Hmm...

Well I'll add my input from using a shaman a long time.

1. 6 seconds of GCD, especially as a spellcaster = ouch. Why? Are we going to annoy the tank in asking to pull all mobs to the totems?

2. Magma. I'd like to stay back and cast a repeatable aoe like most of my spellcaster counterparts, but as such, I'm runnin into battle, lava totem thunderstorm, magma. I don't mind it that much but with lava totem stunning, I put that as a greater priority. I wish lava and magma were in different trees so I could have two active aoes at the same time (if I'm going to be paying the price in taking collateral damage from death knight whirlwinds and other passive aoes from mobs).

3. Enh use all four schools (though DKs sort of stole their thunder from two of them). Resto use all four schools. Ele? Three schools... earth is for tremor here and there and a stoneskin we don't bother casting because it's too far away from tanks anyway.

4. Grobbulus, enough said.

5. Totems are the difference between driving a car and piloting a plane. There are soooo many buttons, but they have such small effects?

6. Too anticipatory... I need to cast tremor before guys fear rather than remedy the situation by casting a tremor during the fear. Same with grounding totem. It becomes a guessing game rather than a bailout. We lose a lot of valuable casting time for this.

7. Earthbind's cooldown. Ouch. I'd like to kite Gluth's minions (as I'm a jack of all trades right?).

8. Stoneclaw, taunting enemies by poking them in the back, and squeaking out, "Excuse me?" Enemies respond, "Just a second, he healed 2 hp and 3 mana, gotta get him first"

I'd like to see an easier way for them to keep up with the shaman. Maybe a spell that calls all of your totems to you for 25% of the total cost of all totems currently laid down.

On my shaman, it seems trivial and time consuming to (when my group leaves range) to cast totemic call, then recast all 4 totems I am dropping. It would be easier to cast 1 spell that brings all the totems to the shaman's current location. Heck, give it a 1.5 sec cast time, but right now it just feels "annoying"

Recasting them every ever so yards.
Pretty annoying when tanks pulls mobs/bosses away.
You'll have to stop dpsing and recast those 4 totems.
Same goes for pvp. I'll have to start fight by casting them down.
If I move out of ranged, I'll have to recast.
Mentioned many times they are one shotted.
Casting down fire nova that cost 1.4k mana for it to be one shotted hurts...a lot.

Totem with more hit points.
Other repercussion for hitting/destroying totem.
Allow Shaman to cast 4 totem all at once or allow them to become mobile with a Shaman's spell.
Linking it to the Shaman while he/she moves for X secs/mins.

Okay. This has been around for a LONG time, so I don't take credit for it.


1) Totem Poles.

You have a new interface where you pick 4 of the totem spells to form a pole, and you then click it and drop all 4 of those totems stacked on top of each other at the same time, and it provides all 4 of those. Totems like grounding might not work with this system.

So let's say I have 3 totem poll slots

[Drop Button] [Pole Configuration Menu] <- click this to open the menu to choose what buffs the pole has
^
click to drop

And this interface is somewhere near your action bars, like maybe where presences are for DK's. And you can have 3 different pole configurations saved at once, it's kind of like a flashy totem mod built into the game.

OR.

2) Talented totem poles

Just add master totems poles to the game, that provide the buffs of several totems, with the combined mana cost (and let's be honest, give the totem poles a decent chunk of hp, more than 5). Maybe the totem poles could be 21 point talents or something that relate to the tree.

Like the elemental totem pole could be caster buffs, and the totem on top of it shoots lightning or something. (potential for Red Alert Tesla coil jokes cannot be denied!)

Then the enhance totem would be the melee buffs and the totem on top of the pole reduces AoE damage taken to allies near it.

Then the healing totem could be healer buffs and mana and hp regen, and it gives spell push back resistance to allies near it.

ALSO

3) Have a spell that teleports all your dropped totems to you. Like a Totemic Call or so... oh wait.

You should me it so that Shamans can throw certain totems for a certain distance. Being able to Throw a Earthbing Totem would be great for a shaman.

My first suggestion would be to have the totems' health scale with the shaman.

Second suggestion: Have sentry totem detect stealth. This totem is currently useless.

reserved

---

Q u o t e:
Okay. This has been around for a LONG time, so I don't take credit for it.


Totem Poles.

You have a new interface where you pick 4 of the totem spells to form a pole, and you then click it and drop all 4 of those totems stacked on top of each other at the same time, and it provides all 4 of those. Totems like grounding might not work with this system.

So let's say I have 3 totem poll slots

[Drop Button] [Pole Configuration Menu] <- click this to open the menu to choose what buffs the pole has
^
click to drop

And this interface is somewhere near your action bars, like maybe where presences are for DK's. And you can have 3 different pole configurations saved at once, it's kind of like a flashy totem mod built into the game.

---

This is actually a very nice idea.

First page.

---

Q u o t e:
You should me it so that Shamans can throw certain totems for a certain distance. Being able to Throw a Earthbing Totem would be great for a shaman.

---

Sure, but it needs to give a seizure inducing graphic, take 3 seconds to get where it needs to go, and take 2 seconds to activate.

One of the things that has always hampered me in PvP was that I had to drop all my buffs while already in combat and fighting. This is a mechanic of the class with which we have to live with, however, each drop of a totem also consumes one GCD. This means if we were to drop all 4 totem schools we must spend 4 seconds just buffing before we can even begin attacking. Granted most shaman probably do not drop 4 totems at a time in BGs, but the application can be there for arena play where you want to min/max as much as possible to give yourself the advantage.

I am however NOT saying that the GCD should be removed. Obviously this would just allow all shaman to drop an entire set of totems w/o interruption. I would prefer if totems were on their own separate GCD from our attacks and spells and thus I would be able to drop totems and still be able to cast/attack w/o GCD interruption.

Also, about a month before WOTLK was released, I had reported a bug in-game about the Stoneclaw protection not functioning properly. A GM spoke to me and even witnessed me testing the mechanic with a partner in a duel where I drop 3 totems then a stoneclaw and had my partner proceed to one-shot every totem except the stoneclaw. Obviously I would not find use in this near-useless feature but I'm sure resto shamans would enjoy having their mana tide protected, granted they spec into it.

I don't think this is what you're looking for but I want to say this anyway:

What I like about totems: the ability to place aoe effects in an area. Totems like tremor, earthbind, poison cleanse, fire nova, etc. I love them. Totems that actually DO something are a great use of the mechanic.

What I dislike are totems that provide auras. It's too late for you to change this but I feel that totems as a mechanic for providing raid buffs is just needlessly cumbersome due to the area restriction. I actually don't mind the maintenance quite as much as others seem to, but it's still a weakness that could possibly be addressed.
The extended duration and base range helped a lot.

I can't quite collect my thoughts on how totems are cumbersome so I'l post again later, even if it's just to quote someone that summarizes it perfectly.

Look to the addon community for help with totem UI.

How about changing it so when an outdoor mob stumbles upon a totem your forgot to call from a few minutes ago they didn't embark on a zone-wide quest to punish my forgetful shaman alt?

Thrice today I've had a fel reaver come pound "no littering" in my poor shammy's forhead. It is really annoying.