Revert this immediately.
3 Likes
This is an awful change for ele, because of a “clunky” playstyle, so nerfing the spec by quite a bit to make people all change to enhancement. This change is almost aggravating because it’s being changed around a tier set that the WoW team has made. This patch was looking so good for almost every spec in the game, but obviously somehow as always, yall find a way to make unneeded changes, first lava burst nerfs, now a major dps nerf, and now whats next? Shamans can only play these certain talents to be good now? Again an awful mistake if this goes through. #nomorefun
4 Likes
Saying there is an “accessibility” issue which is true, and just out right nerfing the best build without buffing to compensate doesn’t make sense. Ele had one if the most powerful tier sets (particularly powerful in ST) because it needed it when compared to other classes.
Cap the stacks at 10, but also make them give you 3% nature damage per stack or some other buff to compensate for the nerfed needed to make the build more “accessible” .
2 Likes
Claiming accessibility issues without compensation is incredibly insulting to a class base that already feels largely ignored on a normal basis. So many people were ready to try out this new exciting gameplay option and now instead of having something to look forward to, we’re simply a week behind on what we have to do instead.
5 Likes
I think the problem is the major misconception with this build. You aren’t just spamming CL/LB. It’s really 1/3rd of what your casting. Think of CL/LB as a hasted filler spell with Earth Shock and Lava Burst being your primary builders (and fuel for the tier set).
5 Likes
i mean, outside of spreading flame shocks on important targets, using instant lava bursts, casting either earth shock or earthquake, most of what we do still comes from lb/cl, not the funniest gameplay but well, once i can acquire decent weapons, i am switching to enhance because its fun in this patch with fire nova
2 Likes
I totally get not wanting to have a top build be in-accessible to certain players, but this change seems really heavy-handed.
Legendaries that reduce the CD of storm ele, which were already behind in some situations, further lose value by storm ele being capped, and recasting losing stacks while also not even resetting the CD on the on-use.
This means its actually beneficial to cancel your storm ele, and recast just to be able to use the ability again, this feels awful.
I think buffing other builds that don’t require storm elemental would be far more beneficial, so those who wish to not have such a heavy CPM build have a viable alternative, and those who enjoy the build can continue using it.
Please consider reverting this change!
2 Likes
This change is a joke. People that cant play ele build doesnt have to play it. Resetting stacks and capping it at 10 is a HUGE dmg nerf. If the stacks reset, storm eles on use should also reset. And in my opinion something like a 30% lava burst buff would probably make up for this nerf. Why lava burst only hits for 10 more dmg than lighting bolt makes no sense anyways (even tho its 100% crit) then Ascendance might not be a dead talent.
3 Likes
Really sad with this change, feedback was ignored during the whole PTR and now you nerf a talent that will impact both raid and m+ significantly?
I really hope this change gets reverted and a nerf on the tierset is applied but we’re not mages so we all know this is not happening.
4 Likes
Not surprised they ignore PTR feedback. They have favourite specs and classes that get constant attention (Mages, Hpal, Disc etc) and are incredibly neglectful of a lot of specs that need the attention.
Just hoping they have also neglected to mention there will be a compensation buff to counter this nerf, or they see the uproar and do something about it.
2 Likes
I understand the accessibility concern, but please do not nerf the base kit for what the tier set provides. I think a damage buff to lightning bolt and chain lightning to compensate the nerf to storm ele is definitely a good thing. Please reconsider this change as it stands, and consider a buff of some kind to compensate for the dps loss. Thank you.
2 Likes
Please revert part, all or compensate for this nerf with buffs in some other way.
My sob story: At the end of last patch I started gearing a frost mage to the point I was going to be comfortable playing it in 20+ m+ keys and mythic raids this season. That spec got gutted and then partially reverted. I then starting gearing a shaman as this build looked fun. I started gearing it in the last two weeks of 9.1.5. I spammed lots of m+ to get gear and upgraded it all with valor to the point I started main-ing it this season.
All that work that I put in has effectively been invalidated and now I potentially have to convince my raid and m+ team that I might be switching again. Please understand that nerfs like this have real consequences on your players effort and time. Ive effectively lost all drive to want to play right now. I understand the need to fix the issue for accessibility reasons, however this equates to a big nerf to a spec that has very rarely seen much high end play and was looking fun for a lot of players.
6 Likes
Well this seems like a horrible idea.
1 Like
That’s also a good approach but the thing is they did nothing right now, they just removed something and by doing that they are hurting shaman’s DPS as that build was the most viable one 
This is an extremely big nerf to Elemental shamans with absolutely no gain to compensate for the loss of damage. There is no reason to give a spec’s base toolkit this big of a nerf to both single target and AoE without giving some sort of increase to compensate for the nerf.
I do agree that having .6 second cast times for a prolonged period of time is not good for the game, but you need to buff something to keep the balance of the spec in line with others. As of right now, the rough math of this change is about a 12%-14% nerf to Elemental Shaman’s single target damage.
It is quite frankly unacceptable to do a large change like this while the patch is live, PTR is where this change should have happened, not in the middle of the opening week of Heroic.
4 Likes
I get the logic behind this change. For me the problem is that this totally guts any build with storm ele. This affects both raids and m+. There must be some other way to accomplish these goals without destroying an entire talent build.
2 Likes
More proof that nobody in the development team actually plays our class anymore or understands how it works. What a hamfisted change. And then using the smokescreen of “accessibility” to justify it.
How about we buff the rest of Elemental shaman’s base kit to actually be competitive, and then we won’t have to rely on this ridiculous APM storm ele build anyway. It could just be an OPTION, if people wanted that playstyle. As it stands, the spec is tuned so poorly that there is no choice.
Why does Lava Burst, our iconic, “hard hitting” spell, do the same damage as lightning bolt? Maybe start there? And by start there, I don’t mean nerfing lightning bolt. These concepts seem very basic to me…I can’t be the only one?
10 Likes
First time ever posting on forums because a change this bad warrants community uprising.
You’ve nerfed our single target by approximately 2100dps for “accessibility” reasons? How stupid is that?! We don’t have single target burst, so for our patchwerk sims to be competitive is important, because the moment you add intermissions or movement we drop off more than heavy CD/burst classes like fire mage/boomy etc.
Now we will sim close to the bottom of all dps specs and still require high uptime to even get close to that underwhelming sim, thus making our single target arguably the worst in the game.
You’ve also gutted our aoe potential and maelstrom generation outside of raid and irrespective of tier.
You’ve also made this related to talents not tier, which people actively get to choose… If someone doesn’t like the storm ele play style, don’t take the talent. Making it outright underperform is not a solution, because now no one will play it…
Please either revert the changes, or buff the maelstrom generation and damage elsewhere so that we can at least be middle of the pack rather than dead last. There are countless community provided examples of how this could be fixed, LISTEN TO THEM!
Thanks
9 Likes
Yeah. To be fair - I don’t like storm ele’s playstyle anyway. I’d much rather they just fix our spec to actually be competitive without it. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way.
That being said, it’s crazy that they’d nerf it into the ground like this without compensation in some other dept.
10 Likes
Seems nobody on the Dev team actually plays the class. Thus nobody knows how to fix things. Here’s a REAL SIMPLE solution for your interns:
make Storm ele start at 20 stack, and decrease every 1 or 2 sec.
#1: it’s a good burst. (as we have none)
#2: no more perma 0.4sec LBs. It was not a great mechanic to begin with anyway
#3: it now synergizes REALLY well with our tier set, as we can prioritize on LVB after the initial LB burst phase.
you’re welcome.
4 Likes