#0 - Nov. 5, 2007, 10:22 p.m.
Salthem - you want constructive, you're getting constructive.
The aim of this post is to :
- Show my own 3rd set of PTR testing
- Explain the changes for anyone who doesn't get why we are complaining,
- Try to sum up the issues
...and maybe, just maybe, get a dialogue with one of them blue guys going.
**Testing**
Previous Testing
I have previously done 2 rounds of PTR testing.
1st Test
10%+ loss of DPS, but flawed due to latency and bugged GCD.
2nd Test
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=1381118219&sid=1
Much more accurate, showing a 7.8% DPS loss.
New Testing
3rd Test
My longest and most conclusive test yet. I nuked for 115-second bursts (sometimes a bit shorter), added the results together and averaged. No Bloodlust, elemental mastery or trinkets abilities used. ToW and WoA totem up.
Gear was as I am wearing now, but T4 instead of T5 shoulders.
/Stopcasting and Quartz was used on the live realms, and only Lightning Bolt was cast.
Live
Test runs: 7
Total test time: 764 seconds
DPS: 1041.7
Crit rate: 35.4%
Castes per minute: 31.3
PTR
Test runs: 12
Total test time: 1219 seconds
DPS: 976.8
Crit rate: 37.2%
Castes per minute: 34.4
Conclusion: A loss of 6.2% of DPS
Its worth noting two points which may make this even worse:
i) The new "in-built" stopcasting system on the PTR really is working well now, and my gut feeling is that its superior to Quartz, and may be buffing my DPS, by letting me cast more.
ii) My crit rate was lower on the live realm, so the DPS loss should probably be bigger, if crit rates were equal.
I have tested for some time, and this is my third round of testing, so I have ironed out the kinks in my methods. This should therefore be reliable.
Other Testing
Testing by Niamee - respected regular of the Shaman forums. http://files.filefront.com/damtwmv/;8885685;/fileinfo.html
Shows a much, much worse nerf to DPS - this is partially to be expected as this is a scaling nerf (see below) and the gear is a lot better than mine :P
**Why We Are Unhappy**
1. The Loss of Lightning Bolt DPS
The changes to Lightning Bolt and the Lightning Mastery talent mean that our spell damage coefficient goes from 0.857 to 0.714. Or, in plain English... if you had +1000 spell damage, you will get +714 damage instead of +857 (ie a +143 damage nerf on each lightning bolt).
Even worse, because the concussion talent (+5% damage) is added after bonus spell damage, we get hit a bit more.
So adding all this up - a shaman with +1000 spell damage will go from hitting for 1533 per bolt, to 1383 per bolt. The damage loss for crits is obviously twice as bad, and Ele shamans tend to crit a lot.
Also, this nerf directly hurts our scaling, so the better your gear, the more it hurts. Its entirely possible that BT/MH Tier 6 geared Ele Shamans will lose 10%+ of their DPS - and thats just awful. (The Tier 6 set bonus also has another Concussion-style +5% dmg ability in it, which means the super well geared will see it a little worse still.)
2. The Loss of Overall DPS
The morning after the 2.3 changes were announced, Shamans were theorycrafting, and the majority showed a DPS nerf.
Its been clear to most of the community - literally since day 1 of this - that Lightning Overload would not add enough DPS to turn this into the buff we hoped for. The new version of Lightning Overload simply doesn't make back the damage we have lost on lightning bolt.
Hence we are looking at the sort of test results I am showing above (and wondering just how the developers could ever have come to see this as a buff - see below).
3. Lightning Capacitor Changes
Yes, it probably was a little overpowered - BUT we were kind of relying on it. The changed 2.3 version of the Capacitor is still good, but the loss of DPS from its new cooldown comes at a bad time for us.
Yes, it was a crutch, but now is a bad time to kick it away.
4. Loss of raid viability
Elemental shamans make the majority of their contribution through pure DPS. Our group buffs are not great (e.g. ToW) or can be done by another specc (e.g. Bloodlust). We don't want to hit like a lock, mage or rogue - but unless you improve our group buffs, we need good DPS to be worth a raid spot.
5. The loss of damage hurts PVP too.
The changes to Ele make Lightning Overload seem essential to regain some of the damage we lost, this is a direct nerf to 35/0/26 type PVP builds. By making us put more talent points into one tree to keep PVP viability it reduces our options, and our abilities as a hybrid.
Without going too off-topic, there are a lot of concerns already around our PVP ability (horrible vulnerability to counterspell locking out nature spells, lack of anti-cc - for example) if things go live as they are, they will make what some people already see as a bad situation worse.
6. Communication
I think this post sums it up very well:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2765929939&sid=1
To summarise, our communication issues are:
a) Patch 2.3 was meant to be a buff to DPS - what happened?
How has your internal testing perceived this to be a buff to DPS? Its OK to talk about removing PTR bugs, but even the theory suggests that its a nerf.
What conditions was the testing done in? Can you admit a mistake was made? Or was it meant to be a nerf - in which case why??
If its not meant to be a nerf, can we have any reassurance that it will be fixed to a buff before 2.3 goes live?
b) We have had very little CM response, especially on the EU forums. Even a few "this is being looked at/passed on" posts would have been good, but we have been having to go to the US forums just for that.
**TLDR version**
Elemental shamans are losing a load of DPS, it will hurt a lot in PVE and PVP. We feel genuinely confused - and increasingly angry - from our communication with Blizzard, particularly that this was meant to be a buff.
I urge all shamans who would like to feedback here to:
a) Give your suggestions for anything I have missed
b) Keep this thread alive until we get some feedback (or hell freezes over, whatever).