Ele shaman 11.0.5 changes

Classes Shaman
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As a perennially high rated arena Ele. I can tell you these changes are very poor. Ele really had no problems at all and doesn’t need to be re-worked.

Skybreakers fiery demise needs to be reverted and left alone.

Icefury cleave is nice, but only one charge now feels bad and it’s very slightly reduced damage
(I think?)

The reduced duration on elementals is ridiculous. They were the ones that wanted to bake a 10% talent into the tree when they’re active.

If you want to reduce the duration. Sure You have to remove that talent, and just put the damage into our aura. Put something totally new as a talent.

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63

6-minute combat, Lightning build, Stormbringer, not using Lava Burst or Flame Shock (yes is possible) but only Ice Fury, Ascendance, and Deeply Rooted Elements, along with everything possible for Lightning: 540-600k DPS.

  • 17 Tempest procs
  • 2 Deeply Rooted Elements procs…
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That’s how it felt in DF to me the whole time.

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I’ve been testing various builds since 9 AM, and my fingers are on fire. The build that I’ve managed to make work so far is the one mentioned above, and I’m fine with it—it’s all about Lightning and Storms. However, with any Weaver or Fire build, I couldn’t surpass the DPS of this one. Let me know what you think, and if you can, share your impressions.

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I agree that latest changes to Elemental and to some extent Enhancement are controversial and that is why I created feedback and suggestions threads on PTR for them to point old and new issues and offer solutions. Here is the link to Elemental Shaman post (and it contains links to other Shaman specs posts if you are a non-Elemental main) - 11.0.5 Elemental Shaman Feedback And Suggestions

If you have additional suggestions - you can post them in comments in according specialization thread. Let’s hope that since Shaman rework is still in progress (and it likely would continue since for example there are currently no fleshed out lava and lightning builds like stated in design goals for Elemental) Blizzard would read this feedback and take it into account.

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68

Technically, the Lightning build can be done at the moment, among the three. There’s the Weaver and the Lightning build. You can easily do the Lightning build without using Flame Shock and Lava Burst, spamming Ice Fury but not taking it to proc Elemental Blast, and going full Lightning by spending two talent points to get two charges of Lava Burst and the Lava Burst that increases nature damage by 10% to reach the pet that gives you 10% more nature damage. By skipping everything related to Fire and Flame Shock, you can make a Lightning build where you spam Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock, Ice Fury, and hope for Tempest procs, while praying that Ascendance triggers and using cooldowns in sync with it. Compared to a Weaver or a pure Fire build (which doesn’t exist, as it’s completely dead), you can make the Lightning build work. The gameplay isn’t great, but it’s doable.

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From my perspective, as a Lightning purist, I’m satisfied with this new iteration of talents because I can play a thematically Lightning and Storm build. The issue is that the gameplay is almost entirely passive—you spam Lightning Bolt because it triggers Tempest and Thunderstrike, and you have to hope that Tempest and Ascendance proc by luck. During the Ascendance window, you have to be careful, as you need enough Maelstrom and hope for a Tempest proc, while having Keeper of Tempest ready to cast Lightning Bolt. When it works, you deal a massive amount of damage, but the gameplay isn’t particularly brilliant. It’s a single-spell spam that makes your finger hurt by the end of the fight.

Compared to other builds, I reached around 550-600k DPS with Lightning, while Weaver was between 480-510k. Fire is impossible because Fire is essentially a Weaver now. I do like the idea of Lava Burst consuming 3 seconds of Flame Shock and dealing extra damage, so you have to play a mini-game with Flame Shock and Primordial Wave, but there’s no true Fire filler. So, in the end, about 15-20% of your DPS comes from Lightning Bolt, making it essentially a Weaver build.

Previously, we had steady DPS from start to finish, with small burst windows from things like pets. Now, we have significant peaks, especially during Ascendance. If you take Last Ascendance and set it up well, entering that window with at least 2 procs of Tempest or the Tempest itself, and Lightning Bolt to trigger Keeper of Tempest, you can deal insane damage. Plus, with Stormbringer’s talent giving you a 50% chance for a third Lightning Bolt, the burst is incredible, but then it drops off, creating a curve with peaks and valleys.

The pet, from what I’ve seen, can give you around 10k DPS if you’re lucky with procs, but it’s not very consistent. Maelstrom generation is incredibly slow, which makes the gameplay feel clunky and far from elegant. They could have done more with it. Personally, as someone who prefers playing Lightning, I would have liked to see Lava Burst completely replaced by Tempest, with a cooldown and cast time. You could have a mini-game with Rod, where it has a chance to trigger Tempest out of cooldown, at least as an instant, non-critical spell. Also, Fulmination on Lightning Shield, where each Lightning ability adds a charge and enhances Electrified Lasso, would have made the build more viable.

Conceptually, Weaver exists because you can theoretically trigger Frost to power Lava, Lava to power Nature, and Nature to power Lightning. You go through the cycle, and by endgame, you see the split damage where Earth Shock, Lava Burst, or Elemental Blast dominates the filler. So, technically, there’s a concept, even if it’s not elegant because it’s all random—depending on when you get Lava Surge or other procs.

As for Fire, it’s completely dead, and I feel for those who loved that playstyle. It had its niche, and I hope they have the decency to preserve it.

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70

I agree that it is technically doable, but its gameplay is not that good, that is why I called it “not fleshed out”. I think that a way to make it fleshed out is via addressing Flame Shock and Lava Burst (giving a way to convert them to lightning or take something as alternative instead of outright ignoring them), mobility and Maesltrom generation issues and via giving proper lightning themed major cooldown like Storm Ascendance suggested in linked post. These all should be optional though, so that people who want to continue playing with Lava Burst / Flame Shock or weaver playstyle can continue doing so and remain competitive and was also addressed in the linked post.

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71

Sure, if they don’t want to fully tackle the idea of 3 builds in one—which theoretically is their intent, even if they haven’t succeeded yet—and I would pay gold to see it happen, having 3 developed builds, even if they are monothematic, would be great. They could have a simple but agile rotation with at least 3 or 4 buttons for each build, and that would be spectacular for our Shaman theme. They clearly want this, and I think we do too. Since they claim to have 13 million players across retail, classic, and others, I believe they have the economic means to undertake this desirable development for the Shaman.

But if they don’t want to do that and want something quicker, they could do what they did for Warlocks in the past: give the option to thematically customize Destruction spells, and do the same with Elemental (and maybe Enhancement, though I’m not sure how it would apply to that specialization). They could give us the option to go full Lava or full Lightning, or just leave it as it is. This would be pretty cool, and it might even cost less since they probably already have the animations ready. It would just require some new skins or glyphs.

Thematically, I’d feel covered using lava spells, but for now, I’ve settled into the Lightning gameplay—it’s not elegant, it’s quite primitive, but I’m hoping that with the next patch or expansion (and this is a big question mark), they’ll have to give us more talents. What will they come up with? Either they expand the Hero Talents, or they’ll have to invent new talent lines. As a minimum, we should get at least two more talent lines, because theoretically, 10 levels mean by level 73, 72, 71, or so, you should be getting a class talent, not just specialization talents. So, they’ll need to come up with something new, and they could refine the Lightning build even more, just as they could do with Fire. We’ll have to see what they decide.

P.S. Deeply Rooted Elements isn’t working—it procs 3 times in 10 minutes, even with an Aftershock build. It’s really a wasted talent in its current state

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72

That’s really weird since a lot of us are hitting around 700-900k with Weaver builds ATM with Elemental Blast with Stormbringer.

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Depend of your equipe, can you tell me talent and rotation so i can try, with love thx maybe with rotation i need learn other way pls

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ascendence model is sick, old one is boring generic and looks like something out of mists

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I gave it a chance to create a PvP build in 11.0.5. It’s not as bad as I thought. It’s still bad but I think I can take it. Few things though:

  1. 40% more Elemental Overload damage from Echo Chamber is 40% of the existing 25% so overall 35%.
  2. Errupting Lava with Farseer. Ancestors Lava Bursts also consume some Flame Shock duration and since Ancestors cast Lava Bursts when you press Earth Shock or Lightning Bolt your Flame Shock expires before you finish bursting. Even when I tried using Fire Elemental with Ascendance my Flame Shock was gone before I finished bursting. It’s really annoying. Either make Ancestors cast other spells or do something for them not to consume whole Flame Shock or it will be extremely annoying to refresh it.

With Errupting Lava increasing Flame Shock damage by 25% and Lava Burst damage I believe it’s mandatory.

P.S.:

Tested it a bit more and it basically sucks. Damage isn’t there. My Resto Druid friend can heal “big” burst with just hots - no CDs. Even considering that it was outside it wasn’t impressing at all. Thanks Blizzard for a “gift” for 20th anniversary.

TWW seemed as one of the best expansions in years but you decided to ruin it for me.

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76

So does this mean that Flame Shock must be cast manually as part of the single target rotation?

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If opening with the new Ascendance, Elemental may be popping off immediately with a flame shock and lava burst(s) applied and flying.

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I don’t know if it’s a bug or not but on the PTR ascendance only applies flame shock to your current target. There is some ambiguity in the wording that makes it possible that’s the intended interaction.

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It means that you may need to spend a global to re-apply it in the middle of your burst what’s not preferable. I believe it’s an unwanted interaction and they are going to change it.

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I’m hoping they have time (and will actually USE that time) to dial this rework in before releasing it live, but as it stands currently, it’s a coffin nail for Ele.

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Yep its , after raiding and doing some m+ is crystal clear that if this changes goes live ele is dead

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Jeez here goes blizz again taking another W for making a spec somewhat cool and fun to play at start, and going “nah let’s take a bat and breaks it’s knees midway.”

Let’s hope they realize this madness before it’s too late…is sort of wishful thinking…rip n peps when I finally chose the main I wanted and then wanting to do that up yet again

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