What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain.. .
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine…
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Now, the point of this is basically just to tell that we’re finally getting a proper use for Earth Shock as Elemental. The latest Cataclysm beta-build (12803) added in a useful combination of things. First, we get to use Lightning Shield instead of Water Shield, and it will provide us with mana regain and a mechanic somehow similar to Enhancement’s Static Shock. It all comes from the two new talents Rolling Thunder and Fulmination.

Rolling Thunder gives us the nice mana regeneration. 1% total mana is quite a bit, especially with a 60% chance of every Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning being fired. The side-effect of adding a shield-charge seems to be a bit odd at first – it’s not really intended for us to get hit to do damage. However, that’s where the second part comes in.

Fulmination (the name is incredibly fitting by the way) gives us a way to deplete excess shield charges from the maximum of 9, down to the normal amount of 3, by firing off – yes, Earth Shock. In short, optimal conditions will let it do the extra damage of 6 charges. Improved Shields suddenly looks very interesting, and one could theorize that [Glyph of Lightning Shield] might be slightly useful. Then again, glyphs haven’t been touched upon yet, so it’s quite meaningless to talk about those just yet.

If we use todays numbers, the extra 6 charges would add the following amount to the damage:

Seeing as 3500 spell power is in no way a unreachable number, that would give us a bonus damage of at least:

… and that’s a pretty stunning number, considering Earth Shock‘s damage itself hasn’t been added yet.

There still is some “drawbacks” though. First of all, it’s not really going to be that often we can use it (around every 20th second or so, if we’re lucky). Understandable, since it lacks such a severe punch. Secondly, there’s the thing that it’s not yet included in Elemental Reach, which reels us into 25 yard range. Most likely going to be fixed though, as it would be incredibly awkward otherwise.

Still, it’s a change I thing is very welcome, adds a bit of spice to the rotation, and breathes some new life into an old friend – although, most of us would probably prefer something with Frost Shock instead. Now, if only I had a beta key so I could test this properly…

Now, first of all, it was “just” (3 days ago) announced that the Mastery and Talents was up for a bit change, by giving us less talent-points, but giving each of these more meaning, while – as we have known for some time – making all the boring stuff passive. The way I’ve built Thunderstruck, is basically by having a long list of what the various talents does, and add those bonuses to the base spell-values, which are then used to simulate a casts, based on the characters current statistics (as these can obviously change, by using trinkets, being under the effects of [Bloodlust] or otherwise). Less numbers flying around should make that a lot easier.

The fun part about masteries was indeed the Elemental Overload (basically just [Lightning Overload], where Lava Burst can now be triggered as well), which I’ve already covered the basics of. The way I’ve done it, is basically that Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst, are all simulated with the same function, with the only difference (except different input numbers), is that the later has a variable set that doesn’t let it do Overload, but instead causes it to always crit. Now, this is something I can change, and completely leave out, as all of them will be able to do it.

In regards to statistical additions, there will be three additions/modifications: Spirit, Intellect and Mastery Rating. The first two are easy, however. Spirit will simply (as it stands now) be added as Hit Rating, and continue as that. Intellect will add a conversion-ratio for Spell Power (and that is possibly being changed to “Spell Power on weapon”). Lastly, there’s Mastery Rating – but do we know that works? Actually, it is quite simple – if my assumption is correct: Like any other Rating, Mastery translates directly into a percentage, from the basic rating formula. This percentage boosts your current Third Mastery (in this case: Elemental Overload), by that amount.

So, basically, let’s say the base percentage of Elemental Overload is 25% (as it looks now), and our Mastery rating translates into 38%, we’d end up having a 34,5% chance of Elemental Mastery doing its wonders. I like that – it’s going to give some nice theoretical wonders in determining which stat is the best, and how they’ll end up scale with each other.

Exam period is once again ravaging my mind (although, this time, my meta-algorithm seemed to go a lot better than last time). I havn’t gotten the grade yet, but I’m quite certain it’s near the top. Should be revealed in a week or so. On top of that, I’m in the middle of an intensive 3 weeks programming-project, which is quite entertaining, taking the hard work into consideration, as we just finished the “introduction”-week, and got to know the details of our main project, which is to be finished by the 25th.

World of Warcraft-wise, I had my first 1 month anniversary as a Wowhead Moderator. Some might have seen it in my Tweet-feed, but I thought I’d mention here as well, for good measure, as it has indeed affected how I spend my online-time. It feels great to be able to give something back to the community, by ensuring that the Forums are a nice place to discuss various stuff – and it has so far indeed been a pleasant experience to be a part of the team, and getting the experience in moderating.

On top of that, I’ve begun conquoring the heroic content of Icecrown Citadel 25-man raiding, which is steadily progressing. I’ll probably also look a bit more into how the Shamans are looking for Cataclysm, when more information is showing itself. For now, my previous post still seems up to date, which can be combined with the newly released official talent calculator preview.

Lastly, I feel like reminding everyone that R.A.G.E wasn’t just an empty idea – I just don’t really get that many random ideas for crazy stuff to write nowadays, or the most immediate thoughts are published as Tweets, as they’re simply too short to deserve a post of their own (although I might do more of those semi-short ones). I do however want to get back to look more closely at the Diablo-universe, and continuing my theorizing about it, in different shapes or forms.

In essence, Rebirth isn’t really a fitting title, Reawakening probably covers it better – unless I’m mistaken for a phoenix made of lightning instead of fire… and not be a phoenix after all, but a gnu instead.

Spirit -> Hit:
While it’s a thing I covered in my previous post, on the subject of Cataclysm Class-changes, we’ll be getting our hit from spirit, coming from an addition to the “Elemental Precision“-talent, that now causes 100% of our hit to be converted to Spell Hit rating. Of course, it’ll still be giving the flat 3% as well. However, if the talent-description is completely right… it’s 101% from spirit and 4% passive hit. I’m pretty sure that’s a rounding error however. The conversion completely fits with itemization, as they’re equally valued on items. For now, I sadly can’t find a good comparison, but it’s true enough at least.

However, there’s a hidden bonus, that most probably won’t see at the first glimpse: You also have some passive spirit. Granted, all spirit-buffs, or those giving base-stat bonuses, are being removed – but the passive is still there. For me, that’s a free 144 hit rating, which surely is quite a bit (which is 3.81% hit, if the rating system continue as it is now). It could however, very likely, be that base spirit is being wiped too, but that’s too early to say yet.

Lava Surge:
An interesting addition, that I didn’t really expect at first, especially combined with a fair bit of luck. Imagine an overloaded Lava Burst, followed by a Lava Surge proc, which is quickly used with Elemental Mastery and another Overload after that. That’s of course after an Unleashed Flametongue from the start. Ouch!

All the others…:
Earthquake, Acute Overload and Wrathful Totems aren’t really news, so I won’t really go into details with those, since I already covered it in my previous post. They sure look interesting, however. And, they somehow confirm the suspicion above of oddly rounded percentages.

Call Cpt. Obvious:
I can’t wait.

As expected, I’ll keep the focus on the elemental aspect, as it would otherwise be too much of a write-up – and there are probably (and hopefully) someone out there, who have a greater idea of things in those branches of the shaman class.

Talents & Masteries:
While we didn’t exactly get any view of how the talent-tree is going to fan out, a cool (and much wanted) thing have been revealed, besides the spirit -> hit conversion, which I’ll get into later.

Earthquake! Seemingly, it will be just like the Farseer skill in Warcraft 3, functioning a bit like the Mages’ Blizzard-skill: a (probably) channeled targeted AoE.

On top of that, the Mastery-bonuses have also been revealed to be that of Spell Damage, Spell Crit and Elemental Overload. While the two first is, as expected, quite boring and ordinary, Elemental Overload is just as awesome as you might guess from the name:

Elemental Overload: Your direct-damage spells have a chance to proc a less powerful ‘bonus” version of the spell. This will work much like the current Lightning Overload talent, but would also apply to Lava Burst.

It was later clarified that the current Lightning Overload talent would make the benefit of that specific mastery greater, in some way. How and such, will remain to be seen.

New skills:
This is where it gets really interesting so far, as quite a few of the abilities shown will a really nice impact on the Elemental playing style.

Unleash Weapon (level 81): Unleashes the power of your weapon enchants for additional effects (see below). A dual-wielding Enhancement shaman will activate the effects of both of their weapon enchants. Instant cast. 30-yard range. 15-second cooldown. Undispellable.
- Flametongue Weapon – Deals instant Fire damage and buffs the shaman’s next Fire attack by 20%.

Yes, I left out the other weapon imbues, as it wouldn’t make sense for me to write them. Suffice to say, they’re quite nice as well. It should be quite obvious that this is to be spend in coalition with Lava Burst. An increase of 20% damage is simply huge. Question is, if it Unleash Weapon will trigger the GCD, and – in that case – the direct damage done by the unleash, along with the 20% extra from the following Lava Burst, will make up for it.

However, when looking at the Masteries, this skill looks a lot more exciting all of a sudden. Imagine the following: Unleashed Weapon, Lava Burst… and then Elemental Overload. Ouch!

Spiritwalker’s Grace (level 85): When this self-targeted buff is active, your spells are no longer interrupted by movement and possibly even by your own attacks. This will give shaman of all three specs another way to heal or do damage when it’s necessary to move in both PvE and PvP. Instant cast. 10-second duration. 2-minute cooldown.

An incredibly amazingly sounding ability, and probably every casters dream since … the dawn of time, is my personal guess. Not only is this spell useful to all of specs, but it removes some of the “turret”-problems that especially Elemental have, by only having a single DoT, and no spamable instant-cast ability. No, shocks doesn’t count here. I’m really looking forward to trying this one out, especially together with the mentioned combination above, finishing off (or starting) with Elemental Mastery.

Of course, as everything, it’s subject to change, but it sounds nice indeed.

Totem of Wrath:
I figured the good old Totem of Wrath deserved a section of its own, as there’s coming some hefty changes to it. As we know, the Spell Power aspect of the totem is shared with Flametongue Totem and Demonology Warlock’s Demonic Pact, where the latter is quite a bit better. The change is then going to be the following, making the effect granted from Elemental Shaman the same:

Totem of Wrath now will replace Flametongue Totem for all shaman, and dropping this totem will buff the group’s spell power by 4%. Elemental shaman will have a talent that lets all Fire totems provide +10% spell power, allowing them to drop Searing, Magma, or Fire Elemental Totems without losing their spell-damage buff. The 4% and 10% buffs will be exclusive with each other and with the warlock’s Demonic Pact, so you can’t benefit from all of them at once. We’re also considering letting Elemental drop Searing Totem at range.

Quite a nice change indeed, which should give us a further damage increase, let alone more raid viability (however, it’s quite early to talk about that, at this moment).

… and, then there’s the matter of the little bonus, that sneaked into that quote: Totem Toss. Nothing more really needs to be said here, besides that I really hope this will be kept in, one way or the other. And, naturally, that Searing Totem is going to do competitive damage to Magma, even single target.

Itemization:
After a long while of being at the short end of the stick with itemization, it seems it’s finally going to look good again. As I mentioned above, Spirit will now be translated into Hit through a talent, enabling basically every single wearable caster weapon, jewelry and trinket to be useful, as Mp5 is getting removed. On top of that, we will share items with Restoration shamans, even more than now, as most Restoration shaman doesn’t really need the mp5 that some of the pieces provide. While the last part may look a bit bad at the first glance, I sincerely believe this will be a very good change.

Wrapping it up, and looking forward:
Unless the revamped Troll racials are going to be really really awesome, my decision to race-change to Goblin is looking quite set in stone, at this moment. The added mobility, plus the changes above – and the obviously fitting mentality of the Goblins – looks very appealing to me.

The spi… lava must flow!