First, thank you to all who take the time to read this post. This is my first post on the forums.
I have played WoW on and off since 2009, leaving the game as life required, and coming back to play with friends and family when able.
To start, I’d like to say that the new 11.0.5 Elemental changes have been the most fun I’ve ever had playing the spec. This is the best state I have seen for the class since MoP.
I love how powerful I feel when I hit Ascendance, and I like the fact that, outside of Ascendance, I am weaker. This makes pressing the button feel fantastic.
The RNG baked into the class is less fun, but it’s okay because when you do get a random Ascendance proc, it feels nice.
The rotation has some spice to it when talented in that way, but also feels purposeful in the selection of your abilities to buff others.
I cannot express enough how much I enjoy playing the current style of Elemental.
There should be a higher proc rate of DRE if you are speced into ele blast. The proc rate with aftershock on DRE with Earthshock make ele blast feel pointless.
The downsides to the current build are the RNG and the SoP nerf that happened four days before the release of 11.0.5 on the PTR. While I understand the reasoning for the nerfs, with the current balance changes, this no longer makes sense.
While the class I love is currently fun to play, part of the enjoyment is because it’s strong. I’m sure players of other classes understand this.
I believe that the more skill expression a class has, the stronger it should be for those who play it well. I am not an amazing player by any means, but I try to improve every time I log in.
That said, I do understand we were an overperforming class in raids compared to some(prenerf). But looking into the logs (Postnerf), we are not number one in single target; in the 95th percentile, we’re ranked number 6 in boss damage. Only due to our AoE are we ranked 3rd in overall damage, and by a thin margin (this is based on post-nerf numbers).
Currently, with the balance before the 10/29/2024 reset, Elemental is not overpowered. On Heroic, we’re outperformed by seven classes on Broodtwister, three on Bloodbound Horror, two on Silken Court, and one on Queen. We are not top damage on any boss. On Mythic, we’re top damage on Ulgrax, and that’s it. We fall within the top seven on every other boss but are not number one.
In Mythic Plus (where everyone seems to think we’re the most broken class to ever exist), we’re ranked number 5 in IO. This is after only two days of actually being “broken.” We’re also behind other specs in survivability. Due to this, pushing higher keys without externals from other classes seems nearly impossible.
I do agree that our overall damage in a coordinated group is high, with some players logging 2.1m+ overalls and up to 2.5m, but outside of these groups, our damage is only marginally higher than other classes, anywhere from 1-10% depending on skill levels. It should be ok to do more damage when you dont have the survivability of other classes.
While an AoE nerf is understandable, a single-target nerf seems a step too far.
The videos people have seen of ele poping off was with 40 stacks of a op trinket! thats 38,800 int during a huge pull and burst window.
All the numbers I mentioned here are public. You can check the logs yourself, sorting by the 95th percentile and looking at overall and boss damage.
If we are so broken that we need a 20% nerf in AoE and a 10-12% nerf in single target, why are we outperformed by multiple classes in raids and in the highest keys? The highest keys cleared by a Shaman have all been by Enhancement or Resto, with a 150 IO difference between the top Enhancement Shaman and the top Elemental Shaman.
I understand that some nerfs are necessary for game balance, but why not just buff other classes so they feel great to play as well?
There’s no worse feeling than getting home from work, logging in, and seeing your class getting gutted after spending so much time re-gearing and actually enjoying the changes.