To give some context: I currently raid on my elemental shaman with a semi-hardcore raiding guild trying to get geared to do low mythic in the near future. My m+ score is 2450 but at this point, I’ve pretty much given up pushing.
Problem 1: the new talent system.
The main problem with our talent tree is the fact that we always must choose if we want to go full ST or full AOE. This would make 100% sense if this was the case with every class, and I would have no problem with a system like that. But that simply isn’t the case, let’s take enhancement, for example, they can do top-tier AOE and ST with Elementalist build.
My feedback on how to fix:
At the end of the primordial tree, we can choose to either get hast or free lava cast. Why not just let us get both? It wouldn’t make our ST broken because it’s only 10% haste for 12 sec. and it wouldn’t make our AOE broken because we get free lava surge anyway from having 5 flame shocks active. But this would greatly increase our AOE in ST build and ST in AOE build.
Problem 2: we have no cleave.
This is a fundamental problem with the class and something I hoped that the new talent tree would fix. This problem makes some dungeons unplayable and in some cases, your m+ team has to bring another dps.
My feedback:
I think this problem is so fundamental to the class, that it would need a major rework. But if ele was just really good at everything else it wouldn’t even matter. But I think the primordial chance I mentions earlier could also help our cleave a little.
Problem 3: Stats
This is what I personally think is the worst part, and would be the driving factor for me to change classes or just play another game. In raid, the stat prior goes Mastary>haste>vers>crit. And in m+ and some raid bosses it goes Crit>haste>vers>mastery. Going into a m+ as a raider with only 500 crit and 5000 mastery is the most unsatisfying thing, and just makes our class worse than the statistics show. And also when fighting a multi-target boss you know you will never hit a high parse because many ele shams play mainly for m+ and build crit.
Problem 4: Survivability.
We have 1 wall that’s it. We used to have 2, but that was apparently too strong. we also have the weakest self-healing in the game. For enhance this is a trade-off because they have so much damage, for elemental it’s just a joke.
Problem 5: raid utility.
You would think after reading this post, “being this bad they must have something to show in raid utility”… but no, ele has always been a spec you would bring for damage. we do have ancestral guidance but its literally just a worse version of druids’ nature’s vigil
I will end this by saying I don’t care about having the worst overall damage, as long as we have somewhere else we could shine. For example, BM hunter which has insane ST but overall damage is low, or WW monk which is the other way around.
The reason why elemental shamans don’t have damage is not a number problem but a design problem.
don’t buff the number, buff the design, think you