So, I have been told TWICE now, not to make a shaman 90.

[alexkeren]

Without giving away too much, is the shaman thing correct?

Why not save your 90 until after WoD launches and determine for yourself if it'll be worth it based upon the info given at launch.

[Teriz]

Everyone is bitching that their class is getting nerfed in WOD.

Hell, I'm super disappointed in the direction Monks are taking in WOD. Mostly in that the 100 talents are pretty garbage.

Monk 100 talents are god-tier compared to 100 Shaman talents.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Why not save your 90 until after WoD launches and determine for yourself if it'll be worth it based upon the info given at launch.

QFT.

10chars

[Bloodjunky22]

play a class that fun, shamans are fun atm and still will be with changes. and like you said you never played that and warrior above 80 so your not really wasting much. imo play what ya like, and if you boost the shaman and dont like it at least you gained some class knowledge

[GodlyBob]

The reason why people are saying that is because resto shaman are 90% smart healing, and they are getting power nerfs along with the healing algorithm changing and elemental is losing lightning bolt while moving, which is a really bad thing for a class that has really no other damage while moving. This combined with the fact that shamans have sucked at the start of pretty much every expansion has people worried.

Is it really a bad thing that smart heals are getting dumbed down? I mean, they already said they're trying to change some healing dynamics, if smart heals go away, they bring us up in other areas. It's an expansion there's going to be sweeping changes. That goes for the lightning bolt thing too. Right now we can cast our entire single-target rotation while jumping around in circles with the exception of lava burst, which we get free procs from flame shock for. If they took away lightning bolt movement right now, we would still have those flame shock procs, shock spells, unleash elements and spirit walker's grace for when you actually have to hard cast something.

It's really not a problem....and I have no idea why I'm debating that in this particular topic...

[Amnaught]

I'd go for it. Balance looks almost right-on for all classes as of the latest Alpha update, and I'm pretty confident they'll fix any major problems that come up.

Edit: As for spoilers; don't read my location.

[the game]

I'll never understand the need for people to have the approval of people in a video game to do the things they supposedly enjoy about a game. Honestly if you want to make a shaman just do it. Worst that can happen is you don't enjoy it. In which case you know. If you don't try it then you never know if you would enjoy it or not.

[Grand Phoenix]

At the end of the day, the decision is entirely up to you. For me, I find shaman to be the toughest class to play followed by warrior (even though my very first toon is one).

[Cheekun]

It's a hard call to make the decision this early. Like many have said, I'd personally wait till warlords before doing any boosting. However, if you're afraid that shaman's are going to be overly nerfed come WoD, you should relax. If it turns out that shamans are too overly nerfed, they'll probably be buffed to compensate, or other classes will be nerfed down to a more "normal level'. Either way everything will fall into place.

[Deleted]

Play whatever you want to play...

[Danifilth]

Its your money do what ever you want

[Teriz]

As a Shaman player since TBC, I wouldn't recommend it. I leveled my SHaman to level 90 and haven't touched him since. With the upcoming WoD changes, my Shaman will probably stay at 90 until the next expansion.

[ComputerNerd]

It is your choice, not one we can or should make for you.
If you are going to rely on what is simply unfounded negativity, then you are just gong to regret any decision you make based on it.
It is easy to complain and say the sky is falling when we base our opinions on incomplete and non-final overhauls of any class.
If you are really unsure, then I would hope you can get beta experience, where towards the end of it you should have a better idea to make your own mind up.

[Krommm]

Overjudging changes or judging them based off of current iterations makes almost everyone feel their class(es) are getting nerfed. Shaman tend to be a bit lower on the DPS pole, but sometimes enhancement spikes up there. Ele and Resto is always a big hit or miss, so you'll just have to decide closer to release or take a gamble now. (In my experience though, avoid hunter/shaman/warrior/hpala because of poor scaling and inevitable nerfs if they are even competent)

[godofslack]

Is it really a bad thing that smart heals are getting dumbed down? I mean, they already said they're trying to change some healing dynamics, if smart heals go away, they bring us up in other areas. It's an expansion there's going to be sweeping changes. That goes for the lightning bolt thing too. Right now we can cast our entire single-target rotation while jumping around in circles with the exception of lava burst, which we get free procs from flame shock for. If they took away lightning bolt movement right now, we would still have those flame shock procs, shock spells, unleash elements and spirit walker's grace for when you actually have to hard cast something.

It's really not a problem....and I have no idea why I'm debating that in this particular topic...

the reason why I see it as a potential problem is that seriously resto shammys are all smart heals .We have healing wave and riptide as our active non-smart heals, and it's really not a lot of power currently. It's just that I don't really know where they'll move the power to. And as for elemental we're the only ranged DPS (thanks to a new priest glyph) without some form of rapid displacement, and we have the slowest speed boost, so based off what we know Shaman are the most useless ranged DPS in mobility based fights (which there will surely be). But, I'm not saying that shaman shouldn't be the boost choice but right now shaman are the class with the most potential problems. I mean there are some things that tick me off about shamans, the level 100 talents are a mess, and they haven't removed elemental blast from the talent tree. It's pointless for resto and clunky for enh, it really only works for ele.

[Riggins]

Play whatever you want. Seriously.

[TheWindWalker]

The issue is that Shaman, particularly Enhancement, was already bringing excessively good utility to the point of negating a raid spot for redundant melee toons of other classes. They're simply moving things around so they can be powered up without being mandatory. Ele can't have Mage-like power if they have free movement and Enhancement can't be given harder damage on their main attacks (thus moving damage from the weaker sources so they have a few "this really hurt" instead of "those kinda hurt then I was dead after they all landed" gameplay) if they still had DPS*1.2=HPS AG, HTT and Storm Totem. They'd be more OP than Warlocks are now. By a mile.

You're getting the hybrid tax ripped out entirely, so they're going to be great in all situations.

[Kudos]

Why not just level a Shaman now? You still have plenty of time before WoD launches. This way you can familiarise yourself with the class, and save that 90 boost for another character you don't have.

[Srg56]

By people who love their shamans...... both have said that shamans are getting severely nerfed in WoD, and would not recommend I use my free 90 on a shaman.... which is what I was leaning towards. ( I never liked my low level shamans, but figured that and warrior are the only 2 classes I haven't taken to at least 80 by now, so why not make a shaman )

I don't read up on XPACS.... I like to be surprised. I know almost nothing about WoD. What I know about WoD could be typed in 3 sentences or less. But what I don't want is to make a 90 that is not likely to be a great choice for the XPAC.

Without giving away too much, is the shaman thing correct?

Judging from your own words, you shouldn't use the character boost on your shaman. The highlighted bit in the quote is why you shouldn't do it. If you don't like a class at low level, chances are you still won't like it at max level.

They are removing the ability to cast lightning bolt while on the move, thus the sky is falling. Ele shamans were initially designed to be high powered turrets, not hunters.

[TheWindWalker]

Everyone is bitching that their class is getting nerfed in WOD.

Hell, I'm super disappointed in the direction Monks are taking in WOD. Mostly in that the 100 talents are pretty garbage.

You have got to be talking about Mistweaver because Brewmaster is doing fine and Windwalker got pampered like the 20-something year old heir of a super-car company. Killing Spree, 10 seconds of no resource use, and a 40-yard ranged attack that burst into AOE and leave a DoT on everyone? Holy crap.