While a fast-paced and quite a strong spec, it is- like every other spec in this game- just not engaging anymore.
To elaborate: Enchancement is about the empowerment of oneself with the elements, wield the elements in close quarters. In terms of class fantasy, shaman has one of the BEST. The problem however is with how simplified the whole class is, more specificall Ele and Enchancement. My rotation consists of Stormstrike → Glowy button 1 → Glowy button 2 → Glowy button-…
See the problem? It’s just not engaging to play a class without so much as a single thought forming in my brain and STILL managing to top the DPS chart in my dungeon runs. Give me a challenge, give me something to DO. This same problem exists on almost every class with the exception of the ones that rely entirely on typical resource management. I don’t mind a string of combined attacks that light up but I do mind it if it’s literally the entire fight of non-stop flashing buttons. At what point can you say you’re a “Good” Ench player anymore?
It’s that same reason that I don’t play Dev Evoker, DK by its whole, DH by its whole. Blizzard is just not taking any risks with upping the difficulty of classes.
The only reason I still play Ench Shaman is because it just looks badass but even then it’s once in a blue moon.
I’m not saying the spec is bad from an objective standpoint but it is bad from the standpoint of someone who has more than 2 combined braincells in gaming.
Ah but they can and should go together. FFXIV is the perfect example of classes/jobs that are the peak of class fantasy while also retaining a better gameplay loop than majority of the specs in WoW. Even GW2 pulls it off way better and they have to balance each profession along every weapon. That’s not to say ofcourse that either game doesn’t posses at least 1 or 2 brainless jobs/profs but it’s certainly not the majority like WoW. And yes I know, comparing WoW classes to the jobs/professions of FFXIV and GW2 isn’t particularily fair since they are still fundamentally different in how combat works.
If you just have class fantasy with none of the gameplay, then you just get a majority of WoW’s classes/specs. Granted they look cool but you tire of it really quickly because you’re not really…doing anything. Just pressing shiny buttons- which is only going to become even more the case with the upcoming rotation assist feature.
Enchancement’s case is like… you don’t build up to anything even though you’re constantly building maelstrom stacks and whatnot. You’ve got all your abilities available to you on demand and there’s no real rhythm. There’s only a few specs in WoW that manage to have a rhythm. Arcane Mage being one of them right off the top of my head, then I struggle to name any other one but I’m sure there’s at least like 2 more. Arcane actually makes you mind your rotation a bit and you when you reach the height of your burst, it genuinely feels rewarding. A stark contrast to the simple principle that is Enchancement Unga Bunga.
If I am rewarded for the bare minimum effort, then the joy experienced from the reward is severely diminished with each repeat. THAT is the very problem that needs to change with some of the specs in this game.
I’d totally talk to the people who complain about difficulty on retail but I’m afraid any point I make will simply enter one ear and exit the next while they’re still trying to fire up those dusty neurons of theirs like dial-up internet.
Good lord at this point it just became a long-winded rant, read it if you like I guess, didn’t know I was this resentful to Blizzard’s hand-holding.
Its not just unfair. Its logically wrong. They might be in the same genre. But they are completely different games.
But that is not what OP is saying.
He is saying that the rotation does not match the “fantasy”. And my response was: Well it dosent have to. Gameplay has to feel good. Not fit some “fantasy”.
So OP has to describe first what he dosent like about the rotation, and what he would improve to make it feel better. Leaving “fantasy” out of the equation.
And why is “unga bunga” wrong? You also need “unga bunga” specs, because YOU might not like them. But others would.
???
So Arms warrior should shoot a bow and cast ranged abilities 90% of the game?
Ofc each spec has to hit its fantasy otherwise it doesn’t match not even the description of the spec , by that logic We break all reason to play any game.
The thing with Totemic enha (Aka elementalist) is that 70% of your abilities are ranged and they do more then half your dmg … besides lava lash and sometimes stormstrike to feel the gap between lava lashes , your tremor(hero talent one forgot the name) does most of it / Lightning bolts / chains / primordial wave , and that’s besicly it , ATM elementalist rotation is the best its ever been imao BUT it does feel like you are 80% caster most of the time that’s how i understand the guy who spoke here .
While i switched to ele not long ago to push blitz as enhance is well … trash in pvp atm you feel that you are playing ele caster shaman spec while enhance you feel the same 80% of the time that you play a caster.
What you are saying is that you have to be at melee range to gather Maelstrom weapon charges and your 2 biggest spenders/builders are also melee range. And then once in a while you cast stuff in a distance.
OK. Try the following. If what I described above is 100% of your damage, where 50% are melee things, and 50% ranged things… try the following experiment:
Use only melee ranged skills. And see if you do 50% of the damage.
Use only ranged skills. And see if you do 50% of the damage.
I encourage you to do it so you can see the results yourself. I did it to be sure. The spec cannot function at all with out being at melee range. Sure… some flameshock here and there you can cast. But you do no damage at all.
However, if you use just melee ranged skills you do damage. Not optimal, but damage. If you do both at the same time (casting things while being at melee range) is when Enh shines.
Ofc it doesn’t founction at all if you dont go into melee to build up your maelstrom stacks with Auto/Stormstrike/Lava lash you wont build any maelstrom for your core damaging abilities and ofc i tried it.
The thing is Totemic is elementalist which is heavily built on caster 80% of the time if i take PVP i played both Stormbringer(More melee heavy) then had to switch to Totemic in season 2 purerly because we are trash at gap closing and staying on the target and by far easiest target to kite in pvp from all melees , so by switching to totemic 80% of your dmg comes from ranged i dont even need to get close to the target to throw my burst or build up anything i throw Tremor(The totemic hero talent totem for burst) you throw Flame shock Primordial wave + wolves you get full maelstrom stacks and lightning bolt for your Burns (0 Melee needed) + wolves generate you Maelstrom stacks passivly you get into melee range once in a while while those are on CDs (Which is super short) to plow 1 lava lash / stormstrike to hard hit with lightning bolt that makes your tremor also range hit the target (Remind you in pvp we dont get to stay on the target unless he stays on us we got 1 feral lundge the trashiest gap closer that ppl just move from “No roots/slow/daze from it) The only reason Totemic is dominant in higher end pvp is because its 80% ranged and if they kite you you dont really care cose you got your burst on ranged abilities which deal way more then 50% of your dmg in pvp.
In pve you just stand in melee range you don’t care about anything even if you can range some of it the boss doesn’t kite you with the adds …
So yeah if they had more melee abilities or had stronger emphesis on Melee maelstrom spenders(we have only 1 that has 30sec cd that was added in season 2"Primordial storm”) that had higher priority then (Ligh bolt/chain) ppl wouldn’t say then that we are ranged spec that doesn’t hit the fantasy of it.
I totally understand the OP and you also because when your burst is off the only way to generate or make our rotation even work is to go melee unless you have wolves/volcanic blaze proc/Tremor/Primo wave .
Same situation was with ret paladin when 90% of their abilities became ranged and it felt like a caster so blizz started to reduce the range on em or buff melee abilities.
It dosent matter if 80% of the spells have a range. This above proves that in order to be competitive you need to be at melee range.
To put an example: You mentioned this…
An arms warrior CAN equip a bow and arrow and shoot with it. He can also equip a 1-hander and a shield. And can even use certain abilities with it (like slam and overpower). But will do sub-par damage.
If you want to maximize your throughput as an Enh, you have to be at melee range. Regardless of the range the spells have.
So. Its a melee spec.
The reason you have some ranged spells to begin with is because Shamans dont have a “charge” to close the gap instantly. You have to walk to melee range, both in PvP or PvE. Its pure game-play reasons. Nothing to do with “fantasy”.
Dont over think it.
No wrong.
A true melee spell means that in order to cast it your hit-box needs to be in contact with the mobs hit-box. So if you move 1 pixel to the right to dodge a swirly, you cant attack anymore.
So in order to keep combat more fluid and less frustrating for the melee, all abilities had a small range. Even Arms warrior Mortal Strike had a range. Even if the description sais it’s “melee range”. But each one had a different range. For reasons nobody remembered anymore.
All Blizzard did was homogenize everything. So that every melee skill has the same range of 5/6 yard (I dont remember anymore).
TBH, arms warrior is based on the fighter archetype in dnd of the battlemaster. While protection is the sword and board tank, and fury is the barbarian/berserker, arms is the man at arms, that can use almost any weapon in battle.
So yes, IF there had to be an archetype in game for a soldier/archer, that would have been arms warrior.
As for enh shaman, its fantasy is that he is a shaman (the reason he is using lb/lvb/shocks), that is also enhancing its melee capabilities with the elements (storm strike, lava lash, etc). He is the only “battlemage” archetype wow has, and by battlemage I mean a melee character that is also using spells interwoven with melee strikes.
You just described how EVERY spec plays in the game.
Enh is one of the most unique, since no other spec has the gameplay of “building” in melee, in order to cast its caster abilities as instant casts in melee.
If the spec does not pose a challenge to you, maybe you should give a try to some of the other specs, although enh is one of the more challenging ones.
He isn’t the only “Battle mage archtype” you have ret paladin which became “Battlemage” you have Survival hunter “Battlemage” that has both ranged and melee and nothing is wrong with that but atleast be honest , The problem is that Enhance is trashes melee in pvp which most of its dmg comes from ranged attacks when ranged should be complimentary abilities and our melee should be our highest dmg outcome and highest burst from melee not the other way around , That’s exactly why Totemic is played in pvp because more melee version of Enha is unplayable by its state cant keep targets near you cant gap close can be easily kited so what people do? right Go totemic to burst from ranged and be less melee dependant which only proves we are More mage then “Battlemage” in pvp atleast we have only 2 melee abilities the rest are ranged and all melee does it to buff more of your ranged abilities to burst but hey you have ranged abilities also that can buff your Ranged abilities making it unmendatory to even go melee at all as totemic in pvp Tremor(Totemic totem)/Primo wave/wolves you get insta LB just from Tremor on the ground Primo wave insta maelstrom stacks to deal your highest dmg LB in pvp , Wolves passive maelstrom , and proc of Volcanic blaze also Maelstrom stacks and here you go once in 30 sec you don’t even need to try to get close.
As said again we are more mage then battlemage if need to focus more on the melee aspect of enhance hell even if it was 50% 50% or we had melee spenders that would do more then LB to reward being in melee range when spending maelstrom that would have been already a different story.
You are conflating battlemage archetype with mechanical design like range.
The battlemage archetype is any kind of magic caster that is weaving both melee strikes and magic in combat. It is what in dnd they called the gish, and it has purely to do with class fantasy.
Paladin and hunters have nothing to do with fantasy, and you just put them together because they are also melee that can do some damage at range, which is a tuning thing.
Generally your post is conflating the fantasy of the spec with the tuning. The spec was a battlemage in season 1 when 70% of its damage was its spells (lb, tempest,etc), and it was also a battlemage in wrath when 30% of its damage was its spells.
The problem with that is that if you have melee spenders, in order to keep the fantasy, you would need ranged/caster builders, which is 100% worse.
Unless you say that you prefer the legion style of just reskinned fury warrior with some elemental effects. Then I can safely say that this is not coming back with how much they butchered it and how bad it had become. Although legion classic is gonna come soon.
Ranged melee hybrids like enhance stop saying enhance is the only battlemage its simply untrue , and yeah Hunters / mages / locks all ranged hunter isn’t really a caster but MM is indeed casting aimed shot/rapid fire/steady just for physical dmg and elemental dmg also its just fantasy differances.
Stormbringer has heavier emphesis on staying in melee because it doesn’t have same resources to generate maelstrom as Totemic from ranged and you have to spam stormstrikes to get to Tempest(Your burst window) besicly.
Who told you you need ranged/caste builders to have melee spenders? its your sole idea of it we have melee builders and ranged builders for maelstrom already but only ranged spenders , having stormstrike or lava lash turn into elemental themed 10 maelstrom melee spender that would perform higher number then LB rewarding staying in melee wont need any builder changes.
And yes again Ret is a battlemage he casts same as us , most of its arsenal is ranged abilities we have only 2 melee abilities ret has 1 melee spender rest is ranged and people complained about it for a long time that it turned into caster/ranged spec and has no reason to go melee besides auto attacking.
DH btw has also more melee abilities then us yet he is a hybrid of ranged abilities also that hits battlemage fantasy also just with heavier emphesis on melee focus Eye beam/Fel barrage/Sigil of flame(Sigil of flame meta burst also)/Glavie throw/dispells/pvp talent fly in the air shoot fel bolts/Cage/The hunt all elemental “Spells” that hit battlemage mechanicly and thematicly we as enhance aren’t special in those “Battle mage” cases like you think we are.
Oh yeah almost forgot Unholy DK “Battle mage” that has only melee builder(pestilence builder) and pet random builder passive while rest of the toolkit is ranged with option to have melee spender + ranged spender instread of all ranged spenders.
I raise Rogue (CP), Feral Druid (CP), Warrior(Rage meter needs to build), WW (Chi) Monk… pretty much every other melee with the exception of Survival Hunter. Saying Ench is the most unique is simply not true. The most unique part is that they are probably the second-flashiest melee spec in the game after any Retri pala going through their burst phase.
Plus I didn’t infact describe every spec in the game. Aug/Presvoker has nuanced gameplay, I’d say Subtlety rogue also doesn’t just hand you your rotation on a silver platter.
I do play other specs. My return to playing shaman this expac was simply so disappointing that i had to talk about it. I main Evoker currently minus Devastation. I do occasionally hover over MW monk, always a joy to burst an artery by raising my blood pressure trying to heal M+ pugs.
My entire rant wasn’t an attack on the people playing the spec btw, just the way Blizzard goes about it. Though I get the feeling basically every ench shaman minus one or two just came at me like bloodhounds to aggressively defend their spec as if I just threatened to delete it entirely.
i ensure you most enhance shams i know and play with switched from the spec and there is way more EX enhance players and even current that agree with you.
i myself stopped playing enhance this season from your reasonings + pvp reasons of being worst melee(While being not really melee “only 1-2 melee abilities” spec anymore) squishiest and worst mobility pvp spec in game.
This isnt the topic here.
The topic is that enhancement shaman needs a rework or proper buff on the abilities like Spirit walk or bringing shamanistic rage back
Oh, another useless question.
Thanks for joining the conversation and giving us zero input to the topic. We said many times before what its going to accomplish.
