 33%).
    • Developers’ notes: We’re adjusting some of Elemental’s damage away from Flame Shock and into instant damage spells to improve the spec’s finishing power, which has been lacking this season.

  • Enhancement

    • Ascendance’s immediate damage is reduced by 50% in PvP combat.
    • Windstrike now deals 25% additional damage in PvP combat (was 45%).
    • Stormstrike’s damage is increased by 60% in PvP combat (was 45%).
    • Ice Strike’s damage increased by 45% in PvP combat.
    • Developers’ notes: We’re evening out the rate at which Enhancement Shaman deals its damage, as it is more reliant on inconsistent procs than we would like.
2

The ENH changes look scuffed to me. Not enough resdistribution of damage to give it kill pressure outside of DRE.

They need to revert the WF nerf. And FFS buff crash lightning so it actually does some damage and not just a button I press to buff SS. It doesn’t need to be top damage but it should do as much as Stormblast at least.

That’s not to mention that lack of kill potential in the LL build and the help that build needs as well.

1 Like
3

lol, that’s an understatement if ever there was one.

4

I wonder if the lightning bolt buff with stormkeeper will be too over the top for burst.

1 Like
5

Enh nerfs seem heavy handed as always. Maybe increasing the proc chance a bit to even it out a more.

1 Like
6

I’m actually excited to try out a high haste volcanic surge build as ele. Might even run double storm keeper.

7

These changes seem like more of a nerf, than a buff, to elemental. A lot of pvp builds dont prioritize lighting bolts, and 12% dmg buff to lava burst is next to nothing. These flame shock nerfs were really not needed. Buffing the meme talent isn’t going to make anyone take it. I’m convinced no one on the dev team actually plays shaman, from this, and the resto tier set.

1 Like
8

Speaking from experience at higher pvp ratings: I agree - this is a nerf, not a buff.

Blizz is right that ele lacks finishing power (we do a ton of consistent damage, but can’t blow someone up like balance).

The changes here do the following:

  • reduce our flame shock pad
  • reduce our fire ele uptime
  • lower our instant lava burst procs
  • the lava burst and lb damage increases barely makes up for things, especially without lvb procs

Net/net it’s a nerf. The casted build requires a pvp talent and ele is already starved for pvp talents (grounding and burrow are must picks, so losing skyfury or static feels bad). Lava burst with that talent still doesn’t hit hard enough and good luck getting casts off. Ele’s strength is all its damage is instant. If they wanted to shift us to casting like spriest, then we need to hit really hard (chaos bolt or higher).

1 Like
9

Agreed! Their comments say to increase damage of instant casts yet that really isn’t true is it? Unless they left out a 20% dmg increase to earth shock.

1 Like
10

I think we’d need to keep the lower skybreakers crit, increase lava surge proc rate from 8% to 12%+ (if keeping flame shock tick rate nerf), increase lava burst by 20%+ and revert the nerfs to either magma chamber or stormkeeper.

There, ele can take people out with setups every 1 min. Nerf our offhealing and lower astral shift’s duration if the dmg is too much. Ele has always been a glass cannon that obliterates teams if left alone.

1 Like