Double flametongue change, windfury buff!
The PTR notes for patch 4.0.6 have been updated again, this time with some changes very relevant to enhancement! You can read the fully updated list here.
First, we have the original Flametongue Weapon change from a few days ago: “Flametongue Weapon damage now scales from attack power instead of spell power (for Enhancement shaman only).” According to current PTR testing, it is bugged on the PTR and inheriting the 50% damage reduction when used on an offhand weapon. However, without that bug the damage seemed consistent with current Flametongue, meaning it isn’t a nerf provided the bug gets changed. Unfortunately, the power of Flametongue weapon meant that it still seemed a slight increase in DPS to use double flametongue with a caster weapon.
As a result, meet the new nerf on the block: “Flametongue Weapon procs now deal roughly 20% less damage.” This is a pretty blatant damage nerf to our offhand FT procs and should be enough to force us into using that old staple, Windfury weapon. On the other hand of the spectrum, though, we see this pretty awesome buff: “The Windfury Weapon proc can now trigger 3 additional attacks, up from 2.” This hopefully will counteract the damage loss from not using a caster weapon w/flametongue and the damage loss from losing 20% FT damage in our offhand. If it manages to keep damage consistent with where it is now while shifting us back to using WF/FT, patch 4.0.6 is really starting to look up.
Shaman changes, patch 4.0.6.
I really wish I had some fancy HTML in place to cover this for you guys like every other site seems to have, but I’m not too good at that stuff. Anyway, Zarhym just hit up the shaman forums with a few new interesting PTR changes (which I’m fairly certain aren’t even on the actual PTR builds.) Here they are:
# Chain Heal’s effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%.
# Hex now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
# Purge now dispels a single effect instead of two.
# Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown.
# Talent Specializations
* Elemental Combat
o Earthquake damage has been increased by approximately 10%.
* Enhancement
o Flametongue Weapon damage now scales from attack power instead of spell power (for Enhancement shaman only).
o Purge no longer has its mana cost reduced by Mental Quickness.
* Restoration
o Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a Magic and a Curse debuff with a single cast.
o Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased to 3% per point, up from 2.5%.
o Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20%.
o Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman’s Spirit, exclusive to short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped.
Source.
The major talking points here:
PVP nerfs: The purge nerf was beyond needed. No, seriously. I don’t want anyone reading this to be blinded by the love of their class and pretend that this isn’t a good change for the game. Enhancement’s purge cost 820 mana at 85 and dispelled two debuffs. Dispel protection on nearly everything was removed from the game. The unfortunate side of this is that annoying filler things like rejuvenation will get in the way when you’re really trying to dispel innervate but in the end this was needed. The two seconds less on hex makes me cringe a small bit, but at the same time it’s a curse and not a magic effect like fear/polymorph/and such.The change to tremor is weird- it’s a fear break when we really need it, but we can no longer just keep it down as fear protection.
Caster mainhand nerfs: Currently, flametongue takes heavily from our spellpower. Really heavily. This is part of what makes a caster mainhand so good- beyond adding to all of our spell damage, double flametongue imbues with the caster sp make for some very hard hitting flametongue hits. However, changing FT to scale from spellpower could have some negative side effects (such as the coefficient on FT being bad enough that we lose damage overall). Or, it could be so good that we continue to use a spellpower weapon to boost the rest of our spell damage, as losing the ap from not having an agility weapon won’t contribute that much to our dps. Time will tell.
Overall, my first look at the changes is optimistic. The nerfs to enhance pvp were needed (though tremor has me scratching my head a bit), and the FT change has me hopeful but scared.
Some quick leveling notes:
I’m going to try and keep this short and sweet, for two reasons. A) I want to play moar Cataclysm, and B) you want to play moar Cataclysm, so neither of us want to be on this blog page long. (Unless you’re stuck at work, sorry!) I just figured I’d put up a few things to remember while you’re leveling:
A) Your items suck. Honestly, I get it: You spent all of Wrath of the Lich King workin’ hard for your purplez. You have deep, lasting, emotional connections with everything from your Heroic Sindragosa necklace to those boots from ToC that you were never able to upgrade. The idea of getting rid of them makes you sad, like you’re ditching your aging dog for a new puppy.
Get over it. I know that heroic Black Bruise is nice and you worked hard for it, but the Necrotic Touch proc has sucked since 4.0.1, and it sucks even more as a leveling item. Add into that the fact that there are blue weapons that require level 80 that have the same dps as H Black Bruise (that looks ten times better). The end result: Your weapons should be replaced by level 81, if you get lucky with drops. Stonecore (which you can queue for at 81 if you’ve found the portal), has two excellent Enhancement weapons: Heavy Geode Mace and Fist of Pained Senses. HGM has some lackluster leveling stats, but either hit or expertise can be reforged into mastery. Both of these weapons blow every weapon from WoTLK (from Pride to Heroic Havoc’s Call) out of the water. You’re hurting yourself by hanging on to your relics.
Did I mention how cool they look?
Armor is slightly less important to replace asap, but they’ll still be replaced soon. Elam just hit 83 and got Troggbane Chestguard to replace his 264 Tier10 Chest. It comes out to four more agility (counting two 20 agi gems), 60 more haste, 137 less crit rating, and a wopping 137 mastery. I’d exchange 137 crit for 137 mastery any day of the week. The only downside is losing my 4pct10, which means I won’t be equipping the Green quest reward until I can find another green that outpaces my tier gear.
Trinkets should be replaced fairly soon. Hyjal has Bileberry Smelling Salts, early Deepholm has Gear Detector. The base agility on these trinkets is huge, kicking the crap out of Herkuml War Token‘s haste, Tiny Abomination in a Jar‘s…everything, and Deathbringer’s Will‘s crit base. The haste procs are meh enough that Sharpened Twilight Scale might be worth hanging onto, though.
B) Enchant. Enchanting is your friend, and WILL make your life easier. This is a rule for both leveling and early heroic grinding- if it’s on you, you should enchant it and gem it. WoTLK enchanting mats are dirt cheap (I was buying Dream Shards at 50silver a piece last night. In total, berserking cost me 30 gold), and those enchants are still relevant. If you get an item in a heroic or five that you know will be replaced in a week, spend the thirty gold to enchant it with WoTLK enchants and blue or low-priced epic gems. No one will shame you for putting lesser-quality gems in lesser-quality items, and it’s so cheap to do now that there’s no excuse to lessen your performance by not doing it.
Now, back to leveling. See you all at 85!