Totem ProtectionFollow

I think that's a really bad decision, both gameplay and lore-wise. The idea of the ghost wolf is shapeshifting, just like a druid's... shapeshifting. If you ask me, combining some of the effects would only make it seem more as if it was one 'school of casting'.

Damn, that's horrible wording from my side, I hope you get what I'm onto.



Earthen Power? But that talent actually seems pretty interesting to me... Or wait; it's that far up in the Enhancement tree. Never mind then.



I think we all have our own opinions and predictions, but you're right, we'll never know 'till it's sure. I'm going to stay tuned, however.

Oh, come now, Jiade. I love my Shaman-doom-and-gloom as much as the next guy, but let's make sure we keep things in perspective. Things are getting better. However poor Hex may or may not be, I'd much rather have it than not. It's something, at least, and if nothing else at least you can try to force a trinket which is a hell of a lot more than any Shaman can say right now.

Riptide has the unfortunate status of being comparable to Renew and Rejuve, both of which are base abilities, but again, I'd much rather have the option of an instant heal/Hot in Riptide than to not have anything.

I don't think anyone reasonably can or should argue that Shaman aren't getting better. The issue is, as I said, whether or not they're going to be good enough. Will our new tools fix or at least alleviate the problems we currently have? Will we now be worth taking along for whatever reason when everyone else who's already better than us are getting more powerful as well?

I'm sure my thoughts on the matter are no secret to anyone by now. No, I don't believe they will. Which is why I finally re-rolled a Priest to replace my Shaman as my main healer. Still, I'm willing to see what a season of PvP at 80 will show us.

If we're on about PvE, I really don't see a shaman's problems. When resto they're hands down the best raid healers, drop a mana totem and can dish out Earth Shield. As Ele they bring a fair load of ranged DPS along with a spell crit chance buff, and as Enh they add a fair load of DPS to the melee group thanks to Windfury, Unleashed Rage and Bloodlust.

Sure, you can argue that there are other classes who have the same or alike buffs. But then you can also argue that théy might be the classes dropped off a raid so you can take that spot.

That's the case now. In WotLK (if PTR/Beta trends continue), Shaman will be substandard in all 3 trees and not really bring any unique buffs.



If Deathknights do more dps, you'll see 2 in a raid anyways. Mana Spring is only "group" buff, so it kinda sucks and doesn't even scale as well as B.o.Wisdom. Moonkin haste is actually a talent and not based off of a "proc." 3% haste on their moonkin aura if it's improved (which it will be). Fel Intelligence replaces Arcane Intelligence (I have a mage and have seen it happen).

There are very few shaman unique buffs. My point is if they offer substandard DPS and HPS/HPM... will those buffs be enough to justify a slot in a raid? Especially if they didn't have heroism? -.- A lot of people are saying the answer is no.

Err, mana spring totem is raidwide. And given that it stacks with BoW and all replenishment buffs, it's worth it anyway (though, a resto shaman will be more likely to be dropping healing stream).



I missed that. In any case, it's 3% haste. WoA is 5%. The proc from Moonkin Aura on spell crits will override WoA temporarily.



http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=42995 vs. http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=57567

60 from AI is better than 58 from Imp. Felhunter. AI will override the int bonus from the Felhunter at 80.



My guess is that there is going to be a resto shaman. Elemental and Enhancement are far and away being left in the dust, which is unfair (currently, we see very few elemental shamans past Brutallus, as well).

Why wouldn't resto shamans be brought to raids Chain heal should still be the ****.

Also wouldn't flame tongue totem stack with totem of wrath?

as far as 25 mans I still think resto shaman will be welcomed plenty.

I am not afraid of shaman of any spec losing any room in 25 mans, I think 2 resto, 1 elemental, and 1 enhancement would be almost a must. That right there offers healing stream and mana stream, flame tongue, totem of wrath, strength of earth, stone skin, windfury, wrath of air, unleash rage, elemental oath, and bloodlust for 4 out of 5 of your groups. If healing stream totem still stacks could have up to 3 of them, and for aoe fire nova can put out some decent damage from any spec.

Even if our damage is not as good as the other classes with all the buffs we can provide shaman will be a must while raiding.

but lets try to get back on to the main topic shaman are (and should stay) fine in pve we are still weak in pvp with the way totems are setup.

Not to continue the hair splitting but.... i believe the correct spelling is GAWD awful. > = )

Shamans are not awful, they're the most versital and fun toon to play.

crazy damage + crazy heals = crazy good

Hey lets calm down people I have a feeling Gaudion has been playing this game quite a while and has every right to be dissappionted if shaman changes don't suit him sheesh if we are gonna just troll the blizzard forums may be better for you.

If you where a real long time reader you would also know Gaudion has given much useful information to the readers here. Anyhow I have not been keeping up to date with the patch notes take a long break from WoW at the moment and it may be permanent (no not because I am disappointing with shaman IO just needed a break after i typed /played lol).

Gaudion is a fountain of knowledge. Its just the arrogance I hate to ignore. I myself don't play as a shaman. I'm a mage and I hope the shamans do get protection as the killing of totems is unfair to a semi-weak class as the shaman. I definately am not a fan of the elemental state idea as it would make them far too powerful. Unbalencing is not how you make a good game great...

I suppose, then, that's been changed a few times (just like everything else on the PTR/Bets). I just have to wonder why those two totems are not going raidwide, what with the insistence (both from Blizzard and players) that they ought to be. If the argument is made about "unique" buffs, then you are very shortsighted to not realize that they are trying to do away with that. You want to know what unique buff/debuff I can think of in Wrath? Detect Invisibility. And even then, you don't need a warlock for that.



Because raids like their healers, in short. I would not be surprised to see the Resto/Enhance setup we have going today because Elemental is falling behind, or Resto/Elemental because Enhance is falling short. As for elemental buffs, the same argument could be made now; where DPS races are king, why wouldn't you want your casters to stack as much dmg/crit/haste as possible, and drop 3-4% hit in its stead (depending on your shaman being draenei)? Besides that, Moonkin Aura overrides the crit from ToW, and the +dmg (thanks to the way caster dmg scales) isn't altogether that much at the end of the day. As far as picking the "least" bad spec/player, I suppose it also comes down to the guild composition; right now my lock's guild is lucky to have more than two paladins on at once, or to have even one shaman.

You also keep making the claim that priests are better raid healers. How? They have two AoE heals, one of which has a cooldown, the other of which has a significant mana cost and only affects group members. If priests are better raid healers (which, by the way, we can't yet be sure of), then yeah, they'd be better off in the spot. However, if they are not, then shamans will be. But for all we know, druids could be taking over both spots (and trust me - priests ain't happy about the changes they're getting, either).

Oh, and you don't see elemental as much at endgame because destro locks/rogues/hunters are doing that much more DPS than elemental shamans (yes, the scaling for ele shamans is that terribad). Many guilds even progress through Brutallus without an ele shaman, and that is already a min/max dps race. It's not a matter of "needing" resto shamans so much as whether another class is going to pull the weight of the ele shaman and then some.

Edited, Sep 30th 2008 9:16am by wingsofscion

Hang on a second. Says who? My second main is a priest, I'm happy? Unless you're referring to the changes druids are getting, but I haven't looked at them intensively yet and compared them to what I have to offer.

I've heard about the Dispersion and Disc problems... I can't speak for Dispersion... I'd say spriests need it (as they are the only class I kill easier than mages on my rogue), but I've never played shadow. As for disc, who knows, everything seems to be still up there.

It's holy that's on my mind though. I'm not sure what the latest change is to our 51-pointer, but as far as I can recall we get an instant cast that saves the tank from a killing hit. Castable Cheat Death, if you will. I'm fairly happy with that. And then I'm not even mentioning protection to overhealing and a wicked sick clearcasting. No, I can't really see druids or any other healers pushing us off the PvE scene at the moment.

If it's really that bad on Shamans, their group healing qualities ought to be improved. Make them completely specialized in that I'd say, as shamans don't have the luxury priests have to spec for a specific kind of healing.