A Look Back at Elemental Shaman in Dragonflight & War Within Wishlist - Editorial

Posted 2024/01/27 at 2:26 AM by HawkCorrigan

Our Guide Writers have reviewed their specs throughout Dragonflight and share wishlists of what they'd like to see in the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials below.

Dragonflight Retrospectives & War Within Wishlists

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian Druid
Restoration Druid

Augmentation EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline Priest
Holy PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhancement Shaman
Restoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock

Elemental Retrospective & War Within WishlistTLDR: This article is too long; give me the goods Synergy vs. Spell Identity

Tier Sets, which focused on either Lava Burst or Lightning Bolt, removed most choice from the talent tree, divided the player base, and led to inorganic gameplay decisions.

Spenders do not feel impactful because most of their numerical value has been moved into generators. This leads to frustration regarding the "payoff" of the gameplay and takes away from moments of power.

Spenders also lack "graphical" impact outside of Elemental Blast.

Secondaries and Stat Distribution

Mountains Will Fall tried to alleviate some of the specs issues with utilizing Mastery. This was only partly successful. Mastery is still highly situational and only used in Single Target builds focusing on Lava Burst, or in the case of Season 3, because of extreme scaling with tier sets. In contrast, Crit on the opposing end is very bad with those builds but excels in AoE.

Unique Utility and Raid Buffs

Since the addition of Hunter's Marks damage effect, Restoration and Elemental Shaman are the last two specs missing any Party or Raid Buffs. Since the release of Augmentation, the value of our Bloodlust has also decreased significantly in, e.g. Mythic+, considering Augmentation's prevalence in all meta comps since release.

Defensives

Even though the popularity of Protection Paladin and Augmentation Evoker allows Elemental Shaman to survive in high-level Mythic+, it is still one of the very few specs that have to fall back on tank trinkets to survive some of the dungeon encounters, if they can't rely on their externals. The removal of Harden Skin and the nerfs to Ancestral Guidance has left Elemental with only Astral Shift and Earth Elemental, having the worst defensive toolkit of any spec in the game.

Balance of the ElementsLava BurstLightning BoltMaelstromEarth ShockElemental BlastLava BurstLava SurgeIcefuryLava BurstDeeply Rooted ElementsPrimordial SurgeWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceLightning BoltLava BurstElemental BlastStormkeeperMountains Will FallWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceLava BurstWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceElemental BlastMaster of the ElementsLightning RodElectrified ShocksLava BurstPrimordial WavePrimordial SurgeWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceLightning BoltRandomness and Skill ExpressionDeeply Rooted ElementsAscendanceBloodlustDeeply Rooted ElementsBuild Consistency and the Crux of "Downsides"IcefuryStormkeeperAftershockMountains Will FallPrimordial SurgeElemental BlastWindspeaker's Lava ResurgenceLiquid Magma TotemSurging ElementsSurging ElementsMagma ChamberSearing FlamesSkybreaker's Fiery DemiseLightning RodTarget Scaling and "Uncapped Damage"Electrified ShocksSo much utility and nothing to use it onCapacitor TotemEarthgrab TotemStoneskin TotemMana SpringPoison Cleansing TotemPoison Cleansing TotemMana SpringStoneskin TotemHealing Stream TotemEarth ShieldWind Rush TotemEarthgrab TotemBeing the ugly ducklingWhat now?

12 3

Comment by hashtagfredElemental just came off as a cluttered mess with little pay off for dragon flight. I love the overload mastery and the dynamics it offered with specific builds, but then you were always missing some buff or cooldown to utilize.

I know they tried with fulimnation in shadowlands alpha, but after getting such a great rework with enhancement in shadowland and one of the better designed spec trees, but elemental seems overdue for an identity shiftComment by JakoWow this Article legit said what i thought about Elemental but Far better then i could of explained it. I hope blizzard sees this and finally does something about Elemental because honestly, come war Within, if nothing changes for Elemental im honestly going to have to retire this spec and go another class ( warlock, Mage or even Rogue ).Comment by BakhadiI usually like to read well thought out articles about class design but over the last few years, these have just devolved into cries for buffs. Shaman is the only class without party or raid buffs? And what is bloodlust then? How about rogues and death knights who can‘t buff anybody? Or warlocks?

These articles lack objectivity and it is tiring to read the constant complains instead of actual productive feedback that is ready to be used for development.Comment by Tadirele could be so much fun with a few things changed:

- make flameshok spread easy like it is for enh
- make a talent that lets us cast EQ on a target and move with it
- remove icefury and focus on fire and lightning as 2 elements are enough and we also have physical dmg in eq/es (make them nature so they benefit from nature dmg increases its just weird for it to be physical dmg at this point).
-rework the spec tree a bit so we can get at least one more capstone and make ascendance 2 min + more impactful or remove it and make the ele totems 2min and stronger
-give lavaburst the chaosbolt treatment (crit=more crit dmg) so crit doesn‘t become a fully dead stat for lavaburst builds like we have now.

also no to giving ele a raidbuff just remove raidbuffs from the game again like you did in the past already, no idea how asking the 1h buff classes after every wipe to get their buffs back on everyone is in any way supposed to be not just fkin annoying and hunters mark or windfury totem are even worse.Comment by OriginalAntI usually like to read well thought out articles about class design but over the last few years, these have just devolved into cries for buffs. Shaman is the only class without party or raid buffs? And what is bloodlust then? How about rogues and death knights who can‘t buff anybody? Or warlocks?

These articles lack objectivity and it is tiring to read the constant complains instead of actual productive feedback that is ready to be used for development.Comment by MalcationsThe main problem im having with Elemental right now is the fact it has no unique spell identity outside of earthquake.

Shaman as a whole is a jumbled mess of spells and identity of those spells.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Lava Burst is used by all 3 specs, Elementals only difference is that it has a chance to double cast with mastery, or interact with Primordial wave... WHY

Lightning bolt and Chain Lightning is used by all 3 specs, elementals difference is that is a c hance to double cast with mastery... WHY

Flame shock, all 3 shamans get flame shock, Resto and elemental get free Lava surges with it, WHY

Turning the spec into its own unique thing will take work but the first step is cosmetics before mechanics, because if it doesnt look any different there is no incentive to play it.

Replace Lava Burst with Boulder Toss (earth)

Replace Flame shock with an upgraded version of Earth shock that does basically the same thing with more flashy animations.

Replace Lava Surge with something relating to the earth shock or boulder toss spell.. having it remain fire will result in less interest.

Literally just change the class to be lightning Earth, Enhancement to be Air Fire, Resto to be Ice Water.

Water bolt isnt used in the game, nows your chanceComment by nighttswordi hate s3 tierset and its voted for s4 again. s2 tierset was the best and most fun to use in m+.Comment by the9tailI think the graphical overhaul is something definitely lacking.
Sure when lightning bolts are going off it looks cool - but stock standard lightning bolts look like trash.
Honestly I think they should divide the elements between the Shaman specs to give them more personality or at least make one go full witch doctor.Comment by GigabobI usually like to read well thought out articles about class design but over the last few years, these have just devolved into cries for buffs. Shaman is the only class without party or raid buffs? And what is bloodlust then? How about rogues and death knights who can‘t buff anybody? Or warlocks?

These articles lack objectivity and it is tiring to read the constant complains instead of actual productive feedback that is ready to be used for development.Comment by TrollfatSomeone please provide a source where Blizzard said there would be no reworks in TWW?Comment by KeyenOn the other hand, pretending hunter mark is good raid utility when it's less than 1% damage increase overall (in the best case situation, ie without switching) in a fight is fairly disingenious. That's not something which would help hunters if they were in a bad spot, by opposition to something like the DH or monk debuff if these classes were in the ditch, as you would still require one no matter what.Comment by PotatonbeansVery well written and said! Elemental desperately needs dev time.
#skyfury totem for pveComment by minka25What raid buff does DK have?Comment by IKLFaxAs a long time Ele Shaman player, I fear the spec is really unfriendly towards new players. It might even be more unfriendly than Disc Priest. Just reduce the ridiculous amount of procs and power ups to main spells we have to manage. Also, I haven't seen a single person in any Shaman spec who enjoys Primordial Wave. Bury that spell in Shadowlands.Comment by DarkarazuBlizzard seems uninterested in reworking or touching Elemental Shaman. With many different classes having received reworks in Dragonflight, regardless of their success or not, and Elemental still being stuck in the same position as the last expansions, hearing that The War Within will not feature any reworks (at least for a while) feels like a slap in the face. None of the outlined problems can be fixed without significant changes to the talent tree, and as such, I am very doubtful that Hero Talents will have any effect on this.Comment by DraekenI usually like to read well thought out articles about class design but over the last few years, these have just devolved into cries for buffs. Shaman is the only class without party or raid buffs? And what is bloodlust then? How about rogues and death knights who can‘t buff anybody? Or warlocks?

These articles lack objectivity and it is tiring to read the constant complains instead of actual productive feedback that is ready to be used for development.Comment by DraekenOn the other hand, pretending hunter mark is good raid utility when it's less than 1% damage increase overall (in the best case situation, ie without switching) in a fight is fairly disingenious. That's not something which would help hunters if they were in a bad spot, by opposition to something like the DH or monk debuff if these classes were in the ditch, as you would still require one no matter what.Comment by ZarateI usually like to read well thought out articles about class design but over the last few years, these have just devolved into cries for buffs. Shaman is the only class without party or raid buffs? And what is bloodlust then? How about rogues and death knights who can‘t buff anybody? Or warlocks?

These articles lack objectivity and it is tiring to read the constant complains instead of actual productive feedback that is ready to be used for development.Comment by ZarateWhat raid buff does DK have?Comment by dreadmarblesThe spec needs to be reworked to have modern gameplay. All the newly reworked specs gives us ways to weave ST and AOE damage seamlessly, the core gameplay loops are well defined and still leave room for skill expression in most cases. The rogue rework was wonderful, just like the ret and the havoc one. We need more of that! Actually, Ele shaman needs a rework just as bad as Frost DK.

12 3