Shaman rdy for TBC ?
| by Batata | 09/11/2006 17:43:20 WARNING!!!! THIS POST IS NOT MEANT FOR PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT SHAMANS ARE HEALBOTS IN RAIDS! CONTINUE WITH CAUTION!!!!!!!!! Inspired By Nert. If we all can let them know what we think we can start making changes.! Index 1. Introduction 2. Shaman 3. Shaman role in Raids 1.12
3.2 Healing 3.3 Buff / Raid Viability 4. Shaman role in Raids The Burning Crusade
4.2 Healing 4.3 Buff / Raid Viability 5. Suggestions
5.2 Enhancement 5.3 Restoration 5.4 Itemization 6. Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- 1 .Introduction Info How raiding is in 1.12 Info How raiding will be in The Burning Crusade With posting this I don’t mean to whine, my only goal is to get information about how people think about the coming expansion, and shaman in raids and to give my expectations from the coming expansion in my point of view regarding shamans in raids. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ 2. Shaman Shaman are the spiritual leaders of their tribes and clans. They are masters of the elements, using spells and totems that heal or enhance their allies in battle while unleashing the fury of the elements upon their foes. Shamans can wear medium armor, and even wield massive two-handed weapons in combat. They are a versatile class that can wade into battle, restoring their allies while hurling elemental bolts of lightning at their enemies. The old phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" is an excellent way to describe the Shaman; they are the only real "hybrid" class in World of Warcraft. While they do not excel at any one aspect of their repertoire, they function passing well when performing most tasks called upon by a party. Need a support healer? Looking for a secondary tank? After another damage-dealer? Have an empty slot that needs someone to support the group in general? The Shaman can provide. They have a number of utility spells as well that help make life easier for any party. Many statements that are made are not completely true regarding the shaman such as : “Need a support healer?” : True “Looking for a secondary tank?” : Till level >40 ? “After another damage-dealer?” : This is perhaps possible Many of these things mentioned above are valid for 5 man Party’s or even 10 man Raids. “enhance their allies in battle while unleashing the fury of the elements upon their foes” So true for PVP, So not true for PVE “While they do not excel at any one aspect” Or is it? With the day more people get better in specializing in a talent tree / playing style. The saying is not realistic anymore. These days there are Shamans running around that deal almost equal damage to a warrior / rogue with a bit luck with Windfury. Or Shamans that can crit / hit harder with Lightning bolts then Mages with Frost bolts. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ 3. Shaman role in Raids 1.12 The Shamans role in Raids from 1.xx till 1.12 is simple. Being a healer that always lacks + healing or Manaper5 . Always having to wait for priests to get better healing gear to make them happy and not whine about their class. I do this gladly because I have respect for the people who choose a priest while knowing they will be main healers in raids. For the shaman this is different. It is told you are a hybrid but eventually you are a healer in raids. Getting healing gear is though. For some guilds its easy for some harder. 3.1 DPS Who ? What ? Where ? Ok, being sarcastic isn’t going to help here. I was planning not to write anything besides : “who?”. There are guilds that allow at least 1 or 2 DPS shaman in raids while they know they don’t get the DPS output needed for the raid. With the goal of making people happy and giving them a good mood by letting them see other aspects of their class. This is seldom perhaps 2 /10 guilds do this. Not to mention Druids / Priests which have similar issues. 3.2 Healing Ah yes, healing. Watching health bars as a hybrid with Mail gear standing in the last lines along with the priests and mages really makes me cry. But at the moment that’s just the way it is. For progression of your guild you do what you must if you want to PVE. This is hard most of the time with gimped healing gear. Not able to hold on long with your mana. Spam heals to keep someone up. Having to spend at least 31 points in restoration talents to get Manatide which gives your party a total of 1160 mana every 5 mins. And a shame that this totem also costs mana. 3.3 Buff / Raid Viability Shamans are melee buffing machines. Having 70 % of your totems that only have greater effect for melee based classes shaman is THE best class to have in a melee DPS group. Being far more superior then the paladin for the melee doesn’t make the shaman the best buffer for raids. This still is the Paladin which I rather not want to talk about, because this will lead to a post about differences between shaman / paladin. For Melee you mean a lot. Having WF totem or Grace of Air as a air totem you are most wanted class in melee groups. Perhaps this is the only ability that the Horde has which is more superior then all alliance buffs, because most of the damage is mostly done by warriors and rogues. For the casters you mean Mana Spring / Manatide / Tranquil air from time to time. Nothing else. Putting a shaman in caster groups instead of melee DPS groups is most of the time a waste. Most of the time you can be replaced by a priest if they don’t need an extra Windfury totem. Simple way because you don’t heal efficient / enough. ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- 4. Shaman role in Raids The Burning Crusade Not much is known how the shamans role will be in the upcoming expansion. But if you look at the new talents preview you would get the idea that Blizzard is trying to change the shaman role in raids. With talents such as “Spirit Weapons” “Unleashed rage” “Totem of Wrath” people are looking different to the shaman class. I wasn’t lucky enough to get a Beta key so I haven’t been able to test , but people are wondering there selves if these changes will make the difference that is needed to put shamans as DPS class in a raid. Several new things added for the Restoration tree which improves gameplay. Although there are few new talents / spells that are useless to the class. Or talents which are in the wrong talent tree. As it stands now your still forced to put some talents in restoration to get the bit of extra. For example the “Nature’s Guidance” talent. Will this be enough is the question…. 4.1 DPS The new Dual Wield ability will sure make difference to the damage output of the shaman in PVE. Being able to DPS while in raids brings a few new buffs along which were mentioned above. Useful raid buffs like the 10 % more AP . ( Sure hope this will stack with warrior shout / hunter aura etc.) Elemental shamans still have a problem. They don’t really have what is needed to be able to dps in raids. They need more party buffs. I will mention more at 4.3 and at the suggestions part. 4.2 Healing Again not to much info because I don’t have the chance of testing anything .I actually don’t know what I should mention here. With paladins coming to Horde side and vice versa. We don’t know how many shaman / paladins will have the healing job. For the Shaman and Paladin goes the same. Will they have to heal ? (Not all ) If So, will new items / spells give the extra that is needed to be a viable healer in raids? If we get the same problem as if we do now nothing will be solved. Lack of healing / lack of mana etc etc. 4.3 Buff / Raid Viability The shaman will come with a few new tricks. Like 3 % crit / hit with spells which is not enough to make changes if you ask me. 10 % more AP with enhancement shamans will be a good things as well. Bloodlust? Cool !Further more you don’t get any new buffs which are really wanted. Abilities such as this make people reconsider. With buffs such as these you could get the extra you need to be able to DPS in raids. I want to come talk about these abilities later on. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- [ Post edited by Batata ] |
| by Crezax | 09/11/2006 20:49:27 Even if it's "just" a compilation, it's a nice and well written compilation :) It gets two thumbs up by me ! |
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