The Dragonflight Master of the Elements (MOTE) currently works an Any Nature Spell. This allows for a very interesting and rewarding playstyle. My biggest issue with the new TWW talent tree is that it seems like they are mostly abandoning this class fantasy.
If the devs would like to keep the “this stacks up to two times” and the idea that MOTE is only for a Single Target heal now - then please at a minimum add an interaction that lets MOTE be consumed on Lightning Bolt Casts or Healing Surge.
This will also indirectly compensate for the removal of Stormkeeper. If this is too much power for a single talent point, then perhaps it could be another new talent node that drops straight down from MOTE. That would allow people to decide if they wanted MOTE on: Both Healing Surge + Bolt (2 talents), Just Healing Surge (1 talent), or want to ignore MOTE all together (no talents).
Even better, if that new node connected current Healing Surge MOTE → ‘Improved’ MOTE → EW/APT choice node, that would create a very welcome path to get from the right-side of the tree back over to EW/APT without having to take a forced chain heal talent.
I’ve been shouting into the wind on behalf of us “Battle Healers” - please just give us back a few crumbs of damage 
Thanks!
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I think the new design of master of the elements is interesting and looks fun.
I do however like the current version and I wish they had either just buffed it or added this additional functionality to it.
“Casting Lava burst increases the effectiveness of your next nature spell by 30% and causes it to cast flame Shock at a nearby enemy target”
I would totally be cool with that. But I also respect what they are trying to do to make the talent more approachable and specific.
- Having it only affect a single target heal means you don’t have to weigh and balance all the different use-cases
- Having it stack twice means that you don’t have to do as much “weaving”
- Having it only affect one spell means you don’t accidentally “eat” stacks.
Respect for this new vision is why I was suggesting that the damage counterpoint to MOTE be specific to Lightning Bolt. It’s single target, it’s filler, and it’s in homage to Stormkeeper (RIP). But I’d take anything the devs could cook up for adding damage back into MOTE.
Yeah, I see what they are going for with this new version but I agree that it should still effect damaging nature spells in some way. Shaman is kind of behind in intuitive and smooth ways to deal damage.
I agree so strongly with the top level post
The new MotE is an interesting spell, but it really removes some of the great flexibility shaman had around dealing damage. It felt really good to pop a MotE boosted, natures swiftness acid rain at the beginning of a pack in M+ if you knew you didn’t have to heal as much, or time your MotE + unleash life with a high tide chain heal on Hyrja in Halls of Valor so you could top up your whole team.
I have thousands of hours on Shaman, becoming a high performer in raid and M+, ranging from being in mythic progression guilds to casual guild pushing heroic. I always found it fun to be able to pick MotE, and every shaman main I’ve talked to has expressed deep sadness that the original isn’t available in some form.
The original MotE provided flexibility that allowed raid groups to feel alright if they were down a dps, because their shaman could pump out another little bit with good optimization, made it fun to run M+ keys with friends who were a bit lower level (without just spamming chain lightning), and added a level of depth to the spec that felt appropriate to the amount of focus you needed to invest into the talent. It felt strong & fun, but not mandatory, and to my understanding that is the pinnacle of what the design team is trying to achieve with talents.
Please, please, please let some version of the original MotE remain for restoration.
The previous MOTE was one of the best things I had for healing Mythic+ .
We could cast the larva burst and follow with a Chain lightning, or just use it for heal.
Now it doesn’t connect with a nature spell but only with Healing Surge, which can be used to spread Flame Shock a little bit. I can see that this change was kind necessary since we now have 3 charges of Lava burst, but the previous gameplay was way funnier.
Specially in boss situations we need to spam Lava Burst a lot, instead of interleave between Lava burst and Lightning bolt. This change is indeed disappointing.