I thought Shamans were going to get "Major" changes?

[Deleted]

As an Enhancement Shaman, I was excited to see which "Major" changes my spec was going to get - like Blizzard said/promised!

I check the almighty patch notes, coffee to my side - hoola hoops in hand. Ready to read a bunch of changes!!

Nope.

http://gyazo.com/c56fc9c224bf7d7b5a6e59418d2ae6cb

[Jonexe]

They never once said we'd get major changes. There was a single blue post about how if shaman were to get a major overhaul, it wouldn't be in 6.1 or 6.2.

[Shockeye]

There's still hope for a new icon!

[zarroc827]

I am just praying for a mastery change for resto.

[oleander89]

I remember them saying Shaman damage was a bit low, and that they would address Elemental's mobility. So far I've only seen them address Elemental's AOE issues.

I am just praying for a mastery change for resto.

Never going to happen and there is nothing wrong with resto mastery.

[geodudde]

I quit the game mainly because the lack of class balance/regard for enhancement shaman issues. I understand that enhance is still viable and most top guilds have at least one in their roster, but for me the class feels very average and boring. Outside of fire nova and maybe LB, nothing hits very hard. Enhance just isn't the same as it was (windfury, flurry, big ll crits, earth shocks) and now feels very monotonous to me.

[Irisel]

Did you really think that?

[Primalthirst]

I think you're confusing a slew of MMO-C polls/threads with actual commentary by Blizzard

[Spiral Mage]

As a Shaman main, I have absolutely no memory of them saying there would be major changes. Infact, they said there wouldn't be.

[Deleted]

They never once said we'd get major changes. There was a single blue post about how if shaman were to get a major overhaul, it wouldn't be in 6.1 or 6.2.

That's not true. There's a interview by GameBreakerTV with the Lead Game Designer and Lead Class Designer, where they were asked about buffs to Enhancement and Elemental Shamans. And the Class Designer replied that there were some major changes on it's way for them, but we probably won't see them untill 6.1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O7R2GTolxQ&t=29m24s

As a Shaman main, I have absolutely no memory of them saying there would be major changes. Infact, they said there wouldn't be.

That's probably because you didn't see this ^^

[L3fty]

I am just praying for a mastery change for resto.

This x10000000. I could stomach being mostly bottom in Highmaul but with BRF seeming the same situation (wowlogs) I don't know how long I can stick it out. That is perhaps over the top / dramatic, but I don't see why the more geared our raid becomes, the weaker we feel exponentially. Imagine a DPS class that grew weaker over time.

This is obviously not true for all shamans. Some guys are just better and some run the right comp to excell in. Personally I am healing with a Disco atm and he is excellent. The direct result is the main stat I am gemming / gearing for (a.k.a mastery) is shot to pieces. There are perhaps 1 or two times maximum where the raid is under 50% and I really don't see how I can compete.

For example if I take our first Blast Furnace kill-

Disco -

+PW;S - 15.73m

Resto Sham -

+HW - 6.5m

+Rain - 4.2m

+Riptide - 2m

+Chain Heal - 2.1m

+Healing Tide - 2m

Now I know you can say I dropped my HTT at the wrong time, didn't spam enough chain heal etc. To counter that I already had 30% overhealing with these numbers.

I guess this example is one of my main issues. Why do we need to use upwards of 5 spells to compete with Discos 1? A raid CD, a HoT, an aoe, a single target heal...all to keep up with PW:S. Cmon.

/rant

I really love playing resto shaman but it just feels like our go to stat is in a shocking place compared to other healers. It's a sorry state when the biggest 'rush' you get from healing is the Tectus trash, pulling over 100khps. That is not right for long term healing surely.

[Bats]

I was also very excited after they said stuff were about to change with 6.1! But knowing Blizzard this expansion... so far I can only remember empty promises since the release.

[Irisia]

That's not true. There's a interview by GameBreakerTV with the Lead Game Designer and Lead Class Designer, where they were asked about buffs to Enhancement and Elemental Shamans. And the Class Designer replied that there were some major changes on it's way for them, but we probably won't see them untill 6.1.

"there were some major changes on it's way for them," He never says anything close to this.

And when did "probably" start to mean "definitely"?

[Deleted]

"there were some major changes on it's way for them," He never says anything close to this.

And when did "probably" start to mean "definitely"?

He said: "We are a little more concerned about the way our AoE works as enhancement, mobility damage as elemental. For those we need some kind of deeper fix that we probably can't hit until 6.1, because we need some class changes to help with that. But we will be looking at those complaints, especially the quality of I'm-not-having-fun-complaints, really needs to be addressed."

I'd call that pretty definitely. That's not a "We are considering" or "We might do this". That's a "We can see something is wrong and we wanna improve it at THIS point"-statement.

[Chucksauce]

This x10000000. I could stomach being mostly bottom in Highmaul but with BRF seeming the same situation (wowlogs) I don't know how long I can stick it out. That is perhaps over the top / dramatic, but I don't see why the more geared our raid becomes, the weaker we feel exponentially. Imagine a DPS class that grew weaker over time.

This is obviously not true for all shamans. Some guys are just better and some run the right comp to excell in. Personally I am healing with a Disco atm and he is excellent. The direct result is the main stat I am gemming / gearing for (a.k.a mastery) is shot to pieces. There are perhaps 1 or two times maximum where the raid is under 50% and I really don't see how I can compete.

For example if I take our first Blast Furnace kill-

Disco -

+PW;S - 15.73m

Resto Sham -

+HW - 6.5m

+Rain - 4.2m

+Riptide - 2m

+Chain Heal - 2.1m

+Healing Tide - 2m

Now I know you can say I dropped my HTT at the wrong time, didn't spam enough chain heal etc. To counter that I already had 30% overhealing with these numbers.

I guess this example is one of my main issues. Why do we need to use upwards of 5 spells to compete with Discos 1? A raid CD, a HoT, an aoe, a single target heal...all to keep up with PW:S. Cmon.

/rant

I really love playing resto shaman but it just feels like our go to stat is in a shocking place compared to other healers. It's a sorry state when the biggest 'rush' you get from healing is the Tectus trash, pulling over 100khps. That is not right for long term healing surely.

To be honest, that's more of an issue with how broken a spec disc is atm, rather than how bloated we are. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see mechanical changes happen to resto that makes the spec more intuitive, and remove some button bloat. But the two biggest problems in healing atm are two broken promises by blizzard:

1)Absorbs would not be overpowering

2)Triage healing would be a thing.

Both points have been utter failures. Mix that with how utterly broken some healing specs are(disc using 2-3 buttons, holy pallies being propped up by a talent) and it shows that blizzard has moved away from it's mantra of easy to learn, heard to master specs, to some specs are easy and some make you want to punt a baby. Frankly, I'm surprised number balance is as good as it is, given how mechanic balance is so utterly screwed.

Let's be honest. The current class balancing team haven't been very impressive thus far. We've seen tons of number tweaking since launch, but it almost seems as if they're scared to do mechanic changes. We'll see as the xpac goes on, but I don't see any spec of shaman having an easy time for the time being.

[Alltat]

I am just praying for a mastery change for resto.

Not happening. It's gone unchanged since it was added four years ago, and most people like it.

He said: "We are a little more concerned about the way our AoE works as enhancement, mobility damage as elemental. For those we need some kind of deeper fix that we probably can't hit until 6.1, because we need some class changes to help with that. But we will be looking at those complaints, especially the quality of I'm-not-having-fun-complaints, really needs to be addressed."

It being Blizzard, any time the developers say something that sounds like "definitely", they misspoke. Unless it's in the notes for an already released patch, everything they say is always "maybe". They never promise anything, because they know that if they do, someone will dig up the quote six months later and twist the wording into something else.

[Tyze]

You wered lied too.

[Nami69]

They said recently on Twitter or either in a Blue Post that there was going to be a lot of new content in 6.1 but there is almost nothing new on the PTR so far, as well as fixing the new Empowered Earthquake in an upcoming build. So yeah.. 6.1 might not be here for another 1-2 months and if they don't do anything to Enhance they will probably be useless.

[Chucksauce]

Not happening. It's gone unchanged since it was added four years ago, and most people like it.

I think most is an exaggeration. Most pvp resto shamans absolutely love it, most raiding restos have a love/hate relationship with it. It's great when you need it, but you need a group that's mechanically challenged or a healing team built around your skillset to make it useful. The fact that there's an extra hurdle to make us effective hurts us more than helps due to many raid leaders not wanting to deal with that when most other healers don't have that issue.

[Socialhealer]

blizzard can't fix shamans, they don't know how.

blizzard is like a badger, shamans are a PS4, even after 10 years the badger will be clueless as to how this thing works.