As an ele/resto main, it hurts me to see that I cannot bring any proper raid buff to the table compared to enhancement’s windfury totem so I thought of an alternative raid buff that encompasses windfury so that any shaman can give that buff which would also fit into the overarching philosophy of have 1 of each class in a raid for optimal play.
Fury totem mastery. You put down a group of 4 totems that gives a buff for 10 minutes (40 yards range from totems) to all raid members depending on their spec/role. (Animation based on totem mastery from BFA and before)
Melee dps gain windfury totem effect
Ranged dps gain skyfury totem (based on pvp totem)
Tanks gain earthen fury totem which would give something like 5% increased healing taken (based on earth shield)
Healers gain tidal fury totem which would simply be x mana per cast (based on resurgence) or mana per 5 seconds (based on water shield).
Skyfury seems to be the one suggested most, cause it can be used by everyone.
While the healer and tank buffs sounds good on paper, 5% increased healing for tanks would be almost trivial, and the healer buff would either be useless or required.
I think that bringing skyfury would be enough reason to bring a shaman (ofc tuned to give like 5-10% crit damage/healing).
Or just make windfury totem give “multistrike” and tune it to accordingly, so that each spell/ability/attack can proc it (and have all specs be able to bring it).
I agree with the healer and tank statements as these were the least thought out and are “new” mechanics, I could see a different path as well with elemental damage reduction (keep some shaman flavour) instead for tanks and a small healing buff for healers but all those thing depend on tuning tbh. The real thing is i’d like a differentiation between melee and ranged dps without impeding the enhancement windfury flavour. I wouldn’t mind seeing something like earthen rage instead for ranged as well but I feel like a stat buff would be better.
Totally feel you! Although the only thing I am worried about:
If they add another buff for ele/resto that is good enough to feel “required” then you might need BOTH buffs from shamans (needing both ele/resto AND enh) which I do not think would be a great place.
That’s why in the original post I attempted a single button for all three specs including windfury so that all specs can bring the value of enhance but more than one isn’t required
Whats this obsession with raid buffs some ppl have? Having a buff will make your day? QQ for making some of the aspects of the specs playable and then ask for raid wide buffs…
The whole point of having a raid buff is mathematical viability in a vacuum. If everyone plays perfect and all classes are tuned perfectly, the raid with the most buffs will perform better. The opposite is also true, if you are the absolute worst and are tuned the worst, still people might add you to the raid for that buff as giving those few percent for the better players might still be a dps/survivability increase. Not bringing that kind of aid limits your chances severely when applying for any sort of content. Being fluent and fun to play is only useful if you’re allowed to play.
From what i understand if you dont play what you enjoy so you have fun with friends then the only goal is to get into raids and feel needed in a way that if a raid does not have your class will be hung down…
Stoneskin totem/poison cleansing/tremor/mana spring/ WF totem for so many ages.
Shamans are needed for chain heal their good mastery, their utility etc etc. and leave the passive buffs for facerollers
I was talking primarily for those who do not have an extensive friend base to rely on, who will have to apply through LFG. At the start of a patch no one knows how good you are based on achievements as a person so raid leaders have to rely on bring the class not the player to make their groups.
The main meta right now is, “why would I bring an elemental/resto shaman for this raid which will have a useful totem for one fight if I can bring a druid who brings a better version of half of those totems (barkskin external, innervate for mana gain, poison and curse dispel on a shorter cd, roar which increases mvmt speed more and longer on a shorter cd) AND gives a versatility buff”. The only unique utility shaman has left are tremor which blizz takes into account when designing raid bosses (jailer’s mind control was only self-dispellable instead of group by tremor on heroic and couldn’t be dispelled on mythic at all), our short interrupt (ele has when using the optimal talent setup an 7-8 second interrupt, DPS downgrade though) and windfury which is enhance specific.
Mastery and chain heal are wholly dependant on tuning which means those are irrelevant in this specific conversation.
I truly believe shaman should stay the toolbox class it has always been, but should at least have tools that are somewhat applicable. You can’t fix a shirt with a wrench after all. A passive buff would give at least one tool that is applicable to all fights, in this example a swiss army knife of sorts.
windfury is a very great raidbuff … but in my opinion it should be baseline to (waste) 1 skillpoint for this feels just wrong … no other class has this issue
I disagree. The problem with players buffing other players is that you need to balance that out as well.
You cant give too much utility to a single class while at the same time balancing DPS/HPS such that it does the same as every one else.
Have we learned nothing about Exodia / Aug? I mean… we should have learned this from 20 years having the same discussion over and over again… but especially now that is more than evident.
TLDR: They gave BL and battle ress (the same identical spell) to multiple classes for a reason. They should do the same with the other raid buffs. Not look for special “niches” or “unique raid buffs” to make each class unique.
The “uniqueness” of the class should stem from rotation / playstile. Not from toolkit.
EG to get my point across: RShaman caster healer, MW monk melee healer. I get water shield mechanic, he gets mana tea mechaning. Unique “flavours”. But when it comes to utility/externals, MW should have a capacitator totem. And I should get a cacoon.
I actually agree with your statement and would be amenable to your alternative solution. All I would want is a game where there is no argument against taking a player because of their choice of class/spec because they are lacking something essential for optimal play. In the current state of the game this is still the case for elemental and resto shaman. The same argument could be made for people with underperforming specs but those are again tuning based and can flip based on the whims of the devs. For a group wanting to recruit on a long term basis, not allowing a specialist in those specs would be detrimental for that reason alone