The recent PvP changes to enhancement really put a spotlight on some of the class issues that were being covered up by ascendance being so strong. Based on what I can tell this ends up being a damage nerf depending on the comp/classes you’re facing. But it also impacts the feel of the class making it less enjoyable to play. That being said I still enjoy enhance and still really enjoy PvP (specifically arena where I always want to improve).
Issues:
Maintaining uptime - prior to this nerf we could burst on cd and then outside of our cd generally do damage and focus on surviving knowing our next kill opportunity was coming around. Now that our kill window has shifted to more sustained damage we have a much bigger importance placed on maintaining uptime which can be extremely difficult with the tools we have. There is this idea that shaman is pseudo range (which really isn’t the case) we need to be in melee to really build up that range and that only lasts for one maybe two spells before we have to be in melee again.
Stormstrike - is physical so buffing it feels less impactful because it still gets reduced by armour. The more damage it does the more amount of damage that is mitigated by armour. Whereas ascendance goes through armour. This can be addressed through tuning but I’m not always sure this is taken into account.
Midnight changes - These changes reflect the changes coming with midnight but are missing a lot of the other changes that could make it feel better. I think this was a poor time to implement these particular midnight changes. (I could be entirely wrong about these being essentially midnight changes)
Solutions:
Hallowed ground - I think shamans should have an effect like this. Specifically enhancement. It fits the theme of enhancement really well. Using the elements to buff ourselves while impairing our opponents. This mechanically helps to address our need/struggle to maintain uptime.
Stormstrike PvP talent - A new PvP talent that gives Stormstrike an innate 15 yard range could also help with this. Or maybe it just gets built in passive to ascendance when it’s not up? Something like a weaker version while ascendance is inactive that gets juiced when activated. (I particularly like this idea )
Either way as I mentioned before I’ll still be enjoying PvP and I’m looking forward to midnight changes and remix!