Angry with new AOE *BUFF*Follow

What on earth are you talking about?

Ok, in that case I agree with the overall opinion of the OP if not the tone. This will be nice for enhancement but fairly useless for Elemental.

What they should really do is make Thunderstorm a targeted ability so they can drop it on the tank.

I really just do not even have it in me to be indignant at this change. It really should be no surprise to anyone else that Blizzard is not content with simply letting the class have a unique mechanic; they need to ram it further down our throats. They've been so preoccupied with totem functionality that they're only just now coming to terms with the fact that Elemental DPS might be a little low at some points in the game and that talents in the tree might need to be changed to facilitate better scaling.

I would have to agree as well. My boomkin has starfall now, and that is amazing..... Pull a pack, starfall, barkskin, spam hurricane on top of myself until no ones left. Druids shouldnt be kings of AOE imo.

I really want my elem shammy back up to par, and I agree that they need to revamp us a bit to get us where we were / are supposed to be. =P

It wouldnt be that hard to make a earth totem do aoe dmg..."quake totem" for example. and/or - give us a talent that makes CL jump to an extra target or 3. Personally I like Thunderstorm to be auto-selftargeting. I wouldnt change it at all, but perhaps they could make it so that it has a chance to proc a CL or some such.

anyway..we'll see... /sigh

I dont agree with the "<x> is buffed so <y> is nerfed" philosophy, CL still does the same damage, that damage just wasnt spectacular to begin with. CL is a great mechanic and it was the thing I always loved most about my Shaman, particularly when grinding AV as Elemental back pre-TBC, there's nothing really wrong with it as a spell.

This change is just...weird. I agree with Gaudion, Blizzard haved taken the stance that instead of fixing totem mechanics they are just going to make the class more and more dependent on them until you are forced to use them all the time; they could solve this whole problem by making any talented totem (ToW/Mana Tide) an independent entity instead of 'a fire totem', 'a water totem' etc. Give it more HP and a different look, instead of re-using the same tired old model. That way you dont feel like your talents are wasted against anyone with a macro, and dont force you to give up other essential buffs you can provide.

I figure this idea would solve a lot of Shaman problems w.r.t to totems, not all of them but some, and I dont even work for the company; it shouldnt be that hard for them to figure it out.

I know this is a little off-topic, but i had a stroke of pseudo-almost genius that i wanted to share.

OK, so - I could have this wrong, but - here's what I can glean is the basic essential issues with totems:

1. Totems can be targeted and killed easily by anyone with a macro thereby rendering our "unique class mechanic" into a "unique class downfall/weakness" because we no longer have the buffs that are essential to making our class function at its peak efficiency. (Proposed Solution: buff totems life/make un-killable/un-targetable?)

2. Totems are stationary and need to be recast every time we move to a new location, which is exceedingly often. They also cost a fair amount of mana each time to set up. (Prop. Solution: Make them move with the shaman or cost alot less mana?)

3. Certain totems - the talent ones - take up the slot of a normal totem so that any time we use a special one it negates other efefcts we have active, which is contrary to the idea of a talent as no other class in the game has a talent that states that when they use it they will loose one of their natural abilities/buffs while the talent is active. (Prop. Solution: Make talented totems take up no totem slot, they can be called Ether (if youre into the greek 5th elemetn thing) or whatever, but not fire/water/air/earth)

4. In light of Fire AOE totems getting buffed, but elem spec having to use ToW, No earth based AOE dmg effects, which seems odd to me that shamans dont have some sort of quake ability in the 1st place, but hey... (Prop. Solution: Make a quake totem. IMO, it should deal medium dmg + a chance to stun every so often, or just deal reg dmg with no stun. kinda like a cross-blend between magma and nova tot's, without being so good as to replace either.)

5. Needs new Graphics. (Prop Sol.: Make new Graphics.

My Suggested Solution:

How about just making the totems act like pally auras that have a chance to get dispelled every time we're hit? I'll let that sink in for a second. Ok, now before you flinch and say OP, let me go over the minuatae of the balancing details and you will see how this can be made very balanced very easily. First I will explain how it addresses and solves each of my 5 points listed above, followed by how it is modified to make it not overpowered.

1. Because the totem effects are now an "aura", totems can no longer be specifically targeted. No more macros. Done. Fixed. However, each time the shaman is hit, there's a percentage based chance for one of his active totems to be "dispelled". Thereby making them still go away every once in awhile in the spirit of being targetable like the old system.

2. Again, because totems are now an "aura", totems now would move with the shaman. No need to recast every time you move. However, because the "auras" can be dispelled by being hit, they will need to be recast every so often (thereby keeping in the spirit of the old system), and if the shaman is unfortunate to be singled out and beat on, the odds of him having any totems/auras up for too long are slim.

3. Certain totems would be rather overpowered if allowed to just sit on the shaman as an aura (magma, nova, searing & earthbind for example). So in light of that, I would propose that the 5th totem type be "Physical". Those that are deemed to be "OP as an aura" should require actual placement of a physical totems on the ground (albeit with a few more HP). These would not count as a used "aura" slot, since they would be fully independent of the "aura" system and would fall under the "physical" element/category - as they are a physical item. So, in this system, a shaman would be able to have (at most) 4 active auras up at one time PLUS 1 physical totem out on the ground.

4. This would be fixed by making the "physical element type totem" as stated in #3 above.

5. Having the Aura system in place would inherently fix this issue. The "physical" totems would have the same old look, but he auras....ahh, the auras. IMO: they should look like the "lightning shield/water shield/earth shield" look now. Just make a few one for fire and poof, 4 auras. that way anyone (player, friend and foe alike) can see exactly what auras a shaman has up at all times, as well as placing buff icons on the players affected by the auras just as totems do now. But "what about the shields then?" you ask. Well, make them look like the priest shield (you know, the annoying gold one), but make them color coded. - silvery white with some sparks around it for lighting, bright blue with wavy lines for water, and green with a few rocks floating around for earth. Poof - new pretties.

Anyway, just my 2 cents I guess.

Cheers

-Voyd

and now that i check back, i forgot to actually put the on-topic part of my thought in the post..lol

I agree that those buffs look nice and will help the elem tree a bit, my only hope is that they decide to include CL in that last bit about extra bonus spell dmg percent.

my only beef with the totem mechanic is that for buff totems its just too many GCDs. If they merge too many together the whole balance of buffs/active totems go down the drain. Part of playing a good shaman is know when to switch out a totem to suit the situation better.

Sure the totems are fragile and can be tab targetted and killed off but that takes time as well which is quite a decision in itself. "Do I try to land another nuke on that shaman or swap target and use GCD to get rid of that earthbind totem?"

Give shamans talents that increase the resistance to attacks totems have, roughly how most classes have resistances to dispels on their buffs.

Something like a base of -5% to hit with melee, ranged, and spell attacks on most totems (probably not Stoneclaw or Grounding), and then talents that increase that.

Totems aren't much different than buffs or debuffs, except that every class can "dispel" them. They should get roughly the same resistance to "dispel" as magic buffs.

I think one solution that would definitely work would be to make talented totems (ToW, MT) a different element, someone suggested this in another thread, make them Ether totems and you resolve this whole issue.

Then they could add a talented totem for Enhance and just keep them all deep enough in the trees that you can only get one.

That wouldn't solve the problem. Once you are feared... you are feared all because Tremor totem died right as fear went off. No reduction in mana cost will solve that. Relaying totems still incurs GCD's even if they cost less. Some classes don't use GCD's to kill totems (any pet class: unholy DK, locks, hunters.... even a shadowfiend or mage pet can kill them easily).

This is something that really needs to happen. Taking the four (or closer to five seconds with human reaction and server lag) seconds to lay totems is hardly even worth it in five-man instances anymore outside of bosses, the mobs just die so fast and are so easy. And they've always been not worthwhile in PvP save for a select few function totems. So that leaves, what... raids? One aspect at the very end of the game to make the most of our class' core mechanic that Blizzard is hellbent on lodging in our anuses?

I believe that the best way to deal with the constant resetting of totems is to use a mechanic I have seen proposed before.

It's to change around the functionality of Totemic Recall so that instead of dismissing the existing totems and getting a small amount of mana back; it should make the totems you currently have down automatically be reset at the casters feet for just one global cooldown and a certain amount of mana cost while the totem's active timer continues to count down.

I think this would solve the soloing problem of even wanting to drop totems, and also make the Shaman's core mechanic more mobile, which is to say mobile at all. And it would play very nicely into the whole 5 minute timers most of the totems have now, which currently have very little use outside of boss fights.

Making the talented totems not take up any of the current totem element slots would be nice. Though, I think Bliz would add in some conditions to such functionality. Since, currently we can not have both ToW and the Flametounge totem down, which Bliz may see as a bit OP (though in the end it such a thing may not be the case), if they gave us this functionality, if only from the stand point that Shamans have never had this mechanic open to them before. A condition I could see them making is if ToW is down, and then the Shaman puts down a Flametounge totem the ToW is destroyed, and visa versa.

Also, on the idea that we have an AOE earth totem, I too like the idea if only to not have to rely on the fire totems for some of my AOE damage. But again I think Bliz may see this as too OP (which again may not bee the case) since Shamans would now be able to drop a fire AOE, an Earth AOE and then start casting spells. Again, a condition I could see for this is that if one of the Fire AOE totems are down, then you drop the Earth AOE totem, it destroys the Fire AOE totem.

But really, in terms of the original post making an earth AOE totem would still be crap for Elementals since it would also be a close range AOE.

I think having a couple of new AOE spells that still kind of use the totem mechanic would be nice. Something like this maybe:

Fire Totem Chucking:
"Regent" Requirement - The Shaman must have a fire totem active for this spell to become castable.
The Shaman picks up his/her fire totem and throws it at a location calling forth a lava flow that damages enemies within a X range of where the totem landed for Y damage per second. When the shaman throws his/her totem, the shaman is refunded the mana cost of the totem and the fire totem is destroyed. Have a range of 30 yards, a 2-3 sec case time, and maybe have a cooldown timer.

Earth Totem Chucking:
"Regent" Requirement - The Shaman must have an earth totem active for this spell to become castable.
The Shaman picks up his/her earth totem and throws it at a location calling forth a powerful earthquake that damages enemies within a X range of where the totem landed for Y damage per second. When the shaman throws his/her totem, the shaman is refunded the mana cost of the totem and the earth totem is destroyed. Have a range of 30 yards, a 2-3 sec case time, and maybe have a cooldown timer.

Edited, Dec 2nd 2008 10:31am by Arsil