Boys we’ve finally made it to the promise land 
2 Likes
I saw! These look really nice. We may be playing with a clown form now but at least we’ve got some cool new talents …
I like the change to doomwinds. It sort of combines it with that ability “whirling air”
Or something back from legion days …
Edit: fury of air!
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The price for meh Ascension Forms (hopefully we have a Glyph option to swap back).
It’s worth it.
I love that they’re turning ice strike in to a passive, one less keybind as enhancement!
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happy for you enhance chads but man these ele changes are a bummer I skipped dragonflight and was so hyped for season 1 but now my rotation is gonna change drastically for the worse in 2 months (from a pvper’s perspective)
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By the lords of light! The Totemic changes…I…I…I am speechless. Blizzard ACTUALLY LISTENED TO FEEDBACK from Beta. those changes will not have Totemic searching for what spell tree to be anymore! Now using FIRE and LIGHTNING with the WIND will benefit the build and make us a TRUE ELEMENTAL MASTER!!!
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! LET ALL WHO DOUBTED TOTEMIC RUE THIS DAY!!!
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The witch doctor nerf alone is bad enough for me to consider this overall bad for enhance.
I am really not happy about that.
Hopefully flowing is really damn good.
This patch is tragic for enhance.
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The changes overall to Stormbringer and Totemic look good, although Totemic still needs to address the totem’s immobility on a melee spec in a high movement game. Making the damage coming from the totem always travel from the totem toward the shaman instead of only occurring around the totem itself would be really nice.
But the base spec changes, yeesh.
New Talent: Flowing Spirits – Your damaging abilities have a chance to summon a Feral Spirit for 8 seconds. Replaces Feral Spirit. Functions with Elemental Spirits and Alpha Wolf. Choice node with Witch Doctor’s Ancestry.
Lower effort alternative for easier gameplay at cost of max potential is something I’m fine with.
New Talent: Lightning Spark – Chain Lightning marks enemies with Lightning Spark and has a chance to make your next Flame Shock become Tremor Shock. Tremor Shock: Instantly shocks up to 6 Lightning Spark targets with concussive Force, causing Nature damage and applying Flame Shock.
While another way to spread Flame Shock is nice, the inconsistency of when this effect occurs really doesn’t help with where we want an effective way to spread FS the most, which is on pull. We already have Molten Assault for spreading and maintaining FS, too. Really, this seems like something that should be going to Elemental, who can open pulls with Chain Lightning much more effectively than we can, and desperately lacks a consistent easy way to spread FS.
New Talent: Molten Thunder – The cooldown of Sundering is reduced by 10 seconds but it can no longer incapacitate. Stormsurge has a small chance to also reset the cooldown of Sundering.
I really, really don’t like this. Yet another entry in the disturbing trend DF had of turning utility abilities into throughput ones that specs are balanced around.
Ice Strike has been redesigned – Whenever you spend Maelstrom Weapon, your Frost Shock has a chance to become Ice Strike.
I outright hate this. I was thrilled when Ice Strike became an actual part of our rotation in DF, as frost has long been a drastically underrepresented element in our damage profile, and we have many times struggled with feeling the balance between the “melee” and “caster” hybrid nature of the spec. Removing Ice Strike as a dedicated melee attack is going to be a step backwards on both these fronts. Could this possibly be a choice node with keeping Ice Strike as its own active button?
Doom Winds has been updated – Unleash a devastating storm around yourself, dealing Stormstrike damage every 1 second to nearby enemies for 8 seconds. Increases your chance to activate Windfury Weapon by 200%, and the damage of Windfury Weapon by 10%.
Alright. I’m still not playing Storm, ever.
Thorim’s Invocation has been has been updated – Now causes Deeply Rooted Elements to last 2 seconds longer/Reduces the cooldown of Ascendance by 60 seconds instead of increasing the damage of Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt. Remaining effect unchanged.
So more concentration of power into Ascendance/DRE, at the cost of a hefty loss to sustained damage. Don’t love that.
Chain Lightning now reduces the cooldown of Crash Lightning by 0.5 seconds for each target hit (was 1 second).
Crash Lightning’s range changed to 8 yards (was 12 yards).
Molten Assault’s range changed to 10 yards (was 12 yards).
Heckin’ why? Why nerf our base AoE this way, especially when we only just got that range increase on Molten Assault, and will still need it for the FS spread to actually work on any encounters with a large boss and small minions that can outrange the center of the boss’s hitbox while practically under his feet. Is this why you’re giving us Lightning Spark? As a safety against the hitbox issue? These aren’t even the sources of our huge AoE spikes – in fact, if we’re spiking our AoE like crazy, it’s through repeated Tempest procs and Static Accumulation resets, which means we’re hitting that instead of Crash Lightning anyway.
Primal Maelstrom now causes Primordial Wave to generate 3/5 stacks if Maelstrom Weapon (was 5/10).
Again, why? You already gutted Primordial Wave coming into TWW with the Splintered Elements nerf, why this now? Is this just insurance against builds opting not to take Thorim’s Invocation anymore with the loss of the passive 20% damage bonus? Because that’s awful.
Witch Doctor’s Ancestry now reduces the cooldown of Feral Spirit by 1 second whenever a stack Maelstrom Weapon is generated (was 2 seconds).
This feels like a targeted nerf on Stormbringer, but being executed on a universal talent used by literally every build in existence for this spec instead of on any Stormbringer talents directly, or on the spec tree talent that actually enables Feral Spirit overloading, Static Accumulation.
Flametongue Weapon damage increased by 20%.
And we still won’t notice.
Fire Nova is now unavailable when there are no Flame Shock targets within 40 yards.
Good change. No notes.
Overflowing Maelstrom now has a UI overlay when Maelstrom Weapon stacks reach 10 stacks.
Also good, and drastically overdue.
Hot Hand no longer has a UI overlay display.
Hot Hands now has a visual on the character when the effect is active.
Hot Hands now has a visual on character on activation.
These, on the other hand, awful. Enhancement has way too much going on, even on top of the already sometimes overwhelming amount of visual data needed to be processed in melee, to rely on noticing a graphical proc on our character model instead of our UI. Leave the UI overlay alone.
Overall, a lot of the notes for base Enhancement feel like nerfs to Stormbringer being delivered to the base spec tree in circuitous ways that will harm all Enhancement builds instead of addressing the actual thing making Stormbringer pull so far ahead: Static Accumulation.
5 Likes
Oh god, i didn’t notice all of those changes… I mostly skimmed through the notes and didn’t notice all of that.
Many of those are actually really bad.
This is a big step backwards, wtf are you doing blizzard? Revert course immediately.
I once said that they basically never missed the target when it comes to enhance since the start of DF, i guess the streak is over.
Some of these changes, in fact, many literally jeopardize how good enhance felt to play since now.
It’s like drawing and then canceling what you once drawn as you go on, so stupid.
Id rather they did nothing at all honestly, wtf is this? They also changed stormbringer, arguably for the worse.
I wasn’t exited for tww just to play a spec that’s about as good as it was in df, if you’re gonna push everything else back after you add hero talents, what was even the point of this? What a joke.
Ps: After giving it a shot on the ptr, i am not impressed.
Stormbringer doesn’t feel as good as before, whether it’s the change to storm swell or the reduction of supercharge, the bones nerf is felt, badly, ice strike was WAY BETTER before, this proc thing just doesn’t work, before you could get 1 frost shock with one without, now you’re lucky if you can get it every 4th, crash cdr at 0.5 means that the rotational feedback with chain and crash is significantly reduced, the only saving grace is that primal maelstrom is still 10 msw which apparently is a mistake. So the only thing that feels better is a mistake, sunder reset doesn’t feel nearly as good as i hoped it would, especially in st, it also does absolutely no damage, but that’s a tuning problem, like it’s not bad, but i’m not gonna wet my knickers for it, the proc rate for it is pretty abysmal. There is also the possibility that these changes could lead to downtime, which isn’t that just effin great is it? I’m being ironic, it’s not good.
Seriously, screw these changes.
You are jeopardizing all the good that you did for enhance with these changes.
Most of these changes need to never see the light of day, seriously, just do nothing, rather than this. Many enhance players who actually play the spec already think that this iteration is basically the best it’s ever been, if you can’t come up with things that actually make the spec even better to play id rather you do nothing at all.
This was my take on it with few dissents. I like ice strike being a passive since it cuts down on bloat, but making it yet another proc is awful. How many procs do we have now and they are adding Tremor Shock as well? Way too much cognitive overload for melee.
I also think them removing stormstrike/storm build from Totemic is bad since it just further reduces our build variety. Elementalist is the dominant build for Stormbringer and now elementalist is the only build for Totemic. Our two builds are pretty polarizing, some hate storms simplicity and others hate elementalists over complexity. I think totemic is very polarizing as well, which if it limits builds just creates this tiny niche of players that will like it and a whole lot more that would rather reroll than be forced to play elementalist totemic. Even if they solve the whole totem gameplay on a melee being awful, if it still pidgeonholes you into elementalist some people won’t play it.
There a few wins, but they are overshadowed by some massive nerfs and some stuff that enhance didn’t need or ask for, also elemental clown banshees.
1 Like
Witchdoctor nerf alone is pretty massive, it’s a huge hit to malestorm generation.
I get -why- it’s being nerfed, because we’d scale to be a little bit funky whenever we have passive 25-30% base haste before unlimited power, but this early in an expansion we’re going to be much more starved for malestorm generation without having the wolves constantly out. Stormbringer generates a lot of malestorm on it’s own, but we’re kinda forced into a malestorm heavy send out because of how hard tempest hits and the proc for the lightning wolves chaining even more malestorm into the haste.
We’re probably going to be forced to run full elementalist build with Ashen Catalyst for CDR on Lava Lash and Swirling Maelstorm to now get the additional malestorm to fill out the rotation better. Ice Strike is now pretty much required.
This feels like the entire class tree got gutted because Unlimited Power and Rolling Thunder were overpowered and would have scaled to well. We just got a maintenance nerf, we’re going to need more nerfs because the root cause isn’t being addressed. Once we get more base haste, we get more malestorm, which amplifies those buffs, which gives more malestorm and we’re right back to square one.
I’ve got a bit to say about these but I’ll start with the ice strike change
I did think enh needed a little help with button bloat but I think this takes away too much authority from the player. It just seems unnecessarily more difficult to line up our big hailstorms with these changes. Rn I think it works well because u could ice strike in melee to save a big hailstorm if u needed dmg at range. With this change it seems like u can be at range, spend maelstrom, get a proc of ice strike, have to go back in melee and then go back to range for a big hailstorm. Also, if they share a cooldown, doesn’t that mean we can’t ice strike and then frost shock immediately? I can also see a situation where you’d like to use frost shock from range but then u get an ice strike proc and lose that ability. Idk I like them trying to streamline some of our abilities but this seems a little clunky.
I think losing our incap on sundering is a big L with that new talent. I think it would make a lot more sense if only the resets didn’t have it.
And I don’t understand the range changes to molten assault and crash lighting. These were minor quality of life changes they just gave us and what? They were so OP they had to revert them immediately. Idk
Just adding my voice to the stupidity of the Ice Strike change.
It played a significant part in msw gen, could be reliably used every other HS FrS, was a main hand swing for DW, and a solid GCD filler.
Now you’ll run into situations where you want to HS FrS, and end up hitting IS instead, wasting the GCD and kinda just making things awkward. That, or you’ll have nothing to press / no mael and your only option now down there is frost shock when all else is on CD, barring it actually proccing.
Overall terrible change.
Everything else depends on how they handle tuning, esp the dog CDR nerf. Totemic changes are definitely headed in the right direction as it no longer seems like the most vile half assed hero tree in existence.
2 Likes
Maybe I am not understanding, but I am reading the tool-tip for the new Ice strike, it says “When spending maelstrom weapon, your frost shocks has a chance to become Ice strikes”
So what that tells me is that when I go to spend my malestrom, I should be in melee range if I want to use a ice trike, or if my frost shock turns to a ice strike. If I am going to use frost shock at range, then I should not spend malestrom in case it turns to ice strike.
This is the same as using Tremor with totemic. You want to spend your 10 stacks then use tremor for maximum affect if you have LotFW talented. Saving Malestrom to spend for burst is not a new way to play. Now the Icestrike adjustment may be different, but again people are acting as if EVERYONE has to have icestrike and that’s not true.
Now looking at the talents, Elementalist build will help Totemic, also a Storm build as it currently stands might hamper Totemic, but honestly, both Elementalist and Storm are not the same they were for DF. This opens the opportunity for a new builds that would take advantage of the changes.
As with any new changes to the spec, things need to be tested and vetted.
frost which is just every 10 msw, it doesn’t require you to actually send at 10 to trigger
It is different but idk what you mean by “everyone has to have it”
obviously if no one picks the talent no one would care but it is/was used heavily so yes, it’s an issue
Myself and others were doing PTR testing last night, it’s not great.
I will be testing soon as well, and a build I have modified for these new changes, as I am a Totemic player, Ice strike would not be chosen. But I do see your point for those who do use it.
Witch Doctor’s Ancestry now reduces the cooldown of Feral Spirit by 1 second whenever a stack Maelstrom Weapon is generated (was 2 seconds).
Let me go ahead and propose an alternative change that solves the exact same problem while not screwing over anyone who’s not playing Stormbringer:
Instead of refunding Maelstrom Weapon stacks, Static Accumulation now gives spending Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning a 20% chance to not consume your Maelstrom Weapon stacks while still gaining their benefits.
Lava lash should apply flame shock baseline.
Keep the FS ability for tagging mobs/PvP uses, but this would take it out of the core rotation in any build. Easy KB saved.
After having tried enhance a bit more on the ptr, we definitely didn’t make it to the promise land.
This direction is legitimately awful. There is almost nothing i like about them.
Basically i only like ele weapons being 1 point, and i kinda like the new sunder talent, but not that much. That’s literally it, everything else is a big step backwards.
Maybe the devs should try their own specs before they come up with these ideas.
The spec was already the best it’s ever been, people who were playing enhance already liked it a lot, if you are gonna downgrade, just keep your hands to yourself. I am vehemently against these changes, and i will keep spamming the forums until they get their stuff together, and if they don’t, I will just main swap to ww, since i like it just as much.
But let’s be real at this point they are likely too set in their ways to admit that this is not good enough and change course. So I think ww monk will be the new main.
3 Likes