My fellow Shamans don’t get me wrong here.
I’ve looked development of this game since pre patch of Naxxramas and Elemental Shaman was always casting. Now Elemental Shaman doesn’t cast in PVP, it’s based on Lava Burst instant casts that hurdle’s as a proc happens. If you see Elemental Shaman casting nothing else than an hex, you are so lucky. Lightning bolt, Chain Lightning are interesting spells that are not doing anything. Why Elemental Shamans have been designed in a mind that the spec doesn’t cast?
These are my solutions. Increase the chance to cast Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, increase the defensives of Elemental Shaman and reduce the mad procs of Lava Burst. It’s just in the design, there are solutions to make the spec better. Instants doesn’t make the spec better to play. It’s dull as a knife.
It casted in Wrath, but the game was radically different than. Mobility, interrupts and micro cc were much less frequent. It was good tho, Lava Burst hit like a truck (something many passionate ele players likemyself have wanted ever since).
Because the modern design of the game, and considering tools ele has, don’t allow anything else to be viable. Blizzard for some reason, up untill this prepatch, kept our casted damage nerfed (Stormkeeper is nerfed in pvp, Elemental Blast too).
Agree, but look the SK comment above.
They are not, or alteast they werent supposed to. Keep in mind that spec design is primarily PvE and that our DF season 3 and 4 bonuses are degenerate, and promoted heavy LvB spam above all else.
In season 2, our damage profile was much more healthy and different. You were supposed to weave elements and play around Power of the Maelstrom talents and Stormkeeper.
I have good news for you.
On beta, the meatball spam build is dead. They wanted us to move from it (which is a good choice) so they reduced the chance of Lava Surge procs by a lot. In my opinion, they overnerfed ele because they also reduced LvB damage, which in my opinion wasn’t neccesary.
At the moment on beta, the best build (for PvE) is the Weaver build, which encourages the already mentioned weaving in fire/lightning. It is interesting in PvE, but we will see about PvP. In PvP ele can still dish a lot of damage, but you will have to cast quite a bit more.
Take of this what you want.
Btw, I agree with you. It is an elemental shaman, not fire or lightning shaman. That is why whenever a weaver build is viable in PvE, ele has more complexity and is more fun to play in PvE compared to PvP. In PvP tho, lightning spells just didn’t pack a punch. I would love for ele to move from this pad damage playstyle where nothing dies untill deep dampening, and to gives us back proper burst windows, so we can kill in setup, instead of relying on procs.
It is supposed to be a higher risk - higher reward scenario. Let’s see how it plays out in TWW.
If you are going to speak about casters not casting, speak about melee mobility as well. Absolutely all melees can have a 95% uptime on me as an ele player, would be just ridiculous to have to cast, dont you think?