Beta Shaman Patch Notes :: Free Realms

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#27 Jul 20 2008 at 8:54 AM Rating: Good

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In order;

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Raglu raises valid points about Thunder, and misses one along the way: it's a true AoE for Elemental Shaman, whereas previously only fire totems and Chain Lightning could provide less than ideal substitutes. Even if it has a target max, hitting that number is going to rack up some impressive sums of damage for an Elemental Shaman over the course of any instance run. I can think of numerous fights, both trash and boss, in the current level 70 content where I'd love to have it.

It's a horrible tool except possibly for 5-mans. How often do you see Priests use Psychic Scream in raids? You don't want to lose control of the adds and give them enough time to build aggro on a healer instead of a tank for pretty much the same reasons.

As for Flame Shock, it's not as good as you might think. My NapkinMath (TM) says that Lightning Bolt will do more damage at about 45% crit rate even with 5/5 Storm blah blah blah, which isn't actually that excessive with the stacking group buffs although it's definitely high. It's also about half the mana cost and has a much higher range, so you can position considerably further away from the boss. Of course, if the coefficients change (or the flat damage range does) from what they are at 70 this may change.

EDIT: With that said, depending upon how good Lava Burst is you may just have to adapt.

Edited, Jul 20th 2008 2:13pm by RPZip

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#28 Jul 20 2008 at 11:55 AM Rating: Good

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RPZip wrote:

It's a horrible tool except possibly for 5-mans. How often do you see Priests use Psychic Scream in raids? You don't want to lose control of the adds and give them enough time to build aggro on a healer instead of a tank for pretty much the same reasons.

Illhoof? The stairs on Kara? Actually, speaking of the stairs on Kara Thunder could serve a double-purpose there. One, to do damage to the AoE pulls, and two, you could save it until the pull is about halfway over to knock them away from the AoE-ing Mages and 'Locks. I don't really see the AoE nature of the spell or the knockback being a problem if the tanks build AoE threat. How long is it going to take the mobs to run the 20 yards back to a tank, really? Beyond that, it's just going to take half a brain to decide when and where you want to use it, and when it would be better not to.

The spell isn't pure win, but I think it's going to be a lot better in PvE than you're giving it credit for and to call it "useless" or "horrible"... I simply can't agree.

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As for Flame Shock, it's not as good as you might think. My NapkinMath (TM) says that Lightning Bolt will do more damage at about 45% crit rate even with 5/5 Storm blah blah blah, which isn't actually that excessive with the stacking group buffs although it's definitely high. It's also about half the mana cost and has a much higher range, so you can position considerably further away from the boss. Of course, if the coefficients change (or the flat damage range does) from what they are at 70 this may change.

EDIT: With that said, depending upon how good Lava Burst is you may just have to adapt.

You don't need to whip out your trump card and quote DPS math to me just yet, RP. I'm still not even sold on the fact that any kind of spell rotation is going to replace pure LB spam. But assuming Lava Burst is there to induce a spell rotation, you have to assume Flame Shock is going to be part of that (otherwise Lava Burst isn't even worth using), and so if you're going to be Flame Shocking, there's no justifiable reason not to have the 100% DoT increase.

Also, even with your justifications 45% crit is still a very high, end-game raid content figure. I realize a lot of us have been there for a long time and will continue to for a while longer, but let's not forget that it's not the entire game.

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#29 Jul 20 2008 at 3:07 PM Rating: Decent

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Well also lets figure 45% crit now is easy to get, when we need almost no spell hit, that's changing though, losing 6% spell hit from talents is going to hurt us a lot come expansion. If the tick damage from flame shock really isn't worth it though flame shock rank 1 should still work and we could do without talents. The point of Lava Burst I think is to help us move away from our reliance on so much crit to be efficient, i think this was meant to help us gear for haste and be able to scale more properly. If this spell rotation is not good then that means enhancement shaman will get more use of this combo with maelstrom weapon in pve and that's just wrong.

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#30 Jul 20 2008 at 4:28 PM Rating: Excellent

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Gaudion wrote:

RPZip wrote:

It's a horrible tool except possibly for 5-mans. How often do you see Priests use Psychic Scream in raids? You don't want to lose control of the adds and give them enough time to build aggro on a healer instead of a tank for pretty much the same reasons.

Illhoof? The stairs on Kara? Actually, speaking of the stairs on Kara Thunder could serve a double-purpose there. One, to do damage to the AoE pulls, and two, you could save it until the pull is about halfway over to knock them away from the AoE-ing Mages and 'Locks. I don't really see the AoE nature of the spell or the knockback being a problem if the tanks build AoE threat. How long is it going to take the mobs to run the 20 yards back to a tank, really? Beyond that, it's just going to take half a brain to decide when and where you want to use it, and when it would be better not to.

The spell isn't pure win, but I think it's going to be a lot better in PvE than you're giving it credit for and to call it "useless" or "horrible"... I simply can't agree.

Actually, the knockback in PvE is nothing to worry about. 20 yards is how much distance?

The Blink of a mage.

Stick a tiny macro that has /y Casting Thunder on AOE pack now! when you click to target your Thunder radius, judge to make sure that if all the mobs Blinked nothing else would be aggroed, and use it. Mages will stay their AoEs for 3 seconds, Warlocks' Seeding will continue unmolested, Paladins can throw another Captain America, whatever. Aggro won't be a problem so long as the raid is organized.

Adding another AoE isn't bad at all, you can use it while Magma Totem is ticking between your Fire Nova Totem and Chain Lightning cooldowns. And you get mana for using it.

Gaudion's right, it's not "horrible" in the least. It isn't the best AoE I've seen, it isn't the best mana-management tool I've seen. But it fulfills both functions decently, and is a great tool for PvP. In fact, it's a well-balanced ability.

Edited, Jul 20th 2008 8:27pm by Raglu

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#31 Jul 20 2008 at 6:09 PM Rating: Good

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Gaudion wrote:

RPZip wrote:

It's a horrible tool except possibly for 5-mans. How often do you see Priests use Psychic Scream in raids? You don't want to lose control of the adds and give them enough time to build aggro on a healer instead of a tank for pretty much the same reasons.

Illhoof? The stairs on Kara? Actually, speaking of the stairs on Kara Thunder could serve a double-purpose there. One, to do damage to the AoE pulls, and two, you could save it until the pull is about halfway over to knock them away from the AoE-ing Mages and 'Locks. I don't really see the AoE nature of the spell or the knockback being a problem if the tanks build AoE threat. How long is it going to take the mobs to run the 20 yards back to a tank, really? Beyond that, it's just going to take half a brain to decide when and where you want to use it, and when it would be better not to.

The point I was making is that in nearly any situation I can think of, you'd be better off without that 'cool knockback' in a PvE context. The damage you add isn't even going to come close to outweighing the damage the other AoEers would add, and the lost DPS time is a bad idea.

While it may not cause aggro issues if you use it late in the pull, in what way would that be better? If the tanks have aggro you're wasting time, if the AoE has aggro you're preventing them from just finishing off the mobs.

The spell isn't pure win, but I think it's going to be a lot better in PvE than you're giving it credit for and to call it "useless" or "horrible"... I simply can't agree.

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As for Flame Shock, it's not as good as you might think. My NapkinMath (TM) says that Lightning Bolt will do more damage at about 45% crit rate even with 5/5 Storm blah blah blah, which isn't actually that excessive with the stacking group buffs although it's definitely high. It's also about half the mana cost and has a much higher range, so you can position considerably further away from the boss. Of course, if the coefficients change (or the flat damage range does) from what they are at 70 this may change.

EDIT: With that said, depending upon how good Lava Burst is you may just have to adapt.

You don't need to whip out your trump card and quote DPS math to me just yet, RP. I'm still not even sold on the fact that any kind of spell rotation is going to replace pure LB spam. But assuming Lava Burst is there to induce a spell rotation, you have to assume Flame Shock is going to be part of that (otherwise Lava Burst isn't even worth using), and so if you're going to be Flame Shocking, there's no justifiable reason not to have the 100% DoT increase.

Also, even with your justifications 45% crit is still a very high, end-game raid content figure. I realize a lot of us have been there for a long time and will continue to for a while longer, but let's not forget that it's not the entire game.

Yeah, the point at which cast-for-cast LB beats it was higher than I initially thought it was going to be; I think I forgot to factor in the effects of CoE at first, which definitely upped the ante.

What I meant was that even if the threshold at which LB beats it is high, the fact that it a) does beat it and b) It's a lot of talent investment for a small gain. If Lava Burst is worth using every ~10s then it'll be worth picking up, but if you want to spam it then it won't be. *shrug*

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Gaudion's right, it's not "horrible" in the least. It isn't the best AoE I've seen, it isn't the best mana-management tool I've seen. But it fulfills both functions decently, and is a great tool for PvP. In fact, it's a well-balanced ability.

I pretty clearly specified PvE, and I stand by what I said too. It's horrible. Soul-suckingly, godawfully bad.

The PvP implications are obvious and a completely seperate matter, though.

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#32 Jul 20 2008 at 7:20 PM Rating: Decent

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RPZip wrote:

I pretty clearly specified PvE, and I stand by what I said too. It's horrible. Soul-suckingly, godawfully bad.

Well, you're welcome to your opinion... Me personally, assuming for some reason I ever re-specced Elemental, I would take both Thunderstorm and Storm, Earth, and Fire, for both PvE and PvP.

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#33 Jul 20 2008 at 11:58 PM Rating: Good

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Ya I agree both talents seem to add a bit of utility in both situations, if thunder has no base mana cost it is some mana back in PvE as well as a occasional tool for however the caster chooses to use it, in PvP it will add an interesting element to the game, whether used to get the pain in the **** melee off of you or just another way to interrupt a heal or some other spell. Storm Earth and fire also make Flame Shock do crazy damage(at the moment it is already a heavy damaging spell), extra range on Earth shock is amazing for both PvE and PvP, and a chance to freeze with frost shock is a great way to gain or lose even more distance between you and a target.

Hopefully this spell rotation works out, it has the possibility to make elemental really fun and awesome, but if it sucks then lava burst is simple a spell to use against earth elementals that can only be used once every 8 seconds... if this where the case then blizzard needs to give us a different spell all together, but I am hoping it is awesome and give shaman some more dps in both pve and pvp.

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#34 Jul 22 2008 at 6:05 AM Rating: Decent

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I am wandering if elemental oath will stack between multiple shaman much like BM hunters can stack multiple ferocious inspiration.

Just imagine 4 elemental shaman and a balance druid in one group, thats 12% hit and crit from totems, 5% hit from aura, our haste totem, 6% increase nature damage and 3% hit from druid debuffs, and 24% increase crit damage and decrease mana cost, as well as up to 2 mins and 40 seconds of blood lust. take out one elemental shaman and replace with a shadow priest and there is still a lot of sexy going on with this kind of group setup.

I almost want to assume that Elemental oath wont stack like this just because it would be pretty ridiculous, but it would be awesome if it did.

I can see it now 5 healers 5 tanks and 3 moonkin and 12 elemental shaman raids =P (8 minutes of BL and 41% extra crit lol)...

I can dream =P

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#35 Jul 23 2008 at 6:02 AM Rating: Decent

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Hi all, this is just something I noticed while looking through the new spells and talent changes for us shammies.

But, it appears that Lightning shield no longer costs any mana, much like water shield, according to the wowhead spell listing for WotLK.

Do you think this is a typo, or could we be looking at what could be a major free DPS increase not just for solo play but maybe for raiding too with the new talent, Static Shock (even if it is only a 6% proc rate at it's max).

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#36 Jul 23 2008 at 6:11 AM Rating: Decent

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makes sense blizzard wants enhancement shaman to use lightning shield and with all the other mana costing abilities we will be using thanks to maelstrom weapon this is probably a necessary change.

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#37 Jul 23 2008 at 7:12 AM Rating: Good

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So I was reading a lot of talent ideas where many feel elemental will spec 28 points into enhancement for increase spell damage, I didn't believe it at first but I busted out a calculator and at 80 with 500 int, battle shout, true shot aura, BoM, MotW, and totems... we can actually get around 2000k ap which translates into I think 600 spell damage...

now I know many of you are thinking but that's a elemental shaman in a melee group, well in the new 10 man raids where our totems are group wide we can be in any group and gain all these benefits.

guess we will have to wait and see I don't think blizzard intended this at all, a lot of my calculations where also based on level 70 stats so this is all very interesting.

talents would look something like this:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=hEu0q0zetMxzZhg0IVm0c

assuming naked stats are 150ish str 100ish agl and about 500 int self buffed we can push an extra 370 spell damage.

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#38 Jul 23 2008 at 8:24 AM Rating: Good

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jmfmb wrote:

So I was reading a lot of talent ideas where many feel elemental will spec 28 points into enhancement for increase spell damage, I didn't believe it at first but I busted out a calculator and at 80 with 500 int, battle shout, true shot aura, BoM, MotW, and totems... we can actually get around 2000k ap which translates into I think 600 spell damage...

now I know many of you are thinking but that's a elemental shaman in a melee group, well in the new 10 man raids where our totems are group wide we can be in any group and gain all these benefits.

guess we will have to wait and see I don't think blizzard intended this at all, a lot of my calculations where also based on level 70 stats so this is all very interesting.

talents would look something like this:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=hEu0q0zetMxzZhg0IVm0c

assuming naked stats are 150ish str 100ish agl and about 500 int self buffed we can push an extra 370 spell damage.

Interesting, I forgot about that.

I don't know why people skip ToW though, I just don't. It's even more important than it used to be now that it's raidwide.

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#39 Jul 23 2008 at 9:58 AM Rating: Decent

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RPZip wrote:

I don't know why people skip ToW though, I just don't. It's even more important than it used to be now that it's raidwide.

That kind of comes back to the whole "very end of the game or not" thing. By the end of the game, most DPS spell casters have already hit-capped themselves through gear, and therefore the 3% hit goes completely to waste and it basically ends up as 3% crit for five people. There are some guilds that will actually gear around an Elemental Shaman's presence so they can forgo that hit for a little more damage and crit, but that approach is a bit shifty at best. If the Shaman doesn't show up, four other people are screwed, and even when he's there, any time there is a lapse in his totem laying, they stand to lose DPS.

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#40 Jul 23 2008 at 12:09 PM Rating: Decent

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ToW doesn't scale, we have to choose between spell dmg totem and tow now in WotLK. I think they need to invest in making this totem stronger cause I just don't know if it will be worth it.

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#41 Jul 23 2008 at 3:18 PM Rating: Good

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Gaudion wrote:

RPZip wrote:

I don't know why people skip ToW though, I just don't. It's even more important than it used to be now that it's raidwide.

That kind of comes back to the whole "very end of the game or not" thing. By the end of the game, most DPS spell casters have already hit-capped themselves through gear, and therefore the 3% hit goes completely to waste and it basically ends up as 3% crit for five people. There are some guilds that will actually gear around an Elemental Shaman's presence so they can forgo that hit for a little more damage and crit, but that approach is a bit shifty at best. If the Shaman doesn't show up, four other people are screwed, and even when he's there, any time there is a lapse in his totem laying, they stand to lose DPS.

It's not really a very-end-of-game thing, actually. Casters should be hitcapped before they leave Kara.

On the other hand, if you have access to a raid-wide 3% spell crit boost it's worth getting even ignoring the hit. Healers use spell crit too, you know, not to mention the casters outside of your group.

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#42 Jul 23 2008 at 3:56 PM Rating: Excellent

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ToW doesn't scale, we have to choose between spell dmg totem and tow now in WotLK. I think they need to invest in making this totem stronger cause I just don't know if it will be worth it.

technically, it does scale. its always going to be 3% hit and crit, which as you get higher in level, gains in relative value due to the mechanics of the rating system. so at level 80, 3% hit and crit is going to be equivalent to more hit/crit rating than it was at 70 or 60. besides, if you claim that ToW doesnt scale, then you can apply to same criticism to all +crit% talents in game, and we all know how valuable those are. in ToW, elemental shaman have what amounts to between 3 and 5 talent points of +hit and +crit talents wrapped up in a single totem.

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#43 Jul 23 2008 at 3:58 PM Rating: Decent

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RPZip wrote:

It's not really a very-end-of-game thing, actually. Casters should be hitcapped before they leave Kara.

Let's not split hairs over the word "very". I consider raiding content as a whole "end of the game", if you want to wait until BT or Sunwell to throw that modifier in... that is your perogative.

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On the other hand, if you have access to a raid-wide 3% spell crit boost it's worth getting even ignoring the hit. Healers use spell crit too, you know, not to mention the casters outside of your group.

Well, as of now it's not raid-wide, which coupled with the fact that it scales extremely poorly, is why a lot of people skip it now. Once WotLK comes out, it will indeed affect more than your group, but as jmfmb just brought up, it now has to compete with Flametongue Totem which is apparently going to supply more spellpower. So... 3% crit or more spellpower? I am thinking most people will just go for the spellpower, hence Flametongue Totem, hence Totem of Wrath becomes superfluous and a talent point you can put to use elsewhere.

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#44 Jul 23 2008 at 4:03 PM Rating: Good

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Well, as of now it's not raid-wide, which coupled with the fact that it scales extremely poorly, is why a lot of people skip it now. Once WotLK comes out, it will indeed affect more than your group, but as jmfmb just brought up, it now has to compete with Flametongue Totem which is apparently going to supply more spellpower. So... 3% crit or more spellpower? I am thinking most people will just go for the spellpower, hence Flametongue Totem, hence Totem of Wrath becomes superfluous and a talent point you can put to use elsewhere.

in a 10-man? maybe. but in a 25-man? no way. the resto shammy will be dropping flametongue totem because, chances are, he wont be using it for anything else. barring the addition of a resto shammy (which, lets be honest, is quite unlikely), then the enh shammy could easily drop flametongue since enh shammies *will* be used in 25-mans. this leaves an elemental open to use totem of wrath, getting the buff from both flametongue and ToW at the same time.

raid-wide totem effects more or less guarantee a spot in a raid for elemental and enhancement shammies. whether or not a raid has one of each to bring along is probably going to be more of a supply issue than anything else.

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#45 Jul 23 2008 at 9:28 PM Rating: Decent

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in a 10-man? maybe. but in a 25-man? no way. the resto shammy will be dropping flametongue totem because, chances are, he wont be using it for anything else. barring the addition of a resto shammy (which, lets be honest, is quite unlikely), then the enh shammy could easily drop flametongue since enh shammies *will* be used in 25-mans. this leaves an elemental open to use totem of wrath, getting the buff from both flametongue and ToW at the same time.

raid-wide totem effects more or less guarantee a spot in a raid for elemental and enhancement shammies. whether or not a raid has one of each to bring along is probably going to be more of a supply issue than anything else.

I see what you mean Quor and your right in 25 man raids ToW is a bit more valuable (paladin and shaman helers gain a bunch from crit) but most classes raiders are still hit capped so this is still just a 3% crit totem.

With blizzard making many (if not all) raid able to be set on 10 man moad I just don't see ToW making the cut, for 10 mans unless a enhancement or resto shaman is present (which wont always be the case) it just is not that useful. Still seems as though ToW will only affect spells so this is another hindrance.

I actualy assumed blizzard would make a Improved ToW talent, something like increasing provided crit by 1/2% and giving offensive spell crits a 25/50% chance to launch a fire bolt that causes xxx damage.

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#46 Jul 24 2008 at 3:04 AM Rating: Decent

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Also keep in mind that Priests are looking to be just as good if not better raid healers in WotLK than Resto Shaman, so the days of mandating up to three Resto Shaman in raids for fights with heavy AoE healing will likely be over. Now, granted, the chances of getting into a 25-man without a single Resto Shaman aren't terribly high, but there is that.

There is also something else. You guys are more or less assuming the best case scenario 100% of the time, but in reality a single totem does not guarantee a raid-wide buff. There are already plenty of fights now that are spread out well over a 30-yard radius, with ranged DPS and healers frequently seperated, and a Resto Shaman at least is not going to be able to drop what he's doing, run to an ideal spot for a totem drop, drop it, go back to his healing spot, and then resume healing even if that would cover everyone. If the caster DPS and healers are stacked? Sure, ToW. But again, any time it's a choice between ToW and FTT, I would expect them to go with FTT.

For one point it's probably worth picking up in the expansion, but outside of 25-man content it's probably going to see even more limited use than it does currently.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 7:03am by Gaudion

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#47 Jul 24 2008 at 4:20 AM Rating: Decent

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Also keep in mind that Priests are looking to be just as good if not better raid healers in WotLK than Resto Shaman, so the days of mandating up to three Resto Shaman in raids for fights with heavy AoE healing will likely be over. Now, granted, the chances of getting into a 25-man without a single Resto Shaman aren't terribly high, but there is that.

There is also something else. You guys are more or less assuming the best case scenario 100% of the time, but in reality a single totem does not guarantee a raid-wide buff. There are already plenty of fights now that are spread out well over a 30-yard radius, with ranged DPS and healers frequently seperated, and a Resto Shaman at least is not going to be able to drop what he's doing, run to an ideal spot for a totem drop, drop it, go back to his healing spot, and then resume healing even if that would cover everyone. If the caster DPS and healers are stacked? Sure, ToW. But again, any time it's a choice between ToW and FTT, I would expect them to go with FTT.

For one point it's probably worth picking up in the expansion, but outside of 25-man content it's probably going to see even more limited use than it does currently.

Well I am not sure how its all gonna come down too but I know one reason shaman will be wanted in raids still:

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Bloodlust-Increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party members. Lasts 40 sec.

2 shaman 80 seconds of BL, 3 shaman 120, 5 shaman 200 seconds... this is pretty crazy for boss fights if used during the right times with some coordination also BL would be a great tool on trash with 5 shaman you could Bloodlust/heroism every 2 mins on trash. and then once your 5 mins away from a boss everyone saves it to blow half way through a boss fight, unless strats need to be explained for boss fight then just let a rip all you want cause it will be ready.

I may be wrong but it seems to me this will make shaman the back bone of raiding still even if it is just 4 resto shaman and 1 enhancement brought to a 25 man raid group.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 8:19am by jmfmb

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#48 Jul 25 2008 at 10:11 AM Rating: Good

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jmfmb wrote:

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Also keep in mind that Priests are looking to be just as good if not better raid healers in WotLK than Resto Shaman, so the days of mandating up to three Resto Shaman in raids for fights with heavy AoE healing will likely be over. Now, granted, the chances of getting into a 25-man without a single Resto Shaman aren't terribly high, but there is that.

There is also something else. You guys are more or less assuming the best case scenario 100% of the time, but in reality a single totem does not guarantee a raid-wide buff. There are already plenty of fights now that are spread out well over a 30-yard radius, with ranged DPS and healers frequently seperated, and a Resto Shaman at least is not going to be able to drop what he's doing, run to an ideal spot for a totem drop, drop it, go back to his healing spot, and then resume healing even if that would cover everyone. If the caster DPS and healers are stacked? Sure, ToW. But again, any time it's a choice between ToW and FTT, I would expect them to go with FTT.

For one point it's probably worth picking up in the expansion, but outside of 25-man content it's probably going to see even more limited use than it does currently.

Well I am not sure how its all gonna come down too but I know one reason shaman will be wanted in raids still:

Quote:

Bloodlust-Increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party members. Lasts 40 sec.

2 shaman 80 seconds of BL, 3 shaman 120, 5 shaman 200 seconds... this is pretty crazy for boss fights if used during the right times with some coordination also BL would be a great tool on trash with 5 shaman you could Bloodlust/heroism every 2 mins on trash. and then once your 5 mins away from a boss everyone saves it to blow half way through a boss fight, unless strats need to be explained for boss fight then just let a rip all you want cause it will be ready.

I may be wrong but it seems to me this will make shaman the back bone of raiding still even if it is just 4 resto shaman and 1 enhancement brought to a 25 man raid group.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 8:19am by jmfmb

Bloodlust will not be a raid wide buff, this would be ridiculously overpowered because it would again mean shaman stacking would occur in raids yet again so that you could have bloodlust up for the whole fight.

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#49 Jul 25 2008 at 10:13 AM Rating: Decent

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The 3% hit component is the most problematic for ToW. Hit scales backwards, your raid ought to be hitcapped so half of the totem's effect won't be touching your DPS. Healing classes also dont benefit as heals dont need +hit, so thats the other half of the raid out of the loop.

If ToW was +6% crit aura I'd call it awesome, hell even +3% crit and +100spelldmg. As it is, those 3 hit % just dont do much.

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#50 Jul 25 2008 at 2:20 PM Rating: Decent

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Bloodlust will not be a raid wide buff, this would be ridiculously overpowered because it would again mean shaman stacking would occur in raids yet again so that you could have bloodlust up for the whole fight.

your right I miss read then sorry

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#51 Jul 25 2008 at 2:25 PM Rating: Decent

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The 3% hit component is the most problematic for ToW. Hit scales backwards, your raid ought to be hitcapped so half of the totem's effect won't be touching your DPS. Healing classes also dont benefit as heals dont need +hit, so thats the other half of the raid out of the loop.

If ToW was +6% crit aura I'd call it awesome, hell even +3% crit and +100spelldmg. As it is, those 3 hit % just dont do much.

pretty much ToW is meh, I think the main reason blizard is hesitant to buff this totem is atm it stacks so for each elemental shaman it would give 3% hit, making it 6% crit is just too much... I think if they gave the casters some kind of proc it would balance out, the more elemental shaman present the higher the proc chance , making it something that some what scales with casters would also be nice but I guess we will have to just hope blizzard does something.

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