In hope that I may change someone’s mind and perhaps help the class I have written the following


I think the shaman class is somewhat Iconic of blizzard itself, particularly in that blizzard is perhaps best known for creating wonderful games that are easy to learn but hard to master, that sentiment fits the shaman class well as can be easily played with they user friendly shocks and weapon buffs such as windfury, but hard to master with the large array of totems and due to the myriad of ways in which they can be played. With that being said it is sad where the shaman sits now, underpar and generally unwanted.

Early on the shaman was somewhat unique in that it could be a quasi-mage-warrior-priest all at the same time, WOW! For the most part I thought it to be a well balanced class, perhaps the best designed class in the game. While some other classes needed some adjustment. Now from the beginning some of the nerfs were certainly warranted, like the grounding totem nerf and that initial windfury nerf.

As time went on however more nerfs crept along, nerfs that made it impossible for the shaman to retain his ability to be a mediocre caster and a mediocre meleer at the same time. Mainly this came from the nerfs of windfury and in addition, the less well known overall weapon nerf which made it so a weapon with spell casting stats could not retain the damage of a melee weapon of the same level. In addition because of item design by blizzard hybrid gear has the same amount of stats as pure class gear does, why is this bad? Because hybrids depend on more gear that gives them bonuses to all of their stats,, pure classes don’t need this because they only draw from a couple stats, for example you will never see a warrior needing intellect or a mage needing strength. These problems forced the shaman to be only a damage caster, a meleer, or a healer. This actually is perhaps one of the main reasons why the shaman class has many holes in it, simply because the original design of the shaman class was to be all those things at once. Now many people may think what I am saying is that shamans need earth shield! DW! And OMG BOLTS! All at the same time omgwtfbbqpwn! But no I see what has been changed with the class and I am alright with that.

There are now three distinct roles that a shaman can fill, but more changes need to be done so to complete each role. For example, as an elemental shaman if you are counterspelled you neutralized until it wears off simply because all of his useful spells are of the same school, this was ok back when shamans still retained some of their melee capabilities while being elemental, but now as they are near nonexistent the elemental shaman needs more in his arsenal than just nature spells, for such things as counterspell and in addition PvE fights in which monsters are nature immune.

Another example is as an enhancement shaman you cannot escape slowing or immobilize effects, which is devastating when you must rely on your melee capabilities. A while ago this would be ok because shocks were more powerful overall and frostshock did not have diminishing returns, and because healing was more reliable. Though as the game has progressed shocks have become less and less effective in terms of the relative damage they do, of gear selection he cannot properly heal himself unless he wants to severely hinder his offensive capabilities. Now like other melee classes the enhancement shaman needs some more survivability and in addition some way to keep from being kited.

All in all nothing quite fits well anymore with the shaman,

A Short sum up would be to say that originally shamans were designed as a “jack of all trades” being able to be multiple things at once but not comparably to a pure class. However as the game developed the shaman were torn in three different directions as the devs saw it necessary to make them focus on being just one thing at a time, healer, damage caster, or meleer. But by doing this they have made a broken class, sure, at each particular role the shaman class is more effective than it was before, but at the same time they have to almost give up the other two roles.

Now a way to fix this could be to simply overhaul the complete item database making the gear for hybrids more suitable, while at the same time overhauling the whole shaman class and accounting for the overcompensations created by the lack of sufficient gear, as well as overhauling other hybrids and performing the same task. This would be best fix for the problem yet at the same time it would require a ton of man hours. It would pay off in the long run though, I wouldn’t see blizzard doing this though. So a patch up would be easiest, though its not as good as an overhaul a patch up would suffice if blizzard actually took the players concerns into account. In that case each spec of the shaman class needs some kind of buff.

Some might say that shamans don’t need a buff because they are not pure classes anyways and so they are not meant to do any substantial damage or healing. In response you must remember that when a shaman chooses a spec, he makes it so his abilities in the other two abilities become severely under par. For example if a shaman chooses enhancement by doing so he knowingly chooses that he will not be able to heal or cast damage spells effectively, but at the same time he must still perform his job well enough to compete with class at DPS, else he becomes useless to the raid. Another argument I have seen been thrown out there is that because a shaman should not be able to heal as well as a priest. Do not forget though that priests have shadow spec as well, so priests are not pure healers as well, they can be damage dealers as well as shamans.

I would like people to keep in mind that I shaman doesn’t need to be topping the damage or healing charts as long as the damage they are personally responsible for + the extra their groupmates received from their totem buffs approximates the damage of a competitor.

For example:
Shaman deals damage equal to 10% of a mobs health while his groupmates all did 14% however the shamans totems accounted for 1% of each groupmates damage, so the shaman was responsible for 10% +4*1% = 14% damage while each groupmate did 14%-1%=13% damage on his own. A shaman doesn’t have to top charts to still be a main contributor of damage.

Restoration – a lot of people would say that this is a good spec but they cannot deny that it remains the worst healer out of them all, due to their lack of mana efficiency and lack of any variety of heals, in particular a instant castable heal even if it’s a HoT besides NS would be nice.
-Requires a tad more mana efficiency
-Some new healing arsenal
-Slightly more damage as to make farming not such a pita, perhaps some of weapon buff that provides more damage than flametounge. Perhaps a dot. Just something to make farming not so painful but also not make a significant difference in pvp or raids.

Enhancement- This is in most people’s eye the worst of the shaman specs. In addition with the new offhand WF nerf, it will become even more undesirable. What this spec needs is two things, more survivability and some way of reaching its opponents.
-I had been thinking of something that could work. Because enhancement has really not much healing power anyways there could be a talent point that puts a 1 minute cooldown on all their heals but at the same time whenever they cast a heal it would be instant. This would provide the spec with some survivability, while not being overpowered, it could also help by providing a quick decent heal in instances without interrupting their damage too much.
- if you don’t like that perhaps some form of damage reduction would do.
-some form of charge or a slowing/immobilization removal ability.

Elemental- I think this is the most decent out of all the shaman specs, but it needs more variety in its damage casting abilities. Perhaps it will need more damage now with the clearcasting nerf.
-Some sort of damage spell like lightning bolt but of the fire or frost school of magic, this is rather necessary as the nature line makes nature immune fights impossible and in addition a counterspell eliminates nearly all the casting a shaman can do.
- Some moderate AoE spell besides magma totem would be nice especially if this class is supposed to play the role of a damage caster in raids. If an elemental shaman is going to be filling the spot of warlock or mage he should be able to AoE as that is an important function of damage casters.
-In fact a Euro Shaman, Iwoodoo, brought to my attention that a skill was created before but was taken away for unknown reasons, this spell known as Molten blast was of the fire line of spells, of moderate cast time and of moderate damage, to simply reinstate this spell would do wonderful things for the shaman class.
-aggro reduction is an issue that could use some tweaking as well
-As of now the spelldamage curses provided by warlocks affect every school except nature, this somewhat hinders the druid and especially the shaman class, if a nature debuff could simply be added to curse of elements that would help dramactically. Probs to Kifimbo for mentioning this.
-Enchants and potions that affect nature damage

There are also many talent problems that have existed for a long time, mostly talents that are weak or just not very useful. I am borrowing some of these from another post I saw so Kudos to Mungwise for his thoughts.

They are as follows below.

Enhancement
-Shield Specialization: this talent certainly is not a good enhancement talent as no enhance shaman will wield a shield, and no shaman will end up tanking, this isn’t a useful skill in any way and should be eliminated for something new.
-Anticipation: because shamans will not be tanking this is skill only good for pvp, but at the same time dodging can be counterproductive as warriors have the skill overpower, enhancement shamans need something else also in particular because this is a tier 3 talent and should provide more.
-Toughness: once again shamans do not tank, in addition this is a very weak talent for its tier, especially compared to other classes considering that other classes get this same talent but druids get it for less points, and druids and warriors but get it lower on the tier. It either needs a buff or should be replaced by something better
-Improved Weapon totems: pretty lackluster for its tier, the total bonus granted to a group for this over non improved totems is almost negliable, that coupled with the fact that many classes don’t even want windfury totem anymore makes it a useless talent, should be taken out and replaced with something new.
-Mental quickness: Another talent that lacks any power to it, 6% is not very much when totems aren’t be casted very often and when stormstrike itsn’t very mana intensive as well, it makes the biggest difference on shocks but even then the tier 1 talent for elemental provides 2% reduction per point on that as well, this needs a buff especially considering its position on the tree,
-Recently I saw this great suggestion froma shaman by the name of Oakhorn. The change to would to make Shamanistic rage in addition to the mana regen affects, would also make the shaman Immune to slowing, stun, fear, and immobilizing effects, similar to the hunter beast mastery talent. This change could completely solve the enhancement shamans kiting issues while at the same time help with their survivability. I highly suggest this Idea.

Restoration
To say this spec is underpar when compared to the priest holy tree is an understatement.
And I see no reason why they should not be equal as when a shaman chooses restoration he gives up all hope of doing anything else but healing.
-Tidal focus: This skill seems ok until you compared to the priest talent Improved Healing, I recognize that this skill is higher on the tier but at the same time it provides 15% mana cost reduction for three 3 talent points while tidal focus is 5 for 5%, I suggest just buffing tidal focus, perhaps 10% for 5 points.
-Healing Focus: this is a good skill but when compared to the priest talent of the same name, it is two tiers lower and provides the same benefit for only two talent points rather than 5, perhaps this talent should be made like the priest talent.
-Restorative totems- this is a weak talent and now that healing stream receives bonuses from healing gear the 25% to base effect is negliable, it needs to be made to have a greater affect.

Elemental
This is the best designed Tree out of them all in my opinion but it could use a little tweaking.
-Call of flame: this talent is ok but seeing as in raid situation an elemental shaman will likely be using totem of wrath, this effect does not help, perhaps if it buffed totem of wrath slightly as well as fire elemental totem, I think it would be preferable to take it out though.
-Elemental Devastation- I don’t see why this talent is in the elemental try as an elemental shaman wont be meleeing often and even when they do they still only hit for 100 damage, in addition this talent is not useful for enhancement as they have a low chance to crit with spells, this talent serves no good purpose and should be removed for something that is actually helpful.
-One talent many shaman are unhappy with is Lightning Overload, its really not much better than call of thunder which is a few tiers below it, I think the talents theory is fine but it could use a buff, perhaps making it a 10% chance would be resonable.
-Also the last talent of the tree, Totem of Wrath could be changed as it remains somewhat on the weak side, making it trainable doesnt seem too crazy to me, as there is a considerable lack in fire totem buffs, then in its place could be something with some more pizazz, as it is the 41 point talent of the tree. This may sound rediculous but I have seen this idea a few times before. The Talent could turn the shaman into a Lightning elemental for a period of time, in which he could not healing spells but his damage output would go up considerably, plus he would look freaking awesome! liek omg!, yeaaaa... thats just an idea though haha, in all seriousness the talent could use some kind of change.


Mana Tide Totem, this was proposed by many to become trainable, this would be a very good idea in my opinion, it would alleviate the mana inefficiency of the elemental shaman as well as make a shaman of any spec more raid useful. I do not believe this would be asking for too much as druids have received trainable innervate and as rogues are now receiving Imp Sap.

Also a big problem for all specs in pvp, particularly the arena, is that shamans have no CC and limited anti-CC, in that sense I think shamans could get some sort of ability to Cancel most forms of CC while being usable while actually being CCed, this ability of course would need a cooldown time.

From reading player feedback I have noticed that many players have commented that most of all they would prefer to be more Hybrid again. I also would prefer this most, However at the same time that option currently would be the most difficult to accomplish. It would require that all the talents to be reworked so that they provide considerable more synergy between the roles of the shaman, and in addition it would most likely require that a great amount of the equipment would have to be changed.
So while it's nice to think about, it may not be feasible, especially in any short amount of time.

As a last note, if you haven’t noticed the shaman population has plummeted, it is now the least played class, and that’s including druids. Things happen for a reason, and in this case the shaman class has become less desirable to play, it in fact IS the least desired class. Something has to be done, and only you, Blizzard, can do that. Please don’t leave us in the dust.

I hope I have changed someone’s mind with this post and if you like what I wrote, please support.

(P.S. I think i may have neglected totems as they remain a problem for thie class but I will get around to that later)

This post is subject to change as I gain feedback.

Also Please view the following threads for more information about the Shaman Plight
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html;jsessionid=22996FA3E981904E78DE4B3DA02FB146.app09_02?topicId=281378150&sid=1
This thread is headed by a Euro Shaman, Iwoodoo, he has some brillant Ideas here.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=98900624&sid=1
This relates to the upcoming windfury nerf, this should shed some light on what it does exactly, and at the same time show why it is so huge.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=98701258&sid=1
A thread from a shaman friendly priest who is showing her thoughts on the shaman situation, good thoughts. Thanks.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=97853668&sid=1
This Post by Ycorp shows what affects the the clearcasting nerf will have on the shaman class.


(Whole of Post Edited Four times so far)

Read it, bumping it. Well written too btw.

bump for Great Justice

Hi Nii!

This is ancalagon, I had to change my name as it was taken. I was from Ner'zhul, but I transfered to malorne with some friends, I may be going back though, someday.

Lol, hi to you too.

Btw, you got alot of good points in this thread. I'll agree with just about all of it. Hopefully someone who matters reads it and we'll get a bright future, even its 6 months down the road.

I definately want a 2nd school of magic other than lightning for sustained damage. What good is a offensive class that can't perform when a part of them is shut off?

First off I would Like to thank Tseric for reading my post, and for all the people posting feedback.

Also guys I know there is not much to be thankful for at the moment but be optimistic, maybe some good can come, Blizzard doesnt want to see the class destroyed, mainly the reasons why the class is suffering is because lack of understanding from blizzard, which is in part due to the fact that they have not been taking players concerns seriously, lets try and forget about that for the time being.

Also Tseric I will try to keep an updated log of player concerns and ideas if you dont mind stopping by every now and then to check them out.



Now also I would like to deal with the concerns of non-shamans. I see I common idea between pure classes is that they do not want a shaman to be performing their job as well as they can. Let me try to explain why it is necessary that any class performs his position competitively.

For example as a shaman if you so choose to become restoration then by doing so you have given up all hope of performing any other task besides healing with competence. As with a priest who has chosen holy the only task you can perform well now is healing, so then as that shaman cannot deal damage in any effective fashion it is his right to compete on fair ground with the priest, or the paladin, or the druid for that matter, to heal. I would also like to point out that in the Paladin's Holy tree, the Priests Holy tree, and the Druids restoration tree there all exist bonuses that give the class some medicore damaging abilities. This does not exist in the shaman tree. In fact I would be willing to wager that a restoration shaman is a less effective damage dealer than the beforementioned Class/spec combinations.

If this still is not convincing enough, remember also that the Priest has an effective damage dealer and quasi healer at the same time in while being shadow specced, this shows additionly why the shaman should stand on equal ground for healing as a priest should.

Yet one more fact to present is that Just like any Pure classes, a hybrid must aquire a full set of gear for any particular position, so while it can be said that a hybrid can change roles, it also remains true that for any particular role that hybrid wishs to fill he must also spend the long hours aquiring the gear to perform that role, just like any of the pure classes.




As a last note, I am very busy lately because I have midterms coming up, but in my free time I would like to compile a list of ideas/concerns of the shaman class, I think something we could do is after compiling an adequate list, perform a vote on what changes we would like to see most

I appreciate the fact that you wasted your time. This isn't going to change anything. No constructive post, ever, will change the developer's minds. They are set at making shaman 2nd class citizens.

Good post.


(edit: The OP, not Tseric. Well, maybe Tseric as well.)

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Q u o t e:

No, no. Don't you know I post nothing but lies and dribble? ;)

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I defended your 5 minute comment, dammit.

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Q u o t e:
Good read. I thought you broke down feedback in each area quite nicely. I will pass your comments along.

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Please do. =)

Thank you.

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Q u o t e:
Good read. I thought you broke down feedback in each area quite nicely. I will pass your comments along.

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HOLY CRAP.
/heart attack.

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Q u o t e:
No, no. Don't you know I post nothing but lies and dribble? ;)

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QFT.

/bump

tseric ur funny....







now fix the SHAMAN class!!
that is all

Great, well though post. Leaves out all the aggravation and comes across with clear, sane points.

That said, for DW, buff the AP bonus from WF or lower/remove the cooldown. Every single class in this game has the ability to burst dmg the bejesus out of another - our burst was removed.

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Q u o t e:


HOLY CRAP.
/heart attack.

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/ankh

/heart attack #2.