3.1 Dual Specs Bugging out Elemental?

Okay, normally I’m not the kind of person to jump on the “ZOMG I’ve been stealth nerfed” bandwagon that often accompanies the introduction of changes to our class. Normally when people on the forums start complaining about stuff it is usually nothing more than a bunch of whiny bitches crying over something imaginary. Currently however, I’m wondering if their tears might be merited this time. It seems a lot of elemental shaman are complaining that their dps has gone way down since the patch. In particular, they claim that their Lava Burst spell does not hit or crit for nearly as much. When I first heard this I blew it off as the usual forum whine, but after doing my first raid since the patch, I’m afraid I have to agree. Something is not the same, and something is not right. You see, when raid buffed, pre patch my Lava Burst crits were between 10k and 12k, depending on trinket procs and so forth. In Ulduar last night, my Lava Bursts were critting for between 9k and 10k. With new and unfamiliar content, there was too much going on to be able to really examine why this might be the case (certain talents not proccing and such) or whether any other spells were effected in a negative way. I don’t yet have access to a WWS parse to go digging, but when I do, I will.

Many people are complaining about the same problems, though a few claim that they have had either an increase in dps, or have remained roughly the same. From the various whines on the forums, it would seem that for the most part, those people who have suffered a dps loss are dual specced, and those who are reporting an increase or no change are not. It seems therefore that there may just be a bug with dual speccing… possibly certain talents or glyphs not kicking in, or working in a weird and wonderful way. At this point it is anyone’s guess. If anybody comes up with some solid numbers from WWS parses that would help identify the problem, I urge you to publish the material on Blizzard’s bug forum. I’ll keep this blog updated with any new info that comes to light