I hope ss builds/stormbringer is never viable, it’s like playing a bm hunter just spamming 1 button no enh wants this if I wanted to play bm hunter I would make a hunter. Lash should always be better as it has a lot more skill expression.
Atm both builds are very equal, so it doesn’t matter which you play
I like Stone Bulwark when I’m on my Shaman and I love it even more when I just klepto it on my Mage. Purgeable defensive #feelsbadman
Its not purgeable anymore as of this patch, at least not the initial shield. The other small ones are purgeable.
Everything on shaman is purgeable usually lmao. Earth shield, Wind barrier, Spiritwalkers, Stormbringers speed boost from Tempest, extra shields from Stone Bulwark, etc.
Also, yeah Stormbringer feels awful to play just not feeling this. Its way too spammy for the same result I get with totemic, but Totemic feels far more fluid and feels like theres more I can do with it in terms of increasing my own skill with the build. Stormbringer builds also just feel worse into melee or any class with good physical defense, and does its main damage every 2 mins, smaller burst every 1 min, extremely easy to shut down, whereas Totemic does damage more often. I like the higher skill cap with Totemic for sure.
They really just need to increase Totemics sustain. Enh should not be doing less damage than it did prior to the tuning, it just needed its damage profile shifted. They missed the mark there pretty hard. Buff Lava Lash, and then buff one of Legacy of the Frost Witch, Frost Shock itself, or Surging Totem to increase Totemics sustain.
really hope we arent going to have to wait weeks after AWC to see tuning. the tuning for enh did not do what it was supposed to do, we did not gain more sustain in exchange for losing burst damage, we just lost damage period.
edit- Want to mention something about the tuning that happened throughout ptr that felt like it negatively impacted enhance in pvp:
So, there was a lot of tuning on PTR with pretty decent sized nerfs to our generators due to overperformance in PvE, which made sense as they got buffed by 100% at the beginning of PTR and needed readjustment throughout ptr. However, the 100% buff those 3 generators got did not apply to pvp while all of the nerfs they got did apply to PvP.
I think that needs to be looked at. Generators in PvE contribute a ton of damage which was the goal of the Enhance rework, whereas in PvP that still isn’t the case, Stormstrike tickles people even after the buff and Ice Strike hits for 530kish in arena with no defensive CDs active. Lava Lash is okay but after the recent nerfs it could use a buff.
Ashen Catalyst is already 4% in PvP combat, so it didn’t get changed.
I think buffing lava lash/frost shock by 15-20%, and ice strike by 100% would be nice to increase consistent damage.
I don’t want to see Stormstrike buffed ever
Oh didnt realize it was that low, thought they changed it to the pve number back on ptr but I didnt look since its an auto pick anyway. Thats fine I guess then
Agreed though, I think that would be completely fine and all thats needed. I also understand not wanting Stormstrike buffed lol, though the pve build is pretty fun and takes stormstrike stuff with the same build we play in pvp for totemic, works out pretty well but yeah, understandable.
SHAMAN
Enhancement
Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the power of some core Maelstrom spenders which have fallen behind the rest of its damage sources.
Elemental Blast damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
Lightning Bolt damage increased by 25% in PvP combat.
Look boys, buffs!
Small buff for totemic build (This should have been done last time, as it would have made the last changes net neutral)
Decent buff for stormbringer (I hope this isn’t better than lash as I hate stormstrike and currently it’s very close)
I would have liked to have seen a frost shock or lava lash buffs with the ele blast buff. A frost shock buff would have been healthy for the game, as you should be rewarded for weaving frost shocks with the SS build