Final Patch 2.4 ResponsesFollow

It's been out for a week now. 2.4 was an "interesting" patch for Shaman, and there have been critiques, opinions, cries of injustice, and sung praises floating all around our humble forum, so I thought it more worthwhile to create a thread dedicated to them.

Notes: This is not a thread I want to see turn into another 50+ response argument. If you feel yourself experienced enough with the patch in whatever content you deem applicable since release, post your response here. If you like, simply copy and paste things you've written in other threads.

Now then, on to Gaudion's response. Note that while I will comment on Enhancement and Elemental, my dedicated build is Resto.

Earth Shield: This was a solid change. The reduction in cost made ES infinitely more useful in PvP, I more or less cast it constantly now with little or no inhibition and feel barely any mana backlash at all. My feelings in PvE are more mixed, but still positive overall. There are times when I lament the lack of charges, generally during fights where I have a lot to worry about and have to watch every health bar on my screen like a hawk. There are other fights, however, where being able to liberally re-apply ES to different targets (Nalorakk, Spite, or any other multi-tank rotation mob) has made me appreciate the change.

Final Word: Great change.

Tremor Totem: The effects of the change I've noticed are directly proportional to the amount of change. TT pulses 25% more often now, so you're probably going to spend about 25% less time being feared overall. There are still the lucky pulses where it breaks instantaneously, there are still times when I feel like I'm feared for an eternity. The really good news is I haven't noticed myself running out of range of the totem in between pulses anymore. The bad news is Warlocks, Priests, and Warriors still have time to fear you and then locate your totem and destroy it before it frees you. And they can still do it reliably often.

Final Word: I'll take what I can get, but could have been better. Considering that we have to drop a totem and hover around it, and that it is effortlessly one-shotted, it should be a one-or-two-second pulse or even straight-up fear immunity until the totem is destroyed.

Ghost Wolf: I respecced 0/9/54 for Imp. GW and Guardian Totems in PvP. I haven't gotten to try it out in the arena, but I am whoring it in the BG's and my escape rate is probably about 30%, depending on the class. While still dismal, that is a hell of a lot better than 0%. The biggest problems are no big secret to anyone: inapplicable when rooted, and completely worthless when snared. Rogues and Hunters seem to be the easiest classes to escape (of those that control), while Warriors, Mages, and Druids prove completely inescable. Pallies, I theorize, will also prove unescapable once they figure out that they need to start Judging SoJ on us (they're slow learners though; lawl Ret). Another problem I have noticed is that I tend to take entirely too much damage while trying to escape. I often have to stop myself and start healing in between the snare/free/GW/snare/etc cycle. Often it's just better to sit on your *** and heal yourself while you wait for help to arrive.

Final Word: There is absolutely no reason why GW shouldn't be identicle to Druid shifts if this is the direction Blizzard wants us to go. None at all. Zero. Double the mana cost if necessary, but do it nonetheless. Seriously, this came so close to fixing us that we really should be outraged enough to rise up as one and slay them. That said, Restos and Enhances should take it 100% of the time in PvP. Elementals, IMO, should skip it and stay with the 41/0/20 (though IMO this is a bad PvP build anyways) or 37/0/24-ish variants.

Toughness: This change was meant to solve instant GW's obviously glaring faults, but comes up short. Unlike GW, there is really nothing worthwhile to say about the change other than "underwhelming" or the far more critcal "waste of points". Might help you get away from that Hunter or Rogue a little quicker, won't help a bit with the Warrior, Mage, or Druid. Take it if it doesn't cramp your Enhancement PvP build, but I wouldn't give up anything else for it. Anything else.

Final Word: Just shy of worthless. They should have put this in with Imp. GW so Restos could have access to it. Better yet, they should have scrapped the whole idea and made GW break roots and snares.

Totem GCD Reduction: Godly. Not enough good things to say about this. Totems still aren't "universally useful" in PvP (I.E. you only lay the ones you immediately need for the situation at hand), but in PvE the GCD wears off about as fast as I can hit my totems, so I don't need it any lower.

Final Word: I rarely ever say this, but thank you, Blizzard.

Shamanistic Rage: I don't even think it's worth mentioning, but if there is anything to be said I'll leave it to the dedicated Enhancers to say it.

Final Word: See above.

Healing Grace: I really can't say that I've noticed this change at all, but for the most part it's not like it's a change you can really watch for anyways. Our shields are the only real thing we have to protect, and I cast ES more often now because it's cheaper, not because I expect it to last. Also hasn't stopped me from Purging the holy hell out of every other Resto Shaman I come across.

Final Word: Somewhere between largely ignorable and completely unnoticeable. I would still probably take the talent if you can afford it for PvP (you'll take it in PvE anyways and it won't get dispelled).

Totem Timers: I'm glad to have them there, they're situationally useful in PvE when I have time to look at them. I can TR all my totems back for mana at the last second and then re-lay them all, or simply relay them if I'm pressed for time or their timers have gotten skewed. The problem is that a lot of the time I don't have time to look at them; it would be infinately easier to appreicate them if they showed up with my list of buffs and debuffs over on the top-right of the screen.

Final Word: Much like other changes in the patch, I'll take whatever I can get, but so much wasted potential. I think that pretty much sums up the whole patch for us. While there are some diamond-in-the-rough changes, just a whole hell of a lot of wasted potential came along with them.

So... what do you think?

Edited, Apr 1st 2008 1:40pm by Gaudion

My shaman is enhancement specced. I haven't tried elemental or resto yet, but am planning on doing it in the future. I'm just having too much fun meleeing. As far as the changes go:

I like the change to Tremor Totem. I find that I am not running out of the radius before it pulses at all. I've spent a good 10 hours pvping since the change and it works really well for me.

I like the change to Ghost Wolf. The instant cast is really nice, especially when pve grinding between bg's. I do agree that they should have made it identical to Druid shifts. I've not been one who would really want a cc for the shaman class. I would, of course, use it constantly if I had it. I have, however, always felt that GW should work like the druid shifts.

I hate toughness. I re-specced into this to see how it would work and am totally unimpressed by it. I plan to spec out of it next time I'm on. It is, as you said Gaudion, completely worthless. The points are better spent somewhere else.

I'm on the fence re: shamanistic rage. I like that it can't be dispelled now.
My main use of it is to regen mana. I like being able to go and go and go without having to drink. I do use it whenever I get ganged upon in the bg's or when fighting a particularly tough mob for the reduction in damage. However, I hate the reduction in how long it lasts. Even though, on paper, the math says I should be getting the same amount of mana back in the shorter period of time, that has not been my experience. When it lasted 30 seconds, I found that I was able to regen almost all of my mana. Also, now that it only lasts 15 seconds, my survivability when being ganged upon has decreased even further. I still like shamansitic rage, but not as much as I did before.

I love the totem GCD reduction. Awesome change!

I really like the totem timers too. I'm not one who uses addons, so I know for people who do, this is old news. For me, I really like it. Awesome change!

Overall, I'd say the changes are pretty good. More good buffs to us, if only half-assed in some occassions, than nerfs. As my friend likes to say, "Its better than a sharp stick in the eye!"

Here's my take on the Toughness change.

All in all, I'm not very pleased. GW only appeased my inner lazy couch potato and I can't really notice the change they made to the totem GCD.

The Tremor change was HUEG LIEK XBOX though. It worked EVERY time in my 3s and in my 5s matches. It was priceless to see it break the Howl Of Terror that a Lock busted to try and get me and 2 Warriors off him, just to see him get ground back into the ground in 1 second.

Edited, Apr 1st 2008 7:31pm by TheYardstick