I’d love to hear everyones thoughts! I’m pretty excited, though I’ll have to try it to see if actually like them. I know lots of people hate the current ENH and will be happy to hear this news.
If you haven’t heard, Maelstrom is gone and Shamans are no longer playing a builder/spender rotation. It’s all just mana and cooldown management.
I hope Resto gets some attention too cuz (and I know many will disagree with me) its in a rough place imo.
Edit:
Ele: So basically you gain stacks of a buff called “Fulmination” when you use lightning bolt and Chain lighting. Then Earth shock gets improved damage based on Fulmination stacks up to 8. Sooo really. Its still a builder spender mechanic. As for EQ, it’s just a regular spell with a 2.6 second cast time but the cast time can be reduced by using chain lightning. It gets reduced more depending on how many targets it hits. I think 5 makes it instant?
Feels like ascendance should be baseline. FOR AZERORTHS SAKE UPDATE OR CHANGE THE MODEL! I could do without searing totem. Feral spirits could feel more impactful. I’m liking the return of shocks.
I’m SO hyped!! Elemental Blast is 1 spell that I’ve always wanted to use more, now that it’ll be an option for melee, I’m planning on using it regardless if its optimal or not. lol
But overall, I’m just eager to see how the new spells, with flow into a proper rotation and also eager to experience post-Failstrum life as a Shaman!!
“As with Elemental, the Maelstrom resource and Maelstrom bar have been removed from Enhancement Shaman.”
I have not even got past the first sentence of the shaman changes, and I already love them.
Maelstorm resource was the bane of our class. And now we are more free than ever to cast the spells we want, when we want.
After reading the paragraphs on Enhancement shaman, I see it as a move mixing elements of WoD, WoTLK, and Legion. We still have to chain storm strike, meaning that storm strike will not have high single-target burst. However, we can use Overcharge as means to speed up our gameplay. Moreover, we can use wind fury and flametounge weapon enchants.
The developers alluded to “when the elements will it,” implying that there will be a nice RNG element to enhancement gameplay. RNG has always been core to enhancement’s identity, so that is a good thing.
Combos appears new. While elemental shamans in WOTLK had combos (fls, lb, lb, lvb, cl, frs), Enhancement shamans will have combos in Shadowlands. We will see how these combos play out with the RNG and the overall pacing of the class in the alpha. So far I am very delighted about these changes.
Hard agree. I just don’t like the Flame Shock CD. Feels off. I know we arent suppose to be a “DoT” class, but I would take a reduction to its damage if we could mass DoT and turn into the Lava Burst Machine Gun. 5 FS, LAVA BURST FOR 15 SECONDS, reapply, CONTINUE TO BURSSSST!
Yes and no. Previously we needed to generate maelstrom to cast storm strike, lava lash, or earth shock. So those abilities were locked on our openers.
Now we can cast those abilities freely, on open. They will generate maelstrom charges (1 out of 5), and on the 5th charge, we get an instant cast hex, lightning bolt, elemental blast, chain lighting, healing wave, etc.
I have been playing druid and monk for most of BFA. I am leveling DK and Shaman and considering maining one of those for this next xpac. I really love the elemental shaman lore and the shielded mailed caster. I currently feel the system is very clunky ( I am still leveling). It seems like the new system will really smooth out the rotation and make it more exciting. As someone who is new to shaman, do you guys think my take is valid? Will ele be a strong caster spec?
You guys are confusing me. Are you debating elemental or enhancement?.. Because one of you is talking about ele and the other is talking about enhancement. xD
Causes the earth within 8 yards of the target location to tremble and break, dealing [Spell power * 0.2875 * 6 / 1 * (Versatility) * 981 + Versatility) * 100 / 100] Physical damage over 6 sec and sometimes knocking down enemies.enemies.
Each time Chain Lightning hits more than 1 target, the cast time of your next Earthquake is reduced by 20%, stacking up to 5 times.
Cast Time changed from Instant to 3 sec cast
They serious with this? Requiring massive ramp for AOE is failll. 5 Chain Lightning casts for an instant EQ??? By then the mobs will be dead or close enough that most of EQs time will be wasted.
Hmm i totally misunderstood that verbage til you pointed it out, that actually doesn’t sound too fun. Though keep in mind, you get two stacks with overload so you can do it in 3 casts which still doesnt feel the best but maybe occasionally throw out a noninstant cast EQ?
Ok thats what I thought, thanks. Also that bit about the EQ, that was my understanding as well but now I’m questioning everything about cuz the verbage is kind weird xD
It doesn’t say for each target hit… it says each time CL hits more than 1 target you get a stack. Hopefully they just phrased it poorly but as it reads, it’s not a stack per target.
The ramp is going away because the Lightning spells will be substantially stronger and the Earth spells will be less frequently cast. You aren’t going to spam Earthquake the way we did in Legion/BfA: Chain Lightning and Flame Shock on multiple targets are going to be the bread and butter of your AOE damage, with Earthquake cast ever so often and Lava Burst and Earth Shock/Elemental Blast funneled into a primary target.
Expect Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, and Flame Shock to be 2-3x stronger than in BfA, Earthquake to be cast about half as often, and Earth Shock/Elemental Blast to be part of of your AOE rotation.
You can also always hardcast EQ at the start of a fight or with reduced cast time with fewer stacks of Seismic Thunder in the middle of a fight. Instead of ramp being all or nothing like in Legion/BfA, with Fulmination and Seismic Thunder you can use your Earth spells sooner for reduced effect.
You are saying this based on what? Neither Lightning Bolt nor Chain Lightning got buffed at all in their spell power calculations on datamine (while many other spells have had their calculations changed) and they even said they want us to focus on Lava Burst more… not “Lightning spells”. And they buffed Lava Bursts damage on datamine, to go along with what they said of more emphasis on Lava Burst. So where are you getting this impression from about “Lighning spells being substationaly stronger”? In fact Lightning Bolt got nerfed, longer cast time.
Are you just stating your pipe dreams as facts? As for Flame Shock, Flame Shock CD isn’t getting lowered at all so “Flame Shock on multiple targets” is the same as it’s always been, ie nah just a few, as always.
It’s the first datamine, and Shaman are receiving the most extensive changes in the expansion. Numbers won’t be right today because they are still designing the spells and talents for the class. I’m just saying when the mechanics are ironed out and the numbers passes come that things will play very differently.
Also, it isn’t explicitly stated yet in the datamine but it is highly likely that CL overloads will also grant another stack of Seismic Thunder.