Now that the boots issue has been fixed, this is my major gripe with the patch. I've always held that SMN has been top DPS by a fairly good margin. This could be proven out to a good extent with parser data combined with verifiable HP checks combined with theorycrafted damage math. I knew that when we lost Thunder, and did the calculations on how much that would impact our DPS, I wasn't worried about not being the top dog anymore. (at least on T5)

But, they took a skill away from us that we used very frequently, and replaced it with a skill we would only use as a filler in a small amount of situations. They made the class easier to play the vast majority of the time. They gave us a minor AoE damage upgrade. I too, like SMN mainly because of all the stuff there is to do. The big caps in potential play skill, and the reward that comes with it. All they did was dumb down the SMN. You no longer have to consider whether it is worthwhile to multi-DoT with Thunder. You have an even easier time of managing mana, if you even have to bother at all now. You have 1 less thing to keep track of. And in trade? We get a skill that you might spam 2-3 times against a group of 10 mobs. B2 will see some use in WPSR and similar grindy content, it'll see a _little_ use in T4, but otherwise will go un-used. Thunder got used a whole lot, and it is a shame that SMN was dumbed down a little to 'fix' the DPS.