Posts with tag shaman
Posted Oct 4th 2007 3:30PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Totem Talk
Totem Talk is the column for shamans, and Matthew Rossi has been obsessively trying to get his draenei shaman into outland this week. He's maddeningly close. He might have made it today if the Bark for the Barleybrew quest hadn't bugged out on him, but at least he got his Wolpertinger. No, this column won't be about Brewfest, but I had to show off my cute new pet or my wife would have been displeased with me.
Like all true hybrids, Shamans are remarkably versatile. They can heal, they can melee, they can nuke. And like all true hybrids, they can only do one of these things, and then only if they properly gear and spec for it. While it is
possible and worthwhile to really push the borders of the inherent multi-tasking of the class, most folks pick a role and stick with it, either because (as is my case) they don't have the gear to do anything more than their generally designated role or because they don't really want to. My resto shaman
cannot DPS. Not even because of spec, but because he simply has not the gear for a DPS role and as a result there's no point in him attempting it. If I had good enough enhancement gear, I would probably try and DPS a lot more, but with the limitations of what he's carrying around in his bags it's simply not possible.
Your spec is like an aptitude: it defines what your character will have the most options in. As a resto shaman, I have plenty of added punch to my healing, talents like
Healing Way,
Improved Chain Heal,
Earth Shield and Nature's
Blessing. But I'm lacking the offensive punch of the talents from
Elemental for my spells, which means even if I had the gear, my shocks and lightning bolts are not going to match up to a shaman who has spent the points. I won't have Lightning Overload or Elemental Precision. And if I try and mix it up in melee, I lack the ability to Dual Wield, the enhanced weapon buffs of Elemental Weapons or the bite of Weapon Mastery. I still have the basics that Elemental and Enhancement shamans use in combat, of course, and they still have the basics of shaman healing, but there is always a noticeable drop in performance when doing something outside of your spec.
Of course, some of you are probably saying "
tell us something we don't know" while still others are ready to point out that even if an enhancement shaman can't heal as well as a resto shaman, he can still heal. And that's actually a good point. An enhancement shaman or an elemental shaman can, in fact, still heal. This leads to an often overlooked aspect of the class - basically, you bring a shaman along on a run because a shaman, in addition to whatever DPS or healing he or she can provide in a main role, can also provide what I like to call '
panic button' capacity.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Three Classes In One?
Posted Oct 2nd 2007 6:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Raiding, Build Shop
Eliah is away from the Build Shop this week, so I'm taking his place, and I figured what better time to look at a great Resto Shaman build--
mine. Sure, some of you talent pros will probably tear it apart (it's a little less than conventional), but for my preferences and my playstyle, this build works pretty darn well.
So let's start by telling you how I play my Shaman. Clearly, I'm not an Enhancement Shammy-- while I leveled as one, I decided right when I hit 60 (and yeah, I leveled to 70 with this build, too) that I wanted this character to be a raider. I was just getting in good with a great guild, I loved being a great healer (keeping a group up even in dire straits is fun for me), and I knew that healers would always be in demand, letting me run lots of groups.
On the other hand, however, I didn't just want to be a healbot. I wanted to have the opportunity, when I was able, to crank out some DPS.
Continue reading Build Shop: Shaman 15/5/41
Posted Oct 1st 2007 1:00PM by Scott Andrews
Filed under: Patches, Guilds, Officers' Quarters
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.I know, I know.
Last week I presented you with Part 1 of my examination of guild alliances, and my readers are probably wondering what the heck happened to Part 2. It's coming next week, I promise! (In fact, it's already written.) But since we were unexpectedly flooded with so much great information about
2.3, I thought I'd make this column a bit more timely and put Dark pacts, Part 2 on hold. The next major content patch has some interesting additions and changes that will affect many aspects of the game, but there are a few that officers should be thinking about now. Let's take a look.
Continue reading Officers' Quarters: 2.3 -- An officer's perspective
Posted Sep 28th 2007 7:55PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/blizz_priest_logo.jpg)
With DPS, this question is simple. You can take a glance at your damage meter of choice and see how much damage they've done, perhaps combined with how much damage they've taken (hitting the top of the damage meters may be impressive -- but if the only way to do that involves being a major drain on your healers' mana, it might be better for your group as a whole if you cut back), and can have a pretty good idea of how they're performing. On the other hand, measuring a healer's performance is a bit more ethereal, as discussed in depth today on
Priestly Endeavors. Of course, you can watch the
healing meters, but they don't tell the entire story of a good healer. What about mana management? The 5-second rule? Heal timing? (Heal too soon and you're overhealing and wasting mana -- but heal too late and you may not have anyone to heal at all.) Kirk on
Priestly Endeavors breaks it down into the data you'd want to see to completely determine healer effectiveness:
- The health of every party member over time.
- Information on every heal that was cast and when it was cast (including things like Power Word: Shield which usually aren't counted).
- The healer's mana over time.
But while having a spreadsheet showing off all of this information for the duration of an instance run would certainly tell us exactly how our healers are doing, this much data would be heavy information overload. (Fascinating to sort through when you have specific questions, but I certainly wouldn't want to do it every day.) But seeing as we don't currently have access to such detailed information, I'm throwing the question out to you -- how do you measure the performance of a healer? What extra information would you like to have in measuring the performance of a healer?
Posted Sep 27th 2007 3:00PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Shaman, Totem Talk
Totem Talk is the column about Shamans. It was originally just going to be about shaman totems, but we thought the shamans themselves might get upset. Matthew Rossi is playing two shamans, that handsome fellow you see above you and also a awful, icky Draenei that we wouldn't dream of using for the picture until next week at the earliest.
Well, a lot can happen in a patch day, huh? We know now that 2.3 has some
pretty big changes in store for those shamans who choose to focus on the power of the elements. Some folks
are not happy, even though they admit some of these changes are for the good. All these incoming changes to the spec do make my goal of talking about the elemental shamans among us a little trickier, because now we're looking at a spec that's going to be remarkably different in not very long at all.
Still, that's why I'm here, right? So let us move forward and look at elemental shamans, the caster DPS spec of this particular hybrid class we love so well.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Masters of the Elements
Posted Sep 26th 2007 11:20PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Priest, Patches, Odds and ends, Forums
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/zz07095915.jpg)
With the bonanza of upcoming changes coming out, there are a few categories that don't have enough changes to merit posts of their own. These are their stories.
- We're adding new relics to support all talent trees in patch 2.3 for Shaman, Paladins and Druids. In addition, (not that this will sweep you off your feet), most of the arena-system relics have been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention. (Eyonix)
- Those who completed the [Tempest Keep] attunement process will have access to the title "Champion of the Naaru". Also, the plan is to hard-cap it at 70, meaning you can't go back at 80 and "cheese" the title. (Eyonix)
- We're looking into potential improvements for earth shield, and even lightning shield (Eyonix)
- Fear Ward will be available to all priests at level 20, but there are some changes in addition. Current plans are to reduce duration to 3 minutes, and increase the cooldown to 3 minutes.
To give the dwarves and draenei something else to even it out, they'll see a new ability called Chastise (also given at level 20) which will cause holy damage and incapacitate the target for 2 seconds. (Drysc)
Yay! Fear Ward for all! Racials are still a stupid idea, in my opinion, but this takes some of the sting out of them. A new title, and some new relics are both very welcome; the current relics are in many ways a bit silly.
Posted Sep 26th 2007 10:30PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Forums
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/zz53ff5d4b.jpg)
Earlier today, the up-close-and-personal Enhancement shammies
got some boosts, and Elemental improvements were promised for
patch 2.3 as well. And here they are! Eyonix delivers:
- Being a level 70 elemental shaman myself, I'm particularly excited as currently I feel the class is in good shape, but in need of a few minor tweaks. I'd say the one I'm most pleased with (especially after seeing the results of change on an internal build) concerns lightning overload. When 2.3 launches it will have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to occur, though the additional spell will cause half damage, still ending up being a noticeable increase to overall dps
- Also, the additional spell will cause no threat whatsoever.
- [Regarding] the mana spring totem. Previously it restored 12 mana every two seconds at maximum rank, for your entire party. As of patch 2.3 it will restore your groups mana by 20 every 2 seconds.
This equates to 50mana/5 for each member of your party without the talent points in restorative totems.
- The second change impacts water shield. This spell will no longer cost any mana to cast (which also means the five-[second] rule will not be affected) and the mana granted per globe has been substantially increased. Additionally, the spells duration has been shortened to one minute and at the end of its duration it now grants mana for any remaining globes.
- Elemental Focus will now reduce the mana cost of the next two damage spells by 40%. Now before theorycrafting begins, this is actually a buff except in cases where your chance to land a critical strike with spells was extremely high.
- Frostshock will no longer be subject to diminishing returns which I'm sure players will find useful, especially in pvp.
- Lastly, we are making a change that will cause a reduction in dps, however, the elemental shamans overall dps will still be improving with the change that we're making to lightning overload. We're reducing the casting time of Lightning Bolt to 2.5 seconds (from 3 seconds), and chain lightning to 2.0 (from 2.5 seconds), causing benefit from spell damage to be reduced appropriately. The mana cost for these two spells are being lowered as well.
The lightning mastery talent's cast time will now be reduced by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds. So, casting time for the spells ends up being the same as before. (All of the above from this Eyonix post)
- We're increasing the additional mana granted by water shield for both the Tidefury Raiment and the Totem of the Thunderhead. (Eyonix)
Now that is what I call a lot of changes. Well, my LB-loving friends, are you happy with this stuff? Not all of these changes are Elemental-specific, of course; the mana spring totem change, for instance, helps
everyone, Shaman or not. How do you think these changes will interact to help or hurt Elemental shamans?
In other Shaman news,
Eyonix has said basically "no cc 4 u", at least until
Wrath:
- If we give shaman a cc abillity it won't be until Wrath of the Lich King.
Posted Sep 26th 2007 3:50PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Shaman, Patches
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/zz1fa844db.jpg)
Back at Blizzcon, some improvements were previewed for Enhancement shammies that were going to go in "a future patch". It has become apparent as things progress that this patch is probably going to be 2.3, and now we have confirmation of that from Eyonix. Specifically, the details he confirmed for patch 2.3 are as follows:
- Shamanistic rage will also reduces all damage taken by 30% for the duration of the ability (30 seconds), in addition to its current effect
- Spirit Weapons will also reduce melee threat by a total of 30% rather than 15% (source)
- There will be changes that benfefit [sic] the elemental and restoration shaman as well. And yes, more enchancement improvements are absolutely going into patch 2.3. (source)
- Yes, all shaman will be able to equip 2-handed axes and maces (proper training required of course), without having to spend a talent. In it's place, a seemingly solid replacement talent called elemental focus. Basically, what it offers is this -- after landing a melee critical strike, you'll enter a "focused state". The focused state will reduce the mana cost of your next shock spell by 60%. (source)
There is some confusion over whether Spirit Weapons' threat reduction affects yellow damage; Eyonix reports that extensive internal testing shows that it affects white damage and Stormstrike and Windfury procs. He also promises to drop in on a thread discussing Elemental improvements, so keep an eye out for that.
Posted Sep 24th 2007 2:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2006/02/test_copy.jpg)
By now, it's almost a certainty-- not only did
the PTR shut down last week, but
Neth has almost confirmed on the forums that patch 2.2 is coming tomorrow morning. That means, I guess, that
Amanda was right on our podcast a few weeks ago-- she was the only one who predicted it would show up this week, so kudos to her. Of course, it also messes up my plans for the week, unfortunately. I was planning to
snipe Brutes and capture flags at least through Thursday, but now I may have to punctuate that with some voice chatting.
And besides
voice chatting, what else are we seeing in this new patch we've waited so long for? The
full patch notes are here for now (though they may be replaced with the 2.2.2 notes in the next day or so). Anti-AFK measures are showing up, as well as the Haste rebalancing. And most of the class stuff seems like bugfixes more or less. If you're a Druid, it'll be good to know that you can attack from further away while in Cat form, Shaman ankhs will now stack to ten (nice!) and Hunters with Raptor pets can now go out and learn Dash, but otherwise, it's all bugfixes-- some more harsh than others (the Six Demon Bag no longer benefits from spell damage, so bummer for that one).
But the thing that will really pull me away from
Halo 3 this week is probably the simplest. Finally, my Orc male shoulders are returned to full size. Finally,
after more than two months, I can walk around Orgrimmar with my head held up proudly, trapped between two huge masses of metal. See you tomorrow, 2.2!
Posted Sep 13th 2007 7:50PM by Chris Jahosky
Filed under: Alchemy, Items, Analysis / Opinion
For those that aren't familiar with
Fel Mana potions, they restore 3200 mana over 24 seconds, but also reduce your spell damage by 25 and your healing by 50 for 15 minutes.
On the surface, this seems like a bad deal, at least to me. I've intentionally not used them because of their negative side effect. Besides, a
Super Mana potion will restore 1800-3000 mana instantly -- so why wait for the mana
and incur a spell penalty?
Phaelia over at
Resto4Life recently did some math that may or may not change your mind about using them,
if you use them at the right time.
Mostly the article is aimed at discussing when healers should pop a Fel Mana potion, but good news for all you hunters out there that may not have thought of this yet... there's no downside if you use them!
Posted Sep 6th 2007 9:30AM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Draenei, Leveling, Classes, Totem Talk
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/09/shamanzap.jpg)
Totem Talk is written by a shaman for shamans. What does that mean? Well, it means that Matthew Rossi is currently healing with a level 70 resto shammy, and is leveling up a 47 enhancement shaman as well. In fact, the only reason he stopped playing said shaman to write this column is out of his deep sense of commitment to you. Oh, and they shut down the servers for a couple of hours. But mostly deep commitment to you.
I hated my first shaman so much I left him at level 16 for five months.
It was hard to figure out for me. I was so used to warriors that I couldn't wrap my head around how to play a mana-using class, especially one that lacked all the abilities I'd grown so used to and dependent on. I tried a mage, a warlock, a hunter and a shaman, and none of them really worked for me. So I gave up on the shaman, and went and rolled up a new tauren warrior and leveled him up post haste so that I could join in on the fun reindeer games on my new horde server. (The server's not horde, but I was horde on it.) Every so often I would try another character... I made a druid and a priest but didn't get that far with them... but in the end, once I hit 60 and with the expansion looming, I decided to go back and give the shaman another try and I discovered the spec that changed everything for me.
Enhancement. Say it with me.
Enhancement. To make things better. And boy, in my case, enhancement delivered all the better I could possibly have needed. A lot of folks make a typographical error and call them
enchantment shamans, and in my case that's apt, because the first time I saw a
windfury crit I was indeed enchanted. Rapt, even. One moment I was fighting a hyena outside of Gadgetzan and the next... I wasn't. It fell down. Fell down and went
boom, even. I'd had that happen to me in battlegrounds, mind you, but I'd never really imagined that I could do it to others.
I admit now, trying to go elemental was a mistake for me. It's an excellent spec, but it's a caster spec. And I, my friends, am not a caster. I am melee in my heart, and so, I needed a melee spec to level. And with dual wielding, weapon enchants like windfury and
rockbiter, and totems like
grace of air and
strength of earth, the enhancement shaman is a melee spec that makes other melee better to boot. How, I ask you, how can you go wrong with enhancement?
Continue reading Totem Talk: So I'm levelling an enhancement shaman again...
Posted Aug 30th 2007 1:35PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Classes, Talents, Totem Talk
Another week, another Totem Talk, a column by and for shamans and those that love us. Well, okay, you don't have to love us to read it, but why wouldn't you? Look how cuddly we are! We even provide Bloodlust or Heroism for your 5 mans and raids. Don't you want to adopt one of us and take us home right now? No? What do you mean, no? Matthew Rossi is disappointed that you haven't already made a shaman plushie and cuddled it upon finishing this paragraph.Okay, so my introductory column for
Totem Talk went about like I expected, with most folks disagreeing with the idea that shamans need help. This isn't a new problem, of course, and
it's not likely to go away for a while. Most players have enshrined the concept of shamans as OP and either deliberately or unknowingly exaggerate certain abilities (as an example, complaining that
Grounding Totem, an ability which has a 15 second cast cooldown and which dies in one hit, is eating half of their frostbolts. How is that mathematically possible?
Frostbolt has a max casting time of three seconds. You can cast five of them in the time it takes to cast one Grounding. It's just not possible for it to be eating half of your frostbolts, even assuming a one on one mage vs. shaman battle) but this happens to everyone. When I play my warrior, I see people complaining about 6k
executes, and I'm sure every single class in the game has a similar ability or two that everyone complains about far more than it is actually capable of.
But this week there will be no complaining. No, this week we're going to celebrate shamans and what they're capable of and try and sell a really interesting and fun class to everyone in WoW. So read on for tales of high adventure! Or at least tales of stuff that would be good to have along on an adventure, anyway.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Shamans are awesome.
Posted Aug 26th 2007 1:57PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Totem Talk
Totem Talk is the column for Shaman players. Matthew Rossi plays a Shaman. It's like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup except with less peanut butter and chocolate and more talking about Shaman issues. According to WoWwiki, the correct plural of Shaman is Shamans. This seems weird to me, but I guess they should know, they're a Wiki.
Well, we could spend a lot of time messing about, but this week we have already seen that
Shamans have issues.
The comment thread this generated is very long and very rancorous. To be honest, that's the way the
Shaman forums gets sometimes, too. Being the proud papa of two shammies, a level 70 resto on the Horde side and a level 44 enhancement on Alliance, I feel like I should say that I really love the class. It's fun and engaging. I leveled as Elemental to 50, Enhancement from 50 to 70, and specced Restoration for my guild, which of course means that the only mail that drops is Enhancement or Elemental. My healing kit? Way too many Elemental pieces I've socketed to try and make up the difference. But ultimately, I love my Shamans and I love playing them.
And yes, the angry Shaman players are right. There are problems with the Shaman.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Hi, I'm a Shaman. Take me to your instance.
Posted Aug 22nd 2007 10:30PM by Chris Jahosky
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20071016071817im_/http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/08/8_22_2007_shaman.jpg)
Shamans are a fun and engaging class that combine a strong, complex array of totems with various spells used to inflict damage or to heal. As if that wasn't enough, they also are able to wear shields and mail, making them a very durable combat caster and earning them the ire of the other casting classes. If properly specced, they can even venture into melee range and smash faces. By all accounts, they are a powerful class.
But there are some downsides. Shamans have complained for a long time about the vulnerability of their totems in PvP encounters, they've become extremely vocal about their lack of CC, and some would like more options when it comes to casting shocks. They are weaknesses, to be sure. But do they cripple the class? More of a hindrance, in my opinion.
These are some of the most common complaints I've seen lately:
- Totems need a buff, because they are an easy target in a PvP encounter; suggestions for fixing this range from increasing the health of totems to removing the health entirely and just requiring 2 or 3 direct hits from an enemy.
- Every class has a CC ability but us, and we have only 2 snares, one of which is a totem and is easily destroyed.
- Buff our shocks! Take earth shock off global cooldown, increase the duration of frost shock, etc.
It seems unfair that totems should get a buff in PvP -- especially when many classes have to deal with having their own buffs purged or dispelled off. And while it's true that every other class has
some form of CC, they're not always useful or usable at all times. Regarding shocks... well, Earth Shock is one of the best interrupts in the game, and definitely the one on the shortest cooldown.
I have other concerns about the class that I think should receive more focus, such as mana regeneration and getting some kind of anti-kite ability. But what do you other shamans out there think?
Posted Aug 19th 2007 9:15AM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Classes, Talents
When the Public Test Realm is up, any player who has had an active account since November 2006 can copy their character over to help test the new update. During the Patch 2.1 Public Test phase, I copied my L64 feral druid over and respecced to Balance. Fortunately, I had a decent set of Balance gear with me and was able to give the spec a good test drive. I enjoyed it enough that I eventually went Balance when I hit L70 on the live servers.
With Patch 2.2 currently on the Public Test Realm, Blizzard is allowing players to copy up to 4 premade L70 characters to the Test Realm. This time, I decided to see what it was like to play some other classes I long admired, so I copied a shaman, a priest and a rogue.
Each toon starts out with a full set of raid gear and PvP gear for different specs as well as plenty of trinkets, rings, weapons, drink, bandages and gems. They also get epic mounts, both land and air. They have none of their talent points assigned, so you can spec them immediately, but you will have to find a trainer to get the higher levels of any spells/abilities you pick up in your talent tree.
Read on for my impressions on each class after the jump.
Continue reading Test a spec for free or try a new class on the PTR
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