I’m back from my trip in US forum territory, where I was busy fishing for some good Totemic replacement ideas. Here’s another talented fellow with some great suggestions, enjoy :
I’ve been traveling and so I haven’t had a chance to really dig into totemic until today, but now that I have I can see that this tree is not a viable tree to play and this is going to pigeonhole enhance shamans into only playing stormbringer.
I’m going to focus on a few pieces of feed back and then circle back at the end to provide some ideas for how to fix this tree. As a fair warning, this is going to be blunt criticism as I don’t believe wasting time with pleasentries is going to help move this tree into where it needs to be.
- There is no cohesion in this tree as it stands and it demonstrates that the developer of this tree does not understand enhancement on even the most basic level. There are currently (2) basic playstyles of enhance: Storm/physical, and elemental. It seems like the idea was to try and make this tree the elemental tree as the foil to the stormbringer tree but it fails to do so because it spends the 1/3 of the tree buffing stormbringer abilies.
- This tree is trying to take the idea of Bromach’s quaking totem from Uldaman and force it into a class that it doesn’t work with. You basically rehashed a mob ability but didn’t put in any forethought into how to make a tree work around it. Much like trying to waffle stomp a turd down a shower drain, this feels very forced and is doing nothing but leaving a mess for everyone that has to see it.
- There isn’t anything interesting in this tree. 99% of what is happening in this tree does not impact your playstyle, and is passive, with little to no visual element. You removed windfury totem, but you added another maintenance totem in the form of the surging totem so you’re still pressing the same amount of buttons. You’re just calling the button a different name, and punishing us more if we miss a GCD by not pressing it.
- The capstone totem, whirling elements, is poorly thought out because it provides crit damage and chance to lava lash, which enhance doesn’t have increased crit chance/damage on, provides stormstrike buffs which you don’t want to press in elemental build so if you take advantage of you lose value on 1/3 of the tree, and reduces CD of ele blast or sundering. Ele blast you don’t take in storm build, and sundering is a “sometimes” take in most content. It’s not something you run all the time. So it boils down to the fact that whirling elements will never get to be utilized to its full effect because it’s trying to stuff gameplay mechanics from 2 separate builds into 1. It would be like a mage haveing a talent node that said “gain reduced CD on icy veins when pyroblast crits” it makes no sense and everyone is dumber for having read it.
- This tree doesn’t solve anything. When you think about hero talents you think about what does this tree do that the other doesn’t? What is the reason I would want to take this tree? This tree doesn’t have a reason. This isn’t better in AOE, this doesn’t make us tankier, this isn’t making us better at funnel or ST. It’s just a placebo tree at this point that exists to say that we have 2 trees, but isn’t really an option.
- This tree forces you to take the windfury totem node for it to function, but you don’t take this node in 5-man content which means that you just lost a talent point if you ever want to play this tree outside of raid.
- Surging totem does physical damage which means that our mastery does not benefit it in any way despite mastery being our best stat in elemental and our 2nd best stat in storm build.
So, now that we have that out of the way, how do we make this better?
We start over.
This whole tree has nothing that I would want to salvage other than windfury weapon taking the place of windfury totem.
- Surging Totem:
Places a totem at your feet that can be attacked sending out reverberations and causing all damage done to it to be split evenly among enemies in a 30 yard range. Does not count towards your target cap for flameshock or reduced damage. - Totemic Rebound:
All damage reverberated from your surging totem is counted as “elemental damage” granting increased damage from all schools of damage bonuses. (benefits from nature, ice, fire damage , and mastery bonuses - basically just makes whatever we hit it with gain bonuses from the things we already have in our tree) - Oversized Totem: (CHOICE NODE WITH SWIFT RECALL)
Totem gains size increase and hp, AND can be used as cover by you and your allies for purposes of line of site. (As is, this node is bad and makes no sense, but by making it have the LOS utility you could use it for things like M+ pulls or have PVP value as well. ) - Swift Recall: (CHOICE NODE WITH OVERSIZED TOTEMS)
Same as is, but remove the 20 second CD. It makes no sense and reduces value of an already mid talent that is likely to not be taken anyway. - Imbuement Mastery:
Combines windfury weapon and flametongue into a new imbuement called “Unyielding Flame” (name can change). This imbuement can be placed on both weapons, and provides the benefit of both imbuements. - Amplification Core:
Leave as is, it’s boring, but its a decent all around talent - Oversurge:
Feral Spirits no longer appear as wolves, but instead add another layer to the top of your surging totem increasing its size and causing each feral spirit to be counted as an additional surging totem that all reverberate damage to your enemies within 30 yards. Feral spirits now have ranged attacks. (this allows us to create funnel sitations in single target scenarios and literally builds on the totemic theme) - Windbarrier (Rename this please to something better like Personal Fortress):
Receive 5% less damage per totem out. Feral spirits count towards this bonus. - Pulse Capacitor (CHOICE NODE WITH SUPPORTIVE IMBUEMENTS)
Unyielding Flame now grants the user gains increased Mastery for each consecutive attack on the same target up to X stacks. AOE attacks that hit the target are considered consecutive for the purpose of this bonus. (this provides value to funneling into the totem and gives us benefit to playing to our strengths which is funnel) - Supportive Imbuements (CHOICE NODE WITH PULSE CAPACITOR)
Unyielding Flame now grants the user gains increased haste for each consecutive attack on the same target up to X stacks. AOE attacks that hit the target are considered consecutive for the purpose of this bonus. (this provides value to funneling into the totem and gives us benefit to playing to our strengths which is funnel) - Lively Totems
Surging totem will attempt to place a flameshock on enemies within 30 yards of the totem every second. Surging totem is not inhibited by the 6-target cap the player is for flame shock. - Reactivity
If all targets have flameshock the surging totem will begin casting firenova. Subsequent damage events from either the surging totem’s or player’s fire nova are increased by X% for Y seconds. (This gives us an opportunity to have a pseudo uncapped AOE experience and be able to hopefully out damage tanks on pulls that have more than 6 mobs) - Totemic Coordination (CHOICE NODE WITH EARTH SURGE)
Hitting the surging totem with lava lash spreads lashing flames to all targets with flameshock - Earthsurge (CHOICE NODE WITH TOTEMIC COORDINATION)
Spending Maelstrom weapon stacks near your surging totem causes the reverberation damage of the totem to be increased by x% for y seconds. (this provides an ability to have a single target and an AOE choice for this node) - Whirling Elements
Everytime your surging totem receives X amount of damage, the surging totem fires an elemental blast at all targets in 30 yards. The shaman receives a buff for each target hit as if the shaman was the caster themselves. (think of this almost like an energy bar that you can track on your totems frame)
So now, we revisit the questions I posed earlier:
- What does this tree do that the other doesn’t?
This tree gives a better and more controlable AOE profile that scales with mob count which is what we’re lacking currently. It also provides a means to lean into our strength which is funnel damage, in single target situations while granting good defensive benefit that can ebb and flow as needed. It also has a clear strength and a clear weakness. The weakness being it does not do well with heavy movement fights, but it would do great with static fights that you don’t need to reposition your totem much for. Lastly, it also gives the shaman a much needed way to deal damage when being in melee isn’t an option without giving them a flat out range buff.
- What is the reason I would want to take this tree?
This tree takes our elemental build that is typically a high skill floor playstyle, and smooths it down without reducing the skill ceiling. There will still be the ability to demonstrate skill expression without making those who want to try elemental build feel overwhelmed. It also feeds into the visual aesthetic of the totem growing and surging for damage without making it seem tacky or lame. You essentially turn your totem into a cannon.
You’re welcome Blizzard.
Feedback is appreciated, dear Shaman players