Anyone happy with their Shaman?Follow

A lot people are actually probably a lot happier with their Shaman than these or any other boards would lead you to believe. Otherwise, we just wouldn't play it. Unless we were masochists.

Where a lot of the infamous "QQ-ing" arises from is the fact that any time a Shaman makes even a subtle allusion to the fact that our class might not be as well-equipped for PvP as some notable others, we get a bunch of non-Shaman players in our faces telling us how great, in fact, we truly are, and suggesting that the Shaman community as a whole go "L2P". The Shaman community is then obligated to respond by reasonably pointing out that the statistics simply do not back up all the non-Shamans' claims, and when that is cleverly avoided or blatently ignored, we then for some reason or other move on to the even more useless process of pointing out specifically why our class is failing at role X, Y, or Z, to which the standard response is... "QQ more."

It's a vicious cycle. Which, in summation, has given the Shaman community as a whole a reputation as whiners. Because Blizzard has not yet "fixed" us to the point of Rogues and Warlocks, where even though we are already vastly surperior to our counterparts... we still whine for buffs anyways. And get them.

I whine about Shaman in PvP. A lot. Or at least when the subject comes up. Because they really do suck (when compared to other classes). A lot. I also love my Shaman. A lot. Because I really, really enjoy playing my Resto Shaman. If I didn't, I would go roll something else, like all the cool kids do. Because I am not a *********.

Shaman for life.

Edited, May 11th 2008 12:19am by Gaudion

No matter what happens good or bad players will complain. I've seen it with several MMOs and every single class. One MMO I was researching to figure out what I wanted to play. I was very excited to get into a certain class. I checked out the official boards to read up on them. The majority of what I read was negative things about the class. I was very disappointed. Did I choose the worst class? I read more on all the other classes. Surprisingly it was all the same. Different lyrics same tune. Every class had these negative ideas, problems, issues. I thought about it and that didn't sound right to me. I researched a little more and came to the conclusion that you just can't please them all.

Now this doesn't mean classes don't have balancing issues and other problems. MMOs are a constantly changing environment. The rules change. The classes change. The encounters change. The environment changes. You can try to play the flavor game, switching to whichever class/spec is the flavour of the weak. However no single class will always be the worst or the best. It fluctuates. The question is whether those changes are enough to cause you to quit altogether or roll a different toon or spec. The game won't be the same in a year. That doesn't matter though. What matters is if you enjoy the game for what it is now.

Play what you want, not what everyone wants you to. There will always be pros and cons. This isn't just limited to WoW, this is true of all games.

I love my shaman, he has a great elemental set and resto set, and for bgs i got enough resil to hold my own quite well. I mess around in arena a little, but nothing major (I just don't feel affective) but other then arena's I think shaman is pretty fine in every aspect.

We can be great DPS or healers, and if you have the patients you can have sets of gear for all specs like me and just play what ever spec you feel like for a week then switch it up again, so you really wont get to bored, shaman offers 3 out of the 4 different play styles in the game with a versatile edge. Hands down shaman is my favorite class in WoW (but I will admit I am attracted to classes that can dps and heal in all MMOs)

In PvE I'm pretty happy with my Shaman, Pretty darn happy indeed. I hate fighting things that are immune to nature, but that's nothing.

I'm not extremely experienced in PvP, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I'm still pretty happy with it. I especially have had a much more fun time playing PvP with the instant Ghost Wolf talent (very handy in PvE too).
Seriously i find that in BGs things are so fast and usually you are nose to nose with someone at all times in battle that CC won't help in a lot of cases. Not to say it wouldn't be helpful, and there have been times when I have had a drawn out 1 on 1 with someone where strategy comes more into play and I wish I had an extra tool at my disposal.

Arena is a whole different monster than BGs though, all I have done are the practice ones and I always get fooked the eff up, mainly because whatever partner i get thrown in with just runs out and attacks, arms flailing, leaving me to my own devices.
I tell you, stealth/stealth or heal/warrior or lock or mage are just awful to fight. Stealth is basically an assured death for me. Again, limited experience here so i can't say one way or the other on Shaman's performance as a whole in Arena.

Any way this turned more into personal experience than anything.
Basically Shaman->yes.

Love my shaman. Thrilled with him in PvE, where as an enhancer he goes through mobs like a hot knife through butter and is an invaluable buffer/off healer in 5-mans who needs to constantly keep thinking and watching the rest of the party as he dpses. Thrilled w him in PvP, where he is an all-or-nothing toon who will either three-shot every clothie in the BG or get three-shotted himself by a rogue or good frost mage. The QQ you see mainly stems from the problem that shammies don't do well in small-scale PvP because they can be locked down easily and resilience takes away our main ability, which is insane burst. So if you're rolling a toon to dominate Arenas, maybe not shaman. For anything else it's a blast.

Holy hell.

Someone other than me thinks this way?

That makes 2 of us! We should start a newsletter...

I would add "and life." to the end of this simple, yet somehow completely missed concept.

Fudge tradition. Go roll a Balanced Shaman 20/20/20.

OK ill share my alt enhance shaman.

ill also share my 61 frost mage, im proud of both honestly, even though there is better geared and of course they arent 70's... sigh.

Go to WoW armory, Deathwing server;

fenash lvl 61 human mage frost spec
Poundin lvl 37 draenei shaman enhance spec

im geared decent and may not come out top of bg in dmg or healing but im never near the bottom, even against 39's i give them a HARD time . It takes more than 2 or 3 horde to bring me down fast. Should i go twink?
i love this class and draenei enhances shaman attributes nicely.
battlegrounds never cease to be fun, and even with the surprise gank i still revel when my crits proc, especially on a horde 8 or more levels than me.
BUT environment is where my shaman PWNS! I can dps in groups WHILE hbackup healing. Mana totems shorten downtime between mob groups and mages love that =).
Being full Enhance, healing can be slow but still adequate to back up heal and heal between mob groups so primary healer can mana back up faster. Heh the whole time ive had this toon i can count full wipes on one hand. Rez and ancestral spirit saves full wipes everytime! In my mind this ability is better than hunters feign death!
On the twinkage issue, what do you guys think?

Edited, May 15th 2008 2:16pm by fenash

Yeah the wet noodle sound as we hit a clothie just doesnt do us justice heh. i wasnt there for 1.8, but i can see echoes of it i guess, windfury+crit+flurry/focus = exciting!

Focus is 1/2 cost mana for the next spell. But i hate to use the focus, and lose the rest of the flurry.

BTW is flurry interupted when you use the focus? I think it is, and if it is, wouldnt that be a bug or further nerf?
in any case, a private server ImO may be better to play shamans. If i ran a server you can bet id surely fix shamans, just to see em own.Even though they are still fun as hell to play now anyways...

You rang, master?

My Shaman is only level 47, but I'm very happy with the class so far. And since I'm only into 5-mans and Battlegrounds, it'll be a blast to reach level 70.

If only I had chosen an Orc and not a Tauren. So freakin' big.

Edited, May 22nd 2008 11:11pm by Mazra

I donno i am sick of being a tauren too lol. Stun resist and Blood Fury sounds fun.

Warstomp is also useless when raiding, but hey the grass is always greener right =P

Quite frankly...I was WAY happier with my shaman pre-BC.

We still had our issues, you had to spec resto to be invited on raids, Enhance went oom after about 1 fight, but at least there was no resilience and we could bust people up in pvp.

BC comes along, we got totally shat-tastic spells (elementals that go out of control and aggro all kinds of ****, a totem that is **** poor for 41 points, a shield that can be lolrank1arcaneshot dispelled etc, etc...) Basically I took this class to 70 and forced it through hours and hours of painful PvP experience out of hardcore loyalty to the class...it was my first 60 back in the day.

Why do people not break off self-destructive relationships in real life? Human nature often lends itself to make things a lot more difficult than they seem like they should be. If we aren't happy with the class, it's not that we don't want to be.

For starters, Blizzard is constantly patching this game. You never really know when a patch will come along and maybe one single line in the notes will shift the balance of power a little more towards (or away from) your class. Unfortunately, Shaman are a year and a half running without ever actually getting that swing in our favor, but the possibility was always there and tantalizing.

Also, you can't ignore the fact that WotLK is upcoming. Another ten levels of spells and talents holds untold possibilities for leveling the playing field. Hell, we don't even know what that field is going to look like at 80. For all we know, Shaman could end up as the new Resto Druids or Subtlety Rogues. Of course, there's always the very real possibility that we'll be even worse off or not improve at all, but...

There's also the not-at-all small matter of the time and effort you've invested in a class, and the time and effort required to level up a new alt if the current character is abandoned.

I guess... bottom line... L2Human Nature moar and *** less?

Edited, Jun 8th 2008 10:06pm by Gaudion