This week I thought we would touch base on what is coming down the pipe for Patch 6.2, as well regale you with the tale of my first full week as Elemental. Let me tell you, it has been quite a learning experience. But first, lets take a look at patch 6.2, which should be dropping on live servers very soon. Shaman ultimately did not receive too many changes, but what we did receive are important, though for different reasons.

Patch 6.2 Updates

Elemental

Elemental Overload now increases multistrike damage by 20% (down from 35%).

Restoration

Chain Heal now heals for 25% more.

Riptide no longer increases Chain Heal’s effectiveness by 25% on the primary target.

For Restoration, that’s a rather huge quality of life improvement. Considering some of the other talents and glyphs that buff Chain Heal, as I talked about in my last article, add this to the fact that we find ourselves in a position where we’re going to be using it more and you can see how this is a bit of a bump. This is also good because it is sometimes very difficult to get the best mileage out of the spell in the heat of battle, making sure that the maximum number of people are affected while still getting the healing boost from casting it on a Riptide Target. Well, in patch 6.2 we won’t have to worry too much about that. Riptide will just be an instant heal with a heal over time effect without any more worry about how to position it to get the most out of it and chain heal.

In terms of elemental overload, this ties I feel directly into a lesson I learned this past week, and the short version is that multistrike for Elemental shaman is incredibly powerful. I mean, having decent multistrike stat with anything that increases multistrike damage can cover even massive gear gaps in a huge way. I believe that this is an attempt to sort of rein in the rampant domination of Elemental shaman on fights that have multiple targets to, well, strike. So, in the end, quality of life improvement for Restoration and a bit of a nerf for Elemental. Not sure about you, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the nerf won’t be a full 15% by the time it hits live servers.

Lessons in Burninating

To say that my return to Elemental has been marked by a large learning curve may be a bit of an understatement. I have always loved throwing lightning as a shaman, but I just haven’t really had the opportunity to do it in a raid environment in a long time. I mean, since Wrath of the Lich King long time. Coming back to the spec after so long was both refreshing and daunting as it forced me to reprogram parts of my brain that have been so hard coded for so long that it was borderline painful. So what did I learn that first week of throwing lightning?

First thing I learned, downtime is a killer. This is probably old news to some of you, but as a healer it’s not a big deal if you stop casting for a couple seconds to do something else. As an elemental shaman however, the moment I started in the throwing the elements at things in the current raid tier I noticed exactly how much you lose when you stop actively casting to do something else, even when it’s just moving. It highlighted, at least in my eyes, exactly how valuable things like Spiritwalker’s Grace are to keeping DPS up when we’re forced to move. Every time I had to move I watched my numbers tank until I could get back in the fight. It was kind of sobering, really. I didn’t realize exactly how much DPS we lose to, well, mechanics. Definitely a different aspect of the game than what I’m used to, and I didn’t expect it to be such a big reduction. Also when waiting for cooldowns between key spells, any time I didn’t fill the gap with Lightning Bolt, my DPS suffered by several thousand, further driving home the need to be casting things to keep up damage.

The second thing I learned is that multistrike is so very good. I thought that it was just one of those internet things where people say “Such and such is OP!”, but turns out that multistrike is as good as it says on the tin. I think this is part of the reason that Elemental Overload is getting nerfed a bit. On fights in which I was able to take advantage of multiple targets, my DPS skyrocketed. Not just by a little bit, but by a large margin. Thorgar for example, using non optimal gear I was keeping up with warlocks and mages in terms of damage dealt. Even on Maidens there was enough time with all three of them together that I could spell cleave and pull some numbers that didn’t really feel too terrible. Obviously as I’ve gotten more Elemental-specific gear my numbers have steadily improved, but that first week using mostly healing gear and seeing some fights where I was keeping up with people who had been DPSing the entire time was kind of shocking to me.

Lastly, I learned that rotations are dead, and spell priorities are here. This was probably the biggest culture shock to me. We have so many spells now, and so many talents as well as specialization perks that refresh abilities and spells, that a rotation really is not viable. You have to be a lot more fluid, and pay a lot more attention to what is coming off of cool down, or what is proccing on top of paying attention to raid mechanics. This isn’t your grandfather’s DPS anymore, and for what was once often joked as the “easiest” role in the game I can honestly say that is not the case. I also know that any wipes that were around that 1% mark, well, I felt I needed to step it up that much more to help down that boss. We definitely work for our numbers, and if anyone says otherwise I’m willing to throw down on behalf of my lightning throwing totem thumpers.

The overall lesson of the above was that I have so much more to learn, and so many more things to dive in to. Optimal spell priority, the most useful talents per fight, the best addons to use to assist with the setting things on fire and gathering the best tips available. Now this is where you come in — I want to know your favorite addons, your best tips for Elemental, and the reason behind them!