I am loving the game so far, playing around with different classes and builds is so much fun but I’ve hit a very hard brick wall trying to get a shaman based on melee and lightning attacks to work effectively and it seems like a large part of the shaman passive tree is meant to fit this arch-type (Dervish, Rhythm of Thunder, Thunder Strike, Conflux). Playing shaman I was immediately drawn to those nodes and the lightning modifiers for Earthquake but have found any build revolving around the idea of a lightning-melee brawler is extremely short on both damage and survival compared to other builds, classes, and masteries so here are some ideas I have:
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Merge Lagon’s Answer and Thunder Strike into one passive causing melee attacks and spells to trigger Lightning Strike each on a separate cooldown.
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Replace Lagon’s Answer with a new passive “Rolling Thunder” granting X% crit modifier and X dodge rating each time you critically strike with lightning damage (stacking buff).
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Increase the base damage of Lightning Storm triggered by Earthquakes “Fury of the Elements” (At the moment it tickles enemies at best).
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Improve “Thirsty Blades” in the Tempest Strike tree to also grant mana on hit in order to enable the use of more Earthquakes (and more build diversity all around).
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Provide a passive somewhere (Primalist base tree ideally) that sacrifices a minion/totem when you take X% of your maximum health in a single hit to either heal you for a certain amount or grant some survivability bonus such as a dodge increase for a short amount of time.
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Increase the base damage of “Lightning”, this triggered effect just feels extremely limp at the moment, neither Tornado nor Maelstrom feel worthwhile running in order to get extra “Lightning” procs.
I would really love to see this arch-type become a viable option and I understand rage inducing balance issues are part of beta, but I thought I’d share my thoughts on potential solutions to this currently under-performing subclass.