11 replies to this topic

[Gundorix19]

Hello, Gundorix here. Before I go into anything trying to prove a point about why I believe that elemental shaman changes are required, let me tell you about myself.

I have been playing World of Warcraft for around 6 years. I have seen the ups and downs of the game and have played through them all. I am currently 19 years old, so six years ago, I was still a noob, (good times) but as I have aged with the game, I have realized all the more intricate things about it. I have played a shaman since day one of my World of Warcraft "career." Through these past six years, I have always, and I mean always, played an elemental shaman. I am not sure why, but the class and play style are extremely fun and have captivated me.

In Season 10, I achieved my first Gladiator title as an Elemental shaman, reaching 2600 rating. In season 11, I achieve 2400-2500 Multiple times early on in the season, but ended up quitting to play League of Legends because of the lack of content in Cataclysm(thank god it's over.) I realize I am not the best player out there, but I do know game mechanics quite well and that there are changes to be made.

All in all, I don't think that Blizzard is doing a bad job with changes they have made so far. This is the most that we have seen Blizzard do anything in regards to PvP in quite a while.

I do believe that Blizzard works around things that are brought up the most,; however, just because they don't see something doesn't make it alright, in this regard, elemental shamans.

Elemental Shaman Changes are required.
No, I don't want to see season 8 again, that honestly was not fun at all. Sure, hitting someone with lava burst for half of their health was great, but that was so boring after a while.

What I am talking about is survivability.

Novoz, a rank 1 Elemental shaman whom I have been following on changes, said in a post in the forums earlier this expansion about quite a few changes that elemental shamans need or should be looked at. I am going to agree with him on some of them.

In Cataclysm, elemental shamans had a passive called Elemental Warding. It reduced all spell damage by 12%. As well as having a 15% increased healing recieved passive from a talent, Elemental Shamans were on-par. Having Mail armor, this made elemental shamans rather "tanky" and were able to survive quite well; however, in Mists of Pandaria, these passives were taken out of the game.

Elemental Shaman has always had passive damage reduction talents and abilities, but all of these have been taken out of the game. Compared to other casters, Shadow Priests, Balance Druids, Mages, etc. Most classes have either passive damage reduction (shadowform, moonkin form) or on-use cooldowns to prevent damage (disperse, ice-block).

In Mists of Pandaria, Elemental Shamans were given a choice, Nature's Guardian, Stone Bulwark Totem, and Astral Shift as defensive cooldowns in the first tier of their TALENTS. These are the only defense's that elemental shamans have. Two are on-use (astral shift, stone bulwark) and nature's guardian is a passive.

While these are nice, they are talents. We have to CHOSE to either take a passive battle masters trinket or a weak shield wall. Most other classes have abilities already that make them rather tanky.

I can hit another elemental shaman with a lava burst for around 35k. I can hit a shadow priest with the same conditions and only hit for 29k. Even though this may seem like a small amount of damage reduced that reduced damage is definitely going to add up over time.

All I am saying is that Elemental Shamans either need one cooldown to be an on-use "oh crap" cooldown like warriors, mages, priests, all have OR a passive damage reduction.

For example, a passive that could be used, and this is one of Novoz's ideas;
Elemental Warding: Lightning Shield reduces damage taken by 2%, this reduction is increased with stacks.

This would make sense because you could have lightning shield at 7 stacks and then be taking tons of damage and you would have to think to yourself "should I use my fulmination right now, because if I do, I can do damage; however, I will lose my damage reduction." This would only be for elemental shamans because they are the only spec that stacks lightning shield.
Or
Totemic Barrier: You instantly summon a totem of every element, replacing your totems that were summoned previously. The totems put a barrier on the player that makes he or she invulnerable to damage for (possibly 8 seconds). The barrier lasts until the player uses totemic recall or all totems are destroyed. The player may not take any action during this time.

This would make sense because Elemental Shamans would then have an ability similar to an Ice block and it could be canceled by every class due to just "totem stomping." It would also destroy any totem that is currently summoned, making it a decision to destroy your, lets say, healing tide totem you put down previously

[gbubbah]

just drop that healing tide totem its fucking op

- all oder ele is finboy

[Draakex]

nice text-formatting

[gbubbah]

Gundorix19, on 27 November 2012 - 05:02 AM, said:

In Cataclysm, elemental shamans had a passive called Elemental Warding. It reduced all spell damage by 12%. As well as having a 15% increased healing recieved passive from a talent, Elemental Shamans were on-par. Having Mail armor, this made elemental shamans rather "tanky" and were able to survive quite well; however, in Mists of Pandaria, these passives were taken out of the game.

both of those talents weren't passives are you a member of maroon 5??

[Polizei]

Did. Not. Read.

Horrible style text.

[alleaya]

same as above hurts my eyes to try and read!

[Blackonblack]

gbubbah, on 27 November 2012 - 06:46 AM, said:

just drop that healing tide totem its fucking op

- all oder ele is finboy

'You can't do that while silenced' - Huehue!

These buff seem to be alright though, sadly it's not going to happend.

[Zeiyo]

i honestly believe ele is amazing right now if you know to play it to its full potential, the problem is warriors,mages,demo. but with the 5.1 totem change that nerfs our suvivabilty to a point of ele being completly unplayable, although we deserve a big survival CD like every other class has i can deal with not having one for now, but in 5.1 with the totem/NS nerf it just fucks us completly

[ROKMODE]

Just add a wotlk-like astral shift talent back. It probably shouldn't be 30% (I haven't played mop still >.<), but it seems like an easy fix that would advocate adding fewer cooldowns  to the game.

[Kruschpak]

ROKMODE, on 28 November 2012 - 01:14 AM, said:

Just add a wotlk-like astral shift talent back. It probably shouldn't be 30% (I haven't played mop still >.<), but it seems like an easy fix that would advocate adding fewer cooldowns  to the game.

the current astral shift is really bad because 6 sec duration and 2 min cooldown, I mean every offensive ability lasts 10-20 seconds, rather make it 12 sec duration/2 min duration or 6 sec duration/1 min cooldown

the astral shift of wotlk is pretty lame, it would be good because the game is plagues with cc all over but still lame

Gundorix19, on 27 November 2012 - 05:02 AM, said:

Elemental Warding: Lightning Shield reduces damage taken by 2%, this reduction is increased with stacks.

This would make sense because you could have lightning shield at 7 stacks and then be taking tons of damage and you would have to think to yourself "should I use my fulmination right now, because if I do, I can do damage; however, I will lose my damage reduction." This would only be for elemental shamans because they are the only spec that stacks lightning shield.

thats probably how all offensive cooldowns should work, i.e. nerf mage/warrior surviveability and add some damage reduce on tfb/fof stacks, ofc that would require a lot of work to balance but perhaps an idea for the next expansion "Mists of brain usage"

Edited by Kruschpak, 28 November 2012 - 02:51 AM.

[ROKMODE]

Lame isn't necessarily bad
not everything in the game has to be over-thought and shoot laser beams everywheree

[Kruschpak]

but if you change the current astral shift to wotlk style it would make resto shamans op (again) because if you cant kill them in stun/silience anymore they wont die ever

ofc I would welcome that change as enhancement/ele but too good for resto