Lightning Overload hotfix buff incoming
by Eliah Hecht 
May 13th 2009 at 9:00AM
There's been an active thread for the past few weeks called "Stealth Nerf to Elemental," wherein Elemental shamans voice concerns that their DPS fell in patch 3.1. Blizzard assures us that there was no intention to nerf Elemental DPS in the patch, and that they couldn't find any bugs.
However, they must have come to the conclusion that Elemental was a bit low, because they're hotfixing in a buff to Lightning Overload. Currently, it has a 7/13/20% chance to proc; when the hotfix goes in ("sometime over the next couple of days"), it will be raised to an 11/22/33% chance, although the tooltip will not change (this will be fixed in a patch).
Ghostcrawler's estimate is that this will be about a 5% to a raid-buffed shaman, but they'll keep an eye on it, and further buffs will ensue if necessary.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Freak Mojo May 13th 2009 9:21AM
So my shammy is sitting around level 32... is it even worth it to spec elemental this early?
dominickseverance May 13th 2009 9:29AM
Yes. At level 34 you get a new rank of water shield which will greatly help with mana issues. I leveled all the way to 80 as Elemental and am proud to say I never once respecc'd to Resto or Enhance.
Ohrioh May 13th 2009 9:33AM
If you're currently spec enhance, stick with that.
If you're resto...
Switch over to enhance or ele. You don't need to be playing resto much yet. Get dual specs as soon as possible though. You'll be able to heal instances and dps solo quests.
Best of luck
Robert M May 13th 2009 11:35AM
Elemental is a great way to level, especially if you have leveled other casters, but for all out speed leveling, enhancement is the way to go. The only thing about elemental, and maybe someone can offer some advice, is that you don't have a great snare to keep mobs off of you. Mages and Druids can root and nuke, locks keep things away with a meat shield, and priests have a few tricks up their sleeves and a shield when all else fails. Shaman elemental leveling feels more like a race to down the mob before it gets to you, and frost shock doesn't carry the same goodness the other casters have to keep things at bay.
and @Eliah,
Shaman are, still at their heart, a horde class. Thrall is a shaman for goodness sake, and you put up a picture of a space goat? DISGUSTING!
Djinn May 13th 2009 1:38PM
I dont know if it is a level thing or what but Earthbind totem now does root mobs. I am already at level 80 so i dont know how it plays into the leveling mix, but come on guys, even without it you are wearing mail above level 40 your not exactly squishy, especially if you are doing it right with a shield.... So its not quite as bad as a mage, plus you can HEAL!!! When I leveled up enhancement was a huge mana drain but that was before you got water shield at level 20... i would guess enhancement would still be quite good for leveling... go OOM no biggie just autoswing and let windfury procs do the work for you..
Zimbardo May 13th 2009 11:46AM
While not the issue most shamans are talking about...this makes mana conservation even more ridiculous for elemental shamans. I'll look forward to this when it comes in.
redbasebolt May 13th 2009 10:50AM
FINALLY.
I knew they did something to us but lord knows they will never admit it.
Moonduh May 13th 2009 10:03AM
Actually, if you go through GC's posts in that thread about this "stealth nerf", you'll see that Blizz hasn't the faintest idea about what is causing this decrease in DPS.
There are many factors that may be leading into this (bugs with talents, buff, glyphs, or spells) because there aren't ANY clues pointing at what the problem could possibly be.
Think before you say something like "LOL DEY NERFD US BUT DEY WONT TELL UZ LOL". Blizzard has NEVER done something like that. If they nerf someone or something, they will admit to it outright. They do not fear us, they listen.
Plan May 13th 2009 4:28PM
Moonduh, that's not entirely true. They have a history of nerfing and tweaking without telling the players, at least when it comes to Shaman.
The most recent example was the removal of the AP bonus on Windfury glyph, which was never mentioned or acknowledged in patch notes. Enhancement players will also remember that the AP bonus on the Emblem-bought totem (relic) also went missing for a couple of months without an explanation. In fact, up until patch 3.1, the best-in-slot relic for Enhancement was a level 70 item that came out in 2007. I'm not joking.
I don't follow Elemental changes much because I don't spec Elemental, but I know they often get the short end of the stick.
And while I'm not convinced it's malicious, I tend to think it's because Shaman tweaks are low on the priority list. While we were running around with broken glyphs, missing AP bonuses and our 2007 relics, there were dozens upon dozens of tweaks to Paladins and DKs.
And let's not forget that for almost the entire life of TBC, there were some very smart people from EJ and the shaman forums, posting solid math and irrefutable proof that Elemental did not scale the same as other casters. That was never fixed until WotLK, as far as I know, but those who use Elemental as their main spec could speak to that better than I can.
Ledore May 13th 2009 10:13AM
Yay!
Doma May 13th 2009 9:48AM
while i appreciate this buff, it kinda alarms me that the key spell for the class is still gimped. My Lava burst crits barely push 11k now while raid buffed.
what this means for ele shamans is that haste is almost as valuable as it used to be pre 3.0. Overloads up to 33% mean more of an ele shaman's dmg will come from LB and CL and not massive autocrits like LvB. The gremlins at elitist jerks are probably gonna have a field day with this (as will I).
that magic 500+ haste "all LB" rotation is looking pretty good right now.
Mennoknight May 13th 2009 11:42AM
I only run 10mans with my shaman, but with the exception if Ignis trash (or those guys that shield themselves in Deconstructors room) My shaman's typically LB crit is right around 10k. When my trinket pops this goes to 12k. Granted, I didn't really raid on him at all pre-3.1, but I am still getting 10k crits.
Flask/Food, and we run with a mage and a lock. 2008 spellpower before totems and buffs.
Morcego May 13th 2009 12:16PM
Humm, a 10-12k crit is not really that impressive, specially for a spell on such "high" cooldown as LvB. I mean, my boomkin crits for 11k on wrath (during Solar eclipse + trinkets) easily. I've seem several 16k crits on SF.
And since I also have a lvl 80 elem shammy, this is a welcome change.
Djinn May 13th 2009 1:40PM
500 haste all LB rotation?
Dont you still need to proc clearcasting with LvB?
I cant see how spamming LB would beat that for DPS?
Doma May 13th 2009 2:06PM
An "all LB" rotation still includes Lava Burst whenever it's up, but with 500 haste Lightning bolt casts quick enough to fit 4 LBs between cooldowns, meaning you can drop Chain Lightning out of your rotation.
Angus May 13th 2009 7:35PM
"Dont you still need to proc clearcasting with LvB?
I cant see how spamming LB would beat that for DPS?"
Raid buffed a shaman is seeing some pretty high crit ratings.
Add a 33$ chance to add another possible crit into the mix and you may not even notice the lack of lava burst.
The problem is that they tried to give shaman a "rotation"
Instead of spamming 1 button, they hit another one every 8 seconds and a third so the second works better. Not really much of a rotation and the tricks to fix it ended up making LvB way too important. So important they denied enhance shaman the chance to use it.
Now we see shaman get hit in a cross-fire AGAIN.
Conflag was "too good" so they nailed it. Considering it and LvB shared pretty much the exact same mechanic, I am betting they used the same spell effect with a minor name change. So nerfing Conflag hit LvB in between the eyes.
Of course they won't admit this poor coding.
So they fix LO and hope Shaman won't mind losing damage in PVP in an already unpopular arena spec since it has to stay still to do any meaningful damage and has jack in the way of real escapes.
Doma May 13th 2009 9:58AM
looking over what people are saying about the lower crits, I believe Blizzard when they say that everything looks in order.
The core mechanics look the same as before, and tests on Target dummies yield similar results. That is: tier bonus tests, self buffed tests, and gearless/glyphless/talentless tests all show that LvB is hitting where it should be (out of raid settings).
The growing suspicion is that there is an issue with raid buffs, or more specifically: raid buffs canceling each other out. This probably has nothing to do with the fact that we lost the benefit of improved scorch, because that only affected crit-rate and not damage. It is more likely we are not receiving the benefit of our glyphs or talents that affect lava burst. I hope they figure it out, because i would gladly turn in this overload buff to crit for 14K again.
Yeng May 13th 2009 10:02AM
Come my Warlock brethren, we must storm the forums and complain about our stealth 3.1 nerf! Maybe we can get in on this sweet hot-fix goodness.
machoflaco May 13th 2009 11:23AM
Us locks have been concerned about our DPS nerf, but we get ignored?? I'm confused...
Morcego May 13th 2009 12:18PM
I was going to reply to this, but then again, it is better just to ignore it :)