Shaman and Blizzcon '09, Updated for Class Panel

[Tigercat]

So, pretty much like the thread going in the paladin forums, this thread will be for any and all Shaman discussion that goes on during Blizzcon.  I am running the stream and will try to update this thread consistantly throughout the convention.



Day 1 Confirmed Information:

-The new Cataclysm official website includes a screenshot showing various goblins in tier 8 armor, signifying some of the classes that will be available to them.  This apparently includes Goblin Shaman.  As seen on the front page, Dwarf Shaman have also been added.

MP5 GONE. Replaced with Spirit.  All healers will recieve some sort of meditation-like skill.

Spell power GONE.  Intellect is finally worth a shit, it now provides both mana and spell power.  Mana no longer an issue for Enhancement.

Attack power GONE.  Agility now provides 2 AP for rogues, hunters, shaman, and druids.

Armor Penetration GONE.  Too confusing/mathy.  Being replaced by a stat called Mastery, details to come in the Systems Panel tomorrow.  "Whatever you like to do, Mastery makes you better at it" is the description for now.

Haste.  All the other skills said GONE next on the slideshow.  Haste said "Push more buttons," will increase rate at which you gain your secondary resource.  Talent(s) will be implemented to make this work for enhance.

Block Value GONE.  Block will be percentage-based.

Since so many of the other stats are disappearing, Stamina will increase for everyone.  "No more plate HP envy" according to the slideshow.






Day 1 Speculation/Unconfirmed Infoz:

Major upheavel among the elements, introduction of the Elemental Planes, most predominantly Deepholm and The Firelands.  What this means for Shaman specifically is yet to be seen, but I refuse to believe that it won't have some importance.




For clarity: Some of the stats listed as gone means they're gone from the gear itemization, mainly talking about AP/SP here. They'll still basically exist, just acquired via other stats.

[Tigercat]

Day 2 Confirmed Information:










Day 2 Speculation/Unconfirmed Infoz:

[Mutantman]

I'm gonna assume you're all done reserving..

Thanks for this! I know lots of us are waiting to see where our class is going.

[Deleted]

Idd... i'd like to hear what they are planning on NOT doing for the class so I can decide wether or not to reroll instead of flashing my fancy "Sergeant" title in dalaran.

[Tigercat]

Keeping my posts to a minimum to keep my bandwidth open for the stream, just wanted the 1 reserve.

Opening ceremony incoming in 5...4...3...2...1...

[Tigercat]

Ok, I had some unexpected company show up and missed about half an hour of the WoW Preview Panel. If anyone has any shaman-centric information from that that they'd like to add it'd be greatly appreciated.

[saint sabbat]

I'm thinking that an elemental war can make for some really epic shaman quest chains. It would also be neat if after this massive quest chain we can learn how to summon pet elementals similar to a water elemental. Lots of possibilities here.

[bantu]

Welp, going to have to level a goblin shaman. Racials sound pretty cool - rocket boots and fly up and do dmg? Either way, I'm very interested in the casting animations!

[Tigercat]

They only specifically covered two classes in any detail, and Shaman was not one of them. I'm very disappointed with this, to be honest, so that's why there are some more general changes being listed here instead of things exclusively related to shaman.

[Tigercat]

Someone just asked a direct Elemental Shaman question in the Class Panel Q&A.


GC: "We'd like to get the buffy totems....maybe marginalize those.  That may be one way to go. (...) We don't want you to have to be a turret, but when you are it should pay off"

Another Q&A highlight:  When asked about what niche Blizzard is looking to have for Resto Shaman, GC mentioned that they are satisfied with the Chain Heal buffs and are looking at going further in that direction.


Brb, yelling at the screen for someone to ask them when they're going to get around to fixing elemental itemization, we still won't need spirit.

Well, someone asked about Ele Shaman itemization, but they made the mistake of including Holydins/spell power plate in the same question, so the blizz response was purely about not letting paladins heal with strength and made no mention of shaman at all.

Another Ele Q&A bit, this time about hit talents.  GC mentioned how un-fun hit talents are and how the importance or need for hit will likely decrease going into Cataclysm.

Q&A question:  Why don't resto shaman or resto druids have a magic dispel yet?  (Mainly dealing with sheeps and such in pvp)  GC response:  Likely to give magic dispels to all healers because of how important magic debuffs tend to be in pvp.

Talents meant to "buff buffs" like MotW, etc, are GONE. I figure this means we can also say sayonara to Enhancing Totems and Improved Windfury Totem.








Cue the obligatory fatass retadin player asking when they'll get MS too.  That alone just made this stream worth the 40 bucks.

[Augrelle]

You know, the Class Panel Q&A was pretty good compared to last year in general. Last year I remember lots of stupid questions.


Thought the Real Q&A is tomorrow, not today.



They might change the shaman mana system or add something to it. I mean alot of things they kind of avoided for shamans and paladins.

[Kaseladen]

I'm wondering what will happen for enhance as well. I wish they would have talked a bit about some of the other classes :/

Ah well there's still tomorrow

[aikouka]

Hunters and Enhancement Shamans won't have to worry about intellect anymore

This is the part that worries me. The only clue we have is this...

Talents for Enhancement and Retribution will make this work.

I'm curious what they will do.

[Kaseladen]

There's another class panel tomorrow from my understanding yes? Hopefully they'll shed some light on these changes there.

[Oneleg]

Not sure if I like what they are hinting at for enhancement. Is the spec going to be turned into some type of a rogue? Doing away with int for hunters and shaman, giving the hunters focus vs mana, makes me think they plan on the same thing for the enhancement spec as well. I really enjoy the way enhancment plays right now, they can change the stats and whatnot, but I really hope it doesnt lose its feel.

[Kaseladen]

I don't know how well focus would work for us. I think they'll have to come up with something other than that, or they could have just said "we're doing the same thing for enh shaman through a talent". I question what they'll do though.

[Dudits]

Im kinda hopeing for a play style change for elemental shamans in pve.. And i guess pvp. Like some more interesting talents.. but idk. This xpac might be it for me with wow

[Tigercat]

Well, they ran a little over schedule on the contests tonight, so I'll clean up my posts a little bit first but basically I'm out for the night.  General complaining about a lack of pertinent information will go here, tomorrow. Oh, and /rage @ the Stream covering Starcraft 2 lore instead of the second WoW class panel tomorrow.

[Nikoll]

i dont feel like backreading, so if someone said it, my bad.

===============

I'm betting that we won't use mana at all. With the haste running energy/rage/focus and hunters swapping to focus it only makes sense that Enh and Ret are going to use focus or some such thing.

[Nikoll]

Also, i'm really hoping to reduce a lot of the RNG.