Now, with the upcoming class changes in Midnight, aimed at simplifying and making class gameplay more intuitive, one of the changes I’d like to see in Enhancement is that buff Maelstrom Weapon, instead of being a buff, be transformed into a specialization resource (like the warlock’s soul shards).
The way this buff currently works feels more like a resource than a buff per se. The entire gameplay of the specialization revolves around this buff. It’s a buff whose duration is almost irrelevant, and what really matters is the number of stacks you have. To use spells, you must pay attention to how many stacks of this buff you have. Of course, spells can still be used regardless of how many stacks you have, but during gameplay, you should try to use them with as many stacks as possible, or at least 5. The gameplay of the class transforms into something else when this buff is transformed into a bar (a bar to track stacks, not duration) through the use of Weak Auras.
If you are interested in seeing what this bar looks like, search on wago site for the Weak Auras “Maelstrom Weapon [Enhancement] [DENSHI]”.
Not sure why we need to talent into our primary resource while other specs get it baseline. Doing this would also open up the tree for more gameplay-intensive talents.
How this hasn’t happened yet and the ONLY CLASSIN THE GAME who can’t track their primary resource via energy or combo points on their bar is an absolute embarrassment. This just isn’t some “buff” it’s basically your blue version of combo points.
They could make them 5 combo points with 2 tone fill to represent the 6-10 stack. They could turn everything into ele maelstrom but make it so that spells work in increments of 10 maelstrom up to 100. There is any number of solutions; but a small icon with a buff stack count where the stack number is the SMALL NUMBER is absolutely unplayable. FULL STOP.
Im surprised Enhancement moved away from Maelstrom in general when it happened. I typically tracked my maelstrom stacks in the past with Nug Combo Bar when it was a buff back in the day. Haven’t played Shaman in forever but considering maining enhancement for Midnight.
Im assuming with no combat addons, combo point addons like these are going to cease to function?
seems to be alright on live but not nearly as useful as WAs were, also I’m not exactly sure it has a functioning counterpart in the CDM on midnight alpha based on all of the gameplay I’ve seen thus far