UF vs EB and other random Ele Stuffs

[Shampax 0]

Hi there! First of all, here is my shammy:

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/thrall/shampax/simple

 

I just recently jumped on the mastery bandwagon. I still feel a bit like I'm casting through jello, but fellow raiders as well as hours spent researching have convinced me that it is in fact the way to go.

 

I have noticed several highly progressed Ele shamans choosing UF instead of EB. I have used EB for the entire expansion, and I'm a little attached to it. (I know, kind of silly but I like the spell.) I'm wondering what is considered better for my gear level - EB or UF?

 

Here is a log for our last Norushen-Heroic kill:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-tvr5ss7pzui765mf/sum/damageDone/?s=10529&e=10901

 

If you have any other tips or tricks to help me get a little extra out of my shammy, I would appreciate the insight! I'm going to install Weak Auras when I get home tonight and use those as well (I'll admit, I can be kind of bad with Flame Shock ._.)

 

Thanks in advance! <3

 

 

[Hybrys 199]

I'm an EB Only Ele, and I rank top 15 on most fights... But at some unknown threshold, UF does become better as long as your implementation is good.

I'll take a look at your logs soon! Check out my Shaman WeakAura thread in the meantime!

[Stoove 347]

It helps to link the thread, Hybrys :P

[Hybrys 199]

Phone + links = sad.

 

So, UF ends up being better at higher item levels (570+, or a Heroic Weapon, either gauge works), as long as the implementation is correct (which is to never spend Unleash Flame on Flame Shock, limit your non-Lightning Bolt or Lava Burst casts while the debuff is up, and if the majority of the fight isn't AoE).  It'll also excel slightly at lower item levels in pure single target fights, such as Iron Juggernaut and Malkorok, again as long as the implementation is good.

 

I personally don't like the feel of UF, so I usually run EB.  If you do, all that you have to do is change your Mastery Cap from 100% to 87.4%, and then the stat weights are the same.  This would also be preferable on most AoE-heavy fights, if you're still under 87.4% as your max Mastery.  I'm personally able to keep up with it, and find it to be a less restrictive playstyle.

 

As for logs, I zoomed to purely after you purified.

 

Flame Shock uptime wasn't too awful, but it should still be closer to 100%.  Make sure you know that any time it's under 3 seconds, you can refresh and the old DoT tick will keep on rollin' under the new one.

 

Otherwise it looks fine.  Could've skipped the two-three Chain Lightnings for more damage elsewhere, but that's not a huge deal.  I can't really tell too much, just because WorldofLogs doesn't have the right tools to let me do so.  If you wanted to get a better analysis, you could parse to WarcraftLogs and then share that with us!

[Stoove 347]

It's just worth noting that not everyone agrees on the best way to use Unleashed Fury. I think Hybrys was talking about doing some maths or something to settle that, though (which I look forward to seeing). However, it is almost universally agreed that it's only the best at the highest gear levels.

 

Hybrys' general points are perfectly valid, though, and I agree EB is much much easier to play to a reasonable degree.

[Shampax 0]

I greatly appreciate the feedback. I'll probably be sticking with EB for now, then, because I am just partial to that ability :) I'm going to work on Weak Auras so I quit being bad with my flame shock :p I'll definitely look into Warcraft Logs. I really appreciate the input! <3

[Hybrys 199]

It's just worth noting that not everyone agrees on the best way to use Unleashed Fury. I think Hybrys was talking about doing some maths or something to settle that, though (which I look forward to seeing). However, it is almost universally agreed that it's only the best at the highest gear levels.

Hybrys' general points are perfectly valid, though, and I agree EB is much much easier to play to a reasonable degree.

I'm fairly sure that we agree on the optimal UF rotation, as the alternatives don't make sense.

Flame Shock can't duplicate via Mastery, so you should use Unleash Flame on Lava Bursts for the extra damage chance. The math on that is easy to do, taking Flame Shocks total damage, and multiplying it by 1.5, then doing the same for Lava Burst, also factoring in your mastery chance as an average damage buff by going (SpellResultDamage * 0.75) * MasteryChance.

Limiting your non-LB/LvB spells makes sense, because only LB and LvB gain the benefits from the debuff. That isn't to say that you shouldn't spend your Fulm stacks or drop your Fire Ele during the debuff, but you do see more benefit if those are cast around instead of during UF.

[Shampax 0]

So tonight's raid was kind of a shit storm, but I ran Warcraft logs for the first time. Here is a link http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/NVdW1pXkPtMxzL72#type=casts&source=1&fight=94  Most of these aren't optimal but for the sake of maybe improving, I'm uploading. Thanks again :)

[Stoove 347]

I'm fairly sure that we agree on the optimal UF rotation, as the alternatives don't make sense.

 

Well, this isn't what the rotation page I linked is telling me. But, as I said, there isn't any good resource to settle whether you should do these things current;y; just a lot of people saying "I think X".