Swapping main question

[Luciarious]

Hey everyone,

I have been coming to tank spot for years to watch videos and look up info on tanking and such but now I decided to make an account case I had a question. I play an elemental shaman and right now they feel lacking in the dps department. I try to itemize as best I can but the gear dropping as well as current tear just seem too be not for me so to speak... I want to swap my main to a warlock. my warlock is currently level 81 and will be 90 soon. Im unsure tho of how to swap my main without hurting my current raid team, should I even consider doing this? Would it be better to just find another raid team that better fits a warlock Im struggling between not wanting to hurt my raid team but also wanting to enjoy my game...and currently elemental shaman just isnt doing it for me due to lack of solid or consistent dps....I think blizzard screwed the pooch this xpac with ele...

[Tengenstein]

Sounds very much like you want to swap becuase Warlocks are flavour of the month, which im itself isn't bad, just that you have no guaranteed that next patch or next week that a new class will be FOTM, in which case you're in the exact same boat again. The Gear drops shouldn't really be a factor, sometimes you get lucky, most of the time you don't. Warlock's DPS is just as susceptible to RNG so don't expect it to be any more consistent.

That said if you genuinely aren't enjoying how Ele plays (irrespective of its numbers)then you should consider swapping. If that's the case talk to your Raid lead (or role lead) about it, they might not have any problem with you swapping (maybe because it makes loot distribution easier or bring another buff), however if your in the situation that your raid only has a spot for an ele shaman and you aren't willing to play that, even with them, then it may be time to say goodbye and find a raidteam for your lock.

So, make sure you really want to swap mains for the right reasons and then talk to raid leader, then decide for yourself what to do.

[Luciarious]

well Ive thought alot about what I want to play and warlock is about it. not because its fotm but because it has consistently been a good class as long as I can remember.And eles numbers are a big part of why I dont enjoy it... Ive been with a few raid teams and I am always bottom or near bottom of the meter and I dont like to be at the bottom especially when there are people I know are face rolling doing alot higher dps... Ele shammy rotation is like I said just to inconsistent hoping for lava burst and echo procs...

[sifuedition]

As Teng said, changing for those reasons is almost guaranteed to lead to very short term happiness at best. Unless you are ready to re-roll every other patch, you might want to find a better way.

For one, warlocks were at/near the bottom for quite some time. You never know when they will rotate right back there. For another, the odds are if you are feeling that far behind on dps, then the problem is more likely you or, loot luck. Changing toons won't fix loot luck.

The key is to find a rotation you like. If you like ele EXCEPT for the numbers, then you need to put in more work to get closer to your potential. Even when ret was near the bottom, I could consistently come in somewhere in the top half of the raid on dps with less gear. Those facerollers are not going to put in the work that you will. That being the case, you should be able to outperform them, at least at comparable gear levels. Sure, a frost dk may beat you from time to time with a mindless rotation. It's going to happen. It's just a part of this game. You should still be able to make him work for it to be above you if you are playing a class where you enjoy the rotation, however.

If you don't like the rotation even if you were happy with the dps, then you should find a class you like. Play an alt high enough to really get the rotation. Unfortunately, that may mean all the way into the 80s so that you see the effect of mastery. If you are kinda meh on the rotation, keep looking. Try another alt. It really will make the difference if you find the one you enjoy the most. Some of my favorite toons/specs have been underdogs on dps and I have ALWAYS been able to pull my weight with them. I played ret, unholy dk, fire mage and kitty dps when they all sucked and probably enjoyed them more then than at any other time. Getting good enough at them to make people comment on it (and sometimes inspiring them to roll one as an alt to try it out) when they weren't "supposed" to be able to do it has always been a guilty pleasure for me.

[Aggathon]

I still maintain that the FOTM top DPS class changes every so often based on what character's the dev's girlfriends/boyfriends are playing at the time.

So... what you really need to do is start dating a blizzard dev...

[Luciarious]

Well in vanilla I played arms warrior post 1.4 patch when 40 point talents got added and mortal strike was cool,then I tanked from bc to wrath on warrior and paladin... then in cata I played shadow priest prot pally and ele shammy and now I have an ele shammy in mists and its not just the numbers that are unsatisfying the rotation itself is very displeasing because the inconsitency of procs that we heavily rely on for our dps not to mention completly radical number diffrences on spells like earth shock were it can hit from 50k all the way up to 250k and trinket procs and such can be random every time so its very frustrating to see the potential then lose that potential to lack of procs or weird number variations

Edit: when I say trinket procs diffrent every time I mean I can have 0 trinkets and get a 250k crit then have full trinket spotions and everything going and get a 50-80k crit....just like LB can hit form like 30-80k for absolutley no reason.... its jsut not satisfying to see fluctuation on spells like that and sit there waiting for a proc and then question if stop casting is worth it on LB case numbers say its not but then every shaman I talk to says it is...and its just to unfullfilling I guess.

The reason I like warlock isnt a new thing Ive liked affliction and destruction for a long time. I like dots and watchign uptimes as well as nuking with large hard cast spells as opposed to spamming LB all day while FS ticks and hopinh for a proc every 20 years. I dont know if that makes sense but if youve ever played a ele shammy you migh be able to see what I mean when I say its frustrating...I dunno

[sifuedition]

It sounds like burnout to me. I understand frustration with inconsistency. Remember, I stated I played fire mage when it sucked. I doubt it gets any less consistent than that was.

Having said that, many players actually crave the rotation you describe. Not the numbers all over the place part. The proc dependence. It makes a rotation that you have to watch closely and react quickly. I haven't played my rogue in MoP yet, but it was the exact opposite extreme during cata. You built up enough combo points, which rarely varied more than one gcd, then dumped. It was as routine as a rotation could really be. Some people prefer that.

Like I mentioned, if you don't like the rotation, you will probably be better off finding a class you do enjoy the rotation. Affliction can be pretty routine. There is definitely a LOT to do when you have multiple mobs because multi-dotting and keeping them up takes a lot of attention and button presses. Definitely sounds like it would be different than the ele rotation. Much luck to you if that's the way you go.

As to your original question, do your best to have the toon as prepared as you can. Get it as close to your main as you reasonably can. Depending on your server, that might mean even running him in pugs for gear and practice with how to best use your utility on normal mode fights before entering your regular raid. For instance, which fights are best as affliction or which as demo or destro? How do you have to time seed of corruption to catch all the adds on Elegon or other fights? Those kinds of tricks. Also, one of my pet peeves...if you are going to actually raid two specs, try to have two sets of gear so that each is itemized/reforged/gemmed correctly.

[Tengenstein]

Yeah TBH if you want a procless rotation, Play a Subtley Rogue

[Luciarious]

I appreciate the imput guys, and Its not so much I want a procless rotation I just dont want my dps to fall off due to rng...and thats how ele shammies are atm, due to the low tier of gear combined with bad itemazation and bad setup on certain mechanics...I mean look at there tier gear, crit on it when crit is there least powerful stat by alot....nearly useless for them....and yet not enough mastery or haste respectivley to itemize either direction.

I do think Im going to level my warlock ...thanks again for the imput guys

[Tengenstein]

Any spec that relies on procs has fall off is they get bad RNG, that's true of Aff just as much as Ele. A bad RNG streak can decimate your Haunt uptime and DPS. As for poorly itemized tier sets that's always a risk any tier for every spec, in fact it's often intentional to make players decide if the bonuses are worth the loss of secondary stats.

[Aggathon]

get a trinket with an on use and line that up with DP.