[Suggestion] Removing totems

[Deleted]

Such a controversial subject, I know. But since this thought has been grinding away at my mind for quite some time now, I figured I would put it to text and see what other people think. Truth be told, "removing" totems doesn't quite cover it. "Replacing" seems more fitting.

Totems have long been a defining part of the shaman class. Back in the good ol' days, we used totems a lot. We got tools to use many totems easier, and then totems were tuned down a bit. Yet while we still use totems in every single fight, they are more a skill we "have" to use rather than one we "want" to use.

So I set out to look for something different that could replace totems, but still be in line with the shaman class as a whole. And what comes to mind when we think of shamans? Elementals. "But we already control elementals, big and powerful creatures that we summon to aid us in battle. What more could you want?". More.

Behold: The elemental familiars.

Through a little glyph, we can bring forth these cute little buggers. They are next to useless in their current form, and they aren't even worth summoning as normal questing will leave them far behind until they eventually despawn. They are a minor glyph gimmick, one that you cast once in a while and then replace with something else. Cute as they are, they add nothing to our class. But what if we could find some use for them, while changing up the way the shaman class works?

The idea is simple, but it opens up for so many possibilities: Replace totems with elemental familiars.

On the surface, each element would be a familiar that we summon for a set duration. We already have three familiars from the glyph, and I'm sure it wouldn't take much to make an air familiar.

Some of the familiars would have a set durations, but two of them would have infinite duration, following us around like a pet. These familiars would be learned when picking a specialization. These would be the basic fire elemental familiar (replacing searing totem for enhancement and elemental shamans) and the water familiar (replacing healing stream totem). These familiars would represent totems that we almost always have to drop, because they effect our gameplay regardless.

For all I care, we could keep the slow run speed, or change the familiars so they move faster the further away you are, until they eventually catch up to you. This would effectively mean that you have a cute little totem following you around. When you are out questing, they will run along behind you and start attacking your target. In a raid, the wouldn't need to move very far, since most raid encounters are confined to a relatively small area. The water familiar would provide the resto shaman with an auto heal that would obviously need to be balanced toward a fulltime totem.

We could even add a few abilities to the familiars. The Searing Familiar could have a toggle that would make it do AOE damage instead (Magma Totem) and a 3 minute cooldown to turn it into a proper Fire Elemental (our current Fire Elemental Totem). And in any case, we have some nice looking models for elementals now. Wouldn't it make sense that the Improved Fire Elemental is the "big" version of the Fire Familiar? The Water familiar could have Healing Stream on a cooldown, and if Blizzard really plans on adding a new Air Elemental, it would make sense to have a small familiar like that as well, provided the talent actually makes it into the game when WoD comes along.

Suddenly, we have a little follower that has endless possibilities. I am not looking to make shamans into hunters or warlocks, but rather to remove the use of totems that we use because we have to.

"But what about all our other totems?" you ask. Make them into familiars. We can only have one totem of each kind anyways (untalented). What would be wrong with a skill that reads:

Earthbind Familiar
Summon an Earth Familiar with 5 health for 20 seconds that slows the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards

Or an air familiar that acts as a grounding totem?

If you want to take it a step further, add all four familiars to the shaman class and provide a pet that essensially acts as an "aura". The fire familiar adds some damage, the water familiar adds some healing, the earth familiar adds some protection and the air familiar adds some.. uh, haste and run speed. I don't know, the possibilities are endless!

We would still be summoning on-demand familiars when we need to, but most fights, I don't need to summon any additional familiars. Err, totems. So lets move the focus from totems that you recast every minute because you would suffer a lot in your role if you didn't, and make another strong connection to the shaman class through tiny elemental familiars.

That's it. Then have at thee, boy!

I posted this on the WoW forums earlier, but I figured I wanted to spin the idea with a community that is a bit more active and (sometimes) a little more open minded. If you want to check out the other post (and write your feedback there) be my guest: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/10033954070

[Deleted]

No pets. Stop suggesting pets...

Personally still like totems, think they could rework some of them, but generally like 'em.

[Rafal]

I like totems though! Totem placement is one of the few things about shaman not homogenized. .-.

[KCguy]

Totems make shamans just a little bit different and unique.

[Jester Joe]

Honestly, most of what you said could easily be applied to totems anyway, and totems are too unique to the shaman anyway, and take up less space/graphics than a familiar would/could.

I think totems should stay the way they are honestly, except maybe give them a longer range against NPCs, and shorter with players. That way movement doesn't affect much in raids and stuff. If totems were taken away I would be really annoyed.

[SerenitySaz]

Totems are fine. Some could still use some tweaking, but as a whole the new system works very well. Many totems are situational, but the utility they give us is great, if you know how to work them. If you're a shaman and finding that you're not using your totems often, you may want to revisit how you're playing.

The idea of familiars is not a great one. The pet/guardian AI is still somewhat unreliable at times. They've made a lot of improvements over the years, but there are still times when I've wondered where the hell my normal Fire Elemental is going, and why. Introducing more of that definitely wouldn't be my preference.

Some neat ideas, don't get me wrong, they're just not an improvement over our current system.

[Hursey]

I Like the intent, but as others have said, the totem system at the moment is ok, might be a few too may that might be considered, some might need adjustments, but still ok

add all four familiars to the shaman class and provide a pet that essensially acts as an "aura".

my thought here, why even bother with the pet part, if it's going to be something that follows you, it might as well be a aura

The water familiar would provide the resto shaman with an auto heal that would obviously need to be balanced toward a fulltime totem

To this though, I say NO. no more smart heals

[Omanley]

Some totems are designed around being imobile, like EBT, so a familiar would make it op (picture a mobile aoe snare). I think it would be an insentive to stomp totems even more.

The problems with totems is that they are 95% treated exactly the same. 5hp, immobile, only one per element, not usable while silenced.
It is this across the board injustice slapped on totems that is ruining them. Totems need to be looked at more individually, like other utility. Rogues represent the other extreme. Their utility has not a single drawback. Blizz needs to stop taking the easy road with ability designing if they want to achieve balance.

-EBT should be undestructable like other immobile aoe snares. Maybe throwable too.
-Grounding should either be converted back to not dieing against non damaging spells, OR have a spell reflect baseline, to bring in line with spellreflect.
-Tremor's aoe effect can hardly be utilized with its 1m cd and 6sec duration. Either bring it in line with for example berserker's rage, or improve its aoe/group capabilities again.
-Grounding and/or at least Tremor should be usable while silenced.
-CPT needs lower charge time and be throwable baseline.
-Elemental restrictions removed to allow more synergy between totems, and more threedom in using them.
-Elemental tier gets either replaced with something completely different, OR gets new things, like our old Totemic Restoration, which actually changed how we used totems in a interesting way.
and so on...

The "totems are inferior buffs" was replaced with "totems are inerior utility", sadly. After the change to cd based utility, keeping all those drawbacks was a huge oversight on blizzard's part. THAT'S what's making totems horrible.

[Waltzinblack]

Fuck off pets.

[Shockeye]

Want a pet, play a Hunter, Warlock, Frost Mage or Unholy DK. Lots of pet class options. Besides, Shaman do have pets for critical moments.

Totems are iconic to the Shaman class and the removal of them would kill so much identity, uniqueness and functionality, it'd gut the class. Are totems perfect? Heck no, but they offer so much I'd never want them to vanish.

[Hanyuu]

I wouldn't mind seeing totems disappear because they are basically just cool downs now. There's so few of them left, I hardly worry bother thinking about what I have up, especially if I take the talent that lets you have 2 up at the same time of the same element. I actually think alot of them will be cut too for the expansion. For a non resto shaman, who didn't choose any totem talents, I'd imagine there would be very many at all.

Fire--Magma, Fire Elemental, Searing (with magma likely to be cut)
Water--Healing Stream, Healing Tide, mana tide (resto only)
Air--Grounding, Spirit Link (resto only), Windwalk (talent), stormlash (will cut), capacitor (likely to cut)
Earth--Tremor, Earth Elemental, Stone bulwark totem (talent), earthbind

These days, none of that matters and the whole mechanic seems pretty pathetic compared to how other classes work. I've actually believe as a resto shaman, the order of our spells through things like riptide buffing chain heal or unleash in about everything is way more important than anything doing with totems. Totems are just fire and forget. I rarely worry about range on my healing stream totem for example. If people are hurt, it will cover it. It is just like earthshield in that way...maybe worse because I sometimes switch earth shield actively when I am tank healing in a raid.

I don't really see how the pets would change anything though. If there's no interaction with the player, then there's not much of a change. I think we need a mechanic like holy power or charka or chi or again just push the synergy with our spells like they do with druids. Even if they were just stances it might be better. Maybe Water stance would be healing but air stance would let us gain mana by using lighting bolt. Fire would be for damage and earth might let us take less damage, say a cool down. The idea of pets could be they do similar things.

To put it another way, let's think about all the totems that vanished-- Stoneclaw Totem, Stoneskin Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Fire Nova Totem, Totem of Wrath, Frost Resistance Totem, Flametongue Totem, Poison Cleansing Totem, Disease Cleansing Totem, Cleansing Totem, Fire Resistance Totem, Elemental Resistance Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Totem of Tranquil Mind, Grace of Air Totem, Tranquil Air Totem, Nature Resistance Totem, Sentry Totem, Windfury Totem, and Wrath of Air Totem. Again many were passive effects but at least you had to look at your group and see what you needed to do and put the necessary totems up.

[Deleted]

I love it when my pet gets stuck on a box/rock and refuses to attack unless i leave combat.

Totems are fine.

[Anzaman]

I miss the old totem -system.

[Deleted]

A Pet is one of the worst things that could happen to a class. Clunky, annoying, pulling everything in sight, just please no?

There's a reason why grimoire of sacrifice & lonely wolf exist. Cuz we hate that shit.

[marklar]

you remove my totems, i'll remove my shaman.