How long must we suffer oh lords of Class Balancing? How much longer can we be swept under the rug b/c Enhancement is doing well?
We’re one of the lowest played specs and also the lowest performing specs for a bit now… Even when Enhance has seen buffs for lord knows why… We seem to get kicked to the curbside.
This spec needs some serious attention and mostly b/c almost all other specs have a streamlined rotation w/ GCDs and non-GCDs. We however don’t and it seriously effects the gameplay.
An example, say you choose Elemental Blast (Which replaces Earth Shock, an instant cast spell). The proc we receive would is NOT AN INSTANT CAST when the spell itself isn’t vastly buffed to compensate for this.
Yea, Shamans as a whole are pretty versatile, but when you get turned away from every key run you try and hit up b/c your Elemental spec instead of Enhance feels ROUGH.
All in all, the spec needs some serious attention. Whoever is overseeing the spec and thinks week in and week out that it’s fine as is might just be considered clinically insane.
Hope this message reaches the Blizzy Shaman Team well!
PLEASE AND THANK YOU
Someone who just wants to play Elemental Shaman again
Its not swept under the rug because Enhance is doing well.
It’s swept under the rug because its a strong PvP spec. Burst dmg is not king in PvE. Sustain damage is.
Elemental is a burst damage spec by nature because of the lava surge mechanic, and to adjust things to work in PvE would require them to significantly nerf PVP because they can’t be bothered to tune them separately.
It is a great spec for PVP. It takes a lot of skill and smarts but it is rewarding as it has some of the best burst in all of the game. PVE I can agree it’s mediocre but not bad. I haven’t done any mythic plus yet this expansion with my shaman but I am confident I could compete for #1 DPS in mid keys. I do agree it needs a little rework. Ascendance needs to have more options other than a flame ascendant. There should be a storm ascendent. Replace lava burst with thunderbolt, a new nature damage spell that is cast like lightning bolt but stacks nature damage over time as well. Flame shock should have no cool down, in PvE at least. Liquid magma totem should be a baseline spell, or atleast moved from primal elementalist. PvP ele do need some new defensive utility to combat melee classes as that is their weakness.
They don’t need to nerf pvp to buff PvE. Simply make a few things baseline, liquid magma totem, increased damage of chain lightning, rework ascendance to have storm ascendance, give more lightning builds. They can work all this while not touching the pvp aspect and keeping pvp damage mitigated apart from PvE.
As a side note… I think the elemental blast buff needs to last longer. Make it 15sec.
As Elemental, what truly feels bad as far as pure dps-wise is our single target.
Biggest problem Elemental actually has though is they have no utility whatsoever. Windrush sucks as it was nerfed. Right now, we are just worse hunters. Enhancement at least has windfury even when their damage isn’t top 5.
ele has an instant way to apply flame shocks to everyone every minute, making primordial wave that much stronger
CL DMG boost means stronger team fight capabilities and generating faster maelstrom to earthquake nodes
Ascendance change I can get behind, but do you remove DRE for Elemental? How do you decide what your ascendance does? Does it choose based on which elemental you chose at the top?
The game isn’t designed in a vacuum, and while they can change damage modifiers between pve and pvp (chain lightning dmg being a non-issue from your suggestions), something like making liquid magma totem baseline would heavily alter Elemental’s power in pvp.
Not just feels bad… it is bad. We’re totally outclassed in single target situations. Unless you’re taking DRE + Further Beyond and pull the winning lottery ticket you’re not an asset to the raid over pretty much any other ranged dps.
As for PvP just have a separate +/- damage aura apply in PvP like literally every other MMO has managed to figure out.
Honestly, I think it all boils down to more totems.
There needs to be more totems for each specific spec, with short if not no CD at all… and not baseline.
For example;
Restoration - Gift of the Ancestors - Heals x amount of friendly targets in dire need for % every 9 seconds, also providing a shield for 4 seconds. Fixed by haste & mastery.
Enhancement - Strength of the Ancestors - Bolsters x amount of friendly targets primary stat by (low)% for 9 seconds, every 5 seconds. Fixed by target’s primary stat.
And last but not least,
Elemental - Fury of the Ancestors - Summons ancestors of everyone in your party for X seconds, allowing them to heal, protect, or deal damage based on their roles. Fixed by Mastery.
Baseline, shaman fantasy has everything it needs…
Role FANTASY, on the other hand, needs extremely distinguishable stuff like this to perpetuate their role in WoW as a whole.
I must be one of those that thinks only minor tweaks need to be made. Elemental doesnt need that much help, but it is more difficult to master. I usually am challenging top 1-2 dps in keys no issue. been loving ele this season.
Go look up “Predicting the Dragonflight Meta” on YT by YumyTV… Ele is consistently the most played ranged spec in the game for the last 2 expansions, even in PvE. So relax. It’s good. No one is sweeping ele under the rug besides you. I love taking ele shamans in my keys, dislike when I end up with a bad one that doesnt understand how much utility ele has.
Edit: Im just fairly convinced that anyone complaining about ele right now is just a bad ele player because I have 2 friends that constantly battle for top dps when we raid and theyre both ele shamans. It’s a fun competition for them.
I main ele shaman in raid and gotta say they are more than viable currently … would it be nice if they buffed us so we werent at the bottom of the 95th percentile rankings? Sure it would but its not necessary.
“Viable”? for non-RWF content? Sure. Does it do anything particularly well? No. Does it provide any unique raid utility? No. Is there any reason to bring an Ele to a raid? No
If your 2 friends are battling for the top in raid i guess we can ignore the thousands of aggregated logs in warcraftlogs that show that ele shamans are battling for the bottom.
Did you not do the one thing my comment said to do? Look at facts. Not at “your own viewpoint”.
Ele brings a lust to raid, a ranged dps instead of melee, offhealing that is OP, a free battle res on themselves and wipe protection. And many other things that you, apparently a bad ele player, don’t seem to use. Haha.
There are so many other dps specs that dont bring “raid utility” and youre complaining about one that actually is useful in raid and, again, is the most played ranged spec in the last 2 expansions.
Bad ele players are bad, and that’s why youre not being brought into keys. Meanwhile I’d choose my ele friends over a rogue all day long.
Oh sorry i didnt realize that 2 months after the RWF was over that was still the bench mark. Always going to be a meta with the best specs sucks that ele isnt top but they had some pretty good ups in shadowlands and BFA so them being low one tier is whatever it happens. Honestly the fact that one of the lowest end dps IS still viable just shows the games pretty decebtly balanced.
Please stop using logs to justify anything. Every spec goes through seasons of being bottom and top. SOMEONE has to be on the bottom. But being bottom in logs doesnt make it a bad spec by any means. People that live by logs arent good WoW players.
