Shaman is dead as it stands, it has huge gameplay issues, terrible spell interaction and other dps classes are doing up to 100% more damage.
I was planning to main Shaman. But since Paladin took the big “Windfury hits” (Unleash Wrath), Shockadin and Mages took the burst/crit gameplay and stack (like Fulmination had), there is no reason left to play Shaman : the burst, the crit, the stack mechanism, the lightnings… everything is weak or gone
The list of changes needed is endless, I thought about many, and saw many more on the forum. I wanted to make a list of what I found great:
Elem Fix
Chain Lightning: Either increase CL flat damages or let LB empower the next CL by 25%, stacking up to 4-5 times with a talent.
Raid Utility: critical strikes with spells grant the party 3 - 5% spell haste for 10 seconds
Lava Burst: Remove it to keep the gameplay around Lightnings, or rework it to serve a different purpose than Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning
Fulmination: LB and CL generate Lightning Shield charges (max 3), unleashed by Shocks. Restore 3% mana per charge consumed. with a Lightning Strike when unleashing 3 orbs
Range: Fix Shock range issues
Enhancement Fix
Parry: Make it baseline at level 8, like other melee classes.
Deffensive talent Tree: 6 out of 18 talents being defensive or requiring you to take damage is too much for a DPS spec. Reduce it to 3, or keep 6 but give Enhancement a real tanking possibility
Fulmination: It could fit Enhancement extremelly well (connected to the talent Improved Lightning Shield); Lightning Bolt and StormStrike generate Lightning Shield charges (max 3), unleashed by any Shock. Restore 3% mana per charge, with a Lightning Strike when unleashing 3 orbs
Maelstrom Weapon: Reduce the requirement from 5 to 3 stacks and increase the damage of the Lightning Bolt / or make it work with Heals and Chain Lightning
Mental Quickness: Shaman gets 30%, while Paladin’s equivalent was just increased from 60% to 100%. Replace it by something else (if increased, Elem will be forced to take it as well, this talent is a problem as it stand..)
Weapons: Allow Enhancement to use polearms
General Fix
Weapon Imbues: Give Elemental and Restoration something from weapon imbues
Lightning Shield: Lightning Shield is totally useless while being a Core Shaman spell (in both Wow and Warcaft III). It needs a rework or a talent like Fulmination (for Elem or for Enhance)
Totemic Projection: Make it instant instead of a 3 second cast (even with a 1 minute cd)
Totem Gameplay: Reduce the emphasis on fire totem, Shamans should be casting lightning, not throwing totems at opponents (make fire nova a 30 second or 1 minute CD… not a key part of the rotation)
Gold Talents are all giving haste: Give these talents varied mechanics instead of repeating speed bonuses: Flurry: +25% attack speed for 3 hit …/…Rage of the Farseer: +30% attack speed for 15 seconds …/…Elemental Mastery: +25% casting speed (0.5 second cooldowns on LB, CL and LvB is 25%)
Yea, I just can’t with these people man… If blizzard ends up listening to them, we will end up with boring streamlined raider/parser talents like on retail.
You didnt adress the elephant in the room. Regardless of output, there´s no reason to bring a DPS shaman to raid since they bring nothing a Resto shaman can´t bring, plus Mana Tide is locked into Resto tree
Then, all I can say is my experience is the complete opposite.
Playing with the same bunch of guys and girls since 2004 and others who drifted in and out over the years and never ever came close to or observed anything in gaming that challenged friendships. In fact the complete opposite.
Not quite sure what we could not “afford” as a guild?
Honestly, some people believe that if their character is not on paper strictly the only one at the top, if their character is 1st everywhere except one thing and 2nd on that one thing, they claim they are unviable.
While that is nice its kinda not fun to be carried ngl .
Like if i play pixel perfect ( or heck lets even say 90% perfect) i should feel like im bein rewarded and carry my own weight, but as it looks right now, someone doing 50% of their class potential will be equal to my 100% , and that is kinda stupid.
And thats just the one problem, the rotation and all the mana issues ( that only shaman has from all casters btw ) is another thing .
No utility from shaman dps specs is just a chery on top , like there is zero reason to bring any other shaman than resto orher than “he is a friend” and thats a huge flaw imho
I think there is often a confusion between balancing classes in pve and fairness for duels in pvp.
While I believe balancing is more adapted to pve to make each class be able to compete with each other in term of what they are expected to do (heal, melee damage or spell/range damage) which should lead to bring your mate and not the class.
I feel we should rather be talking about fairness in pvp since no class should stand out as being able to win every other classes. It should/must be normal to have some classes as predators for some others (depending on the specs). The fairness is where the devs puts the cursor, should we all be able to be predators to the same amount of classes and specs (the preys being different depending on the class you play).
