Grouping as Elemental

Phlis · 11/17/08, 3:06 PM

I'm still leveling, and doing 5 mans, but I take it a few people on the forums have all ready made it to 80 and are doing 10/25 man content, so I'm wondering:

How is Elemental working out?

In small group content, the 5 mans I've done, elemental has been really good so far, I bring a ton of buffs, and do good damage, but again these are leveling instances I've been doing with guildies. Granted we're in Sunwell gear, but still. I assume it's the same in 10 mans, where their are fewer people with overlapping buffs and Shaman bring quite a few.

What have people's experiances been in 10 and 25 man content? Is elemental holding up as a viable spec?

Protico · 11/18/08, 10:18 AM

I ran a Naxx 10 man last night as an Enhancement shaman and there was an Elemental shaman in the group as well. The whole group was similarly geared (almost entirely still in Sunwell level 70 loot) and the breakdown was like this:

Rogue 16.1%
Enh Shaman 16.0%
Feral Druid (tank) 16%
Ele Shaman 15.8%
Ret Pally 15.5%
...

So barring skill differences and relative attention paying levels, it seems like all things are pretty equal at the moment.

(e) early morning spelling failure.

Malan · 11/18/08, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Phlis

Is elemental holding up as a viable spec?

It's looking like Elemental might be a mandatory spec until Blizzard fixes the ToW buff, it gives more spellpower than any other buff right now.

Ghando · 11/18/08, 3:17 PM

Totem of Wrath is pretty ridiculous between the 100 spellpower and the 3% crit to all abilities. Elemental Oath is sweet as well, and if you're being optimal with your Flame Shock/Lava Burst rotation (Burst landing just after the third tick of the DOT) the damage is acceptable. The spec could probably use some buffs in terms of raw damage output, but it seems just as good as it was in TBC. Every 25-man will want one, 10-mans will as well unless they're super heavy melee.

lordfafoin · 11/18/08, 4:39 PM

Probably a stupid question, but why would you wait 3 ticks of FS for landing LvB?

Nayt · 11/18/08, 5:21 PM

Originally Posted by lordfafoin

Probably a stupid question, but why would you wait 3 ticks of FS for landing LvB?

Lava Burst eats the Flame Shock debuff. Therefore removing the dot. You'd want as much DoT up time for the most DPS. (Tooltip)

[e] Not sure how the Glyphs factors into that.

Lintra · 11/18/08, 5:28 PM

Unless they've changed it, the flameshock glyph makes it persist through the LvB.

So if you have that glyph you want to fire off LvB when ever the cooldown is up.

Sashia · 11/18/08, 5:30 PM

Glyph of Flame Shock - Item - World of Warcraft

lordfafoin · 11/18/08, 6:12 PM

Thanks, I was indeed assuming the Flame shock glyph, which is why I was confused as to the 3-tick wait. W/out that glyph, it makes much more sense. The glyph is quite amazing though, for having played with it a bit.

Phlis · 11/19/08, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by Sashia

Glyph of Flame Shock - Item - World of Warcraft

^ This.

Just hit 80 tonight. So far in instances I've found my optimal rotations, with the Flame Shock glyph and some haste to be:

FS, LvB, CL, LB, LB, CL, LB, LB, LvB, CL, LB, FS

Something close to that, basically running off of cooldowns, in This order FS DoT, LvB, CL, with LB used as Filler in between, and Thunderstorm as a quick mana pot when I start running low(round 80% mana then when it's off cooldown after that). Though, even without an Spriest I haven't had many mana problems in 5mans.

tufy · 11/19/08, 2:02 AM

Malan: No. A demonology warlock in T7 gear will give more spellpower to the raid, while doing more damage.

Phlis: just as we predicted, static spellpower base (flametongue, tow) is all that is saving us right now from total and complete decimation. When people gear up... ouch. Most instances I went to, I ended up being a healer, tbh, so if things don't improve, I'll probably end up Resto in a month or so :p

Sabyn · 11/19/08, 4:21 AM

Originally Posted by tufy

Malan: No. A demonology warlock in T7 gear will give more spellpower to the raid, while doing more damage.

Phlis: just as we predicted, static spellpower base (flametongue, tow) is all that is saving us right now from total and complete decimation. When people gear up... ouch. Most instances I went to, I ended up being a healer, tbh, so if things don't improve, I'll probably end up Resto in a month or so :p

Maybe a slight tangent but it kills me that there is no scaling for things like fort/totems/AI. Would be so easy to give them some minor scaling based off anything from stamina/spell power/attack power/strength/intelligence. Stamina makes the most sense for shaman totems since its something that generally increases for all specs as gear gets better, so it would just allow these otherwise stagnant buffs to get some scaling, even if it is small. Fixed number buffs have always created problems.

Dinian · 11/19/08, 3:38 PM

Ghostcrawler posted that they are making an announcement soon regarding the elemental spec's damage scaling. I'm hoping that the AE contribution of our damage will also be addressed.

Let's hope for some good news Tufy.

Sydane · 11/19/08, 6:07 PM

Originally Posted by tufy

Malan: No. A demonology warlock in T7 gear will give more spellpower to the raid, while doing more damage.

This isn't even remotely true. Demonic Pact gives each person in the raid their own buff that increases their spellpower by 10%. So if you have 2000 spellpower, you gain 200. Until the average member of a raid has over 2800 spellpower (probably late T8 or even T9), Totem of Wrath is superior. At current gear levels, it is drastically superior. Also, Demonic Pact is currently spell damage only, whereas Totem of Wrath is straight spell power, thus also improving healing.

Nite_Moogle · 11/19/08, 7:53 PM

Originally Posted by Sydane

This isn't even remotely true. Demonic Pact gives each person in the raid their own buff that increases their spellpower by 10%. So if you have 2000 spellpower, you gain 200. Until the average member of a raid has over 2800 spellpower (probably late T8 or even T9), Totem of Wrath is superior. At current gear levels, it is drastically superior. Also, Demonic Pact is currently spell damage only, whereas Totem of Wrath is straight spell power, thus also improving healing.

The value is actually based off the Warlock's spell power, not each group member, but people are probably seeing this because the pre-80 rank of ToW is 140 spellpower (which can get pushed off by a warlock in BT gear+trinkets) and the 80 rank is 280 spellpower. Once you hit 80, ToW isn't going to get pushed off by Demonic Pact anytime soon.