First one down on Mythic!
An AoE-fest on normal and heroic, not much different on Mythic!
Skorpyron gains some colour-shifting abilities which slightly change the fight at times...
Blue... the regular abilities we know from Heroic
Red... sheds Volatile scales which pulse AoE and explode after Shockwave
Green... sheds poisonous scales which stack a dot on the raid
There are also a couple of colourful new scorpion adds to complicate things, the most impactful being the poisonous green one which drops pools of acid around the room.
These extra mechanics basically amount to making positioning much more difficult, not helped by the scales de-spawning at some inopportune times.
Once you get used to the extra care and planning that's needed to find a safe spot for the Shockwave, it is remarkably similar to Normal/Heroic and it doesn't take long before you are pushing for the kill.
The dps requirement is almost non-existent as the incredible amount of AoE flying around absolutely shreds the smaller scorpions with the slightly bigger ones not far behind.
So it took us a few wipes to sort our movement out, then a few more as some silly mistakes were made... maybe a Shaman was a bit too keen with his Chain Lightning (note to self: Lightning, faster than a Death Knight) and died from aggro a couple of times... but we soon had a clean run and got the kill!
With no Warlock or Demon hunter in our team, this boss is an Elemental Shaman's dream. Showing the flexibility of our talent tree, I specced for more AoE damage, picking Liquid Magma Totem and Lightning Rod.
Both choices did incredible damage, LM Totem hitting around 5 million per cast was amazing but Lightning Rod managed a total of 40 million damage over the fight!
It was behind only Chain Lightning on my damage which is insane for a talent!
Those are nothing compared to Static Overload though... what makes Shaman AoE so powerful is the interaction between Chain Lightning and our mastery, Elemental Overload.
Elemental Overload is a percentage chance, based on our Mastery level, to copy your last spell at 75% damage.
Static Overload is an artefact trait that gives a 10% chance for Chain Lightning to trigger Elemental Overload on all targets hit!
1 Chain Lightning cast procs 5 more Chain Lightning casts!
This is in addition to the normal chance to overload so, if you get lucky, 1 cast can produce 11 Chain Lightnings!
It looks amazing!
Some proper Sith lord shenanigans going on here.
The meters were topped by our other Ele Shaman. The winner between us on AoE fights is usually whoever got the most Static Overload procs but not this time, he had me well beaten.
This fight, despite how comfortably we beat it, has forced me to change my style of play!
I was so handsomely beaten by my Shaman compatriot because I was tab-targeting, this fight was a lesson in frustration for tab-targeting.
The scorpions circling the room which are immune to damage are not immune to being targeted via the tab button, even at times when I was virtually stood on Skorpyron's tail it would choose one of the onlookers rather than the boss (or anything I could actually damage).
I doubt this will be a watershed moment like switching from clicker to keybound but it certainly made the difference on this fight... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Next up... Chronomatic Anomaly!
Another Heroic clear first though, fingers crossed for that 4-set!
See ya.
I have to say chain lightning has always been OP, but this is just taking it too far LOL.
ReplyDeleteI jest of course ele shaman has certainly had its fair share buffs and nerfs since the new release, but have they been worth it. On the evidence of this first outing into mythic surely there cant be an ele shaman in the realm thinking we need more buffs, although i suspect there will be the odd one that still would like a buff or 2 (tho i suspect they are yet to get out of LFR).
So are Ele shaman now OP?
In short i'm going to say no. I think this is just a fight that suits them, further to that though i'm going to say its been a good job by blizzard who lets face it haven't been exactly shy at messing around with all the classes. It seems to me and my very limited amount of reading and playing that every class has an opportunity to shine in this latest patch sure some may only have one or 2 fights were they are truly in a class of there own but then the rest are not too far behind either. the flip side is also true in that some fights are just not meant to be your fight no matter how well you play your role or class you are just going to struggle to get in the top half of your raids DPS race. Isn't that the way it should be? certain classes excelling in certain situations while other struggle?
Are Ele Shaman OP?
DeleteNot because we are great at this fight, along with Spellblade and Tichondrius, but because we don't have any fights where we struggle.
On our best fights I am in the top 3 dps yet, on our worst, I am still in the top 5-6 and I would probably be higher if I could play all of the different talent builds to the same standard.
There are still very few Ele Shaman at the top level though, something different is going on there, which is why there is always a call for buffs.
It leads to an amusing circular argument on the MMO-C forums...
If you think Ele is fine, it must mean the rest of your raid are scrubs because they can't beat you.
If you think Ele needs buffs, it must mean you are a scrub and need to L2P.