The nerfs are in! Let’s do some digging to see how hard we were hit. (RAID) (Heroic - since not enough Mythic logs have been posted with it being only day 2 after the nerf and due to the Queen; only 56 guilds have killed it, so there are very few logs available).
Logs from over the weekend show our performance after the initial nerf to Lightning Rod.
Over the weekend, we were in a good spot in the raid, ranking 7th overall in the 90th percentile for Overall Damage. This is a healthy place for a class to be, just above the middle of the pack.
In the same set of logs, for Damage to Boss only in the 90th percentile, we were also in a solid place at 13th, right in the middle of the pack! While our ceiling was high, the average 90th percentile parses landed us squarely in the middle. Before the reset on Tuesday—before the nerfs and before the ASC bug fix—we were a strong and balanced class!
Now, let’s take a look at this week’s logs (exciting!). Elemental Shamans parsing in the 90th percentile post-nerfs for Overall Damage are now sitting 2nd to last, just above Fire Mages. I do feel for Fire Mages, but they at least have two other ranged specs that perform extremely well. We don’t have another ranged spec.
Looking at Damage to Bosses only, we’re, once again, 2nd to last, virtually tied with Fire Mages in single-target damage.
I’m not saying that Elemental Shaman needs to be as strong as Rogues or Enhancement Shamans, but being worse than ret pally and being rock bottom after being near the top feels absolutely awful.
We need compensation for these single-target nerfs that were unjustly applied. I understand the ASC issue was a bug and negatively affected PvP, but in Raid, we don’t feel impactful. If the boss doesn’t die within 1:30, we end up feeling like a limp noodle. This was manageable before, as our burst was so high that we could sustain damage for a longer period—but that’s no longer the case.
The above is only about raid, I am aware of bigger issues with the class like, Survivability in High key pushing. But I just wanted to share the Data from Raid.
Also want to say gratz to Arms warriors for going from 9th on boss damage to 2nd.