Howdie yall,
Been playing shaman for quite a while now, this has been my main character ever since vanilla. Usually I don’t really get up in arms about %dmg nerfs a spell receives, because if elemental stays fun, I will keep playing it. But I do have a really bad feeling about the latest nerf to our passive proc called Lava Surge, the proc that gives you an instant Lavaburst. Lava surge has been a backbone part of our fun, mostly the way it makes us elemental shaman weave our spells. It gives us a tool to fight melee classes in pvp, since casting long spells won’t work and we have a hard time keeping distance from enemies.
After some testing on a target dummy, with only some gear pieces on so that flameshock only ticks 10 times without triggering anything else, like our artifact neck, I came to the conclusion that lowering lavasurge to 10% will reduce our single target procs to such a bare minimum, that the elemental shaman will be hard casting most spells all of the time. With a 10% lava surge, and 10 tick per 18 seconds, you will get about 1 proc of lava surge every 18 seconds, which is absolutely a fun killer and a huge pvp mobility/survivability nerf.
Besides all this, another odd thing I noticed while looking at my flameshock dot, I never seem to get a lava surge proc from the tick after a lava surge proc, as if there is some invisible hand stopping it from being able to proc. Might just be bad luck, for more than 20 minutes straight.
To make a long and barely legible story short:
If Blizzard really wants to nerf elemental damage output for some ungrounded and unbased reason, dont kill our fun with lava surge, just tune down our overall damage, since this will cripple our spellweaving fun and core gamemechanic.
May the elements guide your path 
11 Likes
I see no reason at all to nerf the spec before actually tuning down other specs from other classes that are performing much higher than this spec. Just the usual balancing formula of nerf what is already near bottom rather than nerfing what is top instead. Their criteria is very bad at the moment and makes no sense unless it’s part of a wider plan which I fail to see currently, but I doubt that… I reckon they will just keep favoring the same old usual classes and make sure there is an intended discrepancy is power with some classes being deliberately stronger than others, aka fotm but unfortunately there seems to be no variety in fotm as it’s always the same classes benefiting while everything else keeps near bottom, either that or they are simply clueless on how to balance… not sure what’s worse. At this rate it’s looking like Shamans won’t have any decent performing dps spec in SL… and I’m taking borrowed power already into consideration.
1 Like
Well, elemental is the only viable option for me, since I never enjoyed enhancement anymore. I just hope that things might get reverted if people make themselves heard about the odd changes elemental shaman receives.
Because some abilities/covenants affect Lava burst they nerf the base ability which is rediculous, in the base of things we only have lavaburst and flameshock. Rather nerf abilities that make it overpowered than nerf the base ability… This will result in alot of hardcasting and getting interrupted/destroyed by melee in pvp.
Why is it needed? Why not decrease the damage instead of the frequency of the proc? Elemental will be dead in pvp as soon as the 1st melee even looks in his direction without consistent proc frequency. I personally detest procs that proc only once every blue moon, the proc chance needs to be feel rewarding otherwise might as well just remove it if it’s gonna be next to none. And again what keeps being frustrating is when you look at other classes/specs that are performing much better and don’t get nerfed… wth is their criteria?
2 Likes
We had the trait in bfa so its going from 18% to 10%, what the hell are they thinking… The whole spec revolves around lavaburst, it’s our main ability. RIP elemental
1 Like
Looking forward to hardcasting lavabursts in rogue’s face in pvp… NOT
2 Likes
Because it’s ridiculously overpowered and takes no skill or real character interaction! It’s not working as intended…
But it was fine during BFA wasn’t it? Or are you saying it has been overpowered in BFA? So what changed now to warrant such nerf? Was this a result of some Beta change?
Most procs in the game take no skill, that’s the foundation of rng, same as our mastery overloads, it just happens. Feels like they nerf the elemental shaman just based on the power we hold during this unbalanced prepatch. Supposedly our spells don’t stay this strong on level 60 and we won’t have the haste levels, which we have now, untill late into Shadowlands, making flameshock proc less and less surges.
1 Like
I am currently testing my elesham (which is my main) on the beta and yes lava surge was nerfed and that’s a shame but … With the other nerf on Elemental Equilibrium I switched to a build with lego Windspeaker’s Lava Resurgence and Elemental blast instead of Echo and oh boy the joy is here. I don’t feel the missing proc chance that much and the gameplay is as enjoyable as before. You can even switch between SoP and IF for more diversity. I am like you all, I never like it when my favorite class/spe is nerfed but right now on the beta, we still get ways to have fun. Imo we mostly need any form of raid utility and some def cd right now. Hopefully it will come, one day, maybe.
EDIT : I mostly test builds for PVE content. Losing LS procs is still a net loss for PVP.
1 Like
Revert this change. Jesus.
2 Likes
The changes to lava surge feels terrible on beta, im barley getting procks when i have flameshock on 3 targets
1 Like
With lava surge big nerf, ele will be over in PvP, huge lost of generating maelstrom, getting rekt by melee, and constant anti cast.
All the fun of the class will be gone. Just reduce the dmg don’t reduce the % procs
welcome to the sht tier ele brothers near enhs. nvm nothing can be worse than enh
I barely have any experience playing enhancement, my last real attempt was during the Burning Crusade. It just keeps me amazed that more often than not, dps shaman are scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to damage numbers. At the very least we usually had fun gameplay, with procs etc, but it seems they want to tone that playstyle down without providing the shaman community with any feedback.
It is as if we, as a shaman community, are voicing our concerns, not realizing that nobody is listening. One way communication won’t keep our class fresh and fun, and it seems Blizzard never really opens channels for dialogue.
Here is to hoping.
May procs fill your day!
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Edit 19-11-2020
Well, it seems the change went live and I must say… never have I ever hardcasted so many lava bursts in bg’s as I did tonight. I’m assuming that with the azerite trait I sit on 13% lava surge proc chance, and it feel terrible, in another 5 days it will be 10%… It made the whole experience feel sluggish and not fun, at certain points I was actually wondering if they removed lava surge… Perhaps, after 15 years of elemental shaman I should start an expension with a different class… feelsbadman
1 Like
I am also considering to ditch elemental shaman as my main. What other class is similar but can do damage/have fun mechanics?
no numbers not there point dont bring ele shaman raid number not
thet not joke lave surge big part our dmg now thet gone cant wake up surge
thet going be big problem need get master of elmetal buff out to get our dmg out cant do thet problem oo boy reroll mage again hunter make it work
This dude is a troll. Don’t rise to him