Chain Lightning worth it?

[Jayne]

Hey there!

I have barely begun instancing with my new PvE team (Warrior, 3x Shaman and Resto Druid), and let me first say what a blast it is to clear instances! Can't wait for them heroics!
Anyway, on to the question at hand... After I cleared Halls of Lightning I checked my Recount addon to see some details about the abilities used by my shaman DPSers. Lightning Bolt was apperently shot 225 times and did 603963, and Chain Lightning was shot 220 times for 498755. Which I guess means that Chain Lightning did less damage while costing more mana for my little dudes. And since my team is a bit short on equipment (I do have some mana issues sometimes), would it be alright to skip Chain Lightning from the /click macro?

I use the /click macro posted on the wiki (which is great! I think it has upped my DPS a lot!):

/assist focus
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/cast elemental mastery
/click MultiBarRightButton1
/click MultiBarRightButton2
/click MultiBarRightButton3
/click MultiBarRightButton4
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")

/castsequence reset=combat flame shock,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

/castsequence reset=combat lava burst,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

/castsequence reset=combat chain lightning,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

/cast lightning bolt

(Also, being a total noob at macros, would the above ones work if I just remove chain lightning from it? Or will I have to change the ",,,,,,,"s on the others?

Cheers for reading!
Jayne

[Jubber]

Lightning bolt spam has shown better results. Only thing you really need chain lighting on is trash. Just make 2 Big Button Macros. The trash macro would be your current macro

/assist focus
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/cast elemental mastery
/click MultiBarRightButton1
/click MultiBarRightButton2
/click MultiBarRightButton3
/click MultiBarRightButton4
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")

Your boss macro would be
/assist focus
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/cast elemental mastery
/click MultiBarRightButton1
/click MultiBarRightButton2
/click MultiBarRightButton4
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")

[Zal]

Lightning bolt spam has shown better results. Only thing you really need chain lighting on is trash.

this is pretty much it.

[Jayne]

Wow, swift reply! Thanks a lot! Will use this

Cheers again!

[Whowantstoknow]

Incorrect.

Everything I say will depend on your gear level but for most of us CL will be a dps boost even against single targets - this has been true since the shamanism change in 3.2.2 . The only time you should drop CL from your rotation is either when you do not have the mana to sustain it (should not be an issue if you only CL after a CC proc) or if you BL.

[BobGnarly]

For most of us, it's marginal either way. I'd say it's down to personal preference, so do what you feel most comfortable. I only CL if there are 3+ mobs (for simplicity sake) and I've managed just fine.

[Fursphere]

I only pull CL out for CC fights.

Most of the instances / raids is trash mobs - and more than one. So AoE of any kind is going to speed things up. I just leave it in so I don't forget.

[Whowantstoknow]

For most of us, it's marginal either way. I'd say it's down to personal preference, so do what you feel most comfortable. I only CL if there are 3+ mobs (for simplicity sake) and I've managed just fine.

The difference is usually quite big actually - just going by Jayne's numbers

LB - 603963/225 = 2684.28 damage per cast
CL - 498755/220 = 2267.09 damage per cast

Now Im going to assume that Jayne does not have much haste yet so assuming LB has a cast time of 2.0s and CL 1.5s

LB - 1342.14dps
CL - 1511.39dps

obviously you are going to prioritise CL as it is over 12% more dps than LB even on single targets

[Jubber]

We'd need a little more info than just total numbers here across the entire instance as AOE can crazy dps numbers. He/She would be better off testing their group on a test dummy and comparing themselves if it is worth it or not to drop.

[Fursphere]

You'd have to spec OUT of lightning overload as well. Procs will scew your numbers.