Elitist Jerks - View Single Post

panny · 12/28/07, 11:40 PM

The reason why Enhancement Shaman are so bursty, even with dual wielding, is because the way our damage works. Our damage consists of autoattack, a proc, and SS/shocks. None of these require ramp up time (like combo points) or cast time, or even GCDs, just cooldowns.

We have perhaps the best autoattack damage increasing talent, Weapon Mastery. Arms warriors get +5% with two handers, we get 10% with all weapons. Not considering Flurry/SnD because of the touch and go of PvP. Dual Wield spec is the only thing that beats it when it comes to white damage.

Windfury is a large chuck of our damage too, and it's also GCDless. That means, of our sources of damage, only Shocks and Stormstrike use GCDs. This allows our three sources of damage to occur concurrently, much like how a raiding Warlock can load on a set of DoTs and spam Shadowbolt. It's quite funny when you switch from a Warrior to a Healer in BGs and demolish him before he can cast a heal.

A two hander may give you even more burst than this, but you have to consider the frequency and the degree of burst. I did this calculation in the other thread, but here it is again. I'll give an extremely generous crit rate of 40%. With a proc rate of 20% on WF, it's a 1.6% to get that big WF double crit, which is going to be reduced by resilence. Add a shock to it and how much damage do you really think you managed to spike? 3k on a Purged target? Unless it was really huge and managed to get someone into that 'danger zone' or outright killed them, you've now got to wait another three or so seconds to do damage again. If the other team has a healer and you don't manage to kill your target, all that damage is going to be healed away. Even if they don't have a healer, if your damage doesn't put them in that danger zone, you're better off with higher sustained throughput of dual wield.

jlavarj, I find it quite surprising that you find Spriest/Lock a hard combo, Spriest/x or Lock/x is probably my easiest matchup (as long as x isn't a Rogue or a Druid) because they're the easist target to stay on. Having a Priest on my side probably helps though.

Nadagast, I think you have a point about Purge being a very good tool. It's what makes classes that use magic buffs as their only defense mechanism (such as Priests, other Shaman, Paladins, Warlocks, Mages) a favourable makeup, but those that don't, extremely difficult. It's part of the problem of balancing offensive dispell, but I don't think it's overpowered. Even outgearing other players, (I have a 3/5 Vengeful, all the Vindicator's gear), I have trouble DPSing other classes down because of the difficulty of actually getting within melee range.

Even a Holy Priest, perhaps our squishiest target, can surive for a long time with me spamming purge on him, definitely long enough for a partner to peel a target off him.

I, personally, really like the idea of Rockbiter giving a healing debuff (make it stackable like Wound Poison at 10% per proc or 5% per hit or something). Making Frostbrand a higher proc rate and snare level would be nice too.

12/28/07, 11:40 PM	#27 (permalink)
panny role != roll Hortez Tauren Shaman <Offline> Barthilas	The reason why Enhancement Shaman are so bursty, even with dual wielding, is because the way our damage works. Our damage consists of autoattack, a proc, and SS/shocks. None of these require ramp up time (like combo points) or cast time, or even GCDs, just cooldowns. We have perhaps the best autoattack damage increasing talent, Weapon Mastery. Arms warriors get +5% with two handers, we get 10% with all weapons. Not considering Flurry/SnD because of the touch and go of PvP. Dual Wield spec is the only thing that beats it when it comes to white damage. Windfury is a large chuck of our damage too, and it's also GCDless. That means, of our sources of damage, only Shocks and Stormstrike use GCDs. This allows our three sources of damage to occur concurrently, much like how a raiding Warlock can load on a set of DoTs and spam Shadowbolt. It's quite funny when you switch from a Warrior to a Healer in BGs and demolish him before he can cast a heal. A two hander may give you even more burst than this, but you have to consider the frequency and the degree of burst. I did this calculation in the other thread, but here it is again. I'll give an extremely generous crit rate of 40%. With a proc rate of 20% on WF, it's a 1.6% to get that big WF double crit, which is going to be reduced by resilence. Add a shock to it and how much damage do you really think you managed to spike? 3k on a Purged target? Unless it was really huge and managed to get someone into that 'danger zone' or outright killed them, you've now got to wait another three or so seconds to do damage again. If the other team has a healer and you don't manage to kill your target, all that damage is going to be healed away. Even if they don't have a healer, if your damage doesn't put them in that danger zone, you're better off with higher sustained throughput of dual wield. jlavarj, I find it quite surprising that you find Spriest/Lock a hard combo, Spriest/x or Lock/x is probably my easiest matchup (as long as x isn't a Rogue or a Druid) because they're the easist target to stay on. Having a Priest on my side probably helps though. Nadagast, I think you have a point about Purge being a very good tool. It's what makes classes that use magic buffs as their only defense mechanism (such as Priests, other Shaman, Paladins, Warlocks, Mages) a favourable makeup, but those that don't, extremely difficult. It's part of the problem of balancing offensive dispell, but I don't think it's overpowered. Even outgearing other players, (I have a 3/5 Vengeful, all the Vindicator's gear), I have trouble DPSing other classes down because of the difficulty of actually getting within melee range. Even a Holy Priest, perhaps our squishiest target, can surive for a long time with me spamming purge on him, definitely long enough for a partner to peel a target off him. I, personally, really like the idea of Rockbiter giving a healing debuff (make it stackable like Wound Poison at 10% per proc or 5% per hit or something). Making Frostbrand a higher proc rate and snare level would be nice too.