Shaman Highs and Lows...

Okaaay... so I'm just going to pretend it hasn't been months since I last posted and crack on.
Everyone fine with that? 
Good, let's go.

I was excited by the changes being brought in to the Elemental Shaman so happily agreed when my RL asked me if I would switch back to my shaman for Legion.
The Mage had been fun, and I had become quite attached to it, but it was only an alt after all.
The Shaman is my main, has been for a long time now, and these changes promised to go a long way towards solving the playstyle issues that had plagued us for years and robbed me of my enthusiasm for the class.

So how is the Legion Elemental Shaman?

First... the good.
There is only one word to describe the Shaman class order hall... Epic!
Much has been made of class fantasy in the lead up to this expansion and, in this case, they got it right to spectacular effect.

Hewn from the rock of the Maelstrom itself, with your artefact forge precariously perched on a sliver hanging out over the abyss, you are engulfed by the elements.
I haven't seen many of the other class order halls (only Mage, Rogue, DK so far) but I doubt any can match the sheer spectacle of the Shaman's new home.
It is breath-taking!

Which leads me nicely on to the class quests... I've said is before but probably my favourite (solo) content from WoW was the Fangs of the Father legendary questline for Rogues back in Cata. 
When content is tailored to your class or spec in this way, it adds so much more depth.  You can design based around a particular set of skills (insert Liam Neeson meme here) because you know they are available. 

The Shaman quests were not designed to match the challenge of that legendary questline but they made up for that with some fantastic flavour and storytelling, again living up to this ideal of class fantasy.
It was so good it has made me re-think a plan I had to cut back on alts in this expansion.  Now I want to see ALL the questlines!

The Talent Tree...
Some shaman have been quite vociferous in their complaints about the talent tree but I think that is more to do with tuning (more on that later) than the talents themselves.

There is so much flexibility with the talents it is astounding!  You can build for virtually any playstyle you desire...
Want more AoE? 
There are talents that refund maelstrom allowing more Earthquake totems, or have Lava Burst spread your Flame Shocks, or straight-up Magma Totem for an extra AoE spell.
Want more single target?
Ascendance is now a talent choice, Primal Elementalist is still here, Elemental Mastery for your own mini-Heroism on a 2-min cd.
Want more cleave?
Lightning Rod to make more of your Chain Lightning
An add that needs to die fast?
Pick Icefury to massively buff your Frost shock and just unload them as soon as the add spawns.
Need more instant spells to cover some movement?
Icefury again, having 4 big-hitting instant casts up your sleeve can be amazing for those times that Lava Surge just won't proc.

The options are almost endless and the whole tree offers some amazing flexibility.

Which brings me on to the bad...

Ability Tuning...
The base AoE of Elemental, Chain Lightning and Earthquake Totem, feels so incredibly weak that it often doesn't feel worth it to use them.
Earthquake Totem in particular, with it's 50 Maelstrom cost, just feels like wasted time and resources.  You need multiple of them down at the same time (and 5+ targets to stay in them for the full duration) to gain any tangible benefit.

It just doesn't happen in a raid environment. 
Any time you get enough adds to make it worthwhile they have very low HP, like the hands on Kormrok, and die very quickly to Bladestorm, Barrage etc.
I can't even think of an example where there are 5+ high-HP mobs in a fight all stacked together... maybe Nefarian back in Blackwing Descent but those adds were just kited anyway.

You may think the answer is to select talents that minimise this weakness, and we can improve our AoE to a certain extent, but it comes at the detriment of our single target damage.
The talents are in direct competition with each other, you can buff single target OR AoE OR Cleave.  So you have to pick your poison depending on what is most important in a fight and stick with it. 
Not necessarily a bad thing, and at least there are options, but a fight rarely stays as one type unless it is single target and even 'add fights' have a strong single target element to them.

And finally... Class Balance.
Not entirely confined to the Shaman but it certainly influences your choices heavily.
The single target burst build has been calculated as the best overall dps (no surprise given the weakness of CL/EQ) but even with all talents chosen to buff this gameplay, it still isn't close to being competitive with other dps specs.

All of those options in the talent tree for more movement, cleave, AoE, or whatever are a further dps loss compared to other classes. 
It is so demoralising to feel like even your best option isn't good enough, even when you have thrown all the other tools away to focus on it.

Even levelling was a challenge at times, pulling multiple mobs or trying to solo a rare often resulting in death, or at the very least a protracted balancing act of healing, kiting and dps.

Everyone moans about their class, right?  Buffs pls Blizz FFS!!!1!
Often the class is fine and it's the player that is lacking and maybe that's true for me but watch Naesam's heroic Xavius kill.
He gets the big dps buff in that fight and destroys it, posting the 2nd highest Elemental Shaman parse in the world... and finishes 13th on dps in his own raid group!

Summary...
The Elemental Shaman is still great fun to play and is visually stunning, as is it's class order hall.  A couple of changes that have been made (Gust of Wind, removal of shock cd) have allowed for some fun kiting playstyles which weren't really open to us previously.
There is an incredible flexibility of playstyle available and you can tailor your Shaman to fit in with however you want to play.

However, in challenging content of any type, the Ele Shaman really struggles.  Some of the issues could be solved with better class balancing but there are still gaping holes in the Shaman toolkit compared to other classes.

Particularly since I played the mage, saw the other side, these holes in the toolkit have caused me more and more frustration.  So much so that, even if Blizzard suddenly buff our dps through the roof, I am seriously considering switching my main character.

Sad times.

In the next post, I will talk more about Legion itself and I promise it will be much more positive!  Despite the disillusionment I have with the Shaman, I am still loving every minute of the expansion.

See you soon!