I really like that stormkeeper is now an enhance shaman talent. It provides a worthy alternative to sundering that offers a very different ability with different strengths and weaknesses that fills a similar niche (heavy burst ST/AOE damage). In this respect, it fits the theme of what talent choices on rows ideally should be - alternatives that offer different play styles but fill similar niches so that players can choose the playstyle they like.
HOWEVER. It REALLY needs to interact differently with MSW than it does now. Right now:
- It takes 10 MSW charges to get the full benefit of MSW added damage
- Stormkeeper eats 5 MSW charges to make the buff instant
- Stormkeeper lightning spells are buffed by MSW charges
- Stormkeerp buff only lasts 15 seconds
This is AWFUL.
Basically, you can’t use stormkeeper until you have 10 MSW stacks, then you cast stormkeeper and that eats 5 stacks, then you have to quickly build back up from 5 to 10 MSW stacks. Then, if you are specing earthen spike (which goes naturally with a storm build - stormstrike + stormkeeper talents) you have to try to line up earthen spike debuff to coincide with when you build back to 10 stacks, then you have to cast your two spells before the 15 second stormkeeper or 10 second earthen spike buff/debuff expires or whatever you are fighting has already died or is so low on health that it doesn’t matter if you cast stormkeeper enhanced lightning spells anymore.
This is absolutely rediculous. It’s hard enough to pull off in pve. Forget about it in pvp when you are dealing with kiting and CC (which both prevent MSW stack generation and the latter of which could cause you to lose the stormkeeper buff w/o even using it).
I think it’s ok if it takes 5 stacks of MSW to make stormkeeper instant, but the two lightning bolts should NOT be dependent on MSW stacks AT ALL. Just make them automatically do 150% more damage than a full stack MSW lightning spell. That way you can use them pre-pull if you want like ele or you can pop them off in melee by spending 5 MSW stacks on stormkeeper itself w/o having to race the buff duration/juggle other CDs/race the target’s health back to 10 stacks to try to actually cast the spells.
I don’t understand, given how fundamental MSW is to the enhance design, why MSW continues to linger on beta in its current form. Fix 5 stacks and 10 stacks to do the same thing (only benefit from 5 stacks), make baseline spells do 100% instead of 50%, and make each stack up to 5 do +10%. And decouple stormkeeper damage from MSW.
Please. Pretty pretty please. With a cherry on top.