Elemental Shaman Tempest Rework Proposal

[Lebonsky-pyrewood-village]

Dear developers and fellow shamans,

As a passionate player of the Elemental spec, I’d like to propose some changes to make the lightning-based playstyle more viable and satisfying. Currently, the Tempest/Stormbringer build seems underperforming and lacks a distinct identity. Here’s my proposal to improve the situation:

Proposed Changes

1. Lava Burst Replacement: When selecting the Stormbringer talent, Tempest permanently replaces Lava Burst.
2. Tempest Mechanics:

• Add a cooldown and cast time to Tempest.
• Every time Lightning Rod deals damage, you have a 10% chance to make your next Tempest instant.

3. Talent Interactions:

• Retain some Lava Burst-specific talents for that spell only.
• Allow Tempest to interact with Surge of Power to reduce the cooldown of the elemental pet.
• Add interaction with the Master of Elements talent.
• Add interaction with the Power of the Maelstrom talent.

Objectives

• Create a distinct identity for the Elemental lightning build.
• Increase gameplay variety, offering options for fire-focused, lightning-focused, or weaver builds.
• Better balance the impact of various abilities (currently Tempest contributes only 4% of total damage, while Lava Burst contributes 20-30%).
• Better align Elemental with Enhancement’s gameplay options, which can already opt for a full lightning build.

Benefits

1. Greater Variety: Offers Elemental a significant choice between different playstyles.
2. Thematic Consistency: Strengthens the “lightning” identity for those who choose this build.
3. Balance: Makes Tempest and Stormbringer more impactful and rewarding choices.
4. Gameplay Depth: Adds complexity and interesting decisions to the rotation.

What do you think? I’m open to feedback and discussions on how we can further improve this proposal.

[Breakeridis-stormscale]

You are open for feedback. The devs aren’t, they just laugh with us trying, as we had a saying…
Also they dont have time to implement stuff. The expansion is rushy as hell. Didnt you notice most of the Hero talents are % chance to do some dmg in most of the classes/specs. No gamebreaking stuff, no new visuals on them, just 3-4 dmg sources ALL AUTOMATICALLY by rng procs…

[Ezyä-tarren-mill]

One easy way to not fix tempest but bandaid it is to make tempest cast WITH lightning bolt / chain lightning and not INSTEAD so at least you keep the benefits of the buffed cl/lb

[Lebonsky-pyrewood-village]

Yes, it’s a band-aid for a cut that needs 50 stitches. I hope you agree with me that the entire Stormbringer Elemental is just thrown in there for the sake of it.

[Berfomet-nemesis]

HI,
In this thread I have included the various changes I would make to Elemental to optimize it → Elemental Shaman Rework

STORMBRINGER TREE REWORKED
https:// ibb. co/31SZBjb

I have reworked a lot of things about the Stormbringer tree.

UNLIMITED POWER (Reworked Talent)
If Surge of Power is active, and you cast Tempest, increases you critical strike damage by an additionnal 20% for 12 sec.

STORM CALLER (Reworked Talent)
Increases the critical strike change of your Nature Damage spells by 10% and the critical strike damage of your Nature spells by 10%.

Unlimited Power essentially provides the same effect as Primordial Fury and solves the problem of having to consume Surge of Power with Tempest as Tempest replaces Lightning.
Storm Caller only received a 5% buff on critical strike damage.

FURY OF THE STORM (New Reworked Talent)
Your Nature damage critical strikes increase your movement speed by 10% for 6 sec.

Slowing enemies can be a problem in certain situations, Fury of the Storm provides an alternative.

STORM SWELL (Reworked Talent)
When Tempest strikes one or two targets, gain 30 Maelstrom.

ARC DISCARGE (Reworked Talent)
When Tempest strikes more than two targets, have a 25% change to have another Tempest.

Storm Swell and Arc Discarge, were a tricky choice for Elemental. Now I think they’re more in tune.

ROLLING THUNDER (Reworked Talent)
Summon a powerful Lightning Elemental to fight by your side for 10 sec every 50 sec.

Tracking Stormkeeper procs is a problem, with this change to Rolling Thunder we no longer have to worry about it. And it’s a themed effect.

NATURE’S PROTECTION (Reworked Talent)
Targets struck by your Nature damage critical strikes deal 5% less damage to you for 6 sec.

Nature’s Protection and Surging Currents have been changed to be available more often.

SURGING CURRENTS (Reworked Talent)
After you score a critical hit, your next Chain Heal or Healing Surge will be instant cast and consume no mana.

VOLTAIC SURGE (Reworked Talent)
The damage dealt by your Earth Shock, Elemental Blast and Earthquake’s Elemental Overload now is at 100% effectiveess.

AWAKENING STORMS (Reworked Talent)
Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightnning have a 20% change to generate a stack of Fulmination, up to 10 stacks. Every stack grants you 0,5% haste. Your next Tempest consume all stack and gain 1% increases dammage for every stack.

Many Elemental Shaman have asked, several times, they want to see big damage from our spenders. The change to Voltaic Surge could be the right step in this direction. Awakening Storms makes our Tempest feel much more powerful and grants us some haste.
With these changes (especially Voltaic Surge + Awakening Storm) they should patch up our low ST dps.

These are my proposals.

[Sparkatus-earthen-ring (Sparkatus)]

So is lightning shammy ipretty much dead? Kinda being tired of being a firelord shammy… I wanna be zappy zappy Emperor Palpy … blizz pls… i want my unlimited powah moment!

[Lebonsky-pyrewood-village]

I really appreciate your work, though for me the primary issue remains that Tempest is not a spender or a filler but should act as a ramp-up to the spender, similar to Lava Burst. Thematically, Earth Shock is more suitable and synergistic because you use it more often, which provides more Surge of Power instances and enhances the effectiveness of Lightning Rod.

In terms of damage quality, from what I’ve observed, our spenders have some of the highest damage outputs, possibly the highest, and I suspect nerfs might be incoming for single target damage. The Fire build is perhaps one of the best in single damage, and even in AoE, it outperforms the Lightning build.

Thus, my main concerns are about identity and enjoyment. The Lightning build uses a lot of fire and relies on it to ramp up the damage of Lightning Bolt, which still does less damage than Lava Burst. Moreover, typically the fourth highest source of damage is Flame Shock, but thematically, it should be Lightning Rod, which at best contributes only 6-7% of the damage. Changing Lava Burst to Tempest when selecting Stormbringer remains crucial. I don’t see why, as an elementalist specialized in Stormbringer, Tempest should only account for about 4/5% of total damage while Lava Burst, if it doesn’t crit as a spender, is the second highest source of damage and Lightning Rod ranks very low. This highlights a real issue with the vision and clarity of the build.