wow Patch 8.1: Elemental Shaman Changes

[Stan 5,022]

Update: Blizzard have added two more new talents to the changes coming to the PTR:

Elemental Shaman Talents (source)

Just as a quick update, here's the current version of the experimental new talents that will be hitting the PTR soon. Reminder that these are experimental, the PTR is for testing, we'll probably iterate on or completely replace these designs, etc.

Call the Thunder - Your maximum Maelstrom is increased by 30, and the Maelstrom cost of Earth Shock and Earthquake is reduced by 10.

Surge of Power - Earth Shock also enhances your next spell:

• Flame Shock: The next cast does not incur a cooldown.
• Lightning Bolt: Your next 3 casts will cause an additional Elemental Overload.
• Lava Burst: Reduces the cooldown of your Fire (or Storm) Elemental by 6 sec.
• Frost Shock: Roots the target in place for 6 sec.

Blizzard outlined a list of changes coming to Elemental Shamans in Patch 8.1 that should be available on PTR by the end of this week. We have the first round of improvements  Elemental Shamans in the next content update.

TL;DR:

• Earth Shock damage decreased, Lightning Bolt damage increased.
• In-flight Lava Burst will now benefit from Flame Shock cast after it.
• Exposed Elements (level 15 talent), High Voltage (level 60 talent) removed.
• Earthen Rage is now a level 15 talent (up from level 90).
• Two new talents have been added, but we don't know much about them right now. Both are named after existing Artifact traits, but those are probably just placeholders (thanks @Stormy).
  • Call the Thunder (level 60 talent) -> Call the Thunder (Legion Artifact trait).
  • Surge of Power (level 90 talent) -> Surge of Power (Legion Artifact trait).

Blizzard (Source)

As the patch 8.1.0 information starts to comes out, we wanted to share the current plans of what is being changed for Elemental Shaman.

Core Ability Changes:

• Shifted some damage from Earth Shock to Lightning Bolt.

Elemental Shaman is the only lightning based spell caster. However, over time, Lightning Bolt has gone from being a significant portion of your total damage to one of your least damaging abilities. It should be a powerful and effective spell for you to cast, and not something that feels like a burden to your rotation. Earth Shock will still be your hardest hitting spell, but Lightning Bolt should feel a bit better as part of your rotation.

• Lava Burst has had its functionality changed behind the scenes to allow an in-flight Lava Burst to gain a guaranteed critical strike from a Flame Shock cast after the Lava Burst has been cast.

This change should help your initial spells cast against a monster, boss, enemy player, or whatever else feel much better. You can cast Lava Burst before combat, and when it finishes, cast Flame Shock, and the Lava Burst will gain the critical strike benefit from your Flame Shock. 

Talent Changes:

• The level 15 talent Elemental Blast will now always pick a different secondary stat buff when causing an Mastery: Elemental Overload.
• The level 30 talent Master of the Elements can now also benefit a Physical damage spell, allowing it to increase the damage of an Earthquake.
• The level 100 talent Stormkeeper now also increases the damage of your next two Lightning Bolts by 250% in addition to its existing effects. This damage bonus will also apply to the Elemental Overloads of Lightning Bolt from Stormkeeper.

The Master of the Elements and Stormkeeper changes are primarily to help keep balance between single target damage and area damage of the talent rows. Master of the Elements will now affect your next Earthquake spell to keep the talent more competitive when dealing area damage, and Stormkeeper will grant you two really powerful Lightning Bolts that also cause Elemental Overloads when fighting just a single target.

• The level 15 talent Exposed Elements has been removed, and the level 90 talent Earthen Rage has taken its place
• The level 60 talent High Voltage has been removed.
• New talent in the level 60 row: Call the Thunder
• New talent in the level 90 row: Surge of Power

When looking at the whole sum of changes made to Elemental Shaman this expansion, we feel that some of the passive talent choices weren’t holding up well, and had no interaction with how you played the game at all. We’re adding some experimental new talents that should allow some additional decision making on how you choose to use some of your abilities. Please keep in mind that both of these new talents, as well as all of the other changes, are still under iteration and may change entirely throughout the patch 8.1.0 PTR cycle.

[Tarazet 144]

Getting more damage out of our filler is nice and will make our DPS more consistent, but it will also make the mobility issues more pressing so it's a double-edged sword.

Giving us more flexibility on the usage of Lava Burst is interesting, because it will mean that we can use it as Flame Shock is falling off for a potential gain in DPS. Bringing it into the pre-pull rotation will better facilitate using Ascendance and will be a small DPS gain.

Loading that much more damage into Stormkeeper is eye-opening.

[dartbodman 64]

5 hours ago, Stan said:

In-flight Lava Burst will now benefit from Flame Shock cast after it. 

That's good news for world content, can open up with a lava burst and flame shock combo on mobs before they're aggro...

Edited September 19, 2018 by dartbodman

[Dorkethaghar 1]

Where is my shadow priest rework ? ?

[PatrickHenry 293]

18 hours ago, Stan said:

Lava Burst has had its functionality changed behind the scenes to allow an in-flight Lava Burst to gain a guaranteed critical strike from a Flame Shock cast after the Lava Burst has been cast.

This alone is a massive improvement.  ALWAYS hated that about the functionality between the two.