Storm Elemental reduces the cast time of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning by 3% up to 30% each time you cast one of those spells. How is that weak? Especially when you add in lightning rod cleave to cast more CL and get more LR damage.
In theory it is useful, but on practise has many issues:
- Base cast time of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning is 1.75 seconds (with Unrelenting Calamity that is pretty much mandatory). Since GCD is 1.5 seconds and is not reduced by these stacks, they provide full value only up to 15%, then they drop cast time of affected spells below GCD and provide no throughput value.
- It is badly compatible with Storm’s Frenzy (which by itself reduces cast time of affected spells to 1.05 seconds and below GCD).
- It provides no value for spells affected by Stormkeeper and Nature’s Swiftness and does not affect Tempest.
As a result, if stacks would just increase damage of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Tempest they would avoid most of these issues and could even push lightning builds to much more competitive level.
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dont forget openers or burst phases , that are usually with Bloodlust + Cd’s , the elemental feel useless under BL , if Ascendance worked for lightning 
Whelp don’t worry yall, Farseer Lightning Build is blasting now 
Storm Ele received quite a few buffs that are coming in next weeks patch.
Really? How so?
Basically, with CDR on Ancestral Swiftness and Pwave via Flash of Lightning, you line the two up and do Pwave > AS > Lava Burst to get 2 Grandpas out and try and get as many cast out as you can to get your Grandpas to slam Lava Burst into your target. Stormkeeper lines on every other set, basically, if you play it right. Storm Ele helps with this, too, since the faster cast on Lightning Bolt at 10 stacks helps get your Grandpas to blast out spells. It’s beating out Fire Farseer and Lighting Stormbringer on a single target, even with Final Calling being bugged and not working 90% of the time. Lightning Stormbringer is still better for M+/Prolonged AoE, but Lightning Farseer seems like the move for Raid. Thought it’s more like an Elementalist Build since Lava Burst and Earth Shock are still hella important.
Here’s a screenshot of a 5-minute test with full enchants and 612 Ilvl gear with Pot and Bloodlust. Trinkets were the Candle and Remenant of Darkness. Keep in mind that Final Calling isn’t working now so it’s missing the Elemental Blasts and buffs you’d normally get so it would be higher in practice.
https://imgur.com/wmncv4Q
Talents: CYQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMbzyyMjxwMbMGjxMzAAAAAgFzsADYAzCTIzCAw20MgtFmZaYmZmlhlZGDmlhZbmZmZmZYGG
Ridmark put out a new vid talking about the changes and builds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ibvnOsMuBg
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Interesting. I still think I plan on using stormbringer which seems right on par in strength based on what the guy in video was saying.
I’ve been playing a heavy lightning build in live since prepatch and my dmg has been consistently in top 5 (minus the skewed Ele playing fire with tier sets).
Thanks for sharing
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yeah it looks like lightning is going to be ok , it stills gonna have some issues tho.
But well better than nothing
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I’m get really excited at all the lightning effects in the battle field between me and my pets it’s a lot. Feels good! 
Whether or not the lightning build does good damage doesn’t fix the underlying issue of the gameplay somehow managing to be even more braindead than DF Season 3/4 fire builds.
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in beta server Lightning is alive, spam LB ES e FS ignore lavaburst, DPS is good but rotation is for joke,no fun no interaction…but i prefer to play this then fire or weaver.
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After playing prepatch. My original assumptions were spot on. Ele Lightning focus feels awful to play. Regardless if ignoring Lava Burst or only using the insta proc it still feels awful. Balancing the spec for damage so I can just spam cast lightning bolt won’t make it play better.
I think I moved to the depression phase of the five stages of grief. Yay only one more to go acceptance, but it’s definitely a hard pill to swallow. It is what it is.
thats because fire talents are “engaging” , while lightning one have been ignored for years…they only added annoying passives , like Rod and the removed electrified shocks
there is no "cool " moment for lightning rotation , for fire there are 2 times where u feel powerfull , PW aoe lava burst , and ascendance+fire elemental
Some around here mentioned a way to “build up” a powered lightning lasso , and that could work , make it a powerfull dmg cd , or interact with the lightning kit somehow.
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A fire build or a lightning build will always feel degenerate.
When a build is based around ignoring half your abilities, you are left with spamming lvb or spamming CL/LB.
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Different builds should be able to use different talents. If every build is meant to use the exact same abilities why even have talent trees at all?
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Well Farseer Lighting Build almost solves this
Ok. Then accept
I agree, to the point to where its almost weird to even call it a lightning build (to me). It becomes pretty good at weaving a multitude of different types of abilities in.
It’s basically an Elementalist Build for Ele, and honestly, it’s way healthier even though it’s back to mindlessly spamming something. The old Farseer Fire build had more thought put into it.
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No. If Blizzard is going to make multiple builds they need to make them fully fleshed out builds and not half-baked garbage.
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