Depends what you're hating. If it's the totems, then it's time to give up.
I didn't think about it but I guess it is mostly the totems. I assumed once I could drop them all at once they would become much less annoying. Right now it feels like a pet class that has potted plants instead of pets.
Unfortunately totems have gotten lackluster over the years, some of them lost uniqueness and others got gradually nerfed into mediocrity (grounding totem used to be so good).
On the other hand, shamans really depend on the higher level skills, without lava burst, thunderstorm and the cooldown reduction in shocks elemental basically only has lightning bolt and shocks. Enhancement is even worse, before you pick up stormstrike and dual wielding you only have auto attacks and shocks.
I have no idea how I managed to level all the way to 60 on my shaman with no water shield, no stormstrike and no mana reduction on shocks.
Depends what you're hating. If it's the totems, then it's time to give up.
I didn't think about it but I guess it is mostly the totems. I assumed once I could drop them all at once they would become much less annoying. Right now it feels like a pet class that has potted plants instead of pets.
Unfortunately totems have gotten lackluster over the years, some of them lost uniqueness and others got gradually nerfed into mediocrity (grounding totem used to be so good).
On the other hand, shamans really depend on the higher level skills, without lava burst, thunderstorm and the cooldown reduction in shocks elemental basically only has lightning bolt and shocks. Enhancement is even worse, before you pick up stormstrike and dual wielding you only have auto attacks and shocks.
I have no idea how I managed to level all the way to 60 on my shaman with no water shield, no stormstrike and no mana reduction on shocks.
Because big numbers are hilarious and they don't get much bigger than triple crit windfury with a 2h, even if you did it when the mob was at like, 50 hp.
Sigh, just started playing again for summer on my Shammy, when I left him he was in a good guild, we had just killed Freya 3 trees 25 man, and I had awesome gear.
Now I suck.
This is weird.
Should I just do billions of heroics?
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Hey guys.
I just noticed that Stormstrike says it will increase the nature damage of the shaman's spells by 20%, no charge count. Just 15 second duration. Is this on live servers, or is this something coming in Cataclysm?
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
Sigh, just started playing again for summer on my Shammy, when I left him he was in a good guild, we had just killed Freya 3 trees 25 man, and I had awesome gear.
Now I suck.
This is weird.
Should I just do billions of heroics?
Yes, most of Ulduar gear is overshadowed by Emblem gear. Also run the three new ICC 5mans, they drop level 232.
I just noticed that Stormstrike says it will increase the nature damage of the shaman's spells by 20%, no charge count. Just 15 second duration. Is this on live servers, or is this something coming in Cataclysm?
Stormstrike change is really nice; now if they could give us a few more fixes. Some of these mechanics are still pretty wonky, even with a number balance... feels like someone could write a standup routine with 'em.
"Unleashed Weapon: Windfury. It's a ranged attack, but increases our melee attack speed! What's up with that?"
"Hey Searing Totem, mind targeting the hunter instead of his pet so I can get some combo points here? No? Well, how about the boss over there? Oh wait, he has an add, too."
"Got into a 25-man raid the other day: I'm a resto shammy, y'know, got all those super cheap totems. Course, they didn't need any of 'em..."
"How 'bout that totemic vigor? Gotta wonder why they didn't just get straight to the point and say 'increases the HP of your earth totems by 10%'."
Alright, so I'm getting into Enh PvP for the first time since I hit 80 about a year ago. I'm having a very hard time finding any resources for gemming and priorities, since most of the discussions on EJ and the like are people bitching about Enh and PvP. Can anybody point me towards a good website, or maybe just a really good Armory page I can blatantly ripoff?
"Unleashed Weapon: Windfury. It's a ranged attack, but increases our melee attack speed! What's up with that?"
Well, it can still be used at melee range, right?
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
"Hey Searing Totem, mind targeting the hunter instead of his pet so I can get some combo points here? No? Well, how about the boss over there? Oh wait, he has an add, too."
Yeah, this is a big issue. Someone on the WoW forums suggested it should target the enemy with flame shock on them. Thought that was a good idea.
"Got into a 25-man raid the other day: I'm a resto shammy, y'know, got all those super cheap totems. Course, they didn't need any of 'em..."
Eh, better to have too many buffs than too few. And besides, who specs into Totemic Focus anyhow?
"Spirit Link."
God this one pisses me off. If we don't get it this expansion, I will demand it next one, along with Big Bad Voodoo for good measure.
Warlock Doomguards and Infernals already have an effect where they are most likely to target the thing with your Bane of somethingorother on them so I'll bet Shaman Totems will get the same thing.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
No, that's silly, it's a feature of the totems that they target whatever the fuck, it'll make for more interesting gameplay experiences.
Warlock Doomguards and Infernals already have an effect where they are most likely to target the thing with your Bane of somethingorother on them so I'll bet Shaman Totems will get the same thing.
That's what was pointed out in the WoW post as well (it's Bane of Doom, I believe).
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Using it at range results in a wasted buff. They should increase the range, but they should change the effect for windfury. We've got enough attack speed buffs.
I'm fine with spreading buffs around; I'm not fine with weak mechanics defining my class. I loved using totems in vanilla, but with each expansion they take a step forward and five steps back as far as improvement and exploration of the original concept. Did we even get a new totem in Cata that wasn't just a splice of old ones?
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Using it at range results in a wasted buff. They should increase the range, but they should change the effect for windfury. We've got enough attack speed buffs.
So what if it's a wasted buff? If your at range, it's better then the non-DPS you would be doing without the skill.
It's also, remember, for ALL specs, not just enhancement. The other 2 specs being at range.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Using it at range results in a wasted buff. They should increase the range, but they should change the effect for windfury. We've got enough attack speed buffs.
So what if it's a wasted buff? If your at range, it's better then the non-DPS you would be doing without the skill.
It's also, remember, for ALL specs, not just enhancement. The other 2 specs being at range.
The range on Unleash Windfury is so you can use it when you're approaching the target. A little bit of damage and some good haste for when you reach melee range. The other specs wouldn't use Windfury in the first place. Also, you use Unleash which will trigger Unleash Flametongue from your off-hand, after which you can blast a Flame Shock for +20% damage. I don't see what the problem here is.
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Using it at range results in a wasted buff. They should increase the range, but they should change the effect for windfury. We've got enough attack speed buffs.
So what if it's a wasted buff? If your at range, it's better then the non-DPS you would be doing without the skill.
It's also, remember, for ALL specs, not just enhancement. The other 2 specs being at range.
The range on Unleash Windfury is so you can use it when you're approaching the target. A little bit of damage and some good haste for when you reach melee range. The other specs wouldn't use Windfury in the first place. Also, you use Unleash which will trigger Unleash Flametongue from your off-hand, after which you can blast a Flame Shock for +20% damage. I don't see what the problem here is.
My point was, there's only 1 Unleash spell and all 3 specs use it, which is one of the many reasons it has a long range on it.
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Using it at range results in a wasted buff. They should increase the range, but they should change the effect for windfury. We've got enough attack speed buffs.
So what if it's a wasted buff? If your at range, it's better then the non-DPS you would be doing without the skill.
It's also, remember, for ALL specs, not just enhancement. The other 2 specs being at range.
The range on Unleash Windfury is so you can use it when you're approaching the target. A little bit of damage and some good haste for when you reach melee range. The other specs wouldn't use Windfury in the first place. Also, you use Unleash which will trigger Unleash Flametongue from your off-hand, after which you can blast a Flame Shock for +20% damage. I don't see what the problem here is.
The problem is that the buff makes the move counter-intuitive for enhancement. At range, we won't want to use unleashed weapon now because we'll waste the attack speed buff. We'll get that extra damage, but the opportunity cost increases while not in melee. Fine for PvE if they keep their promise for ghost wolf, miserable in PvP period.
It needs a better range for casters, and a better buff for melee.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I don't see how you waste the attack speed buff. You Unleash while at range, then run up to the mob and your five next melee attacks benefit from the buff.
Yeesh, is the 5 swing limit still there? Man, that's even worse.
The problem is that attack speed buffs stack multiplicatively. You'll lose damage using it while flurry isn't up; not as bad as it'd be if it weren't capped, but still hurts. Even worse if they reduce the windfury cooldown.
A short cooldown will only serve to add to those losses in mobility fights, but I'm mostly concerned with when and where to use it. An enhancement shaman looking to up their DPS wouldn't use unleashed weapon at range right now. In PvP the buff's largely irrelevant, so they'd use it because there's nothing offensive to do while closing the gap aside from shocks anyways.
A while ago I heard they were changing it to a percent damage increase. Not incredible, but better for PvP, and would be usable the way reVerse described without loss.
Unless the tank's just running away from you. But hey, that's what unleashed Rockbiter's for, right? :x
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Your complaint still lacks any kind of merit whatsoever. You would use Unleash Weapon at range because doing a little damage at range is better than doing no damage at range, and as soon as you're in melee range you now have a nice haste buff for your next five attacks. This whole idea about not using it at range because you're 100% unable to get to melee range is completely idiotic. There sure has been lots and lots of fights lately where the melee just have to sit at range and fiddle their thumbs, hasn't there?
Yeah, actually, that describes about half the ICC fights on heroic, one(two?) of the ToC encounters, and a few Ulduar fights. Those mechanics aren't going away any time soon. Funnily enough, that situation on its own would actually describe the best situation in which an enhancement shaman would use unleashed weapon at range.
So what, you don't think there's any merit to using that global cooldown to ghost wolf up to the target instead of dicking around at range?
EDIT: Right, maelstrom procs, too. Yeesh, I'm gonna just stop there; sleep-addled brain is making with the not thinking good.
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
Alright, so I'm getting into Enh PvP for the first time since I hit 80 about a year ago. I'm having a very hard time finding any resources for gemming and priorities, since most of the discussions on EJ and the like are people bitching about Enh and PvP. Can anybody point me towards a good website, or maybe just a really good Armory page I can blatantly ripoff?
Arena or BG/WG? In any case you only need 4-6% spell hit and way less Expertise. If you have full PvP gear already, I'd go for gemming like in PvE (i.e. haste). If you are just starting, I'd probably gem the first pieces with Resilience +X (X being AP, haste, Sta depending on socket color) to make it easier on your healers.
Try an armory search for Beastcleave, that's a popular 2s comp for Arena including an Enhancement Shaman. And there's lots of Arena teams that just name themselves after their comp. The European armory found me some 3s an 5s also but at least it had high ranked (2k+) Enhancement Shaman.
Depends what you're hating. If it's the totems, then it's time to give up.
I didn't think about it but I guess it is mostly the totems. I assumed once I could drop them all at once they would become much less annoying. Right now it feels like a pet class that has potted plants instead of pets.
Unfortunately totems have gotten lackluster over the years, some of them lost uniqueness and others got gradually nerfed into mediocrity (grounding totem used to be so good).
On the other hand, shamans really depend on the higher level skills, without lava burst, thunderstorm and the cooldown reduction in shocks elemental basically only has lightning bolt and shocks. Enhancement is even worse, before you pick up stormstrike and dual wielding you only have auto attacks and shocks.
I have no idea how I managed to level all the way to 60 on my shaman with no water shield, no stormstrike and no mana reduction on shocks.
Because big numbers are hilarious and they don't get much bigger than triple crit windfury with a 2h, even if you did it when the mob was at like, 50 hp.
So true. I miss old windfury totem. Nothing like a WSG with myself and 4 arms warriors playing bodygaurd/wrecking crew for me
However, we are going to increase buff totem range (and possibly other totem range) and we have figured out a way to make Searing Totem attack your target, instead of a random and probably inappropriate target.
And the fandom rejoiced. Let's just hope this means 100 yards for buff totems, and some non-retarded target assist mechanic for searing totem.
If they manage that, make that mechanic apply to our elemental pets as well.
Shamanistic Rage now causes your skills, totems, and offensive spells to consume no mana for 15 sec.
Huh. Wasn't that how Shamanistic Rage was before shammervate? Guess it works better with our altered regen mechanic now. Not so much a rage anymore, though, is it?
Yeah, probably. If it's just PvE buffs, though, I don't see why not. We could use windfury or SoE in arena, but something tells me we won't be keeping 'em down for long. The resistance totem might be an issue, but that could be solved pretty easily by... I dunno... maybe giving us more water totems? Crazy concept, I know. As a matter of fact, let's take away healing stream and mana spring, far too many choices in that tree right now.
a 50 or 60 yard range would be fine. That means in 5 mans you can probably use your totems on a few groups of mobs and in raids it covers at least a reasonable range to allow for raid movement. I have other complaints about totems but the main thing killing them now is limited range when raid bosses are moving to more and more movement fights.
I would also be for giving the shaman some shaman specific boosts for having totems out since now in a 25 man it would be pretty easy to cover every buff a totem could grant with none of the totem downsides.
I wouldn't count on 100 yard totem buffs. I don't think they want them to cover an entire arena.
Wouldn't matter in arena with the exception of tremor (which they wouldn't buff to that insanity for PvE reasons), because totems get re-dropped or twisted too often.
As it is now, 50-60 yards would cover the entire area of pretty much every encounter if you placed them correctly.
Lets hope it stays as it is now, then. Higher mobility across all classes seems to suggest that fights are going to require a lot more movement as well; hopefully that doesn't mean every other Cata boss is going to have a Sartura-sized arena. That's for a different thread, though.
I would also be for giving the shaman some shaman specific boosts for having totems out since now in a 25 man it would be pretty easy to cover every buff a totem could grant with none of the totem downsides.
Would be nice, yes. They pretty much had something like that as an elemental shaman set bonus near the end of BC; dunno why they didn't progress any further with it.
I wouldn't count on 100 yard totem buffs. I don't think they want them to cover an entire arena.
Wouldn't matter in arena with the exception of tremor (which they wouldn't buff to that insanity for PvE reasons), because totems get re-dropped or twisted too often.
100 yards is still excessive and I can't see them doing anything near that. Even if not for arena, I don't think they want someone dropping totems at, say, the lumber mill graveyard and covering up to the cliff.
100 yards is still excessive and I can't see them doing anything near that. Even if not for arena, I don't think they want someone dropping totems at, say, the lumber mill graveyard and covering up to the cliff.
It's perfectly reasonable for a retadin's Concentration/Windfury Aura to reach that far, though.
Would be nice if "strategic placement of totems" meant something other than "put them down so everyone's in range." Not like they'd last too long after you ran away from 'em anyways.
100 yards is still excessive and I can't see them doing anything near that. Even if not for arena, I don't think they want someone dropping totems at, say, the lumber mill graveyard and covering up to the cliff.
It's perfectly reasonable for a retadin's Concentration/Windfury Aura to reach that far, though.
A paladin can't just park himself in the middle of a boss fight area for the entire encounter.
Would be nice if "strategic placement of totems" meant something other than "put them down so everyone's in range." Not like they'd last too long after you ran away from 'em anyways.
It means put them in some sort of generally centralized location for how the fight progresses. Usually that's just as close to the center of the room as possible, but for something like Lich King, you'll want to position them differently between phase 1 and then phases 2 and 3.
If you're just plunking them where everyone is standing before you engage, then that's not really doing it ideally.
A paladin can't just park himself in the middle of a boss fight area for the entire encounter.
Eh, admittedly I was focused on PvP when I wrote that. Looking at PvE, if that sort of situation were a relevant factor in encounter planning, I probably wouldn't be complaining. Such as it is, we're placed in these situations where even though totems shouldn't be a fire-and-forget mechanic, they usually are; when they aren't, auras producing the exact same effects outshine them because we're never placed in situations where a stationary buff would be helpful. Well, not anymore, anyways; something tells me if they go out of their way to plan encounters like that in Cata, we'd avoid those instances like the plague the instant the next tier arrived.
Posts
On top of the 3% damage.
And the blessings they hand out.
Fuck Paladins forever.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Unfortunately totems have gotten lackluster over the years, some of them lost uniqueness and others got gradually nerfed into mediocrity (grounding totem used to be so good).
On the other hand, shamans really depend on the higher level skills, without lava burst, thunderstorm and the cooldown reduction in shocks elemental basically only has lightning bolt and shocks. Enhancement is even worse, before you pick up stormstrike and dual wielding you only have auto attacks and shocks.
I have no idea how I managed to level all the way to 60 on my shaman with no water shield, no stormstrike and no mana reduction on shocks.
Because big numbers are hilarious and they don't get much bigger than triple crit windfury with a 2h, even if you did it when the mob was at like, 50 hp.
LoL: failboattootoot
Now I suck.
This is weird.
Should I just do billions of heroics?
I just noticed that Stormstrike says it will increase the nature damage of the shaman's spells by 20%, no charge count. Just 15 second duration. Is this on live servers, or is this something coming in Cataclysm?
Yes, most of Ulduar gear is overshadowed by Emblem gear. Also run the three new ICC 5mans, they drop level 232.
Coming in Cata.
That'll be a damned welcome change.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
"Unleashed Weapon: Windfury. It's a ranged attack, but increases our melee attack speed! What's up with that?"
"Hey Searing Totem, mind targeting the hunter instead of his pet so I can get some combo points here? No? Well, how about the boss over there? Oh wait, he has an add, too."
"Got into a 25-man raid the other day: I'm a resto shammy, y'know, got all those super cheap totems. Course, they didn't need any of 'em..."
"How 'bout that totemic vigor? Gotta wonder why they didn't just get straight to the point and say 'increases the HP of your earth totems by 10%'."
"Spirit Link."
Well, it can still be used at melee range, right?
Edit: Hell, if anything, they should increase the range. 30 yards is too short for ele and resto.
Yeah, this is a big issue. Someone on the WoW forums suggested it should target the enemy with flame shock on them. Thought that was a good idea.
Eh, better to have too many buffs than too few. And besides, who specs into Totemic Focus anyhow?
God this one pisses me off. If we don't get it this expansion, I will demand it next one, along with Big Bad Voodoo for good measure.
Steam: pazython
That's what was pointed out in the WoW post as well (it's Bane of Doom, I believe).
Steam: pazython
I'm fine with spreading buffs around; I'm not fine with weak mechanics defining my class. I loved using totems in vanilla, but with each expansion they take a step forward and five steps back as far as improvement and exploration of the original concept. Did we even get a new totem in Cata that wasn't just a splice of old ones?
So what if it's a wasted buff? If your at range, it's better then the non-DPS you would be doing without the skill.
It's also, remember, for ALL specs, not just enhancement. The other 2 specs being at range.
The range on Unleash Windfury is so you can use it when you're approaching the target. A little bit of damage and some good haste for when you reach melee range. The other specs wouldn't use Windfury in the first place. Also, you use Unleash which will trigger Unleash Flametongue from your off-hand, after which you can blast a Flame Shock for +20% damage. I don't see what the problem here is.
My point was, there's only 1 Unleash spell and all 3 specs use it, which is one of the many reasons it has a long range on it.
It needs a better range for casters, and a better buff for melee.
The problem is that attack speed buffs stack multiplicatively. You'll lose damage using it while flurry isn't up; not as bad as it'd be if it weren't capped, but still hurts. Even worse if they reduce the windfury cooldown.
A while ago I heard they were changing it to a percent damage increase. Not incredible, but better for PvP, and would be usable the way reVerse described without loss.
Unless the tank's just running away from you. But hey, that's what unleashed Rockbiter's for, right? :x
So what, you don't think there's any merit to using that global cooldown to ghost wolf up to the target instead of dicking around at range?
EDIT: Right, maelstrom procs, too. Yeesh, I'm gonna just stop there; sleep-addled brain is making with the not thinking good.
Arena or BG/WG? In any case you only need 4-6% spell hit and way less Expertise. If you have full PvP gear already, I'd go for gemming like in PvE (i.e. haste). If you are just starting, I'd probably gem the first pieces with Resilience +X (X being AP, haste, Sta depending on socket color) to make it easier on your healers.
Try an armory search for Beastcleave, that's a popular 2s comp for Arena including an Enhancement Shaman. And there's lots of Arena teams that just name themselves after their comp. The European armory found me some 3s an 5s also but at least it had high ranked (2k+) Enhancement Shaman.
So true. I miss old windfury totem. Nothing like a WSG with myself and 4 arms warriors playing bodygaurd/wrecking crew for me
And the fandom rejoiced. Let's just hope this means 100 yards for buff totems, and some non-retarded target assist mechanic for searing totem.
If they manage that, make that mechanic apply to our elemental pets as well.
EDIT: Also,
Huh. Wasn't that how Shamanistic Rage was before shammervate? Guess it works better with our altered regen mechanic now. Not so much a rage anymore, though, is it?
I would also be for giving the shaman some shaman specific boosts for having totems out since now in a 25 man it would be pretty easy to cover every buff a totem could grant with none of the totem downsides.
Wouldn't matter in arena with the exception of tremor (which they wouldn't buff to that insanity for PvE reasons), because totems get re-dropped or twisted too often.
Lets hope it stays as it is now, then. Higher mobility across all classes seems to suggest that fights are going to require a lot more movement as well; hopefully that doesn't mean every other Cata boss is going to have a Sartura-sized arena. That's for a different thread, though.
Would be nice, yes. They pretty much had something like that as an elemental shaman set bonus near the end of BC; dunno why they didn't progress any further with it.
It's perfectly reasonable for a retadin's Concentration/Windfury Aura to reach that far, though.
Would be nice if "strategic placement of totems" meant something other than "put them down so everyone's in range." Not like they'd last too long after you ran away from 'em anyways.
It means put them in some sort of generally centralized location for how the fight progresses. Usually that's just as close to the center of the room as possible, but for something like Lich King, you'll want to position them differently between phase 1 and then phases 2 and 3.
If you're just plunking them where everyone is standing before you engage, then that's not really doing it ideally.
Either way, wait and see.