But no, I won’t actually rewrite “Earth Song”, but still throw in the first verse, as it fits pretty good by itself:

What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain.. .
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine…
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we’ve shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Now, the point of this is basically just to tell that we’re finally getting a proper use for Earth Shock as Elemental. The latest Cataclysm beta-build (12803) added in a useful combination of things. First, we get to use Lightning Shield instead of Water Shield, and it will provide us with mana regain and a mechanic somehow similar to Enhancement’s Static Shock. It all comes from the two new talents Rolling Thunder and Fulmination.

Rolling Thunder gives us the nice mana regeneration. 1% total mana is quite a bit, especially with a 60% chance of every Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning being fired. The side-effect of adding a shield-charge seems to be a bit odd at first – it’s not really intended for us to get hit to do damage. However, that’s where the second part comes in.

Fulmination (the name is incredibly fitting by the way) gives us a way to deplete excess shield charges from the maximum of 9, down to the normal amount of 3, by firing off – yes, Earth Shock. In short, optimal conditions will let it do the extra damage of 6 charges. Improved Shields suddenly looks very interesting, and one could theorize that [Glyph of Lightning Shield] might be slightly useful. Then again, glyphs haven’t been touched upon yet, so it’s quite meaningless to talk about those just yet.

If we use todays numbers, the extra 6 charges would add the following amount to the damage:

Seeing as 3500 spell power is in no way a unreachable number, that would give us a bonus damage of at least:

… and that’s a pretty stunning number, considering Earth Shock‘s damage itself hasn’t been added yet.

There still is some “drawbacks” though. First of all, it’s not really going to be that often we can use it (around every 20th second or so, if we’re lucky). Understandable, since it lacks such a severe punch. Secondly, there’s the thing that it’s not yet included in Elemental Reach, which reels us into 25 yard range. Most likely going to be fixed though, as it would be incredibly awkward otherwise.

Still, it’s a change I thing is very welcome, adds a bit of spice to the rotation, and breathes some new life into an old friend – although, most of us would probably prefer something with Frost Shock instead. Now, if only I had a beta key so I could test this properly…