Icefury and Frostshock, “cleaving buffs clearly”
Frostshock’s base damage is increased significantly 57 → 104%. For all shaman this means that it’s something much more worthwhile to pick up and use as just a stand-alone talent.
The reduced damage multiplier expressed by Icefury probably presents a normalization to reflect the above change, 100% up meets >100% down. It looks like it’s only slightly down in single-target. Having the AoE is great, and means it’ll be useful in M+ for not just weaving and generating maelstrom, but because it’s doing work.
- Maelstrom Generation, “more sources more procs”
Speaking of maelstrom, the loss of Flow of Power depends on the length of the fight. Getting maelstrom from reapplying Flameshocks either directly (3) every ~15 or through LMT (8) every ~26 by itself should be a net gain for short fights. It’s an immediate infusion of 8-11 maelstrom in two GCDs.
The renewed emphasis upon Elemental Overloads from the rest of the kit largely indicates there’ll be more maelstrom during a fight.
Stormbringer,
Replacing Shocking Grasp with Mobility
Losing the slow from Shocking Grasp is good. It was redundant. I’m hoping that the two mobility talents available in the choice node are more useful. They both seem very enhancement focused. Tempest is a lot of damage, but it’s a hard cast that asks the spellcaster to follow it up to take advantage of lightning rod and everything else.
If one of the choice nodes was a mini Spirit Walker’s Grace 2-4 sec, I guess we’re stepping on Spirit Walker’s Momentum’s territory (no pun intended), but it’d be much more useful. A alternative would be a building charge, like Norgonnon’s that activates once the player starts moving. Think of it like a mobility capacitor, battery blitz.
Ascendance, “new star on deck”
Recentered and renewed focus. While a lot of the new talents look like they want to be must haves, the rework here demands it. Completely different, just straight opener that I’m actually happy to see considering things like Warrior’s Thunderous Roar.
It’s certainly more analogous to other classes cooldowns, where you do what you are already doing, but just doing it on another level. It plays into the strength of Elemental Overloads, dialing them into 11 immediately.
Flexibility in Builds
I think this going to be a greater question than ever. Still a bit of a bastion of build diversity, but it’s certainly seems to be in the wings more than ever.
CDR
I think the biggest casualty is the CDR. The absolute removal of it means that the long 3 min cooldowns are extra actually 3 minutes long.
Mastery
We’re back to the old mastery, depending on talents, and likely depending on gear availability. It’s like a winding journey back to rediscover that identity. Meaningful overloads are a part of what makes the spec fun. I don’t like how it’s attached to Ascendance as much as it looks like it’ll be, but it’s nice that it’ll be an interesting burst window.