Another debate.
Having 3 points left to spend, with a base 16/32/0 build (
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#hE0zxZVV0bExuz), the options are:
- Elemental Warding
- Eye of the Storm (recommended by thatoneguy)
- Elemental Devastation
- Weapon Mastery
I don't have any math on me to work it out but just theorically speaking it seems the pros and cons would go like this:
Elemental Warding:
-Pros: 0.90 ratio to magic dmg (Shadow and Arcane excepted, there's no substantial holy dmg in vanilla, like Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan). Since fire/frost/nature dmg is not mitigated by armor, this would actually give an edge to shaman mitigation that other tanks could only try to replicate by getting resistance gear.
-Cons: Talents are rendered useless during physical fights whether trash or bosses, which are the majority in the game. Shadow attacks, like the demons of Darkwhisper Gorge or Tainted Scar have or some undead instances, keep hitting for a 1.0 ratio.
Eye of the Storm (Thatoneguy's suggestion):
-Pros: Since shamans will get crit (mail items with defense aren't common at all), the Focused Casting effect would happen certainly. It would be then possible to cast a chain lightning for some AoE attention, or perhaps a self heal when it really came down to it.
-Cons: The only moments when you'd use Focused Casting to self heal are those when things aren't going too well anyway. Heal threat from a healing wave won't be that much, and due to no resto talents, the healed amount won't be that substantial. If anything seems it could delay the inevitable.
Chain lightning: Due to Lightning Mastery being impossible to get, the cast time will be 2.5 secs. Chain Lightning can only affect 3 targets, so large packs won't really be able to be held just with this. There is no threat modifier for it, and the 2nd and 3rd target only receive 70% and 40% of the spell dmg. I wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient to simply tab/auto attack with rockbiter (or with windfury), instead of taking 2.5 secs out to cast this.
Uncertain results, need further practise or math.
Elemental Devastation.
- Pros: +9% crit for 10 seconds could result in near total flurry uptime for the 10 seconds the effect lasts. Assuming something like 25% crit from thundering strikes + agi + gear, the crit chance would be 34% for the duration of Elemental Devasation, or namely 1/3 hits. With Flurry giving increased attack speed for 3 swings, there's a fairly good deal of overlap between the 2 numbers, allowing, like I said, for near total uptime for the duration of the effect.
- Cons: Elemental Devastation requires a Shock crit to begin with. With intellect being sidelined in favour of other stats, spell crit chance from stats won't be too high, adding a couple of +spell crit items could potentially help for that (at the expence of mitigation/physical stats), but the point remains that at 5 second cd on Earth Shock (assuming 5/5 reverberation), I'd guess that there would be an average of 1-2 Earth Shock crits per minute (t
esting/mathematical confirmation needed). Uptime on Elemental Devastation will then oscillate, on average, between 1/6 (one crit per minute = 10 secs/60 secs) and 1/3 (2 crits per minute in such a way that they allow for the 10 sec duration from each to last its full duration) of the time. Not terrible, but not too great.
Weapon Mastery:
- Pros: Reliable, constant increase in physical dmg from autoattack. It would work better in tandem with Windfury weapon rather than Rockbiter weapon since Aethelwulf's information is that the +threat on the latter is added irrespectively of the dmg being done, while this +dmg talent would have more repercussions in the multiple swings given by Windfury.
- Cons: 3/5 Weapon Mastery only adds 6% dmg from physical weapons. Earth shock isn't affected. Crit chance (and therefore Flurry) isn't affected. Although reliable and not subject to RNG, it might be too minor in the end to really amount to much.
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As things stand right now, I'm currently leaning for Elemental Devastation. Although the uptime on the +9% crit will be a third or less of the time, those moments could provide for really good threat generation, that is applicable both for trash and for boss tanking. RNG being what RNG is, will undoubtedly provide for frustrating moments when the thing doesn't seem to crit at all.
Eye of the Storm-Chain Lightning tandem could add something in terms of trash tanking (non-factor for single target/boss tanking), but to be fair, I think that if it's just 3 targets, I might actually be better off quickly changing targets and autoattacking with my higher flurry uptime coming from Elemental Devastation. In 2.5 secs I will certainly be able to hit 2 of them, so the only real difference I see from devoting this time for Chain Lightning would be the 40% dmg done to the third target. Even then, I find that Darkz suggestion of using Stoneclaw totem as a time tactic to distract secondary targets while you autoattack them, might end up being even better anyway.
Elemental Warding seems really good, yet really niche. For most of the content in 5 mans/UBRS it will not be of use, and not having arcane/shadow reduction means it's not even entirely good vs magic. If I were to start doing instances where Fire/Frost/Nature is consistent for at least a good portion of the mobs, it would probably be better to have it though.
Weapon Mastery seems too little to matter.
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Other options considered:
Ancestral Knowledge: +3% mana might allow to squeeze in 1 extra Earth Shock for long fights. Not sure.
Earth's Grasp: Referring to Darkz suggestion regarding Stoneclaw totem. Might be too little of an HP increase, but could be useful at times.
Improved Lightning Shield: Higher thorn dmg, more threat. At the last rank, it means 23 extra dmg per orb.
