Suggestion: Totem system polishing

[Kumcio]

Hi;

I'd like to suggest a little polish to the current, already improved totem system, because "devil is in the details".

In the current state of our calls (Call of Spirits, Ancestors, Elements and Totemic Recall), we put down totems and the Recall them to get back mana. Ideally, we should do it every time, but the Recall returns only a percent of totem's mana.

So because of the different totem duration, we don't use a Recall -> Call, but we have to check which totems are down and put the ones that are missing. Even worse is that sometimes we don't want to waste time for GCDs and use a Call to place 2 new totems and override the longer lasting ones, which occurs often in PvP.

What I would like is: Intelligent Calls, which would place only the totems that are missing in the list of totems that should be cast by the call. So that if I have a PvP set of totems (Tremor, Grounding, Healing/Cleansing, Flametounge/Searing), clicking it from time to time would place only the totems that are destroyed (Tremor, Grounding, not all 4). It's always one place to click, less keybindings, and one GDC instead of 2 sometimes.

It would ease the life of PvP shaman a lot, who anyways has to shock and purge a lot and has a lot of things to care about, like e.g. if I'm still in the range of totems or not... I think we deserve it.

What do you think?

[currentuser]

i actually registered for mmo forums so i could post this

You could decide not to be a total "i wan thus game 2 be supr easy" and possibly just L2P


<Moderator Edit: You really shouldn't have bothered if that low level troll is the best you can do. Follow it up with similar crap and your stay on the forum will be very short indeed>

[Kumcio]

You feel better now, skilled troll?

Shaman is not an easy class to play.

[currentuser]

I play an enhancement shaman on bloodscalp (chrol, in case you wanna armory)
and seeing as this is my first post im not sure i qualify as a troll.
but hey if i do what the hell.

[Larivas]

I don't pvp on my shaman so its not a big deal, but it is a bit annoying even in pve. I'd be happy with this change, but from the pve viewpoint its not absolutely needed. My question is, if you're worried about being out of range, you'll have to recast all of them anyway, so whats the problem?

[Mendal]

not the best idea tbh...
the main things of totems are range (as stated above) so you have to recast them all..
also if you are skilled this shouldn't be a problem.

[Moshy]

No.
Find a hunter, Spec enhance and get 2k rating.

[Captain Noctus]

You feel better now, skilled troll?

Shaman is not an easy class to play.

uuuummm what?
new to me buds
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...27jin&n=Rusion
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...%C3%A4rk%C3%A4
i got 2, they both are reall damn easy to play...

[Kumcio]

Well, I don't like the overriding mechanism of the Calls, that's it. If the same totems are already down, what's the point in overriding them?
But because it has an impact on PvP performance, I ask you for opinion on it. Personally, I would like this improvement. ^^ I like things that make my life easier.

Alternatively, it can work as instant Recall->Call -> so that the totems are in fact overriden, but the percent of mana is returned.
You can use it they way as I described anyways, ye? But the mana is problem.

Too bad a lot of players with little self-respect post in my topic so that I should L2P

[currentuser]

Well you seem to be mister high and mighty saying we have little self respect.
I think in the long run you'll find that you are confusing your "talent" for ignorance.

[Kumcio]

Well you seem to be mister high and mighty saying we have little self respect.
I think in the long run you'll find that you are confusing your "talent" for ignorance.

Did I say that I can play well? Nope. I said that I don't like the overriding mechanism, and that it would make my life easier, which I like as well.

It was you who said that you registered specially to tell me that I should L2P. Just imagine how it looks. I just guessed that you needed badly to make yourself feel better... but if not, I don't accuse you anyway... people have different reasons.

Edit: "little self-respect" meaning that you have low self-esteem - people suffering this feel a need to lower other people self-esteem to feel better. Maybe you should just believe in yourself and your skills. If you would, you wouldn't feel a need to talk things like this. I have no reason to tell you that you should L2P. I talk about ideas, not somebody's ability to play.

[hvidgaard]

While it would make it easier to conserve mana in pvp I doubt Blizzard will implement this. There has to be some benefit of macro-managing your totems. Besides you rarely want to drop every totem that's not down (it just cost too much mana, and you're trying to conserve mana I assume), nor do you want to drop the same set of totems for every team you face. Keybind your macro-managed totems (Grounding, Tremor, Cleansing, Earthbind) and use your calls to drop frequently used combinations of totems.

At least that's how I would do anyway, ymmw

/edit: I don't do arena, only the occasional WG, my focus is PvE

[Malladin]

While I really like the idea, especially for PvE (more my focus), it has a few drawbacks that would likely prevent Blizzard from implementing this, and may have been part of the design in the first place. If they were intelligent calls as you put it, pressing the call button would no longer be a decision in most cases. You know what totems you want down, and if they have run out or been destroyed, you want them back.

As it stands now, you have to judge the mana cost of all the totems vs the convenience and speed of placing them all at once. If they didnt overwrite current totems, they wouldnt use mana, and there would be no decision to cast, it would be the obvious choice for every spare global cooldown. This mindless button pressing with no decision or consequence is what Blizzard has been trying to steer away from.

So while it would be really helpful and convenient, it would dumb down a key component of the shaman class. While I hate having to manage totems when stuff is getting hectic, its part of the class, and you learn to live with it.

[ghrunt]

I couldnt agree with Malladin more.

Although this would make the class easier, I dont know if dumbing down a component is the way to go. I usually dont face mana problems in my arena team, although I do in BGs. It has forced me to be much more selective when dropping totems.

Thanks for the idea though, its not all that bad