Hello community and devs, wanted to share some thoughts on elemental as someone that has not mained this spec since Pandaria but has been playing it some recently. Prior to Mists I had played it for a few expansions, but mainly balance druid since. One of the things that makes me hesitate to come back is the awkwardness of the fire build.
Both lightning and fire builds should be optimized for AoE and ST, of course. On the ST fire side, it seems fine, not as much of a concern there. But because dps are generally going to spec into what sims best, if it is fire there are some opportunities to improve here in AoE. Flame shock is the biggest problem, followed by earthquake which is an issue for both builds.
Flame shock should have some cool interaction with lava burst beyond the instant proc to the latter. It is HORRIBLE to manage in AoE, not fun at all. I would recommend letting lava burst spread flame shock to adjacent targets, and also bake in the ascendance feature that lava burst hits all targets with flame shock. Maybe this is an empowered feature that comes from the instant proc and not baseline to lava burst by itself, but this could be fun. It would also avoid the terrible playstyle where you are single dotting a mob in AoE, through primordial wave or flame shock. The chance of a proc could be lowered to make it not seem insanely common in AoE, and bolstered in one or two target scenarios with a talent that increased proc rate.
There have been plenty of suggestions here on earthquake, so no need to get into an deep dive there. Whether it is a larger radius or something attached to a target, it needs to change to not be so easily defeatable.
Thanks everyone, enjoy your time in game and see you in the War Within.