How is it a nerf? We now have an interrupt outside of our normal rotation that isn't redundant with another spell. It seems like it's merely a better usage of spells we already have.

I will reply to myself :)

Blizzard talks all the time about putting back some (absent) classes back to arena and now they nerf one of most important spells for shaman? Where is logic in that? I preferred when they just left shamans without any buffs and nerfing.

Ok, my bad then.

I also don't understand why you complain. While they removed the interrupt effect from earth shock, they changed wind shock in a non-shock spell, so you can have that interrupt off cooldown while still using shock spells. pretty nice buff, I would say.

Again...I say that this is in no way a nerf. The interrupt role has been placed squarely on the shoulders of Wind Shear which is now no longer on the Shock cooldown meaning it can be used without ruining your rotation. We've not lost any interrupts, only made it more useful in a normal rotation.

I'd love to hear how it is that we're being nerfed because I can't see it from your posts beyond "zomg nerf!"

Now maybe you are confused. This is a straight buff. it means we can now use earth shock in our regular rotation, and wind shear for interrupts. separate cool downs from the shocks. sounds like a buff to me.

skraps

www.sham-wows.blogspot.com

You're right, I was confused. Sorry Blizzard :)

Sounds like a major buff to me. Don't know about which shock is preferred for damage or pvp, but by putting this new wind shear on a separate cooldown not only will you be able to macro it onto earth shock, but also any of you other shocks. Basically, Blizz just gave all your shocks an upgrade by allowing them to interrupt if you want them to with a macro. More importantly, you can catch that pesky mage now w/o fear of missing out because of the GCD.

I see it as a buff- Wind shock is still cheap and can be used the next gcd- even after any other shock. I'm assuming it has it's own 6 second CD. Even if the lockout period is criminally short, we'll now be able to get off a shock after a single spell. Burst just got better.

Earth Shock reducing melee attack speed is pretty neat- If blizzard wont give shamans a peel for arenas the next best thing is to reduce the incoming damage from melee classes.

The best thing about playing a shaman is how rarely you're accused of benefiting from an OP class. Here's why ES needs to lose interrupt if WS is off the shock timer: If ES retained it's interrupt with the change to WS, you'd basically be able to focus down a target's ability to cast spells over 1 second.

[ES] 3 sec {WS} 3 sec [ES] 3 sec {WS} ...and so on

Not only would being able to lock casters down with 2 6-second interrupts be bad for other classes, Shamans would be focused on even more as a result. Bad for everyone. Wanna lock down a caster? Roll a lock :(

And splitting damage and interrupt is a buff? indeed it doesn't share a CD but instead takes "another" GCD, i was quite fine with the fact i could damage with an interrupt, now i gotta do both? meh, not so much of a buff, if they at least made earth shock a anti caster shock, but now i see this as a retard button, why use a 10% atk speed decrease when you have a 50% movement speed decrease?

This is in absolutely in no way a nerf. Since wind shock/shear/whatever is not attached to the gcd, if you want the exact same earth shock you have now (with extra reduced attack speed bonus!) you can just write a macro like so

/cast earth shock
/cast wind shear

And ta da! Not that I think you should do this, but if you're going to complain that it adds complexity or something, there you go. Simple.