From source. Comes with all the "this is a second-hand leak from the alpha, subject to change..." and usual disclaimers.
Enhancement:
Enhancing Totems - Moved to Tier 0
Improved Lightning Shield - Moved to Tier 0, increases Earth Shield/Water Shield effect by 5%
Astral Knowledge - Now 3 Points - 2% Intellect Per Point
Shield Spec - Now 2 points, same effect
Guardian Totems - No change
Thundering Strikes - No change
Imp. Ghost Wolf - No change
Mental Dexterity - Increases AP by 33%/66%/100% of Intellect (Bloodlust icon, tier 2)
Shamanistic Focus - No change
Anticipation - No change
Flurry - No change
Toughness - No change
Improved Weapon Totems - No change
Spirit Weapons - No change
Elemental Weapons - No change
Mental Quickness - No change
Weapon Mastery - No change
Duel Wield Spec - No change
Duel Wield - No change
Stormstrike - No change
Improved Stormstrike - Increases the amount of Stormstrike charges by 1/2, and reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.
Unleashed Rage - No change
Static Shock - 3 points - You have a 2%/4%/6% chance to hit your target with a lightning shield orb charge when you do damage, and increases your number of charges of your lightning shields by 1/2/3.
Shamanistic Rage - No change
Improved Shamanistic Rage - 2 points - When under the effects of Shamanistic Rage, you have a 50%/100% chance to be cause you to be immune to all stun, snare, and movement impairing effects.
Weapon Specialization -
Axe - Increases the critical strike damage bonus by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
Mace - Has a 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% chance to increase your melee haste by 10% for 15 seconds.
First - Attacks from your fist weapons have a 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% chance to reduce the armor of your target by 20% for 6 seconds.
Elemental:
Earth's Grasp - Moved to Tier 0
Convection - Now 3 points - 4%/8%/12% (Not too sure on the last 2)
Concussion - Includes Lava Burst and Thunder
Call of Flame - Increase Lava Burst by 2%/4%/6%
Elemental Warding - No change
Elemental Devastation - Now on Tier 1
Call of Thunder - Includes Thunder
Elemental Focus - Now includes lesser healing wave and healing wave (zomfg!!!)
Reverberation - No change
Improved Fire Nova totem - 50%/100% chance to stun for 2 seconds
Eye of the Storm - No change
Unrelenting Storm - No change
Elemental Fury - No change
Storm Reach - 10%/20% radius on Thunder
Elemental Precision - No Change
Lightning Mastery - No change
Elemental Mastery - No change
Elemental Shields - No change
Lightning Overload - No change
Elemental Oath - (35 points in elemental) Needs Elemental Mastery - Spell hit is increased by 50%/100% while elemental mastery or elemental focus is active.
Astral Shift - (40 points in elemental) 3 points - When you are critically hit twice in a row, you have a 33%/66%/100% chance to shift into the atral plane, causing you to be immune to all physical damage for 3 seconds. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.
Totem of Wrath - No change
Lava Flow - (40 points in elemental) 3 points - Increase the amount of spell damage gained while having flametongue weapon equipped by 5%/10%/15% and increases the damage done by your flame shock and lava burst by 4%/8%/12%
Storm, Earth, and Fire - (45 Points in elemental) 5 points - Your frost shock has a 5%/10%/15%/20%/25% chance to root the target in frozen ice for 2 seconds, your earthshocks range is increased by 1/2/3/4/5 yards, and your periodic damage done by flame shock is increased by 20%/40%/60%/80%/100%.
Resto
Cleanse Spirit - Requires Purification - 186 mana - 40 yd range - cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease, and 1 curse effect.
Mana Tide Totem - No change
Nature's Guardian - No change
Blessing of the Eternals (35 points in Restoration) - 2 points - Increases the critical effect chance of your spells by 2%/4% and increases the bonus healing from your Earthliving Weapon by 5%/10%.
Improved Chain Heal - No change
Nature's Blessing - No change
Ancestral Awakening - Requires 40 Points - 3 points - When you critically heal with your healing wave or lesser healing wave, you summon an ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest target within 40yds for 20%/40%/60% of the amount healed.
Earth Shield - No change
Improved Earth Shield - 2 Points - (40 points in resto) - Increases charges by 1/2, and amount healed by 5%/10%
Tidal Waves - 5 points (45 points in resto) - Increases the critical effect chance of your lesser healing wave and healing wave spells by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% and your healing wave and lesser healing wave spells gain an additional 5%/10%/15%/20%/25% of your bonus healing effects.
I'm disappointed but not surprised that Shield Spec is still there but at reduced cost -- like Wand Spec for mages, Blizzard is slow to admit talents just shouldn't exist. Mental Dexterity is a bit odd but the kind of talent I was expecting to see more of. Static Shock is interesting, Blizzard definitely seems committed to making Lightning Shield viable.
Also, flametounge aparently gives +spelldamage. EJ thinks this might herald the end of dual WF in favor of WF MH /FT OH. plus, Elemental (?) Shamans get a skill that consumes Flameshock on the target to gurantee a crit. One poster joked that T7 Enhancement gear better have footpads on the shoulders to carry the elemental shaman around...
There's also a shaman weapon imbue that adds +healing now.
Earthliving Weapon Rank 1 Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by $51940$s2 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional $51940s1 over $51940d. Lasts 30 minutes.
It's on War Tools, which has been deleting them. So don't get too attached.
Sterica on
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited June 2008
There's also been some talk about a Frostbite weapon imbue, which apparently deals frost damage and slows the target's movement on every hit. However, this just seems like an updated Frostbrand, so I'm not sure if it's for real or not. It'd be pretty nice for PvP it if were real.
Since they kept it, moved it to tier 1 and made it cheap, maybe the intent is that it actually be used by elemental shaman for "lol-offtank" purposes. Elemental can't be crit by mobs from talents, and when the alpha was first released posters looking at the warrior talents were speculating that crushing blows might not be as much an issue in wotlk.
Or, maybe they can't admit shield spec is a wasted talent since elemental and enhance both have threat reducing talents.
The only thing I really don't like about the talent changes is how it seems Elemental is clearly more PVP based then Enhancement. I kind of wish "Storm, Earth, and Fire" was at a lower tier so that enhancement shaman could use it. Also, I really don't know about Spirit Wolfs... I would have to see how they work before I make any judgments. I kind of hope they kick extreme ass. I would like them to be viable for raiding and PVP. Right now the "pets" that we do get are awful. You can't use them in a raid/heroic/5man because they get one shotted, and you can't control them. There's rumor that shamans get a Wind Elemental that lasts "until dismissed" I'm hoping the other elementals get changed that way too.
Am I the only one that likes the elemental totems? They've saved my ass so many times when soloing and when used correctly the Fire elemental has been a fair enough AoE to help boost a group that's falling behind. Now obviously they aren't so good in raids but I wouldn't expect them to be on par with a player AoE (Barring Ilhoof where they do great AoE and last a fair while when the main AoE goes down, seen that save a raid a couple of times before).
The earth elemental is pretty much an improved Stoneclaw totem outside of soloing. It usually lasts ~5 seconds or less in raids/instances since most healers won't heal it(or don't even have time to). The fire ele is fun in pvp....dunno what it is but people freak and then forget to target the totem and kill it instead of the elemental.
The earth elemental is pretty much an improved Stoneclaw totem outside of soloing. It usually lasts ~5 seconds or less in raids/instances since most healers won't heal it(or don't even have time to). The fire ele is fun in pvp....dunno what it is but people freak and then forget to target the totem and kill it instead of the elemental.
I love those things on the poison elems right after HWL Naj. All the Shamans pop them(3-4), and we just AoE/Fear Bomb/Silence the crapp outta' everything. Spam heals on the giant rock dude!!
The only thing I really don't like about the talent changes is how it seems Elemental is clearly more PVP based then Enhancement. I kind of wish "Storm, Earth, and Fire" was at a lower tier so that enhancement shaman could use it. Also, I really don't know about Spirit Wolfs... I would have to see how they work before I make any judgments. I kind of hope they kick extreme ass. I would like them to be viable for raiding and PVP. Right now the "pets" that we do get are awful. You can't use them in a raid/heroic/5man because they get one shotted, and you can't control them. There's rumor that shamans get a Wind Elemental that lasts "until dismissed" I'm hoping the other elementals get changed that way too.
I don't see why you'd say enhancement won't be as viable in pvp
Improved Shamanistic Rage - 2 points - When under the effects of Shamanistic Rage, you have a 50%/100% chance to be cause you to be immune to all stun, snare, and movement impairing effects.
means you're pretty much, unkitable, and you'll be running towards someone as a ghostwolf. Not alot is going to get away from you.
Plus, Hex is out
which looks itself to be a pretty nasty snare.
Sidenote; I love my elementals. Earth elemental is nice for those outdoor quests you want to do with guild mates when no tank is about, while the Fire elemental has helped me enormously with group quests I couldn't have done on my own. In an ideal world I'd like them on a shorter cooldown, but then it's obvious from the 20 min cooldown, Blizz don't want them being used in the arena.
The earth elemental is pretty much an improved Stoneclaw totem outside of soloing. It usually lasts ~5 seconds or less in raids/instances since most healers won't heal it(or don't even have time to). The fire ele is fun in pvp....dunno what it is but people freak and then forget to target the totem and kill it instead of the elemental.
Earth Elemental actually helped me on a Heroic Mr T during Kael. It was during the bubble phase when everyone but me died to bubbles. I land, run to Kael, drop an earth elemental, and he whacks away at him while I'm in the air healing myself and shooting a lightning bolt when I can. He turned a 2000000 minute fight into a 2 minute fight (His damage was shit, and Fire Elemental was already down. It's such a strong totem in that fight)
Hex is more than just a snare...its a sheep for shamans, only that its a squirrel. But am i reading that right, there is no duration on it?
The way I'm reading it, is that it's a 75% movement reduction and you can't do anything if you move; however, if you stand still, you are still able to do stuff.
Of course I could be misunderstanding the text, or the text itself could be wrong.
Hex is more than just a snare...its a sheep for shamans, only that its a squirrel. But am i reading that right, there is no duration on it?
The way I'm reading it, is that it's a 75% movement reduction and you can't do anything if you move; however, if you stand still, you are still able to do stuff.
Of course I could be misunderstanding the text, or the text itself could be wrong.
RE: Hex it reads exactly like Polymorph "While wandering, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells..." so it's not just a snare and you are reading it wrong.
You'll be able to have the wolves up 25% of the time, so that ability is either going to cost alot of mana or wont be that awesome, I think.
I'm totally psyched to release the hounds onto some dudes though!
Uhhh, Water Elemental is up like 32% of the time with the new talents and it's pretty fucking kickass so your logic isn't exactly sound. Also, it costs 12% of base mana which isn't a lot.
You know those mobs in ZF and ST that turn you into frogs? Yeah, that's what shaman are getting... You know how when you get frogged, the mobs still run around beating on you? Yeah... You'll be able to attack whichever player you frogged.
Though I'm sure all the mages will QQ a massive stream of tears about their polymorph being underpowered, and then blizz will nerf the shit out of it.
I think you are reading in too much on the Hex description.
>> Transforms the enemy into a random critter, reducing the target's movement speed by 75%.
This line just says the target is slowed down and looks different.
>> While moving, the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells.
The spell does not force the target to move around.
Compare this to polymorph:
> Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander for up to 50 sec. While wander, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate very quickly.
Hex is not uber-sheep and is weaker than sheep as a cc. The target can cast, bandage, shoot a bow, etc. It still sounds like a great snare.
There is a precedent for my reading of the hex spell text... the gnomish poultryizer. Chickens can't cast but can move and melee.
It does seem strange that the hex screenshot is missing a line about lasting up to 'x' seconds though.
I think you are reading in too much on the Hex description.
>> Transforms the enemy into a random critter, reducing the target's movement speed by 75%.
This line just says the target is slowed down and looks different.
>> While moving, the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells.
The spell does not force the target to move around.
Compare this to polymorph:
> Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander for up to 50 sec. While wander, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate very quickly.
Hex is not uber-sheep and is weaker than sheep as a cc. The target can cast, bandage, shoot a bow, etc. It still sounds like a great snare.
There is a precedent for my reading of the hex spell text... the gnomish poultryizer. Chickens can't cast but can move and melee.
It does seem strange that the hex screenshot is missing a line about lasting up to 'x' seconds though.
You're the one reading too much into it. It's alpha, they wing the descriptions a bit, it matches up to the polymorph description enough. You're not going to get turned into a critter and bandage/shoot/cast spells etc. It's not logically consistent. Especially since it has 1 minute cooldown, I guarantee you are wrong. Also notice how the section where it says "FORCES you to wander" is the part with the length description in Polymorph, the Hex description has no length in the description yet (alpha).
EDIT: In fact http://vimeo.com/1190132 he mouses over the tooltip: Cannot attack or cast spells. Movement speed reduced by 95% clearly there is inconsistency in the description.
That video wasn't out when I posted, or not linked from the alpha wiki website when I was reading up before my entry above.
Guess I was wrong.
But as an aside to Mgcw, I that you are overstating about actions while hexed not being logically consistent. Wowhead says that people who are poultryized by the engineering trinket can still melee, as a chicken. I've never been hit with that, but they have a few comments saying it works that way.
So, I know shamans want two slow weapons for DW, but I just had a Flurry Axe drop, would that be a decent weapon for lvling in the 40's (where my shaman happens to be) I know it's fast as hell, but with that nice proc, stacking it with WF wouldn't that be good damage also?
EWom on
Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
So, I know shamans want two slow weapons for DW, but I just had a Flurry Axe drop, would that be a decent weapon for lvling in the 40's (where my shaman happens to be) I know it's fast as hell, but with that nice proc, stacking it with WF wouldn't that be good damage also?
Heh, same situation I found myself in. It's decent damage, although I actually use Flametongue with it and WF on my much-slower main.
The only thing I really don't like about the talent changes is how it seems Elemental is clearly more PVP based then Enhancement. I kind of wish "Storm, Earth, and Fire" was at a lower tier so that enhancement shaman could use it. Also, I really don't know about Spirit Wolfs... I would have to see how they work before I make any judgments. I kind of hope they kick extreme ass. I would like them to be viable for raiding and PVP. Right now the "pets" that we do get are awful. You can't use them in a raid/heroic/5man because they get one shotted, and you can't control them. There's rumor that shamans get a Wind Elemental that lasts "until dismissed" I'm hoping the other elementals get changed that way too.
I don't see why you'd say enhancement won't be as viable in pvp
Improved Shamanistic Rage - 2 points - When under the effects of Shamanistic Rage, you have a 50%/100% chance to be cause you to be immune to all stun, snare, and movement impairing effects.
means you're pretty much, unkitable, and you'll be running towards someone as a ghostwolf. Not alot is going to get away from you.
Plus, Hex is out
which looks itself to be a pretty nasty snare.
Sidenote; I love my elementals. Earth elemental is nice for those outdoor quests you want to do with guild mates when no tank is about, while the Fire elemental has helped me enormously with group quests I couldn't have done on my own. In an ideal world I'd like them on a shorter cooldown, but then it's obvious from the 20 min cooldown, Blizz don't want them being used in the arena.
I never said it wasn't viable, but that Elemental is clearly more viable as far as we know. I honestly don't think shamans are getting Hex. But thats just the pessimistic shaman in me talking. I don't know if Imp. SR is going to be enough either. I'm hoping that with the changes to Hit, Crit, and Haste, as well as new itemization, the new stat conversion talents (Int -> ATP), and the new spells all come together to make Enhancement work well in PVP. But all that can be hindered by what other classes are getting.
I really think they need to make the Imp. GW talent make the GW work like a Druid form on its final point. Or at least have the spell do that as a base effect.
In that video you can see the shaman whack the wolf after it being hexed, and it doesn't break the hex. And the wolf in the video didn't come melee'ing after the shaman while hexed, even though it clearly was aggroed. So it looks like my initial assertions were all correct.
Paradox Control, how do you think elemental PvP will deal with pushback in wotlk, once people drop their arena gear with pushback protection?
I looked at the alpha tree again - do you think Thunder's knockback will be used to get distance from melee classes? Or do you think pushback will be less of an issue?
Paradox Control, how do you think elemental PvP will deal with pushback in wotlk, once people drop their arena gear with pushback protection?
I looked at the alpha tree again - do you think Thunder's knockback will be used to get distance from melee classes? Or do you think pushback will be less of an issue?
the way I Imagen it, Thunder would definitely be used to get distance. Warrior charges in, you use Thunder, then Frost shock him, drop earth bind, run away, and then blast him. I can't speak for push back, because I've never truly played a caster class. But as it stands, I can imagen Elemental being much more successful in arenas then Enhance.
Posts
First Blood 85 Priest 80 Mage 85 Paladin 83 Druid 80 DK 85 Huntard 85 Shaman
"Tardo Wan" sounds like a Jedi that required 436 years to train and then killed himself by looking into his lightsaber while turning it on."
My Paladin better get an Offensive Dispel then
First Blood 85 Priest 80 Mage 85 Paladin 83 Druid 80 DK 85 Huntard 85 Shaman
"Tardo Wan" sounds like a Jedi that required 436 years to train and then killed himself by looking into his lightsaber while turning it on."
Enhancement:
Improved Lightning Shield - Moved to Tier 0, increases Earth Shield/Water Shield effect by 5%
Astral Knowledge - Now 3 Points - 2% Intellect Per Point
Shield Spec - Now 2 points, same effect
Guardian Totems - No change
Thundering Strikes - No change
Imp. Ghost Wolf - No change
Mental Dexterity - Increases AP by 33%/66%/100% of Intellect (Bloodlust icon, tier 2)
Shamanistic Focus - No change
Anticipation - No change
Flurry - No change
Toughness - No change
Improved Weapon Totems - No change
Spirit Weapons - No change
Elemental Weapons - No change
Mental Quickness - No change
Weapon Mastery - No change
Duel Wield Spec - No change
Duel Wield - No change
Stormstrike - No change
Improved Stormstrike - Increases the amount of Stormstrike charges by 1/2, and reduces the cooldown by 1/2 seconds.
Unleashed Rage - No change
Static Shock - 3 points - You have a 2%/4%/6% chance to hit your target with a lightning shield orb charge when you do damage, and increases your number of charges of your lightning shields by 1/2/3.
Shamanistic Rage - No change
Improved Shamanistic Rage - 2 points - When under the effects of Shamanistic Rage, you have a 50%/100% chance to be cause you to be immune to all stun, snare, and movement impairing effects.
Weapon Specialization -
Axe - Increases the critical strike damage bonus by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%.
Mace - Has a 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% chance to increase your melee haste by 10% for 15 seconds.
First - Attacks from your fist weapons have a 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% chance to reduce the armor of your target by 20% for 6 seconds.
Elemental:
Convection - Now 3 points - 4%/8%/12% (Not too sure on the last 2)
Concussion - Includes Lava Burst and Thunder
Call of Flame - Increase Lava Burst by 2%/4%/6%
Elemental Warding - No change
Elemental Devastation - Now on Tier 1
Call of Thunder - Includes Thunder
Elemental Focus - Now includes lesser healing wave and healing wave (zomfg!!!)
Reverberation - No change
Improved Fire Nova totem - 50%/100% chance to stun for 2 seconds
Eye of the Storm - No change
Unrelenting Storm - No change
Elemental Fury - No change
Storm Reach - 10%/20% radius on Thunder
Elemental Precision - No Change
Lightning Mastery - No change
Elemental Mastery - No change
Elemental Shields - No change
Lightning Overload - No change
Elemental Oath - (35 points in elemental) Needs Elemental Mastery - Spell hit is increased by 50%/100% while elemental mastery or elemental focus is active.
Astral Shift - (40 points in elemental) 3 points - When you are critically hit twice in a row, you have a 33%/66%/100% chance to shift into the atral plane, causing you to be immune to all physical damage for 3 seconds. This effect has a 30 second cooldown.
Totem of Wrath - No change
Lava Flow - (40 points in elemental) 3 points - Increase the amount of spell damage gained while having flametongue weapon equipped by 5%/10%/15% and increases the damage done by your flame shock and lava burst by 4%/8%/12%
Storm, Earth, and Fire - (45 Points in elemental) 5 points - Your frost shock has a 5%/10%/15%/20%/25% chance to root the target in frozen ice for 2 seconds, your earthshocks range is increased by 1/2/3/4/5 yards, and your periodic damage done by flame shock is increased by 20%/40%/60%/80%/100%.
Resto
Mana Tide Totem - No change
Nature's Guardian - No change
Blessing of the Eternals (35 points in Restoration) - 2 points - Increases the critical effect chance of your spells by 2%/4% and increases the bonus healing from your Earthliving Weapon by 5%/10%.
Improved Chain Heal - No change
Nature's Blessing - No change
Ancestral Awakening - Requires 40 Points - 3 points - When you critically heal with your healing wave or lesser healing wave, you summon an ancestral spirit to aid you, instantly healing the lowest target within 40yds for 20%/40%/60% of the amount healed.
Earth Shield - No change
Improved Earth Shield - 2 Points - (40 points in resto) - Increases charges by 1/2, and amount healed by 5%/10%
Tidal Waves - 5 points (45 points in resto) - Increases the critical effect chance of your lesser healing wave and healing wave spells by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% and your healing wave and lesser healing wave spells gain an additional 5%/10%/15%/20%/25% of your bonus healing effects.
I'm disappointed but not surprised that Shield Spec is still there but at reduced cost -- like Wand Spec for mages, Blizzard is slow to admit talents just shouldn't exist. Mental Dexterity is a bit odd but the kind of talent I was expecting to see more of. Static Shock is interesting, Blizzard definitely seems committed to making Lightning Shield viable.
Earthliving Weapon Rank 1 Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by $51940$s2 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional $51940s1 over $51940d. Lasts 30 minutes.
It's on War Tools, which has been deleting them. So don't get too attached.
Since they kept it, moved it to tier 1 and made it cheap, maybe the intent is that it actually be used by elemental shaman for "lol-offtank" purposes. Elemental can't be crit by mobs from talents, and when the alpha was first released posters looking at the warrior talents were speculating that crushing blows might not be as much an issue in wotlk.
Or, maybe they can't admit shield spec is a wasted talent since elemental and enhance both have threat reducing talents.
I'm totally psyched to release the hounds onto some dudes though!
I love those things on the poison elems right after HWL Naj. All the Shamans pop them(3-4), and we just AoE/Fear Bomb/Silence the crapp outta' everything. Spam heals on the giant rock dude!!
First Blood 85 Priest 80 Mage 85 Paladin 83 Druid 80 DK 85 Huntard 85 Shaman
"Tardo Wan" sounds like a Jedi that required 436 years to train and then killed himself by looking into his lightsaber while turning it on."
I don't see why you'd say enhancement won't be as viable in pvp
means you're pretty much, unkitable, and you'll be running towards someone as a ghostwolf. Not alot is going to get away from you.
Plus, Hex is out
which looks itself to be a pretty nasty snare.
Sidenote; I love my elementals. Earth elemental is nice for those outdoor quests you want to do with guild mates when no tank is about, while the Fire elemental has helped me enormously with group quests I couldn't have done on my own. In an ideal world I'd like them on a shorter cooldown, but then it's obvious from the 20 min cooldown, Blizz don't want them being used in the arena.
Earth Elemental actually helped me on a Heroic Mr T during Kael. It was during the bubble phase when everyone but me died to bubbles. I land, run to Kael, drop an earth elemental, and he whacks away at him while I'm in the air healing myself and shooting a lightning bolt when I can. He turned a 2000000 minute fight into a 2 minute fight (His damage was shit, and Fire Elemental was already down. It's such a strong totem in that fight)
The way I'm reading it, is that it's a 75% movement reduction and you can't do anything if you move; however, if you stand still, you are still able to do stuff.
Of course I could be misunderstanding the text, or the text itself could be wrong.
You are transformed into a critter.
Uhhh, Water Elemental is up like 32% of the time with the new talents and it's pretty fucking kickass so your logic isn't exactly sound. Also, it costs 12% of base mana which isn't a lot.
Though I'm sure all the mages will QQ a massive stream of tears about their polymorph being underpowered, and then blizz will nerf the shit out of it.
Anyway, do you think the wolves will work just like the treants or what? I'd like to think they could have some utility to them, somewhere.
>> Transforms the enemy into a random critter, reducing the target's movement speed by 75%.
This line just says the target is slowed down and looks different.
>> While moving, the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells.
The spell does not force the target to move around.
Compare this to polymorph:
> Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander for up to 50 sec. While wander, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate very quickly.
Hex is not uber-sheep and is weaker than sheep as a cc. The target can cast, bandage, shoot a bow, etc. It still sounds like a great snare.
There is a precedent for my reading of the hex spell text... the gnomish poultryizer. Chickens can't cast but can move and melee.
It does seem strange that the hex screenshot is missing a line about lasting up to 'x' seconds though.
You're the one reading too much into it. It's alpha, they wing the descriptions a bit, it matches up to the polymorph description enough. You're not going to get turned into a critter and bandage/shoot/cast spells etc. It's not logically consistent. Especially since it has 1 minute cooldown, I guarantee you are wrong. Also notice how the section where it says "FORCES you to wander" is the part with the length description in Polymorph, the Hex description has no length in the description yet (alpha).
EDIT: In fact http://vimeo.com/1190132 he mouses over the tooltip: Cannot attack or cast spells. Movement speed reduced by 95% clearly there is inconsistency in the description.
Guess I was wrong.
But as an aside to Mgcw, I that you are overstating about actions while hexed not being logically consistent. Wowhead says that people who are poultryized by the engineering trinket can still melee, as a chicken. I've never been hit with that, but they have a few comments saying it works that way.
Must... avoid... cow... joke...
Heh, same situation I found myself in. It's decent damage, although I actually use Flametongue with it and WF on my much-slower main.
I never said it wasn't viable, but that Elemental is clearly more viable as far as we know. I honestly don't think shamans are getting Hex. But thats just the pessimistic shaman in me talking. I don't know if Imp. SR is going to be enough either. I'm hoping that with the changes to Hit, Crit, and Haste, as well as new itemization, the new stat conversion talents (Int -> ATP), and the new spells all come together to make Enhancement work well in PVP. But all that can be hindered by what other classes are getting.
I really think they need to make the Imp. GW talent make the GW work like a Druid form on its final point. Or at least have the spell do that as a base effect.
Let's hope it stays that way!
I looked at the alpha tree again - do you think Thunder's knockback will be used to get distance from melee classes? Or do you think pushback will be less of an issue?
Leveling specs/tips/links etc?