Shaman Patch Update...Again!

[Zal]

Elemental Shaman changes (Source)
Hopefully this won't get buried here. Here is what we are thinking about to try on the PTR for Elemental:


Elemental Oath -- In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
Elemental Mastery -- Overhauled. Now increases the Shaman’s critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains 3 minutes. We recognize this might be a slight nerf in certain PvP situations where players relied on the shaman to nuke an injured person to death. Still, I'm betting most shamans will prefer the new design.
Glyph of Lightning Bolt -- No longer affects cost. Now increases damage by 4%

Glyph used to fix Lightning Bolt
We didn't make the change for that reason. We looked at what specs were getting out of their glyphs and it turns out that some specs were getting a decent dps increase while Elemental was not. No matter what we did to other talents and spells, this imabalnce would continue to keep Elemental dps lower than what we wanted. (Source)

Reasons behind the changes to Water Shield
This was the issue. It wasn't a healer niche problem at all. Shamans were just abandoning Healing Wave to cast Lesser Healing Wave since it was more efficient for procing Improved Water Shield, which felt weird. (Source)
In this order:
YAY
CRAP
DON'T CARE... maybe

[Hachoo]

I like the ele mastery change. Its a much bigger DPS increase in PvE than the old one. Its not as good for PvP but Tank + 4 shaman teams should love it.

[TheBigBB]

Awesome changes which will boost the damage of my shamans in PVE.

[Bigfish]

What is the water shield change?

Probably a "can only proc every x seconds"

[Aradar]

What is the water shield change?

It's a change to Improved Water Shield as shown below, which are more updates not shown above:


Restoration

Healing Way doesn't stack up to 3 times anymore and now increases the effect of subsequent Healing Wave spells on the target by 18%. (Up from 6%)
Improved Water Shield has been changed to - You have a 33/66/100% chance to instantly consume a Water Shield Orb when you gain a critical effect from your Healing Wave or Riptide spells, and a 19.8/39.6/60% chance when you gain a critical effect from your Lesser Healing Wave spell.

Glyph

Glyph of Windfury Weapon - Increases the chance per swing for Windfury Weapon to trigger by 5%. (Old - The attack power bonus on the additional attacks granted by Windfury Weapon is increased by 40%.)
Glyph of Fire Nova Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Nova Totem by 3 seconds. (Old - Increases the radius of Fire Nova Totem's effect by 2 yards.)
Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Elemental Totem by 10 min. (Up from 4 minutes)
Glyph of Astral Recall - Cooldown of your Astral Recall spell reduced by 7.5 min. (Up from 2.5 min)
Glyph of Renewed Life - Your Reincarnation spell no longer requires a reagent. (Old - All stats increased by 5% for 1 min when you Reincarnate.)

Apparantly people were spamming LHW which had the same crit but shorter cast as HW which made IWS more efficient so they reduced the proc for LHW.

[Bigfish]

/sigh, this is why I don't play the lottery.

[Talamarr]

/sigh, this is why I don't play the lottery.

Because of the change to Glyph of Lighting Bolt? /confused.

[Bigfish]

Fur asked what the change was, I made a prediction, and as with all my predictions, I was wrong, hence, I shouldn't play the lottery because the numbers I predict would invariably follow the same pattern.

[Zal]

i'm a pvper so the EM sucks for me. However, pve has become a bit more interesting to me.
Anyway, just to add a bit of a discussion: Which is better Glyph of Flametounge weapon VS (the new) Glyph of Lighting bolt?
I'm aiming towards glyph of LB since thats a major spell for us and 2% more crit would probably be less dmg total.

[entoptic]

i'm a pvper so the EM sucks for me. However, pve has become a bit more interesting to me.
Anyway, just to add a bit of a discussion: Which is better Glyph of Flametounge weapon VS (the new) Glyph of Lighting bolt?
I'm aiming towards glyph of LB since thats a major spell for us and 2% more crit would probably be less dmg total.

Zal if you are for pvp then you want the lavaburst dmg glyph and the flameshock glyphs. I did this since I am a pvper and its ownage.

[Aradar]

Interesting change. I link it as I *never* use LHW. Its just not big enough IMO. :)

Of course I only actively heal my main tank - if the Elemental Shaman need a heal, they heal themselves. :)

Same here. I don't even use IWS actually since I don't currently run into many mana problems, plus I'd rather have the constant mp5 without the additional worry of refreshing it once my crits use it up. I have enough to worry about as it is.

Edit: People were using this with Glyph of LHW by the way which makes it heal for 20% more on a target with Eearth Shield. I thought about changing my spec to incorporate this but decided against it.


i'm a pvper so the EM sucks for me. However, pve has become a bit more interesting to me.
Anyway, just to add a bit of a discussion: Which is better Glyph of Flametounge weapon VS (the new) Glyph of Lighting bolt?
I'm aiming towards glyph of LB since thats a major spell for us and 2% more crit would probably be less dmg total.

I hadn't considered the glyph ramifications but I think I agree with you. My major glyphs will be Flame Shock, Lava and Lightning Bolt. Be interesting to know what the CD is for Elemental Focus though becuase 2% more crit would proc this more which under these changes would give 10% more spell damage across the board.

Edit: This also makes Glyph of Elemental Mastery interesting which reduces cooldown on EM by 30 secs. 20% increased crit over 30 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown averages out to a 3.33% crit increase. With a 2.5 minute cooldown it would go up to 4% so maybe not. :P

[Zal]

i'm a pvper so the EM sucks for me. However, pve has become a bit more interesting to me.
Anyway, just to add a bit of a discussion: Which is better Glyph of Flametounge weapon VS (the new) Glyph of Lighting bolt?
I'm aiming towards glyph of LB since thats a major spell for us and 2% more crit would probably be less dmg total.

Zal if you are for pvp then you want the lavaburst dmg glyph and the flameshock glyphs. I did this since I am a pvper and its ownage.
thats only 2 glyphs, you can have 3 at 80 and I already have those.

[Multibocks]

Don't forget Glyph of Healing Stream, it's too good to pass up! Even on non-resto shamans ^^