Earthquake as a ground-based DoT in current, future, and many previous metas has been far from a useful resource dump in terms of maelstrom investment and the only time it is relatively viable is when you are using the Great Sundering legendary. It’s nice to see that the ability is receiving an overall DPS increase (70%+ with 20% from MotE is nothing to scoff at), but that does not change the overall issue that the ability currently has.
To keep things simple, no tank is going to be standing in the earthquakes and eating damage from a plethora of mobs in M+, for example, so most of the value is lost within a couple of seconds. Most AoE fights are mobile, which require instantaneous, sticky, or respectively mobile AoE.
A few suggestions:
- Redistribute the damage to be more up-front rather than a flat DoT
- Have additional Earthquakes casted on top of each other pop the previous, removing the prior and dealing instantaneous damage.
- Synergize Earthquake with other abilities (Lava Burst Erupts the earthquake, applying a searing DoT to targets)
- Redesign the ability to deal light AoE, followed by a large burst at the end of a shorter duration, rewarding strategic placement.
8 Likes
I feel your pain my shaman friend.
I would like to see a majority of dmg happen when you first cast EQ and then tapper off. As well as seeing most of the dmg when you first place it there should be a higher chance of causing a knockdown when first placed and having that tapper down as well.
From the animation to the sound effect when I cast EQ I think of a ground explosion under someone’s feet.
EQ is fine fundamentally, the issue is that its a constant AOE tick that it does and with the current kite meta that dmg profile does not fit.
I would like the to change EQ all together. Get rid of maelstrom usage on it. Make EQ spammable and make CL hit hard with a CD. Keep maelstrom for ES/Ele blast.
What I have always wanted is for them to go all in on the lightning theme for Ele. Get rid of EQ and give us Lightning storm. It could be a targeted AoE so we dont have to worry about people moving out of it.
6 Likes
I hate the current earthquake. It just doesn’t work when you want to time 15+ keys and the tank needs to kite. You basically can’t do challenging mythic+ because all high level keys require the tank to kite.
1 Like
Ele could get the old Hurricane AoE boomkin use to have.
Summon a storm on a selected target, hits all enemies within 15 yards or something. I am a little biased for a more lightning oriented Elemental though.
1 Like
I’ve been on and off again ele since TBC. The current playstyle of ele is great until you spend time placing earthquake only for the tank and mobs to move right off it. The current design of the spell doesn’t fit in the current M+ playstyle.
I like the ideas OP suggested. Id like it to have a slow element, giving it a tad more value if mobs are moving, but that and a knockdown might make it too good. That or make the radius bigger by 2 or so yards.
Personally I like earthquake as a spell, but its not very practical in it’s current state.
2 Likes
I like the idea of it being cast on a target vs being a ground target.
#1 issue with Elemental right here.
This is the real issue. Get rid of the kite meta. Tanks should be tanking, not running away. Kiting certain mobs is fine, kiting most packs makes the game a joke.
Well its probably much easier to fix earthquake’s viability than an entire meta in a piece of content.
1 Like
Remove EQ and make CL add a dot or something… We don’t absolutely require an AoE builder & spender. You could even make it so that ES empowers CL? Anything would be better than the ramp up req with the legendary.