Honestly, these all read as huge nerfs in pve and pvp. Ele was very strong in M+ and already ate a nerf. The changes have massive carryover effect in PvP as well (if you care).
I don’t understand why Blizz seems hellbent on reworking ele in a half patch this early. It was, mostly, fine?
The good stuff I saw:
- Stormbringer changes
- Icefury cleave
- Ascendance flame shock application
- Wind gusts buff stacks not dropping
- Primordial wave gives lava surge
The bad stuff:
- Elemental duration nerf
- 50% nerfs in PvP for new Ascendance effect
- skybreaker removal
- far seer proc nerf
- icefury damage nerf
- new ascendance form hair is super saiyan + troll doll…the new base model looks nice at least
What do you all think?
2 Likes
Mixed.
The ascendance changes seem good, but i really do not like the further nerfs to maelstrom generation.
Overall, i’m not really satisfied.
What’s next? Bolt generates 3 ms and chain 1? It’s getting ridiculous. Stop nerfing maelstrom gen.
Icefury damage nerf was not necessary. Not a fan of skybreaker removal, but at least we still have surge of power i guess.
1 Like
If I’m reading this correctly FoL got nerfed yes? No more cooldown reduction from casting lightning?
Also based on the other changes (again if i’m reading correctly) it seems like lightning builds are getting nerfed pretty hard. If someone could hopefully prove me wrong that’d be great.
6 Likes
Feels too early to tell what all these changes really mean. I see some neat interaction changes but also some serious and glaring nerfs such as FoL, sky breakers, and pet duration nerfs.
It feels like a Lightning build now interacts more spells such as ice fury and ascendance among others.
We are back into mastery with talent buff and have more frequent SK casts.
Removal of volcanic surge talent feels significant in PvP and I’m not sure how that nerf is being addressed through all these changes just yet.
3 Likes
Didn’t they significantly increase the damage of Frost Shock, or have I read it wrong?
I think a lot may be improvements in PvP.
I like that Flame Ascendant will frost shock everything, you can save a miquid magma totem cast and repeat cleave with primordial wave later, which will automatically proc lava surge.
That means you can quickly cleave lava burst right after primordial wave.
I think some other passives received damage buffs.
Yes Maestrom Gen nerf sucks.
Ascendance change is super bad. As PvP player you currently go Haste > Versa > Crit but with the changes you are forced to go Mastery.
-Ascendance change - bad
-DRE - irrelevant and doesn’t apply Flame Shock like Ascendance so probably you won’t spec into it
-Stormkeeper is now mandatory (look into talent calculator)
-Icefury is a M+ change which is bad for Arena
-Skybreaker removal
-new Ascendance is ugly
I’m about to cry. I’m thinking about unsub or rerolling SP.
Doubt it. Less Lava Burst and more focus on casting Lightning Bolts (never good as it locks kick and most totems) and it forces you to go Mastery.
4 Likes
Just reading through the Elemental changes during breakfast so these are poorly drafted thoughts.
Farseer’s Ancestors: fixes
Stormbringer:
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Lightning Conduit and Electroshock looks like it’s replacing Shocking Grasp. Demotions to fluff.
Gives you haste that you can’t really use consistently. Eshock “buffs” reincarnation. It doesn’t even give it health/mana just makes me want to throw up as that long cooldown now can up chuck the positioning of mobs in the instance because it’s the better of the two choices. It’s not mandatory though, because you can have the one that does less speed and equally as (un)usable just gives you 20% speed. Because the one thing you really want to do after you finally lay down a lightning rod on your target is to move around and cast some things that aren’t lightning bolt or chain lightning.
Recommendation: Maybe just Spirit Walker’s grace for two seconds would be interesting. Heck, make it affected by talent choices so if you picked up Aegis, you can cast your follow up consistently. Or if you chose Graceful you get the speed you wanted. “SYNERGY”, send it to the goblins at the stand-up.
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Nature’s Protection rebalancing, just a flat 3% DR. Okay.
The 10% was really good, like felt rewarding to land it as short lived as it may or may not have been. I guess we can’t be playing with rewarding dynamic play, so 3% is probably what the budget allows for.
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Surging Currents, Buff.
At least for Elemental, there are moments when a tempest will be almost back to back given the timing of Awakening Storms and the 300 maelstrom. It’s tough enough to try and capitalize on weaving damage properly, but a heal cast is just lost.
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Erupting Lava. Shortening flame shock durations just makes me want to throw up again. And it reads that overloads will be shortening those durations as well.
The damage is a rider, because Flame Shock ticks are enablers for Lava Surges. Who would want to reduce their chances for Lava Surges to get a tick of Flame Shock damage instantly? Oh you have more mastery to overload more often, congrats you’re eating your DoT duration faster? Scaling to suffer.
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Ascendance Buff?. It just reads weird. Target capping it when it’s already target capped by Flameshocks, so a hint maybe Flame Shocks will get uncapped?
More mastery power and increased overloads, no arguments.
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Elemental Pets; Nerf Considerations
It looks like they are trying to fix the problem of “Oh and if you have an Elemental up, you should manually dismiss it before casting a new one or you’re screwing up the abilities and/or the echo.” Expectation: nerf, because durations get reduced too much and the safety 'considerations won’t really come into play.
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Elemental durations reduced 33%, 30 sec → 20 sec. Echoes 15 sec → 10 sec
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Mastery affects Pets, Is there a realm where the 10% (now) even 30% (scaling future) damage makes up for the duration? Probably not. Yeah, nerf.
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Wind Gust, Nerf 50%: max 30% → max 16%
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DRE, Nerf?, Spender rider instead of Lava Burst. Maybe the proc rate gets changed to compensate
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Icefury, Flex to Nerf, now useful for lightning builds. damage reduced heavily.
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FoL, Nerf, CDR removed
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Unrelenting Calamity, Deleted Hello 2 second casts 
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Skybreaker’s Demise, Deleted CDR removed
Everything would need to be tested, because so much looks like it’ll depend on the proc rates and variables unseen. I think it looks pretty grim. CDR is pretty much dead, haste from talents are halved or removed, things that don’t make sense on the face of it. IDK
2 Likes
SHAMAN
- Skyfury now costs 1% base mana (was 4%).
- All Shaman Ascendance models have been updated. Fire for Elemental, Lightning for Enhancement, and Water for Restoration.
- Shamans can now float on water while in their Ascendant form.
- Mana Spring no longer has an aura displaying who is benefiting from it.
- Updated spell visuals for Lava Burst.
- Primordial Wave’s icon has been updated.
- Farseer
- Elemental Blasts from Ancestors now prioritize your most recently attacked target when possible.
- Ancestors now prefer to Chain Lightning your target when you cast Chain Lightning or the targeted version of Earthquake.
- Ancestors are now summoned equipped with a historic shaman set.
- Stormbringer
- New Talent: Lightning Conduit – You have a chance to get struck by lightning, increasing your movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds. The effectiveness is increased to 100% in outdoor areas. You call down a Thunderstorm when you Reincarnate.
- New Talent: Electroshock – Tempest increases your movement speed by 20% for 5 seconds.
- Storm Swell has been redesigned – Tempest grants 10% Mastery for 6 seconds. Now a choice node against Supercharge.
- Nature’s Protection has been redesigned – Lightning Shield reduces the damage you take by 3%.
- Surging Currents has been redesigned – When you cast Tempest you gain Surging Currents, increasing the effectiveness of your next Chain Heal or Healing Surge by 20%, up to 100%.
- Conductive Energy spell icon updated to be the same as Lightning Rod.
- Unlimited Power tooltip updated to have it be consistent with other talents with similar functionality.
- Shocking Grasp has been removed.
- Enhancement
- Awakening Storms damage reduced by 35%.
- Fixed an issue causing Awakening Storms damage to not be affected by Mastery: Enhanced Elements.
- Elemental
- Several talents have moved positions.
- New Talent: Herald of the Storms – Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning casts to reduce the cooldown of Stormkeeper by 2 seconds. Choice node against Fury of the Storms.
- New Talent: Erupting Lava – Increases the duration of Flame Shock by 6 seconds. Lava Burst consumes up to 3 seconds of Flame Shock, instantly dealing that damage. Lava Burst overloads benefit at 50% effectiveness.
- New Talent: Charged Conduit – Increases the duration of Lightning Rod by 4 seconds and increases its damage bonus by 25%.
- New Talent: Earthshatter – Increases the damage of Earth Shock and Earthquake by 8% and increases the stat bonuses granted by Elemental Blast by 25%.
- Ascendance has been redesigned – Transform into a Flame Ascendant for 15 seconds, instantly casting a Flame Shock and a 100% effectiveness Lava Burst at up to 6 nearby enemies. While ascended, Elemental Overload damage is increased by 150% and spells affected by your Mastery: Elemental Overload cause 1 additional Elemental Overload.
- Ascendance no longer increases the critical strike damage of Lava Burst, replaces Chain Lightning with Lava Beam, or removes the cooldown of Lava Burst.
- Mastery: Elemental Overload now also increases pet damage.
- The cooldowns of Meteor, Immolate, Call Lightning, and Stormfury are now reset when Fire Elemental or Storm Elemental are refreshed due to casting the ability while an elemental is already active.
- Wind Gust from Storm Elemental now grants 4% Haste instead of 3% cast time reduction and stacks up to 4 times (was 10).
- Wind Gust is now on the Personal Resource Display.
- Stacks of Wind Gust no longer reset when a Lesser Storm Elemental from Echo of the Elementals spawns.
- Deeply Rooted Elements now triggers from Earth Shock, Elemental Blast, or Earthquake instead of Lava Burst.
- Frost Shock damage increased by 30%.
- Icefury can now trigger from casting Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning in addition to Lava Burst.
- Icefury now causes your next Frost Shock to be empowered (was 2) and now causes Frost Shock to hit 4 additional targets.
- Icefury now increases Frost Shock damage by 150% (was 225%).
- Frost Shock, Flame Shock, and Primordial Wave now generates 3 Maelstrom.
- Liquid Magma Totem now generates 8 Maelstrom.
- Icefury now causes Frost Shock to generate an additional 7 Maelstrom.
- Flash of Lightning no longer reduces the cooldown of Nature spells when Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning are cast.
- Fire Elemental and Storm Elemental now last 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
- Lesser Elementals from Echo of the Elementals now last 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
- Storm Frenzy now reduces the cast time of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 30% (was 40%).
- Storm Frenzy now also reduces the global cooldown of its associated spells if the spell has a low enough cast time to be under the normal global cooldown.
- Fury of the Storms now summons a powerful Lightning Elemental for 10 seconds (was 8 seconds).
- Primordial Wave now also grants Lava Surge.
- Lightning Conduit renamed to Lightning Capacitor.
- Fixed an issue causing the tooltip of Improved Flametongue Weapon to be incorrect when talented into Enhanced Imbues.
- The following talents have been removed:
- Unrelenting Calamity
- Skybreaker’s Fiery Demise
- Farseer
- Routine Communication now also triggers from Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Icefury, and Frost Shock.
- Routine Communication now has a 5% chance to call an Ancestor (was 8%).
So many changes, but FOL nerf gonna hurt…
2 Likes
So i’m only recently playing Ele, and am not the absolute most familiar but the vibe i’m getting here is they’re looking to slow down the spec a bit? CDR nerfs, cast time increases via talent removal, etc etc
I will admit, when i got a lot of haste stacked via things rolling at the same time, i felt like i was just kinda scattershot slamming buttons but it was FUN, i don’t necessarily think the changes are great, though the ascendance ones seem fun
1 Like
I don’t understand the point of Nature’s Swiftness and Ancestral Swiftness now (outside of summoning an Ancestor). We were using Prim Wave into an AS - Lava Burst. But now Prim Wave is granting a Lava Surge. What ability is AS getting used for now? Are we going back to Ele Blast over Earth Shock?
1 Like
Imo the only Purpose will be to burst on Stormkeeper + Ascendance:
Cast Stormkeeper → Press Primordial + AS for 2 Ancestors → Press Ascendance → Lightning Bolt → Lava Burst → Lightning Bolt → Lava Burst → Earth Shock - Everything Instant besides Stormkeeper.
When we went into tempo gameplay and away from CD stacking they are bringing Ele to the same place. Sad…
My biggest concern is that without Skybreaker’s, DRE procs our sustain will be in shambles and we will be “wanna be mages”.
they created this horrible ascendance models and now they are gonna force u to use it no matter what…
oh u liked an almost pure lightning build ? no more , u gonna cast LVB on CD and u will like it! cracks whip
3 Likes
This PvP talent was only taken for gimmick one shot builds. Its removal is barely a blip and frankly a good change. On the other hand, other PvP changes don’t look great…
1 Like
I don’t understand why an individual at Blizzard keeps saying that they don’t want to make major changes to balance in the 0.5 patches, yet they keep doing it each season. Are they incapable of being honest or unable to control their development cycle?
Overall, I’m very disappointed by these changes. The changes will eliminate the fast paced zap-zap feel of the spec that is so satisfying and fun to play. Now Ele Shaman will just be a worse version of a Fire Mage. What a shame.
4 Likes
It’s not even a balance change. It’s complete change of the spec that diviates it from what it was for years. What is this new Ascendance? Also if you wanted to give us nice models for Ascendance just use WoD Nagrand Elementals:
1 Like
Before these changes the use of Elementals was a part of our identity, now they are so gutted I’m not sure why we even have them anymore. We are literally going from the ability to have a Fire Elemental out at all times between the Main Fire Elemental, the Lesser Fire Elemental, and Skybreaker’s Fiery Demise to having them out for 20/30 seconds and then waiting 120/130 seconds to cast them again.
Blizzard really has some explaining to do here. I’m not sure how the other changes are going to play out, but this is complete nonsense what they have done.
1 Like
The power of the elemental needs to go up at minimum. Storm ele uptime is so critical for m+ and fire ele is critical for raid and PvP throughput.
2 Likes
I’m the most frustrated about the Flash of Lightning nerf because it means that I can’t just Primordial Wave for Flame Shock in single target.
These changes seem brutal on first glance. I am pretty confused overall about the patch notes as a whole, primarily about how Mages and Evokers seem to keep making it out free.
What about the removal of LvBs CDR functionality in Asc makes you think it’ll be LvB only?
They previously announced additional shaman changes would be coming in the first patch, so. This isn’t random.
1 Like
nah it wont lvb only , blizz wont go that way anymore
the new builds arent going to be fire or lightning , its gonna be the old weaver build
with some “hero” spice