[Thoughts] Totem of Wrath, +Hit

[Moar Pew Pew]

The Change
For those who played Elemental in TBC, you will remember a somewhat different Totem of Wrath. Instead of proving Crit and Spell Power, it used to provide 3% Crit and 3% Hit.

Now, they changed many Totems around, and rolled the old Wrath of Air into Totem of Wrath, but when they did it they removed the 3% Hit. This, in of itself, does not bother me. Perhaps Elemental provided too much utility, but consider this:

Of the 30 possible specs in WotLK, 2/30 can provide the 3% Hit in raids.

So, while in a 25man you are fairly likely to gain this Hit, because 1/15 people can provide it, you are not likely to gain it in a 10man. This directly contradicts "Player vs Class/Spec" because Boomkins and SPriests are taken into special consideration.

My question is this: Why did they remove the 3% Hit from Totem of Wrath when it would have provided a perfect 1/10 ratio?

On top of that, each spec would have a niche for their version of the debuff. Shadow Priests have the benefit of it being automatic, and therefor good for fights where you switch targets somewhat often; Boomkins are good for long, single target boss fights; and Elemental would be good for AoE/Multi Target situations.

It would seem so logical to have kept the Hit on Totem of Wrath, and yet...

So, what are your opinions on why this was changed? And, if given the chance, would you want it to back?

[Nikoll]

it would be nice if ele gave the 3% hit buff too. moonkin dont spec for it unless they need to.

[Vampiricdemise]

Probably because they felt that if they had kept the +3% hit on the Totem of Wrath, you would be (as a raidleader) forced to bring a class for the raid which obviously they are "trying" to shy from. Even without the +hit, the addition of spelldamage is nice and boosts casters since there would have only been Demonology warlocks to boost a caster stat. That and the totem can be a nuisance for the shaman because of certain fight mechanics of the boss needing to move a lot and over a long distance. I know I prefer the totem as it is now rather than what it was before, allows me to do more damage if I want to. Far away? Don't care, the crit is taken care of by either our ret or prot paladin with their 3% crit debuff.

10man I agree you won't have the buffs that you would otherwise have in a 25man setting but they are changing LW drums that would provide at least some buffs (kings, Fort, etc) soon. As for the hit? Better carry a piece or two that'll hit cap you. I know I need to do so myself for my 10man if I want my spells to hit.

[Baabinator]

I would much rather have a 3% hit then 3% crit.

Lots of classes supply 3% crit, only 2 give 3% hit.

[xSoul]

You're saying this as if 3% hit is a mandatory buff.

13% more damage is far better DPS increase than 3% hit.

Lol, even 280 SP is a better DPS increase than 3% more hit.

So no, boomkins and shadow priests are not on "special consideration".

[Hunty]

it kinda failed to lose that 3%hit, along with another talent (cant remember which) that provided 3% hit... also replaced some items from elekit with restokit ones with the +healing going +spell power, nerfing even more hit. went down by like 10% hit or so

[Deleted]

If more classes had the 3% hit debuff, noone would take shadows into a raid ever.

[Deleted]

If more classes had the 3% hit debuff, noone would take shadows into a raid ever.

Not neccessarily... you guys are great at Freya....
But well... the only other real use shadows have (at least in my guild) are those 3% hit and Divine Hymn...

[Nikoll]

Probably because they felt that if they had kept the +3% hit on the Totem of Wrath, you would be (as a raidleader) forced to bring a class for the raid which obviously they are "trying" to shy from.

totem of wrath provides more SP than any other shaman can. they are close to "mandatory" now.

[Socialhealer]

tbh have you seen the amount of damn hit on ToC 25 gear or tier 9.5 for elemental its got so much hit that if u put +3% hit on totem of wrath, it would be completly useless for me.

i recently got t9.5 gloves, i still use 8.5 for set bonus and cause 9.5 has 67 damn hit, i dont want 500+ hit by the time im in full 9.5 hilarious thing about ele gear is the BiS items are probably ALL cloth.

totems need to scale with gear or something, like lava burst, u can keep gaining crit but its no help only to lightning bolt

compare that to mages/locks where crit boosts all their spells.

yeh shamans are hybrid but our spells and stats are flawed everywhere, mp/5 on 80% of caster mail says it all.

[Nikoll]

god forbid tier gear has hit so you can get rings and trinkets that dont have hit

[Moar Pew Pew]

Sorry for the late reply, had to go to work.

Few things to address; I understand that Elemental Shamans do provide quite a few buffs, but not a great deal more than say Moonkins. What I really meant to point out is that, for raid balance reasons, a third spec should provide the +Hit debuff, as it is currently not reliable.

I personally don't think that having this debuff would make Elemental *required* but it would make them very desirable.

As for Shadow Priests not being brought to raids, you're thinking kind of backwards. Player not Class. This means you should never need to bring a Shadow Priest, but if Bob the Shadow Priest is one of your top dps, then it should always be a good idea to bring him.

tbh have you seen the amount of damn hit on ToC 25 gear or tier 9.5 for elemental its got so much hit that if u put +3% hit on totem of wrath, it would be completly useless for me.

i recently got t9.5 gloves, i still use 8.5 for set bonus and cause 9.5 has 67 damn hit, i dont want 500+ hit by the time im in full 9.5 hilarious thing about ele gear is the BiS items are probably ALL cloth.

I recommend you drop the t9 Legs and pick up the Leather 25man Anub'arak Leggings. The tier legs provide Crit/Hit and are therefor itemized the worst out of the bunch, while the Leather provide Haste/Crit. This will free up another piece to provide Hit.

totems need to scale with gear or something, like lava burst, u can keep gaining crit but its no help only to lightning bolt

I've always said that Lava Burst crits should leave a DoT on the target, based off of Crit Rating. But, that's just me.

[Moar Pew Pew]

totem of wrath provides more SP than any other shaman can. they are close to "mandatory" now.

That SP can be provided by Demo Locks, also. I know, Ele>Demo, but the point stands that they aren't required for it.

[Yohassakura]

Not sure on +hit, it feels like it should be but meh.

What would be interesting is two glyphs for ToW though are;

1.) 3% crit turns into 3% hit.

2.) You lose 3% crit from your ToW, however now it scales to 10-13% of your spellpower.

How's that for manipulating utility? 8)

[Socialhealer]

god forbid tier gear has hit so you can get rings and trinkets that dont have hit

god forbid, finding mail without mp/5 without hit, and without trying to fuck over your guildies who actually cant wear anything above cloth....

just 10 spell caster's we'll all wait around until 20 rings without mp/5 and hit drop.......oh wait next expansion will be here before then.

[Nikoll]

god forbid, finding mail without mp/5 without hit, and without trying to fuck over your guildies who actually cant wear anything above cloth....

just 10 spell caster's we'll all wait around until 20 rings without mp/5 and hit drop.......oh wait next expansion will be here before then.

I play enhance. I have nothing, and i mean NOTHING over me on gear optimization. ever tried to get a weapon? yeah, do that twice. or exp cap before we had it via talents. You can easily get cloth, leather, and mail gear. Yes, you might get stuck with some spirit or mp5, but there is a lot of gear to choose from and thier is gear without spirit and mp5 in cloth/leather. Enh in almost all cases loses drastic amounts of DPS without mail gear (for the int).

[Tigercat]

Whereas Enhance actually has gear it can use available on the various Emblem quartermasters. Elemental gets tier gear from them, and that's pretty much it.

Permission for Enhance shaman to bitch about itemization when compared to Elemental denied.

[Dudits]

Anyone also remember when totem of wrath stacked with other totem of wraths? Now.. it was group only at that time.. like all totems.. but still get a group of a boomkin 3 shamans and i think it was a arcane mage for some kinda of buff... or was it fire? i cant remember... but that group would destroy dmg meters =D drop pretty much all the hit needed and go with nothign but spell power and crit. O that was a fun time.

Had 1200 spell power 50% crit and capped hit by my self before 3.0 rolled around. I miss them days =)

[Kalioshas]

giving ToW +3% hit would pretty much make SPs as they are now useless, unless they will get some buffs.Not that many fights require MCing, not that many at all...

[Malpercio]

it would be nice if ele gave the 3% hit buff too. moonkin dont spec for it unless they need to.

Not true, I play a moonkin and it's pretty much a mandatory talent. It gives us 3% crit in addition to the hit for the whole raid so there's no reason not to get it.