ozvillafan

Hmm, new patch notes seem to indicate that the lock pvp trinket removes stuns, and the rogue pvp trinket no longer removes charm!

/whine!

Oh, and I'm back, expect to see me on within a few days.

Hmm...

Both shaman's DPS trees are getting a nerf, as is Earth shield. If these changes make it to live (which I'm confident they will) then it's time to hang up the boots.

/QQ

LOH-its not even that- its 60 down to 40 mins i believe, but it does increase your armour temporarily. Its a strange one LOH, you're always trying to save it for last boss in an instance, and then face the horrific situation when in mistake youve cast it on yourself and have to explain it to the rest of the party... like releasing on a soulstone. (well maybe its just me...). I got my khara key today- man I hate black morass. I was lucky to find a decent pug who were farming it for cot rep. I ran it four times back to back complete twice, died on aeonus twice.

I hate that place!

Gratz on the kara key.

I personally love BM, which is good as I need exalted rep to get the drums of panic. I once ran it with 2 other shammies: 1 resto, 1 resto pretending to be caster dps and me as enhance.

Surprisingly, it was an easy run. I guess 3 healers (albeit mine is gimped), a Bloodlust every 3 mins, an elemental every 3 mins and 12 totems makes everything easy.

The award for the most useless end game talent goes to?

Shaman Elemental totems.

- 20 min cooldown.

- 2 min duration

- Tied to a totem.

- Banishable by a warlock

- Cannot both be dropped at the same time.

- De-spawn upon shaman death

- AOE Fire Elemental goes OOM in under 20 secs, then melees for a massive 200 damage on a 3 sec swing.

- Tank Earth Elemental spawns with less than 100% health and is 2-shot.

- Neither elemental has a pet bar, so they will aggro whomever they please, including breaking CC

- If you are CC'd for any reason, they will stand there and do nothing until you break free.

- Cannot be used in arena

*sigh*

The fact that its healed on fel armour, has a 2.5 sec talented cast, 3 sec otherwise. Its critical aswell. And for efficiancys sake it costs 740 mana talented.

Big heals doesnt mean efficient or viable.

That would make it exactly the same as the talented shaman one.

But that is our only "big heal".

Now now, no need to get petty.

I think every class has it's problems but for the most part I agree with you, TRL: Priests should be the best healers, Warriors should be the best tanks and Rogues should be the best melee DPS. After all, that is the very reason you would have rolled that class.

That said, I think hybrids that spec a certain way should be viable replacements for those classes. If not, then your 5 mans would consist of only "pure" classes and your raids would only have 1 of them along for buffs. If that is the only reason to bring them, then have them stand at the door. They can buff, then be dropped from the raid for the "better" pure classes.

As for buffing and nerfing - it will happen on an ongoing basis as needed. Till then, you just have to plow on.

Actually it isnt. The best guild in the world has a DPS shaman in their raid along with feral druid. The same guild which has 1 priest (for buffs) and 3 paladins (for healing ofc.)

You are very viable, especially after TBC launch.

Is that 1 shaman and 1 druid in a 25 man raid? Or more and just 1 of that spec?

And do they have a shaman or a druid for healing?

And talking gear and so called skills. Afaik ive got the best healing gear in the guild, and ive raided almost everything seen in WoW yet, except Naxx and the current 25 mans, and still i get outhealed by far by paladins with 400 less +heal in plate. Its about efficiancy, regen, not high numbers.

Then it seems holy pallies need a nerf. How that applies to all hybrids is beyond me.

Meh.

Priests still make the best healers, for mine.

As for "Jack of all trades" - that's simply a fallacy. We have many skills but are forced to focus on only 1 through talents. In order to be viable anywhere (not just raids) we need to be comparable at the area we have focused on - else, what's the point?

As for us being better at healing/DPS/tanking - have you ever considered that some players are just better than others? And that they have spent just as much time - if not more - gearing up to be that good?

The patch notes are bullshit, that talent would be beyond overpowered if it were to exist.

Aye, they are fake.

Though Shamans got absolutely nothing in them...

... which rings true.

The latter is a dying breed due to obsessive WoW addiction.

I dunno.

Did a guild run through shadow labs the other night with people who had never been there before - myself included. And to that, add a less-than-optimal class makeup for the group (2 shamans, a shadow priest, a warrior and a hunter).

We wiped so often (and I died many times on top of that) that I had to repair twice during the run.

The tank was constantly disconnecting. The hunter only used ice trap after much pleading. We had bad pulls, dpsing multiple targets and focusing on the wrong targets (get the healer guys!)

Well, we all learned a lot. The only problem was we only had 2 shots at the AOE MC boss since respawns were starting - and we didn't get him down.

Not exactly a great run by any standard, but nobody got upset over it.

Trinkets macroed to be in use for 40 of every 120 seconds, so a third of the time i was in there id be at about 1350+ spellpower)

Add Shadow Mastery (+10% to all shadow damage)

Add Curse of Shadows (+10% to all shadow damage)

Add full weaving (+15% to all shadow damage)

Add misery (+5% to all magical damage)

Add shadow vulnerability (+20% shadow damage for 12 seconds after a shadowbolt crit)

At the absolute peak, with all debuffs on a target and from the first charge of my ZG trinket (204 spellpower) it would be just insane. About 2426 effective spellpower. Huge numbers. Shame i didnt get to overaggro the bosses.

You need a shammy with you to drop Wrath of Air (+101 spell damage) and Totem of Wrath (+3% spell hit and crit)

Hmm...

Cant log in to the Wow forums (login error), but can log into the game and account management.

Am I bugged? Or banned?

And how do I find out?

Retirement imminent.

I was never happy that wow forced me into healing in end game. With BC I saw some hope: different tier sets. I spec'd dual wield and spent time and effort getting pieces to make it viable. I could live without the CC. I can handle being a PvP easybeat and constantly kited to death. At least I could still put out some decent DPS.

Until now, that is.

That's right! Windfury is receiving another nerf.

In order to sustain decent DPS from our main hand, we will be forced to take windfury off the offhand completely. This gimps an enhancement shaman's overall DPS by at least 15%. And our burst DPS? It's back to 2-handers - which makes the majority of our lower tier talents in enhancement useless.

Couple this reduced DPS with our lack of focused, reliable CC and we no longer have a place in 5 mans let alone heroics. And raids? Who would sacrifice the spot of a rogue or fury warrior for a DPS shaman? The buffs they provide will not make up the difference in losing a pure DPS class.

Our only role then? Healing. And out of all the hybrids, ours is the shittest.

If this makes it to patch, then I will retire.

Rant over.

No surprise here, but I am siding with TRL.

Healing is fecking useless if you havent got the chance to heal. I always find it funny that a class that does great DPS while usually rendering the opponent unable to do anything thinks healing means great survivability.

I'd gladly swap my healing, mail and shield for your CC, evasion and stealth. It would mean less waiting for rez.

Oh, and my profile is here

It seems the problem is with retribution pallys in pvp, so they came up with crazy plan that affected all pallys. Of course most pve pallys are holy or prot. I just can't get my head round the fact that they thought our dps was too high.

Your DPS is too high.

Pre 2.0, no pally could match a shaman for DPS in PvP. Post BC? The amount of damage you do is ridiculous. As is the fact you can do it from within your bubble.

You do too much damage for what is meant to be a defensive hybrid.

Ive soloed lots of "group" quests too. No doubt you have too, Mr Stealthy!

So have I with both my Earth and Fire elementals...

... and I still get WTF pwned.

But i stand by everything i said, its just going stale. If it remains impossible to get a pickup if you cant sap/sheep/tank/heal and people in the guild arent interested in making groups outside of their immediate circle of friends then what does that leave?

I'm in the same spot, Rev.

Guild has its favourites and getting a group was next to impossible. I spammed guild chat for a group to Durnholde for 2 weeks. Got lots of promises but they were usually doing other instances.

Then the GM - one who promised me a run as he hadn't done it yet - takes his favourites along with him to that very instance even while I was spamming LFG in guild chat. Seriously close to /gquit.

The upside is that other guildies are getting the shits too. Managed to make a group for Durnholde with a few "fringe" guildies and we aced it with a pug priest from a good guild. And this with a level 68 fury warrior as tank.

We decided to do BM, tank and healer left and we picked up a druid and a pally as healer along with a Lock, rogue and myself (Melee shaman).

Wiped on last boss only because the druid ran in to tank while the pally was still drinking and I got timestopped and couldnt heal. 2nd run it was all too easy. Pally healing, druid tanking, rogue DPS on the riftlords. I just tagged the mobs in between DPS on the riftlords and the lock feared and dotted them. Worked an absolute charm. Didnt even bother using the beacons - just bloodlust, shamanistic rage and trinket on bosses.

The good news? My GM and his favourites wiped in BM and still havent done it.

So the moral of the story? I will be pugging it more often. It's hit and miss but if you get people who know what they are doing it's good fun. Those who I group with that are good I put on my friends list. Outside that, I may look for a guild that actually wants to instance with it's members - regardless of class.

The Stoneclaw Totem will be a bit more use in grinding if you get a multiple pull, but I can't see many players being stupid enough to hit it!

Brilliant.

"Shamans dont get CC" according to Bliz, even though we are the only class without any.

Now we do...

....but it's as useless as the rest of our class.

This game is giving me the Tom Tits lately. I have to beg my guild to get into an instance - which isn't working - and have run a total of 1 PUG instance in the last 2 weeks.

I have been playing for over a year now - and I no longer see the point in keeping this character. And I couldn't be arsed levelling another one.

If you are prepared to fill a melee DPS slot with an Enhancement Shammy, i cant see why this would be a problem.

the beauty of the Shadowpriest though is its like a Warlock. Its a debuffer. The things a Shadowpriest can do to up magical damage are cross raid debuffs. Its not tied to the "caster group" or the "healer group" so the priest can buff more than himself and four others. I dont know if this is true with a Shaman or not.

Shammies still drop totems for buffs, which still only affect 1 party.

We do have a problem with aggro (melee shammy) - every time we crit we apply a buff to all party members. That raises threat through the roof if coupled with a double windfury crit from both hands - which has happened.

The trick is to trinket and drop tranquil air. Also helps if you come in with faster weapons as your damage is less bursty but your DPS will also drop a bit.

That aside, a melee shaman is a rogue and fury warriors best friend.

Got a personal favourite (actually, a guild favourite).

It was a UBRS pug run pre BC that included a couple of my guildies. I got called in after they killed the beast since one of their raid "had to go" - a sure sign something was wrong.

And it was.

They had a druid in the PUG who decided going moonkin for the entire run was the way to go. He simply refused to heal, spending all his mana on moonfire spams and trying to off tank in that form despite numerous pleas to help heal and a couple of wipes.

We eventually managed to get Drek down - somehow. The moonkin druid asked for DPS meters to be shown and justified his staying in moonkin the entire time with this gem: "4th on the dps raid charts!"

But still behind the player who left after killing the beast.

In BF.

Pug with stupidest most immature and unintelligent mage on earth.

Fires away pyroblast, starts aoe and so on before warrior even has any chance of geting aggro.

Ofc he dies a few times and causes some wipes. We have an argument and he says "i dont heal him fast enough". Anyways, i win the argument and shut him up.

TIme goes by and im starting to run out of water.

Me: I need some new water please.

Mage: LOl U THINK I GIVE U WATER NOW? 1g/stack for YOu!!

Me: Ok, nvm then.

....................................

Once again, mage is once again in trouble with aggro:

Mage: OMG HEEEEL!"""!!" SHIEELD!!NOWOMG!"

Me: Flash Heal 3g. Greater Heal 5g. Shield 50g.

Mage dies.

Mage has left the group.

Heh heh... that's class.

Any of you lot got your own stories of woe?

However when raids are the main focus again and all classes are present then i guess this is where i think Warriors should excel as tanks or they are redundant. I dont think Blizz will ever make encounters impossible or virtually impossible without the presence of a certain class (Razorgore without Hunters anyone? Moam without Warlocks cant be much fun either) but i think that the "pure" classes should be stronger than hybrids in the area they specialize in.

That is the way it should be. Warriors should always be the best tanks, Rogues the best melee DPS, mages (warlocks?) the best caster DPS and Priests the best healers.

But - at the moment at least - druids can tank as well if not better than a warrior, heal as good as a priest and dps as good as a rogue. This is wrong.

I dont want them hit with the nerf bat...

... I want to see buffs to Warriors (especially), rogues and priests. Well... perhaps not rogues :winkold:

The real question is why do people need an explanation for homosexuality? It's unimportant. Homosexuality isn't a disorder with a cause - it just happens naturally like developping certain skills or preferences. No one wants to know why someone fancies blondes or supports Villa. Knowing the source of homosexuality leads to judgement, it clearly influences people's attitude towards it. Many poeple would find it easier to accept homosexuals if it was proven that they have no choice. That worries me, it's disrespectful and intolerant.

Do you know any homosexuals who feel they have no choice?

You might find the opposite is more the case. They are not suffering some terrible condition that needs to be cured, they have made a conscious choice. This choice is no different to the one we all make on who will be our partner.

Are there urges? Certainly. But it is still a choice you make. Either you indulge or you abstain.

As for it being more accepted if it was proven they had no choice - again, you might find it to be the opposite. It would prove they are suffering from something that the majority do not. That puts them as second class citizens in many people's eyes.

Always been the robber myself. I make it a point to NOT party with a hunter (whenever possible), as there will be an argument over any armour that drops. Especially when it has +stam, +int and +AP as its more useful to me than the hunter... but there you go.

As for the whole melee VS caster debate - I can see both sides since a shammy does both. Yes, it sucks being in close when a boss aoe's or picks a random nearby target. Yes, it sucks being at range and struggling with resists/mana/aggro/reflection.

But I have no problem with the whole armour/magic base of the game. That's just how the game works.

I read- cause its interesting to hear about a raiding guild and all the stuff that goes with being part of 1. I dont post cause Im alliance and just get abuse.... Im 68 cracking along the instances and enjoying actually main tanking the first few sets of instances. I've respecced to prot paladin, so cant actually kill anything but man does it take a long time to kill me. Its great for me to be able to play the game alongside my brother whos back in birmingham while im in london.

Alliance filth! Kill him! KILL HIM!!

:winkold:

Jokes.

I'm ignorant of all things pally. If you dont do much damage, do you have something similar to taunt to hold aggro? And doesnt your aggro drop if you bubble?