Well that’s a blatant lie on behalf of Blizzard - considering it was a talent you had to spec into in Vanilla/Classic. It clearly was intended to exist prior to TBC.
Dual wield was a request by the player base leading up to TBC, which traded 2H for DW. It was a good chance for smoothing out our damage output in PVE, but traded that PVE viability for reduced PVP viability (thanks to no more absurd WF crits); With the changes to Windfury over the years, I’m not sure what the value of the 2H removal ended up being in the end - Windfury no longer does damage based on your weapon, which was what caused the absurd WF crits in the first place.
I assume that the damage would be tied to a proc of windfury rather than plain damage like ascendance, that would be redundant, but it’s blizzard so we have to wait to see the talent.
My main problem with DW being on the global cd is that limits our already limited cc, and also can’t be paired with Shamanism or Ascendance, in pvp that feels bad, pressing 3 globals before doing damage. Another solution can be that Shamanism and/or ascendance are taken off the global CD.
The problem is Thunderstorm is one of the worst knockbacks in the game. Priest, hunter, warrior all have a better version.
The talent thundershock is a step in the right direction to improving that but it shares with Lasso. Its hard to justify taking Thundershock over Lasso when a reliable stun is so badly needed.
It’s great to see Chain Lightning hit 5 targets, the Thorim’s smart use of Maelstrom Weapon, the increase Frost Shock damage by spent stacks and the Deeply Rooted Elements choice.
Still, the change for Hot Hand is pretty bad. That talent is already bad now and it will get worse for a build that is already pretty RNG. The proc should be increased to 10% and the damage to 150% if it’s gonna de a 2 point talent.
Primal Primer removed… meh! Dont really care. Never liked playing that build in Battle for Dazar’alor when it was the meta with that Azerite power.
I assume that the change for Alpha Wolf would work with the change in Thorim’s Invocation? No need to manually cast Chain Lightning if that talent is gonna automatically cast it in multitarget situations.
I would like Doom Winds removed from the GCD so it can be macro with CL or SS for smarter and quicker use. Lose 1.5 sec in that ability to not proc Windfury is very crappy.
Gathering Storms should be better for funneling builds, increasing a lot more the Stormstrike damage stacking the more you use it. Stormstrike is an ability that you dont really use in AoE that much. You are gonna use Crash, Chain, Flame Shock, Lava Lash and Frost Shock most of the time. Making it a potent funneling ability would be a lot better to kill priority targets, making the rotation more interesting in longer fights and in pulls when 1 enemy has a lot more HP that all the others.
Finally, would love to see a talent to bring back a 2nd charge for Stormstrike.
Still, I’m glad to see updrates in the right direction. I realy hope that Enhancement can get a solit talent tree for this expansion so the spec can be whole again after 2 expansions of pretty bad builds, construction and awful gameplay.
I was hoping that with Wrath coming out in a similar time frame and Ion working on both projects AND playing a Shaman, that he would look at Enhancement as more of a utility spec, and bring back some of our fun totems and allow us to drop them all at once again.
But…Nope, they still want us pew pew, and die super fast
I don’t mean utility as in, all we do is support the other classes, but I would prefer to be more of a totem class, rather than using just one totem the entire fight.
What does that mean in practical terms? Being a “totem class” and using multiple totems per fight? Totems are utility effects. Needing to use multiple totems in one encounter would mean mechanics bloat on bosses purely for the sake of giving one class a reason to push extra buttons.
It sounds like you’re asking for a return to the days of buff totems, which… no frickin’ thanks. There was nothing interesting or engaging about needing to mash a castsequence macro four times every time your group moved 30 yards, and the totem bar was never more than a bandaid on an outdated design that we as a class are far better off having moved past. Buff totems were a clunky, outdated mechanic almost from the game’s launch, and things have only gotten faster-paced and more mobile since then. They are a terrible fit for the current game.
Totems as situational utility are far preferable to hauling around a bunch of dump-and-forget literal stat sticks that you nonetheless have to keep dumping every couple of minutes due to range.
To me, Enhancement shamans should do exactly that Enhance party members’ weapons, armor, and spells through the use of the elements. This can be achieved through totems, by direct spell casting onto another player, elemental booms aka elemental shouts, or mass party spells like Heroism. Yet will this style of Enhancement ever come to WoW? No, because too many would hate it and would think this play style was boring as hell.
Totems are on the GCD and are possibly the absolute worst buff mechanic in the game. I can appreciate the aesthetics, but gameplay wise? No thanks.
More because buff bots (with WoW’s combat system) will be one of two extremes. Horrible or OP. This is what happened when enhance was basically a buff bot in its early life. You brought a single token enhance to your raid. Never a second. And never for challenging group content.
I think it be a interesting take on the spec, the only issue is see is Blizzard which is famously notorious for horrible balancing make this viable.
Considering we’d now rather improve other players Dps and stats, while our own Dps would take a hit just be really hard to find that sweet spot where our dps is lower but compensated by improving others, then comes the whole issue where the focus of our abilities is to improve others but if in PuGs or find lower skilled players our whole “Enhance others” gameplay literally is a waste and 2 players are useless rather then one.
It’s interesting concept, and a fresh take just I think it’s one of those ideas that are amazing on paper but poor in practice.
Personally I feel like a “True” Support Class/spec needs to be built from the ground up, perhaps a future class that gets released, which I’m not against.
NTY, I did my time as a buff bot wayyy back in the day. It wasn’t fun tbh lol, the primal battle-mage who actually does damage and offers a decent buff or two is much, much better for the spec
Enhancement should be borrowing from the elements to Enhance and surpass their own physical limitations.
Essentially, we should be conduits for the primordial and chaotic energies of nature. I don’t want to be a support. I want to be a living maelstrom, I want to be an elemental juggernaut, and I want to chuck lightning bolts. In PvP I want to be scary.
I’ve been playing Enhancement since TBC and have had my fill on existing to make my party stronger.
Where did they say this? Please provide source and link. There is no reason why they can’t especially as it’s not impossible to revert Stormstrike back to not requiring Dual Wield and making Wind Strike not require it. The changes are simple. The only ability that ever really made it a Dual Wield Spec was Lava Lash and again that’s the only ability that has ever required an offhand weapon as Enhancement until Legion because they wanted to give Enhancement Doomhammer which they just up and decided was a 1h weapon with an off hand equip that only the so called true and rightful wielder could summon. Prior to that Doomhammer was always depicted as large enough that it should have been a 2h.
