Storm Unleashed, the rotation lasagna

Classes Shaman
1

Alright so I did a good amount of M+ dungeons on Beta and I’ve sort of come to some conclusions with Enhancement’s apex tree, Storm Unleashed.

As I preface it in the title, it feels like extra layers of complexity that, mechanically, gives us confusing choices to make during the rotation. A messy lasagna of procs and buffs interactions, if you will. Here’s my take on the chronological apex tree.

Storm Unleased node 1 - Unreliable and situationally bad and messy because of other talents’ collateral RNG. It adds a new proc that makes everything confusing outside of Doom Winds/Ascendance since Crash Lightning does not consume Maelstrom Weapon stacks baseline. There’s a sort of dilemma that happens when Thunder Capacitor + Supercharge do proc, which is quite often, where you ask yourself:

What do they want me to do? Cast Stormstrike because I have 3+ stacks of Crash Lightning, or spend my Maelstrom Weapon stacks on spenders?

How this rotational question came to be in this age of spec simplification is beyond me. To me, it introduces the spreadsheet minmax aspect to enhancement. Since the DF rework, it seems like there’s a big emphasis on Stromstrike and Lava Lash but also an equally big one on spenders, so which is it?

In the previous Enhancement iteration, when we had the Maelstrom bar and not MSW stacks, it was clear: Generate predictable amounts of Maelstrom, then spend. Now with all the modifiers, overlapping talents, procs and RNG baked into the rotation, the Storm Unleased extra layer feels very unnecessary. It’s bloat.

Storm Unleashed node 2 - Trolling talent point, seriously. Those modifiers should be baseline on Enhancement’s abilities. This node feels like an optional hotfix. Imagine not picking it… this node is mandatory for the whole spec, both hero talents included, period. Also has no direct interaction with Storm Unleased, just flat % passive. Again here, a messy lasagna layer of point distribution even tho the node is extremely simple.

Storm Unleashed node 3 - Another trolling talent point. The static ground effect is not desirable is most situations. Packs of mobs move, bosses move, this is modern WoW, nothing is static anymore. Back in BFA, maybe SL too if my memory is good, there was a talent, in the old system, that made Crash Lightning do just that and it had a 0% pick rate for the whole expansion(s). Why is this not taken into account? Is this not valuable data for the design team? And finally the +15% attack speed should just be added to the Flurry talent baseline as it does not have direct interaction with Storm Unleashed anyway.

So here’s my conclusion.

The Apex tree is bloat and not what Enhancement needs. I would seriously consider scrapping it and go back to the drawing board. Keep the new Crash Lightning as it is, because the redesign was most needed, but leave it alone.

Make the Apex tree about wolves maybe? I don’t know, just my take.

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The 2nd node is intended to just be slightly more damage - this was mentioned in one of the dev interviews as a generic rule of thumb for all classes.

I do agree that there is a degree of awkwardness to the Apex talent/s. I’m not really a fan of needing to high roll Crash Lightning resets to output competitive damage when other classes get 20+ target scaling by pressing one ability - this does kinda balance out.. sorta.. but it seems very unnecessary and a bit unfair. Also, the rule should be that spenders are the “big payoff” but with how the Apex talent/s are designed, the current build is contradicting.

It’s a bit late for changes to realistically occur in preparation for Midnight but it’s possible that we’ll see changes in a .5 patch or something. I’m not holding my breath for it.. I think this is our fate for the entirety of Midnight.

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The issue I have with the node is that it is an aura modifier hotfix for the spec as a whole. It does not have a direct correlation to Storm Unleashed and it’s too good to pass up in any situation. It also indicates me that enhancement relies on this talent to be somewhat competitive.

I’m not mad at it, if it stays like that then so be it, I just don’t appreciate the scope the node has. It’s too large and potentially hard to balance if something in the core kit is under or over tuned.

4

Yeah, I’ve tested the spec while omitting the Apex talents and it simply feels worse when doing so. There is no overlap on Crash Lightning buff uptime so even if it was tuned to be significantly worse, it would still 100% be mandatory on CD in any cleave scenario instead of something like Stormstrike to generate a few more MSW. I think if it did afford some small overlap, we might have more choice in build options.. maybe if they brought back CDR via casting Chain Lightning or something..

5

I’m just here because I thought I saw the word laser tag In the title

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This is the frankenstein build that gives me the best results for M+. Still need more testing. Node 3 doesn’t seem worth it, so is Ascendance. Frees up the Primordial Storm path and gives a reliable 1 min cd with DW.

Feels bad to skip the apex milestone tbh

7

I think I’ll try this build out too.

8

I have a different opinion about it. I think differently than alot of other people do. Good or bad doesn’t really matter though in this context. Blizzard has almost jumped ship on designing things that are pivotal to the Shaman Class in general. By pivotal, I mean Totems. Totems are almost not even used by ANY SHAMAN spec anymore save a couple instances like some that are used in Totemic.

Stormbringer could have hit the ball out of the park, figuratively speaking. In my opinion, Flame Shock should proc a Searing Totem-like totem. Crash Lightning could proc a Lightning Bolt-like totem. You see where I’m going with this. Totems have almost been forgotten about. They used to use totems to fill gaps and fix parts of the spec. This new utility only totem use has all but almost killed the spec.

Totemic is OK in some regards but still misses the spot on totems as well. Utility is a good thing but not at the cost of Spec identity and Class Fantasy. I still think even after the rework totems are still not gonna be part of the Shaman gameplay fantasy. Sad, really sad.

Maybe i should put it this way. MAKE TOTEMS GREAT AGAIN.

9

This is definitively the build to go. Converging Storms can also be swapped with Lashing Flames for extra AoE but also works well on ST. M+ pretty much requires Sundering/Primordial Storm, even as Stormbringer.

Storm Unleashed node 3 is obsolete imo. The new batch of dungeons are highly mobile which basically makes it a node that gives 15% attack speed, no bueno.

Ascendance/DRE are also obsolete imo, I don’t see why I would trade Primordial Storm for a lackluster gamble. The 1 min Doom Winds is way too reliable in M+, I like the short game play loop every 30 sec, it works well in a fast paced environment.

10

Yeah, I’ve been running this build quite a bit on the Beta and I definitely think you’re correct. This definitely feels like a great all-around build and Ascendance kinda feels like a worse option outside of some niche scenarios. Maybe they need to increase Doom Winds value to make Ascendance/DRE more attractive. I’m totally fine with Ascendance being more of an ‘enabler’ ability so long as the value seems appropriate.