PTR) Fire nova... is very cumbersome to use

Classes Shaman
1

I’ve tried to work with the talent Fire Nova in PTR, and it seems disappointing.

I’ve tried it with/without Ice Strike, compared it with Hailstorm (as DPS-wise and rotation-wise).

Few things I noticed when using Fire Nova are:

  1. With all the Flame Shock setting and maintenance, DPS or the burst damage is quite underwhelming. When comparing with Hailstorm, which is baked well into Enhancement Shaman AOE rotation, Fire Nova requires additional setting and give little output. Invest/Return of Fire Nova is very disappointing. It needs more than just number tuning IMO.
  2. This may be personal issue, but taking Fire Nova causes button bloat. It gets worse if I take Ice Strike, which enhances spread of Flame Shock for Fire Nova to properly function! It’s actually better to take Ice Strike and Hailstorm, not only DPS-wise but also rotation-wise. This can be fixed maybe with Weakaura? But it’s cumbersome to maintain Flame Shock + Fire Nova, on top of AOE rotation (Crash Lightning + Stormstrike/Lava Lash + Chain Lightning).

I think the main issue is the way to spread Flame Shock efficiently. Even with Ice Strike, it feels very inefficient to spread Flame Shock properly. This is way more difficult in dungeons where a lot of things are happening at the same time. Personally, I think “Lashing Flame” talent should have a mechanism to spread Flame Shock to maybe next two targets? when Lava Lashing a target with Flame Shock debuff. That way it’s possible to spread Flame Shock efficiently, and it’d better with Ice Strike on top of it.

This not only enhances Fire Nova, but might also improve near-useless Necrolord Covenant ability. More targets affected by Flame Shock = More targets hit by Lightning Bolt. Still useless in single-target situation tho…

2 Likes
2

I completely agree and when I was testing it, me and the other buddies of mine all we’re wishing lava lash could spread flame shock and not be forced to have it baked into a legendary, but maybe a talent

3 Likes
3

Fire nova is just a nostalgia trap at the moment. They haven’t done anything with it since adding it. At this point i would rather them just be generic and make it like primal wrath or crimson tempest and have it apply a half duration flameshock dot on X amount of mobs

4

I was so excited to see fire nova return. It used to be so satisfying spreading flame shock and having enormous fire novas.

Such a disappointing talent.

5

Five Nova in it’s old and current form doesn’t work well without being able to spread Flame Shock easy. When you consider how easy it is for other classes to perform their AoE rotation, then it’s just diabloical. Best to just go down Hailstorm unless they correct this.