Shamans with CC?Follow

Do you guys think Shamans should have some sort of CC ability, maybe for the Enhacement spec? I like Enh but It's hard getting groups, if we had a CC Shamans would be alot more useful for groups.

whats funny is, all my tanks on my friends list are pallys =D

I think that's a great idea. Stoneskin and Windwall Totems have absolutely no place in end-game content where mobs are hitting for up to 2-3k a swing. That would make a more noticeable impact and potentially even make Shaman a must-have. Maybe we'd start seeing "LF Shaman" instead of just "LF Mage" or "LF Rogue" in the LFG channel.


A good idea, but I still think the most logical solution to this is just to remove the GCD from our totems. No other class has to spend half a dozen seconds applying their buffs before every fight and every two minutes afterwards. They cast once and it lasts for 30 minutes minimum.


Our totem buffs can't be dispelled already unless the totems are destroyed. In PvP, we just need Shamanistic Rage and Earth Shield to have at least 60% dispell resistance.


Removing every form of CC would make us a little overpowered both in PvP and PvE IMO. Tremor Totem does need an improvement though. The five-second pulse is way too infrequent; you can be feared completely out of the totem's range in between pulses, and that's just absurd. Revert it back to a two-second pulse. And sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn't work at all. I've run criss-cross patterns right over the top of my Tremor Totem for a full ten seconds of a Warlock's Fear, and that shouldn't be happening.

What would really be nice if Tremor Totem shook off root effects, but that might be the fevered dream of a madman.


Elemental is just as solid as Enhancement in PvE, they just don't buff melee as well (assuming the Enhancement took his totem talents). DPS-wise, they destroy.

I still think we could use the CC, if not for PvE than at least for PvP. And it's not like Blizzard needs to think up new abilities; there are already two abilities perfectly suited to Shaman in-game: Earthgrab Totem and Hex.

I do agree. Hex would fit with shaman lore, right?

I think it means that dps-wise, elemental and enhancement are similar...but enhancement buffs other melee fighters on your team better?

You also forgot Paladins' undead fear (situationally usefull in places like Karazhan), and Priests' Mind Control (stupidly useful in heroics). And I understand what you're saying, but the current system of "LF Mage" or "LF Rogue" is simply unacceptable to Shaman. If Blizzard can find a way to make us viable in heriocs without giving us CC, then they're free to go ahead with it. I just don't know how they would do it.

PvP-wise, again, Shaman need something. If not CC, they at least need a root or a stun. If you've seen any of my posts around in topics like these, you would have seen that I've only been advocating a six-second Hex. That would give Enhancement Shaman the chance to actually close in on an opponent, an Elemental or Resto Shaman the chance to get away from an opponent, and all Shaman a chance to actually get a heal off unmolested without Nature's Swiftness.

Druids have the exact same effect going on with Cyclone right now, and they can root. Priests MC, fear, and Mana Burn when they're healing, and Paladins make use of their stun. The fact is, we're the only healing class that has nothing to do but heal at the moment, and of the four healers available, we're easily the worst at the moment because of that and a few other reasons.


Earthgrab Totem, for anyone unaware, is a totem that, when dropped, pulses a short-duration AoE root effect as long as the totem is active. Right now it's a mob-only ability, but if you'd like to see it the first boss in ZF uses it, among others.

I still think a six-second Hex would be better since that would help all Shaman, while Earthgrab Totem would only help Elementals and Restos who were trying to escape an opponent.


Yeah, that's what I said.

Hilarious. Here's a pally post on the WoW forums on the subject of whether shaman should get Hex:

"That would just be polymorph :/

What Shaman really need is a spell called "Confidence", and this ability does nothing in game but actually inspires the user irl to grow a pair and stop crying." - Makei from Proudmoore

I'd love it if shammy got CC, but I think there would be a lot of QQ from other classes about us being OP :P

Thats pretty much where its at. Granted, while I don't mind that if they actually did give us a CC, ideas like "hex" do seem "cookie cutter" to me, and from my point of view, doesn't seem very "shaman" like. I've rolled a few ideas of my own in my head, but I'll get back to them later.

The 2 obvious downsides to shaman PvP is mobility and control. Solving either of these issues would make us competitive in PvP. A class like Hunter has both control (traps, shots, clips, etc) AND mobility (Beast rage)...so its no surprise its a powerful PvP class. This being said, a LOT of classes have some sort of CC move...but not many have ultimate mobility move, beast rage and Death wish are the only others that come to mind atm. For the sake of uniqueness so to speak, Im more partial so see Shaman's get a ultimate mobility move, instead of a CC or at least something "different".

Now, something that has been rolling in my head lately to kinda solve this problem while keeping in theme to the shaman playstyle has been, a "improved" ghost wolf. Huh!? Don't we have something like that?! Yes...and it kinda sucks :P Thus I thought up a revision.

#1- Usable indoors
#2- By adding 1 talent, while in Ghost wolf, 50% immune to fears, snares, and immobilizing effects, casting time reduced by 2 seconds and +10% increase to movement.
#3- By adding another talent, while in Ghost wolf 100% immune to fears, snares and immobilizing effects, Ghost wolf is instant cast and another +10% increase to movement.
#4- If 2 talents are spent in Imp GW, then "agressive bite" is opens to talent (possible 3 talent max). Aggressive Bite allows 40%/60%/80% of melee strikes while in Ghost wolf form to have a 2 second knock back effect against humanoid, elemental and beast targets.

Now, what do my suggestions do. Well, it fixes the mobility issue first of all and that was a key topic. This will help tactically with a enh sham in PvP due to the fact that they can now "blitz" a target unimpeded, and help with elem's since they can knock a close target down "sprint" away and gain more distance to do what they need to do.

Assuming that Imp GW doesn't move on or from the Enh the talent tree, its not "deep" enough that elem or resto can't get to it. It also does give a degree of CC, and a type of Crowd control that hasn't been seen in this game to date. Now as we know, our weapon buffs don't work while in GW, which acts as a sort of OP balancer so to speak, since (at least from a Enh point of view, its a good amount of our total dps is directly related to our weapon buffs), not to mention as a elem you can't cast without breaking GW anyhow. So this is "sorta" like a stunlock, but the knock back effect now forces "you" to play pinball with your target in order to keep them "locked", and even at that its a % "lock". But @ 70% proc rate, that "should" be constant enough to take at least one target/mob out of mix, assuming the shaman has enough skill to move with the target when knocking them back...AND enough skill NOT to knock their target into further groups, which would obviously bring more mobs. This is a "Active" CC, not a "fire and forget" CC, like all other CC's. I kinda thing the effect will look like a police dog sic'd on someone, knocking them down, tossing them around, until help arrives.

Downside for PvE is that it not only takes one target out of the picture, but it takes YOU out of the picture too since you have to occupy the target to CC them. On the plus side, you are doing "some" dmg, which is similar to a stun lock or a fearlock w/ dots on.

While it "could" cheese someone 1 on 1, to death in PvP (its not like rogues and locks can't do that to ppl anyhow atm :P), its still dispelable/purgable so it "can" be broken, not to mention its still a % of a knock back...so a window "could" open for someone to counter. Not to mention in BG's its all about "group" fights, so its not likely that a lone shaman is gonna be given that much time alone to chew someone to death like that :P. Arena (especially 2v2) might be more interesting, since your targets options against you is to either kill you before you get to them (which will happen faster then they want it to) or get you out of GW!

Edited, Jan 16th 2008 6:04am by gpyfb

The problem with giving Shaman an equivalent to Sprint or Intercept instead of a CC is that it only helps Enhancement Shaman. Intercept is wasted on Elemental and Resto Shaman since they want to run away, not towards. They also both have to stand still to cast their primary spells, so Sprint is almost completely wasted on them as well. And neither option helps any spec of Shaman get a heal off unmolested unless they use a Sprint to run away entirely.



No offense, but... in my personal opinion that is the worst proposed fix to Shaman I have ever heard. Somewhat original, but ungodly terrible nonetheless.

And your suggestion would be then?

A six-second Hex has long been my favorite proposed option for improving Shaman. I think it would solve most, if not all, of the class' problems.

elemental dps is better but the buffs enhance give are much bigger than elementals caster buffs especially since you have to drop 41 points into elemental to get a decent totem buff