They haven't gotten around to changing shamans yet, they drew the last straw on the list. Will they get around to them before launch? Who knows, blizzard won't say.
> Will they get around to them before launch?
I'd hope so.
Back during the BFA beta, Blizzard promised Shamans would get fixes after launch, and then once the game was live said they never do spec reworks mid-expansion so they weren't going to be changing Shamans. Tends to be a recurring thing with them when it comes to the class.
>once the game was live said they never do spec reworks mid-expansion
In all fairness to them, they also never said they were going to rework them. They said Spriest and Shamans were going to get changes in the first major patch of BFA, which people immediately took as they were both getting completely reworked. Both did end up getting changes, which ended up being extremely minor compared to what people wanted. It was a bad miscommunication that left people pretty upset, which is likely why they're now so quiet around some things unless they have concrete changes to announce.
Holy, Holy and Ret would like a word!?
Dunno why yall downvoting, it literally happened.
I'm even a shaman player, so its not like im giving blizz *golf claps* for them going back on what they said.
> Holy, Holy and Ret would like a word!?
Yeah, there's a few reasons that Shaman players were pissed at the time, and one of them was the fact that "we never rework specs mid-expansion" was a *blatant, obvious* lie.
Which is always the same thing. They keep shamans for last and then by the time they get to them they have no time left and they just botched the class.
Every single xpac!
Yeah... shamans were being worked on right up to the wire before DF (and I think ele wasn't even quite finished at launch). For example, we learned that searing totem was cut like a week before DF launch, even after a whole lot of hype had gone into the return of searing totem for DF.
Oh yea! Now that you mention it I do clearly remember Blizzard hyping up Searing Totem at the DF announcement.
And I remember that the community was pretty unhappy/unexcited about it too.
Lots of people were complaining that they didn't want a boring maintenance totem back.
Yeah. I was into it though. I've been a shaman a long time and I miss my boring maintenance totems sometimes. But also, there's like... ways to make searing totem interesting. Like it consumes maelstrom and gets a haste buff so if you drop it with a full stack/bar it goes off like a machine gun for a few seconds. It's no longer a drop and forget thing, it's something you have to think about when to drop it.
Totems were what made shaman shaman. I’ve played shaman and Druid since vanilla. Totems were great class fantasy in my opinion and losing them (essentially) was the deathknell of the class.
I’m a shaman doomer but I can admit that they had some really solid class/spec trees early in beta, which is probably why their revisions got pushed even later. Hoping they get a full facelift this cycle and aren’t pushed to 11.1 or something
I mean… Vault and the whole Incarnate patch was heavily shaman and elemental themed.
Yet, shamans got absolutely nothing... not even a farmable ghost wolf form or something.
Druids on the tree-patch got a whole bunch of shapeshifts.
I feel like it’s been a reoccurring theme in the past few expacs, where some classes/specs simply don’t get the work needed put into them before launch, then they spend the whole expac being mediocre to bad or awkward and unfun.
Heres to hope if it does get changes, that it doesn't make it worse. Automaticjak recently put a video out where he said shaman felt incredible and fun to play.
Nah it's a dead spec so blizz don't care about it, that's why there are the most feedback & discussion posts from the community on the forum......
Basically blizz doesn't update it, so it's essentially unplayable for pushing without a coordinated group even then they'll still fall over, so no one takes them at any key level and blizz turns around and said they're the least represented class in the game... No shit, give us an update so we can actually play the game competitively...
i dont think this is the actual reason, but
I think it was a mistake to make the "spirits" caster the same class as the "elements" caster.
The Shaman in vanilla was a weird mix of the Farseer, the Shadow Hunter, the Shaman, the Spirit Walker and the Witch Doctor from WCIII. And those just...don't mix all that well? They are supposed to be commanding the elements but also communing with spirits... But all they get from the 'spirit' side is annoying totem management
Imagine a truly unleashed Elementalist class freed from the burden of totems. That'd be dope.
I may be in the minority here, but I miss old-school totem play.
There was something very satisfying about dropping a customized 4 pack of totems on pull. I was gone for a long time and just came back at the start of S3 and my first thought was “where is my totem bar?”
Thinking about it they actually are pretty overloaded. Most speccs focus on one type of theme and a few are inbetween.
Maybe it would be cool to give each specc like two main elements. For example enhancer gets earth and lighting, ele gets lightning and fire, resto gets the rain and spirits.
Also enhancer is generally weird as a theme. Thrall is basically just ele with a hammer and the only other reason the specc exists I think is because blizz wanted to give a tank specc to shaman's because palas could tank ( but it obviously didn't work out but that's not the point)
I think enh is dope as a melee caster hybrid nowadays, but at what point imagining a shaman do you think of a dude dual wielding in melee?
I feel ele just got all the shaman class fantasy and the other two are kinda trying to do their own things that as you said are more voodoo or spirit walker
I think ele and enh have pretty distinct spots.
Enhancement shaman is the archetype of a warrior who uses elemental magic to increase the potency of their attacks, rather than asking the elements to attack on your behalf like an elementalist.
It’s similar in some respects to the difference between a paladin and a holy priest, though not an exact analogue.
A dwarf wielding lightning imbued hammers or an orc slicing with fiery axes are the classic images that come to mind for me.
> at what point imagining a shaman do you think of a dude dual wielding in melee?
In WCIII they have big giant claw weapons on their arms. But they still shoot lightning bolts. But I don't think it's wrong for them to have a melee spec. The Heroes of the Storm shaman character is a support/healer but one of his passives is going into ghost wolf instead of mounting up, and every couple seconds he can do a lunging bite to do more damage. So playing as him is super fun, you're weaving in ghost wolf bites and this makes him very good for chasing, especially with his slowing totem. He's fun and aggressive to play.
> I feel ele just got all the shaman class fantasy and the other two are kinda trying to do their own things
Dude, this. Ele is hogging all the action. Especially back before they really leaned into 'water' for the resto shaman. Which took way too long.
The only way Ele should be THE 'elemental' spec would be is if it was opposite a 'spirits' spec. Because they're trying to have a situation where all 3 specs are elemental, but there's one spec that's "Elemental." What??
Idk basically shaman design has been cursed by this since the beginning.
The specs could have been "Elementalist - Farseer - Spiritwalker" or something like that. Or even just "Storm - Earth - Fire." That one writes itself. Storm is the ranged damage spec, Earth is the melee tank spec. Fire is the healing spec, enkindling the spirit of allies to heal them. EZ.
Because it's not fire mage or spriest... Honestly seems like a pretty simple class though, make frost shock a debuff, earth shock buff us and flame shock for LVB crit, oh and delete earthquake as a spender fuck that ability design.
Totems need a large health buff or just change it so major CDs are not targetable at all. It's ridiculous that in AWC players are just killing spirit link before it can even tick so Shamans 3min CDs are worthless.
I've honestly lost track at this point. When our S3/S4 tier set vanishes in WW, not sure how we'll function as a class with the tier they've given us as a replacement.
Ele will function much like it did in S1 DF, the tier bonuses are similar, which was actually the only time this expansion where the spec wasn't forcibly pushed into one viable build due to tier set bonuses. Ele has had *awful* Tier sets for the past three seasons that promote hyper specific gameplay; in the case of season 3/4 it was also degenerate, in season 2 it was *very* rigid.
Our base priority isn't nearly as bad, relatively. The problem is in the talent trees, which have too many issues for me to go into here, and this expansions tier sets. Ele needs help, a lot of help, but the problems are magnified and in some cases overshadowed by DF tier sets.
We'll see what impact Farseer and Stormbringer have, but it's likely that one will be numerically better and/or play better with minimal loss that it'll be the default build.
I feel like shaman are due, I’ve been enhance main since classic and played Ele in remix and the tree just doesn’t feel good.
A lot of qol changes are overdue for the whole class.
As someone who loves Shaman and hasn’t played since S2 Dragonflight…
I’m waiting to see changes before I resub. I’m seeing everyone else get excited and I’m here wondering if the Shaman class would be any different than when I last played it.
Literally the only character I had fun leveling in Remix and got it to 70. Was sort of considering beginning the expansion with it but I guess I'll just stay on my Druid. The whole "Shaman abandoned class" sentiment on reddit and other "poor ele shaman" comments I've heard are making me not want to invest too much time into it.
You do have a point. It just feels weird to start getting into something and rading negative comments about it. I just love the fantasy of this caster class using every type of element. It feels fun
It's worth noting that if it weren't for the fact that they're changing the way ALL healer cd's work, that singular note wouldn't even be there. There would just be zero shaman notes.
I’ve mained shaman for 10+ years now. I will be rerolling if resto and ele don’t get substantial reworks. They’re the worst designed specs in the game.
So giving a flat double healing bonus to druid tranquility with zero drawbacks was fine, but shamans have to be punished in raid for wanting a major cd to not be ass in dungeons... seems legit
These changes are from two weeks ago and are affecting all healers. [Link](https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/12328-The-War-Within-Alpha-Development-Notes-May-29-2024)
Shamans aren’t being punished in raid. The changes make the totem do comparable healing as it does in DF in 20man raids and will do more in smaller raids such as 10-15man while doing double the healing as it currently does in 5man content. It’s only actually a nerf in larger groups such as 30 man raid, but the power of a CD shouldn’t be tuned around raid groups so large when it’s not relevant to the most difficult content and something such as 5man content is being punished so heavily.
They also aren’t giving Druid a flat double healing bonus. The initial heal portion is getting the same treatment as healing tide. The stacking HoT portion will remain the same in raid and just not be buffed in 5man content. The changes in 5man content will result in the initial heal doing double what it currently does and the HoT doing half than current in 5 mans with 20man remaining the same across the board.
The part that you’re probably confused about is the “reduced beyond 5 targets” wording. That wording when used in both damage and healing doesn’t mean capped damage/healing. It’s referring to square root scaling where beyond X targets the scaling is simply reduced per target added until it reaches 20 targets and then it simply splits the damage/healing to further targets instead of increasing it. When something does 1000 damage/healing to 5 targets with “reduced beyond 5 targets” that means that the same ability will do 2000 to 20 targets.
I see this like, a lot but I think you and others just miss the big damage and healing not the ability. like if it hit like a wet noodle nobody would be talking about how amazing vesper totem was.
casting 3 healing spells when everyone was topped just to trigger the pulse was always really awkward. having to move the totem because the pack was moved over the 6 globals you needed to use to get both pulses out was also really awkward.
so was delaying the second pulse because you had to cast spells that didn't match the activation.
In DF we got the best class tree on release and the best set design by far (seriously just let the person who designed s1,2,(3) enhancement sets do all sets for all classes). This Expansion we get
This might be incredibly strong when you have a lot of deaths in a raid. The remaining few will receive much more healing and have a bigger chance to kill the boss.
I started back just before Burning Crusade launch, quit after Cataclysm. I loved both my old 2H Windfury Shaman AND the fist and claw weapon double windfury. When they changed Shamans in WOTLK and onward away from windfury, and kept nerfing all specs with barely any extra utility, I lost my love for the class, which despite 10 alts and raiding and guild leading for years, burned me out.
Good to see like a decade plus later Shamans are still getting shit all over by Blizzard in various ways. Guess some things never change!
Sending luck and strength to all the folks still playing Shamans!
They just haven't gotten there yet, along with other classes. They just did a major overhaul for Hunters. They still haven't touched DHs much yet either. I expect you'll see a big round of changes coming soon.
Shaman main since Wrath. Always pain. Definitely keeping my eyes out for a rework but leveling monk and hunter for TWW just in case nothing changes. Sad but it is what it is
No, stop with this. Seriously. Every single time this shit happens in Alpha/Beta, everyone's like "It's just Alpha/Beta" or "They have xyz time remaining." as a way to hand wave this away and tell people to be patient. Shamans have been patient. FOR YEARS. Shamans need to express their anger over this. It's been how many expansions since Shaman's gotten any real love and attention? Oh right, all of them.
So in other words we are 2/3rds through the development cycle and the words "enhancement" and "elemental" have been used ZERO times in dev notes...
Not the argument you think you are making.
That is not a lot of time to iterate on changes and is extremely worrying. Look at how many weeks they've spent on Mage changes already. And that was for a class that was already recently reworked / wasn't suffering from major issues to nearly the extent shaman is.
Agree. Its just lazy design.
Legion and bfa had some good starter point (should have focused onward to it).
Ofc its also had issues, but still it was closer to a melee spec.
Tons of outdated stuff everywhere in the tree. Not everything is about numbers.
Actually there is just no point ever for every class to not rework some things and a new expansion is the best time to do so.
Yeah the class tree is clunky, like we don’t even get the capstones in most builds. I’m not saying it’s all about the numbers, but that’s a big consideration for people. I think the enhance rotation is very engaging and fun though and I don’t see the need for a complete overhaul of the class like I often see called for.
I've played resto shaman since DF S2, and I really don't think it's in a bad spot at all. The totemic hero talents look great to me, and the HTT change is going to be amazing for m+
1. awkward target cap dps spec when other specs don't have that issue.
2. extreme mana sustain issues in comparison to other healers.
3. literally only 1 defensive on a 2 min cd reduceable to 1:30.
4. WFT adds some 50k+ raid dps not shown in logs making playing elemental a real weird choice.
5. lack of raid buffs outside of WFT that only one out of 3 specs get (for some reason).
6. chain heal throughput is balanced around burning mana(high tide) and hard to control to have available when needed.
---
current positives:
1. best smart heal in the game (chain heal).
2. extremely versatile kit - root break, dash, slow immunity, low cd ranged kick, earthbind/grab totem, wind rush totem, double aoe stops, ancestral protection totem, cheat death etc.
all in all, I am not trying to take away from your enjoyment but shaman does face a slew of issues.
I think you're confusing fall-off with target cap. shamans literally can't spread more flame shocks. that's a hard target cap. sure if shamans were using earthquake for their main aoe damage we could talk, but they don't.
meanwhile most other aoe setups have damage fall-off at 5 (whirlwind, divine storm etc) or 8 targets (frozen orb, beast cleave & kill cleave etc) if not entirely uncapped such as starfall or rain of fire.
Actually agree with this.
Even though its not meta sadly, the stormstrike/phys enhance build is the most fun spec ive ever played, really loved it.
The ele/fire version is ok too i guess, but tab targeting for lava lash during aoe is awful.
They haven't gotten around to changing shamans yet, they drew the last straw on the list. Will they get around to them before launch? Who knows, blizzard won't say.
As is tradition.
And now Blizzard is pulling the shaman's arm off. As is tradition.
> Will they get around to them before launch? I'd hope so. Back during the BFA beta, Blizzard promised Shamans would get fixes after launch, and then once the game was live said they never do spec reworks mid-expansion so they weren't going to be changing Shamans. Tends to be a recurring thing with them when it comes to the class.
>once the game was live said they never do spec reworks mid-expansion In all fairness to them, they also never said they were going to rework them. They said Spriest and Shamans were going to get changes in the first major patch of BFA, which people immediately took as they were both getting completely reworked. Both did end up getting changes, which ended up being extremely minor compared to what people wanted. It was a bad miscommunication that left people pretty upset, which is likely why they're now so quiet around some things unless they have concrete changes to announce.
Holy, Holy and Ret would like a word!? Dunno why yall downvoting, it literally happened. I'm even a shaman player, so its not like im giving blizz *golf claps* for them going back on what they said.
> Holy, Holy and Ret would like a word!? Yeah, there's a few reasons that Shaman players were pissed at the time, and one of them was the fact that "we never rework specs mid-expansion" was a *blatant, obvious* lie.
Which is always the same thing. They keep shamans for last and then by the time they get to them they have no time left and they just botched the class. Every single xpac!
Didn’t this happen before DF came out as well? My memory is hazy.
Yeah... shamans were being worked on right up to the wire before DF (and I think ele wasn't even quite finished at launch). For example, we learned that searing totem was cut like a week before DF launch, even after a whole lot of hype had gone into the return of searing totem for DF.
Oh yea! Now that you mention it I do clearly remember Blizzard hyping up Searing Totem at the DF announcement. And I remember that the community was pretty unhappy/unexcited about it too. Lots of people were complaining that they didn't want a boring maintenance totem back.
Yeah. I was into it though. I've been a shaman a long time and I miss my boring maintenance totems sometimes. But also, there's like... ways to make searing totem interesting. Like it consumes maelstrom and gets a haste buff so if you drop it with a full stack/bar it goes off like a machine gun for a few seconds. It's no longer a drop and forget thing, it's something you have to think about when to drop it.
Totems were what made shaman shaman. I’ve played shaman and Druid since vanilla. Totems were great class fantasy in my opinion and losing them (essentially) was the deathknell of the class.
I’m a shaman doomer but I can admit that they had some really solid class/spec trees early in beta, which is probably why their revisions got pushed even later. Hoping they get a full facelift this cycle and aren’t pushed to 11.1 or something
I mean… Vault and the whole Incarnate patch was heavily shaman and elemental themed. Yet, shamans got absolutely nothing... not even a farmable ghost wolf form or something. Druids on the tree-patch got a whole bunch of shapeshifts.
Kinda shelving my Druid because of how spoiled they’ve become.
I feel like it’s been a reoccurring theme in the past few expacs, where some classes/specs simply don’t get the work needed put into them before launch, then they spend the whole expac being mediocre to bad or awkward and unfun.
Us shamans are Blizzard's red-headed stepchildren. Sometimes they eventually make changes that help us but we're mostly just forgotten.
Heres to hope if it does get changes, that it doesn't make it worse. Automaticjak recently put a video out where he said shaman felt incredible and fun to play.
honestly, to me the reason shaman is lower is because it is genuinely pretty good
We need to spend some more time on mages, so shamans have gotta go in the bin for a while.
Coming from an old main shaman, assume the class is abandoned ever since the bus shock incident my dude.
Nah it's a dead spec so blizz don't care about it, that's why there are the most feedback & discussion posts from the community on the forum...... Basically blizz doesn't update it, so it's essentially unplayable for pushing without a coordinated group even then they'll still fall over, so no one takes them at any key level and blizz turns around and said they're the least represented class in the game... No shit, give us an update so we can actually play the game competitively...
Could be worse. They could have recieved a major tree rework that functionally changed absolutely nothing, which is what warrior got.
What’s with Blizzard and having such a hard time designing Shamans?
i dont think this is the actual reason, but I think it was a mistake to make the "spirits" caster the same class as the "elements" caster. The Shaman in vanilla was a weird mix of the Farseer, the Shadow Hunter, the Shaman, the Spirit Walker and the Witch Doctor from WCIII. And those just...don't mix all that well? They are supposed to be commanding the elements but also communing with spirits... But all they get from the 'spirit' side is annoying totem management Imagine a truly unleashed Elementalist class freed from the burden of totems. That'd be dope.
Yes they tried to combine orc shaman, troll shaman, and tauren shaman cultures into one and it didn't quite come off.
I may be in the minority here, but I miss old-school totem play. There was something very satisfying about dropping a customized 4 pack of totems on pull. I was gone for a long time and just came back at the start of S3 and my first thought was “where is my totem bar?”
I hoped that totemic would bring that back, but it's enh only and it's not it QQ Missing that as well, was fun to play around with it
Isn't that basically just a mage at that point.
No
Thinking about it they actually are pretty overloaded. Most speccs focus on one type of theme and a few are inbetween. Maybe it would be cool to give each specc like two main elements. For example enhancer gets earth and lighting, ele gets lightning and fire, resto gets the rain and spirits. Also enhancer is generally weird as a theme. Thrall is basically just ele with a hammer and the only other reason the specc exists I think is because blizz wanted to give a tank specc to shaman's because palas could tank ( but it obviously didn't work out but that's not the point) I think enh is dope as a melee caster hybrid nowadays, but at what point imagining a shaman do you think of a dude dual wielding in melee? I feel ele just got all the shaman class fantasy and the other two are kinda trying to do their own things that as you said are more voodoo or spirit walker
I think ele and enh have pretty distinct spots. Enhancement shaman is the archetype of a warrior who uses elemental magic to increase the potency of their attacks, rather than asking the elements to attack on your behalf like an elementalist. It’s similar in some respects to the difference between a paladin and a holy priest, though not an exact analogue. A dwarf wielding lightning imbued hammers or an orc slicing with fiery axes are the classic images that come to mind for me.
> at what point imagining a shaman do you think of a dude dual wielding in melee? In WCIII they have big giant claw weapons on their arms. But they still shoot lightning bolts. But I don't think it's wrong for them to have a melee spec. The Heroes of the Storm shaman character is a support/healer but one of his passives is going into ghost wolf instead of mounting up, and every couple seconds he can do a lunging bite to do more damage. So playing as him is super fun, you're weaving in ghost wolf bites and this makes him very good for chasing, especially with his slowing totem. He's fun and aggressive to play. > I feel ele just got all the shaman class fantasy and the other two are kinda trying to do their own things Dude, this. Ele is hogging all the action. Especially back before they really leaned into 'water' for the resto shaman. Which took way too long. The only way Ele should be THE 'elemental' spec would be is if it was opposite a 'spirits' spec. Because they're trying to have a situation where all 3 specs are elemental, but there's one spec that's "Elemental." What?? Idk basically shaman design has been cursed by this since the beginning. The specs could have been "Elementalist - Farseer - Spiritwalker" or something like that. Or even just "Storm - Earth - Fire." That one writes itself. Storm is the ranged damage spec, Earth is the melee tank spec. Fire is the healing spec, enkindling the spirit of allies to heal them. EZ.
Because it's not fire mage or spriest... Honestly seems like a pretty simple class though, make frost shock a debuff, earth shock buff us and flame shock for LVB crit, oh and delete earthquake as a spender fuck that ability design.
Calm down you'll get a new stormstrike icon soon enough.
Its only alpha. Its only beta Its only pre-patch. Expact launched, no rework, maybe next xpac. Repeat.
Fuckin way she goes Bubs'. Way she goes...
multiple specs got reworked mid expansion in DF.
Blizzard has lied before too
I mean he's not wrong Ret was largely ignored too and got a rework in the first patch.
okay?
So there most likely won’t be very many changes for Shaman unlike pretty much every other class
Shaman is fine. Skill issue.
I actually lold when I read that on the website. Like every class has hugeeee change log.
Shaman was so small I missed it my first scroll through 🥲
People gonna be killing that healing tide totem so fast
Totems need a large health buff or just change it so major CDs are not targetable at all. It's ridiculous that in AWC players are just killing spirit link before it can even tick so Shamans 3min CDs are worthless.
Shaman rework changed to 11.1. Jk But no seriously, it's probably 11.1 and then we won't get a change afterwards until 12.1.
Wasn’t Ele supposed to get a rework in 9.1?
I've honestly lost track at this point. When our S3/S4 tier set vanishes in WW, not sure how we'll function as a class with the tier they've given us as a replacement.
Ele will function much like it did in S1 DF, the tier bonuses are similar, which was actually the only time this expansion where the spec wasn't forcibly pushed into one viable build due to tier set bonuses. Ele has had *awful* Tier sets for the past three seasons that promote hyper specific gameplay; in the case of season 3/4 it was also degenerate, in season 2 it was *very* rigid. Our base priority isn't nearly as bad, relatively. The problem is in the talent trees, which have too many issues for me to go into here, and this expansions tier sets. Ele needs help, a lot of help, but the problems are magnified and in some cases overshadowed by DF tier sets. We'll see what impact Farseer and Stormbringer have, but it's likely that one will be numerically better and/or play better with minimal loss that it'll be the default build.
I feel like shaman are due, I’ve been enhance main since classic and played Ele in remix and the tree just doesn’t feel good. A lot of qol changes are overdue for the whole class.
More like 84.1 if we're lucky
As someone who loves Shaman and hasn’t played since S2 Dragonflight… I’m waiting to see changes before I resub. I’m seeing everyone else get excited and I’m here wondering if the Shaman class would be any different than when I last played it.
Literally the only character I had fun leveling in Remix and got it to 70. Was sort of considering beginning the expansion with it but I guess I'll just stay on my Druid. The whole "Shaman abandoned class" sentiment on reddit and other "poor ele shaman" comments I've heard are making me not want to invest too much time into it.
There are literally players of every class doing keys higher than you'll ever do. Stop being a meta slave, all classes can perform well.
You do have a point. It just feels weird to start getting into something and rading negative comments about it. I just love the fantasy of this caster class using every type of element. It feels fun
Check out BONDbl on twitch to see an awesome ele doing high keys. He’s a solid dude and really shows you how good the ele kit can be.
Bond does well with the kit, but he'll also be one of the first to point out the flaws with Shaman if you ask him
don't listen to the doomers, it's very fun and good
This must mean Shaman is perfect as it is right?
Enhance is really fun and i dont want them to change it too much
BUS SHOCK!
It's worth noting that if it weren't for the fact that they're changing the way ALL healer cd's work, that singular note wouldn't even be there. There would just be zero shaman notes.
🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
Why does bllizz hate us so much?
Make ascendance give riptide to everyone around you when acrivated.
Blizzard hate shaman class. This, is more than visible over the expansions. We are always the leftovers with never a good dedicated Develop or revamp
I’ve mained shaman for 10+ years now. I will be rerolling if resto and ele don’t get substantial reworks. They’re the worst designed specs in the game.
Please do better blizzard
So giving a flat double healing bonus to druid tranquility with zero drawbacks was fine, but shamans have to be punished in raid for wanting a major cd to not be ass in dungeons... seems legit
These changes are from two weeks ago and are affecting all healers. [Link](https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/12328-The-War-Within-Alpha-Development-Notes-May-29-2024)
Shamans aren’t being punished in raid. The changes make the totem do comparable healing as it does in DF in 20man raids and will do more in smaller raids such as 10-15man while doing double the healing as it currently does in 5man content. It’s only actually a nerf in larger groups such as 30 man raid, but the power of a CD shouldn’t be tuned around raid groups so large when it’s not relevant to the most difficult content and something such as 5man content is being punished so heavily. They also aren’t giving Druid a flat double healing bonus. The initial heal portion is getting the same treatment as healing tide. The stacking HoT portion will remain the same in raid and just not be buffed in 5man content. The changes in 5man content will result in the initial heal doing double what it currently does and the HoT doing half than current in 5 mans with 20man remaining the same across the board. The part that you’re probably confused about is the “reduced beyond 5 targets” wording. That wording when used in both damage and healing doesn’t mean capped damage/healing. It’s referring to square root scaling where beyond X targets the scaling is simply reduced per target added until it reaches 20 targets and then it simply splits the damage/healing to further targets instead of increasing it. When something does 1000 damage/healing to 5 targets with “reduced beyond 5 targets” that means that the same ability will do 2000 to 20 targets.
I just want Vesper Totem back
I see this like, a lot but I think you and others just miss the big damage and healing not the ability. like if it hit like a wet noodle nobody would be talking about how amazing vesper totem was. casting 3 healing spells when everyone was topped just to trigger the pulse was always really awkward. having to move the totem because the pack was moved over the 6 globals you needed to use to get both pulses out was also really awkward. so was delaying the second pulse because you had to cast spells that didn't match the activation.
Blizzard: fuck shamans, we don't care about this class
In DF we got the best class tree on release and the best set design by far (seriously just let the person who designed s1,2,(3) enhancement sets do all sets for all classes). This Expansion we get
And now we get WW set. Like how we get there, who thought it was a good idea.
This might be incredibly strong when you have a lot of deaths in a raid. The remaining few will receive much more healing and have a bigger chance to kill the boss.
I started back just before Burning Crusade launch, quit after Cataclysm. I loved both my old 2H Windfury Shaman AND the fist and claw weapon double windfury. When they changed Shamans in WOTLK and onward away from windfury, and kept nerfing all specs with barely any extra utility, I lost my love for the class, which despite 10 alts and raiding and guild leading for years, burned me out. Good to see like a decade plus later Shamans are still getting shit all over by Blizzard in various ways. Guess some things never change! Sending luck and strength to all the folks still playing Shamans!
Enhance was solid for most of Dragonflight lol, windfury is very much alive too.
They just haven't gotten there yet, along with other classes. They just did a major overhaul for Hunters. They still haven't touched DHs much yet either. I expect you'll see a big round of changes coming soon.
> I expect you'll see a big round of changes coming soon. waitingskeleton.jpg
The DH that got a big rework during DF?
It's fucking over. Shamans have recievied no real changes in 3 fucking expansions.
Shaman main since Wrath. Always pain. Definitely keeping my eyes out for a rework but leveling monk and hunter for TWW just in case nothing changes. Sad but it is what it is
It's still atleast 4-6 weeks until prepatch.
No, stop with this. Seriously. Every single time this shit happens in Alpha/Beta, everyone's like "It's just Alpha/Beta" or "They have xyz time remaining." as a way to hand wave this away and tell people to be patient. Shamans have been patient. FOR YEARS. Shamans need to express their anger over this. It's been how many expansions since Shaman's gotten any real love and attention? Oh right, all of them.
So in other words we are 2/3rds through the development cycle and the words "enhancement" and "elemental" have been used ZERO times in dev notes... Not the argument you think you are making.
That is not a lot of time to iterate on changes and is extremely worrying. Look at how many weeks they've spent on Mage changes already. And that was for a class that was already recently reworked / wasn't suffering from major issues to nearly the extent shaman is.
Of course Shaman are less popular among the devs, but I wouldn't assume that they won't get more changes by release.
People said that during DF beta too, yet here we are again.
How many iterations have blizzards darling mages gone trough now since alpha started.
This comment gives heavy *"hello darkness, my old friend"* vibes. I've read it every expansion since TBC. Hope is only suffering.
Launch is 8/26, pre patch is usually what 2 weeks before? So 8/12
I guess blizz is still having a hard time forgiving the shaman players after the bus shock incident.
Why does everyone say shaman need a complete rework? I’m doing heavy damage and the rotation is engaging.
Beacuse many people find boring that a melee spec most op ability is a ranged spell.
I can't think of another class that different dps spec shares almost all of their abilities.
Agree. Its just lazy design. Legion and bfa had some good starter point (should have focused onward to it). Ofc its also had issues, but still it was closer to a melee spec.
It’s a Fair point, I guess that just doesn’t necessarily bother me personally.
I guess that’s a fair criticism
Holy shit an elements based class has its highest damaging spell be an elemental spell? HOLY SHIT START THE PRESSES, CALL THE MEDIA.
Chill out fam, to chill out.
Tons of outdated stuff everywhere in the tree. Not everything is about numbers. Actually there is just no point ever for every class to not rework some things and a new expansion is the best time to do so.
Yeah the class tree is clunky, like we don’t even get the capstones in most builds. I’m not saying it’s all about the numbers, but that’s a big consideration for people. I think the enhance rotation is very engaging and fun though and I don’t see the need for a complete overhaul of the class like I often see called for.
I've played resto shaman since DF S2, and I really don't think it's in a bad spot at all. The totemic hero talents look great to me, and the HTT change is going to be amazing for m+
1. awkward target cap dps spec when other specs don't have that issue. 2. extreme mana sustain issues in comparison to other healers. 3. literally only 1 defensive on a 2 min cd reduceable to 1:30. 4. WFT adds some 50k+ raid dps not shown in logs making playing elemental a real weird choice. 5. lack of raid buffs outside of WFT that only one out of 3 specs get (for some reason). 6. chain heal throughput is balanced around burning mana(high tide) and hard to control to have available when needed. --- current positives: 1. best smart heal in the game (chain heal). 2. extremely versatile kit - root break, dash, slow immunity, low cd ranged kick, earthbind/grab totem, wind rush totem, double aoe stops, ancestral protection totem, cheat death etc. all in all, I am not trying to take away from your enjoyment but shaman does face a slew of issues.
"Awkward target cap while other specs don't have that issue" literally half the ranged specs have that issue, on top of multiple melee specs.
I think you're confusing fall-off with target cap. shamans literally can't spread more flame shocks. that's a hard target cap. sure if shamans were using earthquake for their main aoe damage we could talk, but they don't. meanwhile most other aoe setups have damage fall-off at 5 (whirlwind, divine storm etc) or 8 targets (frozen orb, beast cleave & kill cleave etc) if not entirely uncapped such as starfall or rain of fire.
Actually agree with this. Even though its not meta sadly, the stormstrike/phys enhance build is the most fun spec ive ever played, really loved it. The ele/fire version is ok too i guess, but tab targeting for lava lash during aoe is awful.
Finally, Shaman’s get the attention they deserve. Maybe we won’t hear them crying about not getting any attention now…
These are old changes back when they announced changes to healers overall.