The Future is in the Maelstrom...

Exciting times for the Elemental Shaman!

For the full preview, click here.

For so long it has been one of the simplest specs to play, the only complexity coming from the shared shock cooldown and the occasional talent or glyph selection.

But no more!

We have a Resource!!!

We've always had mana but it's never actually mattered to us. 
In fact, the last time I remember mana being an issue was when I got carried away healing the blobs on Immerseus back in SoO.

Now we have a real resource... Focus!  Er, I mean... Maelstrom!

It will work much like Focus currently works for Hunters or Rage for Warriors, some spells generate Maelstrom while some consume it.

The generators will be Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and Chain Lightning which makes perfect sense to me. 
They form the core of our rotation and it seems that won't change.
We will still cast LvB on cooldown, still cast Earth shock to prevent x from capping, still fill with LB.

The really interesting part so far is how much Maelstrom those spells are going to generate. 
The class preview, which obviously might change in the many moons between now and launch, has them generating 15 Maelstrom each plus any Mastery procs.

(Ooh... Mastery! 
In WoD, they took away our Mastery and gave it to everyone in the form of Multistrike. 
Now they are removing Multistrike and giving it back to us!)

The Mastery proc takes it up to 26.25 per cast so we will be generating, and therefore spending, our Maelstrom at an incredible rate!

Assuming a cap of 100 Maelstrom, we will want to Earth Shock at 75+ to avoid capping if our next spell procs Mastery.

That equates to a maximum of 5 casts between Earth Shocks so the whole cycle of building then dumping Maelstrom will take a maximum of 10 seconds!

In reality, there will likely be a Mastery proc or two along the way or some other generator in play such as the Maelstrom Totem, and that cycle will be reduced to 6 -8 seconds.

Although the rotation will look similar to the current one, the speed of that cycle will increase the relative number of instant cast spells and the playstyle will be feel much more dynamic.

This relative increase in instant casts is accentuated even further by Flame Shock ticking every two seconds instead of every three which should lead to more Lava Surge procs.

More instant casts and the long-awaited removal of the shock cooldown, will also make a huge difference to our movement...

Spiritwalker's Grace has always handled the planned, extended movement in fights but it's the short bursts of movement that normally leave us struggling, often with nothing to cast at all.

These frequently come in the guise of random-target abilities or ground effects and a succession of them, such as Kilrogg's Death Throes, would be especially difficult for us to handle outside of SWG.

Now we will always have Earth Shock available so we can cast it with any movement and that, or a stutter-step approach of LB, ES, LB, ES and so on, can take care of most circumstances.

If all else fails, Flame Shock can be cast at zero Maelstrom so is spammable in extreme situations, or even if you just need to cast two instants back to back.

It won't do astounding dps but means we always have a spell available and, more importantly, decisions to make!

This is how to improve gameplay without fundamentally changing a class, well done Blizzard!