Enhancement PvE Concerns

- Enhance Health is far lower than the other melee classes, and as a result Enhance shaman are dropping dead more often in Ulduar which is not fun. Shaman have the lowest "Base" hp of all the classes, I think this should be brought up to match the other melee or hybrid classes so we can survive. This is especially true in Hardmode Ulduar encounters where damage from 1 aoe is enough to bring an enhancement shaman to a date with death.

-Weapons:
There is only 1 offhand upgrade in Ulduar 25 for enhancement shaman. It's a mace, again. There is 1 dps 1h axe in the game and its not that fancy. Half a dozen swords, daggers and 2h's for everyone else to chose from but just one for us. I do not understand why Fist weapons cannot simply be "one handed" so items like the Masticator and Insanity's Grip can be dual wielded. At the very least it gives more options. Having no option is not a fun mechanic.

-Talent Bloat
There are a number of great enhancement talents that I would like to get, but there isn't a way to get them without severely nerfing myself. This actually applies to pvp and pve. I compare this to the Paladin melee dps tree, where they have the ability to max out every talent in their tree with enough to spare to get the ones they need in protection. An enhancement shaman in PvE does not have this option, we are forced to go 15 deep into elemental, 16 if you want elemental focus. There is no way around this and its a taxing reality. In PvP there is no way to reach Toughness effectively again because of the need for Improved Fire Nova totem 17 points deep in elemental. This applies to anticipation as well. Something could be done here to help us out.

-Totems:
It's likely been said before, but the 1-4 seconds of GCD required to put down totems in high mobility encounters (General Vezax, Ignis, Yogg Saron etc) is becoming problematic. In Yogg Saron, for example, getting to the brain room means 4 seconds of precious dps time lost to dropping totems, where those 4 seconds are actually extremely valuable to the encounters success. Totems also no longer seem "powerful" enough to stand on their own and justify their fragility. Every class can offer similar buffs that perform better (ie: can't run out of range, don't vanish when the player dies).

Totems need help. (whatever became of our totems totems totems post?)


Enhancement PvP:

-Ghostwolf:
Make this usable indoors, please.

-Damage:
If you put on full pvp gear as a dual wielding enhancement shaman your attack power sits around the 3000 range, which nerfs the melee and spell damage output of the class significantly. I'm aware this is supposed to happen, but it is brutal for a class that has no massive burst ability (Ret Pallies Judgements, Warriors Mortal Strike/Executes, Hunters Aimedshot/Explosiveshot/Killshot, Rogues... everything, Druids pounce/openers, Elemental Flameshock/LvB, the list continues for everyone). Enhancement is good at doing a great number of small, weak hits in rapid succession which add up to the bulk of its damage. This is not effective in PvP, and as a result when coupled with low ap/sp the class takes a massive downward spiral which ends up on the sidelines competitive arena play. You might say Windfury is the heavy hitter enhance has in its arsenal but I cannot count the times I have had a target at 15% praying that windfury would go off... waiting... waiting... and nothing. A random mechanic cannot be considered a viable heavy hitter in PvP.

-Totems:
Earth totems are overworked, especially for Enhancement. Stoneclaw glyph is a must for any attempt at hardcore pvp, and yet Earthen Power is also a requirement if you want to be at all useful. Swapping these totems back and forth on every CD to survive is cumbersome and not helpful (Always on the DEFENSIVE as an enhancement shaman). Tremor totem, on top of these makes it so you're always spamming an earth totem to try and stay alive, rather than doing anything else.

Fire totems: Fire Nova is great, but having to talent to 4th tier elemental to make it at all useful for enhancement pvp shouldn't be required. Without this talent (Improved fire nova totem) enhance has no viable fire totem to use in pvp.

Water totems: Decently done after the cleansing merge.

Air totems: Grounding totem is barely useful, it might not even be at all with the frequency of instant cast spells flying through the air these days. Beyond mashing your earth totems to try and survive, throwing in a "perfectly timed" grounding totem to attempt to survive is too complicated in comparison to the other classes defenses.


Hope this is somewhat useful!

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Q u o t e:
As a part of our class Question & Answer series, we are looking for any questions you may have concerning your class and ask that you post in this thread. For more information on our Q&A series, please click here- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17223094467&postId=172212650675&sid=1#0

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PVE: Playing a Restoration Shaman in competitive raiding shows a increasingly stark difference in effectiveness.

1) Can we expect any changes to Chain Heal in the near future?

As a spammable ability it is sub par with the current encounters because we cannot rely on its effectiveness anymore due to the instant healing demand for current fights ESPECIALLY hard modes.

It's synergy with riptide, while well intended, is not as useful because it is our only predictable HoT which ties into Shaman's lack of preemptive healing. (Pallies as well, but they make up for it in throughput)

Since Chain heal spammability seems to be offset by the current design philosophy for encounters and the shaman class, wouldn't a change to the ability be in order? I.E. a cooldown and a buff to its healing, or a secondary ability attached to it.

2) Can we expect any changes to the Healing Way talent in the near future?

To be effective tank healers we should be equipped with at least one point in Healing Way to increase Healing Wave's effectiveness, however, rarely are shaman's MT healers as they are more of a "floating" healing class that picks up where others leave off.

Since tidal waves emphasizes utilizing all of our heals in conjunction couldn't there be a change to Healing Way that would make Healing Wave a more attractive spell to use or even have it include a boon to Lesser Healing Wave since Shamans are using LHW more and more? (Possibly an increase to all of the shaman's healing by a smaller percentage)

I really enjoy the Resto Shaman, my dual spec is PvE Resto / PvP Resto. I really enjoyed the changes over time, especially when this expansion!

1. Escape mechanism. Instant ghost wolf is great and works well if you're not snared. When I have 3-4 enemies on me, I usually can't move due to stuns, snares, fear, and other types of CC. If and when I survive all of that, I'm always looking for a pillar.

However, many times there isn't a pillar in sight.... so in that window of time that I am still alive and waiting for the next rush of attacks, there feels that there is something missing. Having an escape method as core ability would make that common situation for a Resto Shaman more random since we'd actually have a chance to survive.

* AoE Fear totem (AIR) Sends a target running away for 2 seconds each pulse (Pulse every 4-5 seconds)

* Buff Earthshield so we have a chance to score an immunity effect for 2.5 seconds (just enough for a Healing Wave) OR Earthshield makes the player either resistant / half the duration / immune to stun/snares

* Earthbind: Build in the Earthbind part of the Elemental talent Storm, Earth, and Fire to the Earthbind totem itself and possibly improve the totem's range. This would be my favorite idea.

* Make Thunderstorm a core class ability.

Other than that, I think the Resto side of things are great. I'm forever locked in Resto, I've been that way for a long time, thanks for taking a serious look at the Resto tree and giving it some zest!

Why does Purge suck against everything except other Shaman?
Why don't we have a good defensive cooldown like everyone else?
Why can't we bring back 100% Imp. Water Shield?
Why are we the only hybrids with absolutely horrendous healing? Actually, I know the answer to this is the Tidal Waves talent which should be removed and made a core ability.
Why is it taking so long to change totem stomping macros?
Why am I getting hit for 7k with almost 1000 resilience?

Really, everything about Resto Shaman PvP has been devalued this expansion.
Shaman are good for shocks, purge, assisting DPS, and water shield tanking none of which are all that effective this expansion; there's barely anything to shock because of all the instant casts, trying to dispel most class is a headache, our DPS scaled miserably and I still hit as hard as I did when I was 70, and just about every class will kill me quickly if I don't use Earth Shield which, to add to it all, means that I can't heal my partner well at all if they make a quick switch.

Why aren't these problems being addressed? The bulkiness of the class is really starting to show.

On the other hand, I'm almost completely satisfied with how we are in PvE. I think the Flame Shock glyph should be a core ability and Healing Stream should affect the whole raid, being nerfed consequently. Purge should also have a GCD of 1s like totems. Riptide should be fixed so that Riptide+LHW+LHW doesn't get interrupted by the GCD between LHW's; in other words, the cast time is 1s but the GCD is still 1.5s so you need to wait the half of a second which ruins the flow of things. Riptide could use a buff too to make it more on-par with other 51pt talents. It provides a nice synergy but since Riptide is a primary heal in our rotation it should heal like a primary heal would be expected to heal, not like some piece of junk we cast just so we can get two quicker heals after.

The questions I'd like to see answered are:

What are your plans for totems? We keep hearing bits and pieces here and there, but nothing substantial. Most of the vocal player-base agrees totems are a very outdated mechanic, especially in light of the buff homogenization. In addition to totems being inferior versions of many buffs, many fights require such movement that keeping totems in raid range becomes a full time job, often requiring a significant mana investment. For instance, try keeping your 10 man raid buffed with all 4 totems on Vezax using the kite strategy and let me know how that works for you.

What are your plans to keep Chain Heal viable for raid healing in Ulduar? In Ulduar we are finding many fights where you need to stay spread out at a certain range. This keeps players typically within PoH/CoH/WG range, but not within CH range. Would it be possible to get at least get a jump range increase to CH, if not an effectiveness buff as well (less fall off on jumps, more jumps, etc).

Can Tidal waves lower the GCD as well? 0.8 second cast LHW's are nice and all, but kind of defeat the purpose with a ~1.4 GCD.

Riptide in general. It needs improvements. What is it supposed to be? Many shamans would love if it worked more like a Holy Shock. The HoT effect on it is largely ignored as it does not heal enough to warrant keeping up. Additionally, using the interplay between Riptide and CH is very difficult, since it takes a GCD + CH cast time to even set a single one up many times (~4 seconds, enough time for CoH/PoH/WG to heal much of the damage). The whole mechanics of riptide needs to be looked at again to make it into something Shamans are crazy for as a 51 point talent, rather than "meh, it's better than nothing".

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Q u o t e:
It appears that some people have gotten a little off track with what they should be posting in this thread. Keep in mind, we are looking for your questions and not feedback/suggestions in this thread. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, however, just please post them in a separate thread.

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Nethaera from what you have read so far ( constructive posts) What do you see that is the main issue with shamans in pvp in the smaller brackets?

PvP Enh

Nethaera,

My questions are how is Shaman Enh pvp going to be tweaked for survivability? The biggest problem i have is stun survivability and roots. Why doesnt earthen power only give you immunity to snares but not roots? When will a shaman be able to pvp competitively without spec'ing resto?

Ok, here is a question or two then.

After seeing all the suggestions / feedback from the shaman players in this thread, and most importantly those relating to the totem mechanic, do you think there will ever be a change to address these issues?

Secondly. If, and we have been told this is true, the main reason for the state of totems today is based on how powerful they used to be, can you see something being done to ever correct this and make them powerful again OR bring them in line with other classes in terms of mobility and usefulness.

This is all PvE since I have never taken the time to really play PvP to a point of competitiveness or care.

Totems:
I have no problems with the system or range on the totems, and the add of totemic recall was such a huge improvement from Vanilla, but with fights requiring so much movement totems need a way to be "moved" without having to waste 5 GCDs Recall, Totemx4.

Buffs:
As seen in a previous posts the idea of Shamans being a supporting role is long gone. Enhance and elemental want to top the meters, and QQ if they can't. I enjoy the idea of coming to a raid as elemental inputing my 3k dps if I can buff everyone else an extra 500 dps. But alas our buffs are becoming redundant and replaced. Icy Talons, Horn, boomkin aura etc. why have 10 classes? Bloodlust is the only thing I bring unique to a raid as eshaman. I guess you could try and count mana tide as resto, but mana preservation in the current state of WoW is a joke.

I like to used the good ole days of distributing the shamans to the groups and dropping totems based on composition and everyone was fighting to have a shaman in their group. But as stated our buffs are now redundant and replaced by others. And they dont have to recast every pull.

Elemental PvE:
There needs to be a scaling factor on our stats. It's crazy how when I started elemental at 80 with some resto gear I would hit 2.6k in 10 mans. Now with some better gear and a tightening up of my rotations I'm still only pushing around 3k? Where is our scaling talent that helps with dps? The only scaling talent we have is mana regen (see Unrelenting storm) which is a joke for elemental shamans.

All for now.

Why is the weapon selection for enhance so terribly low? When 3.1 was released flametongue damage was changed to scale with weapon speed so that fast weapons are no longer good for ENH, but then you created the ulduar loot table where there are nearly no slow off hand weapons.

do you plan on fixing the utility of resto shaman in arena?

do you plan on giving the totems a more up-to-date use?

are you going to fix the 1 hit tremor totem pet macro?

Totems once were designed to be better than other buffs, but a bigger investment, destroyable and immobile.

Now, they are on par with other buffs and are still a bigger investment, destroyable and immobile. Surly, something is being done to remedy the archaic mechanic of totems.

Nethaera,

What is development’s view of shaman role in the game? Many in the community feel that shaman class is ignored because development is unsure where we should stand amongst our peers. The frustration is further fueled by the transferring of the some of our abilities, in addition to change in buffing without proper compensation to the class in general.

Elemental PVP:

Why do elemental shamans get rickrolled by every single melee class or class with a bow?

Why is it that all melee classes have some sort of way to deal with our burst damage (bubble, sacred shield, spell reflect, cloak of shadows, anti magic zone, etc. while we have no reliable way of dealing with their equal amount of burst? Stone claw glyph doesn't cut it. In other words...all other classes have an "oh crap" button...why do we have to just bite the bullet?

Why do we have no way to be immune to gap closers like melee have against our distance gainers? Why is it not possible for a shaman to escape from a rogue or death knight? And yes, if a rogue or death knight plays properly there is no possible way in a 1v1 situation for a shaman to get away, and in many cases even do any sort of damage. Thunderstorm? Why doesn't this work against anti magic shield, bubble, warrior enrage, etc.?

Why do people in battle grounds run past 5 people hitting them to get to me and target me out of that many other people? Well, I can answer that one, because we are easy pickins.

Elemental PVE:

Since the totems we drop to buff the raid are overridable and usesless (mana spring and strength of earth), why can't we have something that will at least bring OUR dps up to par with every other class?

Elemental Shamans in General:

Why have we been ignored for so long? Why do both DPS shamans have to be a joke in comparison to other classes? Why do other classes have our burst, but we lack their defensive capabilities and "get-away" buttons?

Why do you guys make a question and answer forum if you aren't going to respond to any of the questions? Are you looking for questions like "oh, where does shaman fit in the lore?" and "any chance Blizzard could make shaman keychains so I can show my friends?"

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Q u o t e:
It appears that some people have gotten a little off track with what they should be posting in this thread. Keep in mind, we are looking for your questions and not feedback/suggestions in this thread. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, however, just please post them in a separate thread.

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When are you Fixing the shaman Class.
how do you feel we are in pve?
how do you feel we are in PVP
as resto ele and enhance.

you folks at Blizzard asked us what we think would fix the totems in the totems totems totems thread but it Quickly Dissapeared admist all the nerf this nerf that blah blah threads on the DD forums. [b]Now sir/ma'm i am Asking you do you @ Blizzard actually plan to fix currently the Weakest PVE healer and Weakest pvp healer the weakest Melee in PVP and the weakest caster in PVE and PVP[/b] In a timely fashion Meaning is this going to go through anytime soon or is the first two arena expansions going to go by while we sit here and wait for you.

i am a Avid pve'er and Avid pvp'er 2k+ and only 10 games each week for the past two weeks. up to throuim in 25 i dont do 10 because rl family> wow.

i am satisfied for the most part about this game however i unsatisfied that it takes you guys so many ppl nagging and so much time to fix stuff on your guys end.

With much respect and Thanks for giving us a blue post.

Is there any glimpse of hope that resto shaman changes might be coming through for pve?
Any thoughts on how riptide works? Possible revamping?

I love my shaman to death, & physically cannot play other classes, I get too bored, but at the same time, I feel like we have not evolved with the times. Please make resto or ele a bit more fun! Riptide is cool and all with the 25% CH boost, but it just doesn't flow naturally. Its clunky b/c have the time your constantly using riptide to proc tidal waves, & the bonus really doesn't help much. Since, chances you are going to be able to hit a crit CH on a riptided target, w/ no over healing, (or close) is slim.

Is there any way you can possibly let me know you guys are remotely looking in to this?

thank you.

(PVE) If different dps classes are supposed to be good a different types of fights, what are elemental shaman supposed to be good at? For the life of me, I don't know what that is supposed to be. Things that it is clearly not include moving fights (cast time), single target (boss) fights (5% penalty, LvB < fireball), CC fights (hex is short ranged, short duration, long cooldown) and most AoE fights (magma totem can't be thrown, can't cast CL while running down a pack). Please help me understand.

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Q u o t e:
It appears that some people have gotten a little off track with what they should be posting in this thread. Keep in mind, we are looking for your questions and not feedback/suggestions in this thread. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, however, just please post them in a separate thread.

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Well, the problem with posting a question such as "Will you fix the outdated totem mechanic?" is that you guys can just as well answer it by going "well, we don't really find it outdated." I think it's as a result of that that most people are responding with suggestions/feedback rather than actual questions, just to avoid the somewhat predictable answers we've gotten accustomed to before they even happen.

That being said:

Will this Q&A shenanigans actually possibly result in Shamans being good again or are we going to continue being stuffed into the position of the retarded stepchild by being dead last in healing, and dps?

Also, can I please get a new icon for Nature's Swiftness? I feel the shaman class is suffering by feeling like the crappy version of druids which is outlined by the fact that our Nature's Swiftness is the same exact thing as theirs.

Oh, and to add to a poster earlier:
Why am I being hit for just *under* 9000 when I'm wearing 1045 resilience?