Overall it’s really cool to see them reallocate damage instead of just removing it
the team working on balance lately has been on fire with really aware changes
BUT i really think they missed the mark a little bit
while these changes will address a decent portion of the bigger issues with the spec they also seem to be completely missing the most glaring issues in favor of changes that impact more than just the problem areas
lets look at the physical build, the obscenely overpowered ascendance window
a quick breakdown of what’s happening
ascendance buffs stormstrike and makes stormstrike/windfury/autos IGNORE ARMOR
buffs physical damage by 15%/15% (2 wolves)
makes windfury proc off every main-hand attack for 8 seconds
stacking windfury damage buff
increases the damage of lightning bolt by 20% baseline
but additionally AUTOMATICALLY FIRES LIGHTNING BOLT OFF GLOBAL AS OFTEN AS YOU HAVE 5 MAELSTROM
this is basically a no cd version of shadowlands retribution necrolord hammer
this is no different than the off global divine storm/arbiter hits we’ve been plagued by for years now
gives you a 25% damage buff for 5 seconds every time you spend 10 maelstrom (100% uptime during ascendance because the off global lightning bolts are constantly spending 5 to achieve 10 BASICALLY every other global
so not only are you getting hit with windstrike every global (ascendance stormstrike) which is rightfully a big hit, you’re also being hit with 5 stack windfury hits as well as off global lightning bolts that are passively buffing the shaman by 25%
windfury is not the most impactful damage in this window nor is it the heaviest contributor to the 50-0s in 0.5 seconds
it’s really the 50-100k off global lightning bolts that are also giving a constant 25% buff that you normally wouldn’t have access too without sacrificing windstrike globals to spend the maelstrom are causing significantly more issues
making thorims specific lightning bolts do 70% less damage and not trigger the 25% frostwitch buff would hit specifically the oppressive ascendance window without reducing the already sub-par sustained damage of physical enhancement
the nerf to both forcefulwinds and feral spirits only makes doomwinds and feral spirits worse stand alone cooldowns outside of ascendance despite being up anywhere from 1-5x as often as ascendance ultimately reducing enhancements damage without actually balancing the ascendance window meaningfully
the intention was really good and the stormstrike buff sort of offsets this exchange but it feels like a wide miss tbh
speaking off buffs, the 25% windstrike buff i assume is present because the spell is just tied to stormstrike
that will honestly make ascendance significantly stronger than forceful winds was
you only had doomwinds for roughly the first like 6 seconds of ascendance
ascendance is going to be stronger for the entire 15 seconds with this exchange which seems extremely bizarre and counter productive
this honestly seems like ascendance with DA/PI will still just kill you through walls or do disgusting damage long enough that they can hit you through your walls duration and still kill you while just reducing the meaningful damage enhance does every 30/60/90 seconds that wasn’t an issue on any level
almost feels like if kyrian spear was 1 shotting people off global and buffing warrior dramatically during it’s duration and they opted to nerf warbreaker so warrior then just did worse damage outside of spear while still functionally crushing people in spear ? ? ?
