Thoughts on Elemental

Classes Shaman
1

I love the theme of Elemental and some of its concepts, but there are a few issues that keep me from fully enjoying the spec.

The clunkiness of needing Flame Shock on a target for Lava Burst to be impactful. I have always disliked this mechanic. Flame Shock as a DoT already feels weak. The reduced duration of it and reduced proc chance of Lava Surge makes it feel even worse. I’d rather either see the cooldown of Flame Shock entirely, or make Lava Burst spread Flame Shock to 1 nearby target that doesn’t already have it.

Too many buttons. I know not everyone will understand this complaint. But Shaman seems to have way more buttons than any other class. This tends to have the effect of making said buttons less impactful (or the class would be too strong of course). With the recent un-pruning, this has become even worse. Shaman also gets massive benefits from talented abilities whereas many other classes best choices are passive abilities, increasing Shaman’s bloat further. This puts us in a position of requiring way higher reaction times than any other class - which in itself is fine - but the reward for doing so is very low, especially when you compare Elemental to classes with less buttons but much more impact.

Too much RNG. Lava Surge RNG chances combined with our RNG Mastery procs make the spec awkward to play at times. You never know when you’re going to get an Overload proc and get the extra Maelstrom to push you over the Earth Shock or Earthquake cost. Sometimes Lava Surge procs have nice timing, other times not so much.

Speaking of Mastery, it seems to have too little impact compared to the other secondary stats. Also when you look at some other classes Mastery, it tends to do multiple things and is nearly always flat % increases, whereas Elemental’s Mastery is based on RNG chances. Parses are showing Mastery’s weight far below the rest of the stats.

Our Maelstrom spenders cost too much. This is mostly directed at Earth Shock, but I think Earthquake could use a slightly lower cost as well. Earth Shock however does not feel good to press. Its cost is high and its damage is low.

Other than all of this, my only other thought is that Elemental could be the only spec that can use Astral Shift while stunned.

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Elemental is actually more skill capped than most specs at the moment in pvp but performing well in the right hands. It is extremely effective as a burst caster, a hybrid healer, a disrupter, and best yet a melee kiter. With the right spacing you will hit glad with the right partners this season. The only griefs I have on it is totems on gcd and earthshock not doing too much damage but it feels good to have lavaburst do damage now.

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3

I am…frustrated I guess in PvE. Had my shaman since vanilla, played enhance back then and ruled :smiley: Then BC I went ele and resto when needed. Skipped WoD. Legion I played and leveling I had to really watch what I was doing and pulling. Played my lock and was like this is 17,000 times easier! This expansion I got super excited for the changes, and seeing the damage we were doing. Renown 6, and I am 155 iLvl (I know, should be higher but I dont have the dedicated time for M+ right now). Torghast L1 was easy enough, had to watch what I was doing. L2 it got HARD but I finished 1 wing this week, the other I died out. So L3 would be impossible, and maybe that is just gear…or maybe it is me :smiley: haha. I will say messing around leveling my S Priest and a Blood DK…the DK is fresh 50 gear, think he’s 75 iLvl and I can already tell leveling and killing is much, much easier. It 100% reminds me of the feeling I had in Legion when I finally played another class though.

Agree on Flame Shock, but it has always been up there on priority. I wish there was some small window to auto refresh, like if you hit the target with Lava Burst with less than 2 seconds left on Flame Shock. I dunno, random thought.

Randomness is…random, again it always kinda has. I wish it was a little more stable, with those huge multi procs coming less often? Best memories on the Shaman was when you had multiple procs all at once, and it was just this stream of lightning bolts…just sit back and hear everyone on Vent start gasping. Of course, then you pulled aggro and died but…it was a great feeling :smiley: haha

I went Kyrian too, and regret it but…not going back at this point for sure. I kept looking up the data on the 2nd or 3rd day after release debating. Kyrian was the top choice for Vesper totem. Again, whatever. Choices, choices.

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4

Yeah I mainly and greatly agree with your Flame Shock point. Every expansion, Blizzard feels the need to futz with it and make it worse. It’s such a clunky ability with its 6sec cd and requirement for us to do any damage on anything past 1+ mob.

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I agree with most of OP complaints. There are so many buttons to press in pvp that sometimes it gets overwhelming. I find my shadow priest much easier to play. It’s a shame cause the shaman toolset is incredible. In pvp I would only play restoration I think.

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i do BGs and dungeons. ele shaman feels great. many people like it, you should stop by the shaman discord if you need any help with rotations, builds and stays. otherwise maybe it’s not the class for you. the rotation has a core you can follow easy just have good keybinds. we have mobility and our support is great with totems.

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You’re definitely right about buttons. I used to main elemental for a short period of time and dude, I had to press twice as more buttons as I did with my frost mage/shadow priest and still I wouldn’t to so much more damage than them (less than priest even).

But RNG? Well, I believe no one can complain about RNG without trying to main a frost mage first. Try to cast 5 frostbolts in a row and don’t get a single proc and then you can see what bad RNG is.

8

I like having a lot of buttons. Not every class has to be simple.

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9

Shaman is one of the least played classes, and Elemental is one of the least played specs in the game. Shaman used to be a lot more popular. Often times I am the only one in a battleground. Which is why the Elemental Shaman Discord channel is quite often the same small group of people with the occasional random popping in to ask a question.

Just because I have complaints doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the spec.

A couple weeks after the Pre-patch launched and I resubbed, due to the rapid pace of leveling now I was able to level over 15 different specs. You wouldn’t believe how few buttons some of the specs have and how much easier and faster some specs can put out damage, without clunky ability requirements like Flame Shock.

One would assume that the button bloat would mean Shaman brings more utility to the group. And Shaman certainly brings utility, no doubt, and you mention Elemental having mobility and support, but so does everyone else. We might even bring the most utility in the game, but utility has value just like damage and healing, and our total value of damage, healing, and utility doesn’t have as high of value as other classes. For example, Rogues do some of the most damage in the game while also having the most CC in the game. Paladins do a lot of damage but have more and better tools to save someone’s life. Mage and Hunter get Bloodlust/Heroism and Mage has a much better Polymorph. Every class has self heals, and many of them are a single instant cast GCD whereas Elemental has to spam a heal with a cast time multiple times on ourselves. These are just a tiny sample of what other classes can do.

But the thing is, Elemental is never anywhere close to the top of anything, whereas those other classes and specs are. We are never a favored choice for PVE or PVP. Sure, you and I and every one else here can do fine or great in content, but it’s never going to be near the top and no one has a reason to choose us over another class. I’d have to question you on why you think that is.

It’s not about the amount of buttons, it’s about the impact of those buttons. There are plenty of other specs that aren’t “simple” but their impact in combat is much higher than ours, and moreso for classes with even less buttons. It doesn’t make any sense.

I prefer having a reasonable amount of buttons too, but I also want those buttons to matter when I press them.

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10

My main complaint is FS and it either needs to be removed from the GCD or have the CD removed and/or shorten with more procs.

Earthshock and earthquake needs to cost 50 mael vs 60 for the dmg they do.

As for the button presses, I love it. I am was leveling a balance druid and got bored of like the 4 buttons I was pressing.

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i don’t understand what is your point here. it seems you like the spec but you complain every other class/spec being stronger than you. from my point of you, i can win the game( dungeons, raids and BGs) with the power my spec has( damage and utility). obviously you want more overpower spec/ class and you are missing that. do you want a one button “iwin” the game? play the other classes you mentioned. what do you want from ele shaman ? less buttons, more damage and stronger utility. this is called OP

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12

It could be you that needs to experience other classes.

If these other classes have

and are OP, then sure, that’s what I’d like to be. But I believe it’s more that I want to be “normal” than OP though.

It’s pretty obvious that I just want what is otherwise a very dead class to receive some recognition. Some quality of life and maybe combining some abilities into one isn’t going to turn us into a 2-3 button class or anywhere close. Again, I think you just have no experience with other classes. There’s no way you are oblivious to the lack of Shaman in open world, PVP, or PVE. And I asked why you think that is.

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you mention that is a dead spec and that there is a problem with PvP and PvE. firstly do you really care how many people are specing ele shaman? do you enjoy your class? that’s what matters. I do. also do you have a problem getting picked? find a good guild with nice people to play with. yesterday i was doing mythic with guildies and actually i was top DPS and had a blast. the other day we were doing random BGs and again i think I did great. you also mention my lack of experience with the majority of classes. i agree, when i enjoy one class i stick with it. i have two mains my ret paladin for melee and ele shaman for range and i stick with the classes i like. you obviously enjoy multiple classes so you do you my friend.

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14

Get a death knight in there and then feel small when all they do is push 1 button and boom they are at the top.

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15

actually we had a death night. so many things matter, does the other guy know how to play their toon, do they know the mechanics? are they as high ilvl? people look at dps from sims or top players and make the assumption that that class is the best. reality is so different. not every person is perfect or high geared or even know every detail of the dungeon.

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The deathknight in my guild is maybe 4 ilvls above me and lacks his legendary. His dmg is due to one skill and dps meters just show his top 3 skills as melee. I understand the skill is on a long CD but still dam does it hit hard.

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17

Personally I don’t think Elemental is that bad. I haven’t played Retail since WotLK. I found it pretty easy to pick back up on. I do agree, there are quite a few talents/abilities you need to get use to, but once you get these down, the class is fairly easy to play.

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Which of our buttons do you think are unimpactful? I can only think of primal strike, flametongue, and far sight but I just don’t bind those.

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Who cares how many shamans there are in the world . How does that affect me .

My end game is heroic raiding and the rest of the time I do random BG’s . Ele is good enough for both and has always been . That’s enough for me to play a spec I enjoy .

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20

You’re playing your best WoW, my friend. Imagine playing a spec in the difficulty you desire, and enjoying it.

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