First of I just wanna say I dont have SL Beta ive just spent time looking at other players providing content and ive played a ele sham since MoP
If you who are reading this have Beta feel free to post this at the official Beta part of the forum.
To start this off i wanna start with a question.
I think reworking Ele Shaman like you are currently are doing is trying to adjust something that doesnt need adjusting.
What you are trying to achieve with a Fulmination system is basicaly the same thing as the Maelstrom system
Maelstrom or Fulmination, in order for them to sucessfully work they basicaly have to work the same way as the other do anyway
This means in order for Fulmination to actualy start working on Beta any spell that generated Maelstrom in Legion and BFA needs to generate Fulmination and thats exactly what it did in WoD (more on that further down)
But if this achieves the same outcome, why would u even adjust it?
The only real difference between Legion + BFA and WoD and SL Beta is how earthquake works and even that is worse in SL
Ele currently in Shadowlands is bad, you can call it a bad version of WoD
To me it feels like were currently in WoD Alpha instead of where we actualy are
Why is this?
Its pretty obvious the devs looked at a time in WoW where Ele Shaman was peak fun (WoD) and said hey lets copy that, what can go wrong?
The Fulmination system is back and thats great but the majority of mechanics that actualy made the fulmination system work in WoD has NOT been introudced again Shadowlands
What is actualy missing?
Chain Lightning did give Fulmination charges in WoD. I know this was in at early stages of Alpha SL and ive no idea why it was removed
^https://wow.gamepedia.com/Fulmination
Lava Burst also gave Fulmination charges thru a Dreanor Perk called Improved Lightning Shield
^https://wow.gamepedia.com/Improved_Lightning_Shield
The stat Multistrike in WoD made it possible to get multiple charges of Fulmination with 1 spell
Here is what it looked like
^https://streamable.com/ftrvuj
(Look what 1 lava burst cast does to the Lightning shield buff in the upper right corner.)
Note: Because of the current Mastery for Ele shaman this is basicaly the same thing but back then an ability could generate more than 2 charges as shown in the video above
In this case its generates 3 charges
If you compare this to Shadowlands Beta right now only Lightning bolt give Fulmination and thats it.
About why Earthquake is worse, the ramp up time is just way longer than it has ever been
On Beta you need to cast 5 Chain lightnings to get a instant EQ if you dont manage to proc elemental overload
With elemental overload proc its about 2-3
In WoD 1 CL was enough because of a Dreanor Perk called Enhanced Chain Lightning
^https://wow.gamepedia.com/Enhanced_Chain_Lightning
Summary
If a Fulmination system is what you want, As long as Chain Lightning does not give Fulmination, Ele shaman will be in a worse state than it has been in a previous expansion
In order for the Fulmination system to start working on Beta you need to make every ability that generated Mealstrom now generate Fulmination instead
Thats what made it working in WoD
This will basicly create the same outcome as the Maelstrom system so in reality you arent actualy changing anything.
Because the stat mulitstrike does not exist anymore there needs to be a few abilities that generates 2 Fulmination charges (not including Mastery Proc) as baseline.
Icefury for example should be one of them
Shadowlands version of Earthquake needs to be proced faster as it did in WoD or with a Maelstrom system in Legion and BFA, this played out a lot better with the rest of the spec and if not working will only cause the spec to fall short in key areas where its supposed to succeed in
Extra
If I could suggest 2 spells that would make it back during the unpruning its Gust of Wind and Unleash Flame.
Both of these spells synergizes incredibly well with the spec and provided strength in areas where the spec needed