I’m looking at the builds on Wowhead and Icy Veins, and they’re all insistent on my taking Earth Shield (which is fine, but goes away very quickly) and Mana Spring. Also Totemic Projection. Am I missing something? I feel like, as utilities go, Purge, Capacitor Totem, and maybe Cleanse Spirit are more useful utilities to have - especially for some boss fights.
Specifically for Enhance, nobody seems to like Crash Lightning, but that could be just because there’s no room for it.
Anyway, enlightenment on the first part would be great. Commiseration on the second would be welcomed.
Crash is great for AOEing mobs down
It looks like you’re looking at the Single Target builds, which are optimized for raid environments where dispels and stuns are frequently irrelevant, and Crash Lightning is sacrificed for Elemental Blast on most encounters without significant add phases.
Earth Shield is a small bit of personal defense that the spec is otherwise largely hurting for, Projection is used for moving Wind Rush Totem, and Mana Spring is likely a case of there being nothing better to spend the point on in absence of particular encounter mechanics giving other utility options an actual function.
That said, situations where moving Wind Rush is significant are niche, and Mana Spring is always weak. These are the first two places to look for dropping points if you need to pick up a different particular utility for an encounter, like Purge or Capacitor Totem for Razageth.
All of that is upended if you’re focusing on dungeons, where AoE and crowd control are much more important.
I can’t live without crash lightning. I’ve been playing shaman since legion when it was introduced and it’s burned into my brain.
2 Likes
It’s tough. I’m sorta trying to get used to it, but I’m not sure how much I want to. The issue is what to drop to get it.
If you look at my build it gives crash and sundering. my build is an aoe physical build.
The thing with utilities is not every utility is needed every fight. Purge, stun, etc dont have a positive effect every fight because there isnt always something to stun or dispel.
Mana Spring gives an effect every fight. Hence its “baseline”. Our class tree is designed to allow you to tinker with it as the fight allows. Its really great (imo). High chance you can have a build set up specifically for the fight/dungeon with limiting how many abilities you take that dont give a benefit.
Crash Lightning, while great for AE, in most raid atmospheres is not needed and the point is better spent somewhere else.