Elemental Shaman, Shadow Priests, Fire Mages, and Warlocks in general. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I seem to hear quite often that they are not at at all viable. Is it damage output, survivability, CC, or a combination of something else? Just wondering, not trying to start a flame war.
Why are they not viable?
- Thread starter Lebowski
- Start date
90% of all players won't be able to beat these :
Dankfury
Cotus
Bizr
They've proven the classes/specs working.
Elemental Shaman. Not so active anymore lately tho.
People here will stand up and say class x is viable because they work in a premade...
If you are premading, any spec is fine.
Do you mean premades, arenas, pugs, instances, fishing?
If you are premading, any spec is fine.
Do you mean premades, arenas, pugs, instances, fishing?
Because those specs tend to require a competent team to succeed. Dankfury is a good example, he plays more like a resto shaman that happens to have thunderpunt since the spec itself isn't really playable the way it's intended at this level.
All specs are viable when you have teammates that can help you overcome inherent weaknessess.
All specs are viable when you have teammates that can help you overcome inherent weaknessess.
these specs aren't very "viable" because in order for them to be reasonably effective, you have to:
1. be completely geared out (BOAs etc)
2. actually be a good player
both of which are not necessarily options for many people who are playing in this bracket. in contrast, you don't have to have all the best gear or be a particularly good player to be successful on something like a ret paladin, hunter, etc
i have an elemental shaman, a warlock, and i've specced fire a reasonable amount on my mage, and i've been successful on all of them. the biggest problem for any and all of these "non-viable" specs is their inability to deal with/ineffectiveness against hunters. things like arcane mages, ret pallies, holy pallies, etc are good in this bracket because they can deal with hunters. but these other "non-viable" specs and classes are more or less helpless against hunters, and that is the real reason why they are less "viable" in this bracket, not because they are inherently particularly bad or ineffective
this problem has gotten noticeably worse since this last patch which buffed explosive shot damage. the amount of damage hunters do is now absolutely out of control and completely ruins pvp when you're playing on something like an elemental shaman and are forced to just sit there and spam heal yourself over and over and over again and pray that you can stay alive as an s-keying hunter does 150 dps on you. it's not just that these specs are less effective, it's that shit like that isn't even fun.
1. be completely geared out (BOAs etc)
2. actually be a good player
both of which are not necessarily options for many people who are playing in this bracket. in contrast, you don't have to have all the best gear or be a particularly good player to be successful on something like a ret paladin, hunter, etc
i have an elemental shaman, a warlock, and i've specced fire a reasonable amount on my mage, and i've been successful on all of them. the biggest problem for any and all of these "non-viable" specs is their inability to deal with/ineffectiveness against hunters. things like arcane mages, ret pallies, holy pallies, etc are good in this bracket because they can deal with hunters. but these other "non-viable" specs and classes are more or less helpless against hunters, and that is the real reason why they are less "viable" in this bracket, not because they are inherently particularly bad or ineffective
this problem has gotten noticeably worse since this last patch which buffed explosive shot damage. the amount of damage hunters do is now absolutely out of control and completely ruins pvp when you're playing on something like an elemental shaman and are forced to just sit there and spam heal yourself over and over and over again and pray that you can stay alive as an s-keying hunter does 150 dps on you. it's not just that these specs are less effective, it's that shit like that isn't even fun.