Is this coming from a pvp perspective because Ele and Enhance are pretty strong atm in PvE with certain Hero Talent and build setups.
Unsure what you mean by timer since Tempest isn’t based on a timer, it’s based on the amount of Maelstrom you spend and once you get 3 Awakening Storm casts.
Tempest has a 30 Second timer to cast once you obtained it via Maelstrom or Awakening. After the 30 seconds it goes back to Lightning Bolt. I think the timer is plenty for PVE, if I haven’t casted in 30 seconds, then I’m not doing anything at all from either an AFK tank and we’re waiting or I’m dead. As for Lightning Rod, 8 seconds is alot for AoE cause I build fast but for Single Target it could use a 10 or 12 second to get full use of it.
Ahhh the timer to cast tempest once it procs. Gotcha. Very much in the same boat as you said. 30 seconds to cast is more than enough and if the group isn’t stalling to the point it expires I’d be more annoyed about my Maelstrom I pooled decaying.
Yup, that’s always the big lose is the Maelstrom over lack of combat. If enemies are being kited, Spiritwalker’s Grace, Flame Shock, Primordial Wave, and Stormkeeper’s will keep you moving and casting without issues to proc those instant spells of LB/CL/LvB.
This let me know you are talking only from a pvp perspective. You should preface that this is a pvp perspective or you are going to get torn apart, since Enhance is a absolute unit right now in pve.
I think Elemental is extremely strong. I’d put it behind Arcane and tied with Frost for the strongest casters in Season 1 PvE. My spriest is i580 with nearly 18% haste, enchanted. My Ele Shaman is i576, random itemization, no enchants. My Ele is simming at 790,000 damage and my Spriest is simming at 620,000. Like, what? How is my Shaman 30% ahead of my better geared, higher item level, enchanted Spriest?
And don’t even get me started on dungeon damage. My Ele is averaging around 680-710k overall per heroic. My spriest, which is MUCH more demanding to play, is averaging 580-600k. And Elemental has a 30sec AoE stun, Windrush totem, Blood Lust, an actual 12sec kick, infinitely better mobility and a group mastery buff. If it wasn’t for Mind Sooth and PI I don’t think Spriest would have a spot in literally any groups.
Balance druid, fire mage and Destro lock feel even FURTHER behind.
Bro, Elemental is cooking. It’s arguably the strongest its been in the meta for 7-8 years. It has issues, sure. Tempest IS a crappy capstone talent. Long cast, underwhelming damage, poor overloads. I also hate how degenerate our rotation is. Our single target raid Farseer build is literally just Lightning Bolt. It’s sad to see. The Lava Surge nerf hurts in PvP monstrously. We’re much more “turret-y” now and that’s just not particularly viable with the current melee meta. I also find our Maelstrom generation to be extremely low with the haste we currently have on gear. There are some problems.
But have some perspective. With the exception of Mage, casters utterly suck in both PvE and PvP right now. Elemental is one of the best of the worst.
The problem isn’t the damage, it’s how little of it is tied to a new ability like tempest. It doesn’t proc enough and I’d gladly move around the damage a bit if it means we get to cast tempest more.
It’s not a proc (at least not substantially). It’s tied to 300 maelstrom being spent. What you’re probably trying to say is “our maelstrom generation feels too low” which I agree with:
I will say that at i620-i630 with proper stats (haste and mastery especially), the elemental rotation smooths out a lot. It feels much better to play. Granted, Tempest is still a jarring disconnect from how fast our lightning bolt cast is (due to nearly permanent storm elemental), but Maelstrom feels a lot better. You actually end up Earth Shocking every few globals.
The issue down the road, once we start hitting that i630-ish mark, is that Lightning Bolt gives us cooldown reduction now, which is paramount. And Tempest doesn’t. So not only does the cast time feel awkward, but casting Tempest for midling damage also feels like we’re losing out on that CDR.
Regrowth on feral is a joke too, they aren’t going full HP from it. Elemental is also one of the best caster spec. Not OP like feral but far from the doom you describ.
Ele do not need to be buffed, but some other class could get nerfed a bit. If every spec where at the point elemental is, the game would be healthy.
I am talking about PvP, since you bring the healing potention of feral.
Lava burst damage is definitely lacking in pvp. Now granted, I’m not fully honor geared yet, about halfway there but using frost shock for 20% more dmg, the pvp talent lava surge for an extra 30% more dmg, totem of wrath for 15% more dmg, trinket for an extra 8500 intellect, farseer for an extra 5% more damage, fire elemental for an extra 10% more dmg and flametongue weapon for an extra 7% more dmg, I can hit for about 560k dmg.
Outside of all that, it hits for approx 350k. And of course, this is against people with 6-8 million hp.