Alteffour said:
The survivability of ele or 2h enhance both are drastically lower than 1h enhance (real dps 1h melee or the version I play) or resto...by a long long long long long long ways...especially since youre saying you only run 2300hp.
Hmm I'd have to completely disagree with that and I'd be willing to test it out. I mean sure you're going to have higher hp than I do (I'm not exactly sure by how much) but I highly doubt that in a 1v1 vs an ele shaman that a 1h enh spec would be able to survive the initial burst damage and then last the rest of the fight. And since our healing capability would be nearly the same, if you're running spellhance, there really isn't much difference heal wise. I'd just sit there and outheal your wet paper towel damage while hitting you for nearly 3x the amount. Secondly the only difference in surivability I see between 1h enh and ele is the fact that you'd have imp ghost wolf. Again, if you're running spellhance you're going a shield and 1handed, and unless I'm running max sp gear and not rocking a shield the damage mitigation is the same for both if not higher for ele because of elemental warding...
Alteffour said:
I dont underestimate the mana efficiency or ele shamans, ive played one, with both glass cannon type sets and more survival friendly gear sets. Everything goes just fine so long as you arent the focus of attention, but if youre sitting back tossing those big casts at people youre going to get focused and youre eventually going to be forced into shock/totem/heal mode and your mana pool dissapears quickly. Perhaps weak overall opponents is letting you chill in glass cannon sets, or maybe you have a pocket healer usually? Glass Cannons are fine in those two situations, but against any real competition glass cannon is generally the worst possible way to gear a toon.
I've never in my 4+ years of twinking played with a pocket healer. It's one of the things I despise the most and I hate it even more with the advent of arenas because it's lead most people towards that horribly unskilled trend. I'd have to even say that I've never really played in any twink pre-mades either, other than my really old twink guild "Twinks r for Kids" that would run 19 premades, but that was a long ass time ago, even pre-cross server battlegrounds. I still don't see how running nearly 2.4k hp at lvl 39 is a glass cannon spec. That's a fairly high amount of HP as I've seen even 49 twinks that barely top 2.5k.
Overall on an ele shaman, from my experience if you're running more SP while maintaining a fair amount of HP you'll have not only a good amount of survivability but very high amounts of damage as well. Which, last time I checked in 1v1 situations dealing large amounts of damage before your opponent has time to outheal/recover from it will put you at a huge advantage rather than sitting with 500 more hp and slowly wittling them down, hoping that your gimped heals will save you from their burst...
Alteffour said:
When I say lower some SP, I mean he could easily drop some of the nature damage only stuff in favor of SP gear with more stats. Its not a giant drop to go from nature damage boots and shoulders and cape for example to SP or stat versions without really hurting yourself too badly. The nature damage may not be quite as high, but it will overall round itself out by having more regular SP and more mana and hp to actually use that SP to good effect. The same can be said of his crit %, i realize hes excited about 20% crit, but that number can also be lowered to give himself more stats or sp.
Lol so you're suggesting he drops his sp for stats. Yet then you're suggesting he drops his crit for sp? I don't see how that's logical... If he wants to run a build like this then I would suggest allowing him to do so and see if he would rather prefer something with a lower crit chance and more sp or even stats
.
I know my crit chance isn't nearly as high as his, but then again I believe I'm running 60+ more nature damage than he is so when I do crit (which is quite often) I see a lot of huge numbers coming out. I would argue that playstyle and gear is 80% preference in most cases, if you're able to play your class well and drop the needed totems at the proper times or throw heals at equally proper times then you should be able to do well. The only 2 classes I say that give ele shamans a reasonably difficult time in this bracket are 1. Hunters, ms effect from aimed shot is annoying as hell and 2. Warriors, but they're fairly easy to kite and outheal because they lack ms in this bracket.
Alteffour said:
I say insta death at 2300 hp on a shammy because if you are playing against other good dps then 2300hp is extreemly low...think about it this way...as an elemental shaman with the numbers you post that 2300 dies a whole hell of a lot faster than another player with 3k doesnt it? if you hit 1k lb, 800chain, 700shock thats 2500hp yeah? 3k or even 2700 lets you survive that burst damage doesnt it?
Lol sure it let's you survive that burst damage, but that's only a 2-3 shot situation, if that class I just hit with that has 2.7k-3k hp and they can't heal, they're still f-d. I'd argue that is negligible, and even then, if they're running 2.7k-3k hp how are they going to have enough damage modifying gear to deal any noticeable damage in return? And any damage they deal in this more stam oriented gear could easily be outhealed by lesser healing wave and then if they're casters interrupted down with earthshock.
Alteffour said:
You cant have the best of both worlds, dont tell me it doesnt get insta killed while at the same time you argue that you can insta kill people with that same hp range. Your entire first post there maerduk completely contradicts itself.
Lol I never argued that I haven't been insta killed, what I did argue is that you'd be "insta killed" by basically everyone in the bracket, which is what you seemingly alluded to. In all honesty the only class that's ever insta killed me was a 2h enh spec with lucky WF crits and zerker buff.
If you're facing other usual "insta" kill classes/specs ie fire mages, you can generally prevent that from happening with grounding totem and earthshocks.
I can say that you won't get insta killed because I'm arguing that ele shaman in this bracket has the amount of burst to be able to insta kill people within that hp range while having the ability to prevent others from doing so.
GL in all your endeavors and promoting your 1h spellhance spec...
To the OP all I can say is run with whatever you feel fits your playstyle and you find enjoyable. I see nothing wrong with enjoying 2-3 shotting people and controlling mid/returning flags while you're team runs the flag. If I wanted to be a flag runner I would have kept my paladin at 39...
