Have Shaman been completely replaced by other classes?

[Rhamses]

What purpose does this class serve in the game? Elemental Shaman are weaker than mages, and mages can bring Blood lust now. Arcane mages can even give the group a damage buff. Warlocks give the equivalent of Totem of Wrath, and like mages, their DPS is superior. Why bring an Enhancement Shaman when they do mediocre DPS, and their buffs are covered by other classes? Resto Shaman are arguably the worst healers in the game.

If this class vanished tomorrow, I don't think most people would care, and their role would be quickly taken over by other classes. Blizzard needs to do something with this class to make them unique and worth playing, because as of right now, I see no purpose for this class other than Thrall being a major character in the franchise.

[xGLxAnubis]

What purpose does this class serve in the game? Elemental Shaman are weaker than mages, and mages can bring Blood lust now. Arcane mages can even give the group a damage buff. Warlocks give the equivalent of Totem of Wrath, and like mages, their DPS is superior. Why bring an Enhancement Shaman when they do mediocre DPS, and their buffs are covered by other classes? Resto Shaman are arguably the worst healers in the game.

If this class vanished tomorrow, I don't think most people would care, and their role would be quickly taken over by other classes. Blizzard needs to do something with this class to make them unique and worth playing, because as of right now, I see no purpose for this class other than Thrall being a major character in the franchise.

Enhance shamans that do mediocre DPS, are doing it wrong. Enhance DPS is great right now.

[Darxis]

"Unique and worth playing"
You think DPS or buffs are what make the class unique? People play a class because they like that class, not because they like its DPS or buffs.

[Pvpdinosaur]

Shaman SP buff is nice and totems... but thats about it. Have an ele shammy in group doing 19k though

[Aerikaya]

If you are seeing enhance do poorly, they are in fact doing it wrong. Our Enhance shaman destroys the DPS/DMG Done charts. As far as being unique I enjoy the way that enhance and restoration play.

[the kins man]

I agree with xglxanubis, sorry if I spelled your name wrong. Been playing my shaman since BC, and I've toyed around with other toons, have most toons 60 or higher, but I always go back to my shaman. Really the only spec of shamans right now after the patch that aren't where they need to be is elemental. Enhance is really good dps if you have good gear, and are a compotent player. The 5-6 second cd on interrupt is incredibly important, especially for fights like Heroic Halfus

For resto, with the buff to chain heal, resto shamans are doing quite well now. For out 10 man group with use two resto shamans and a holy pally (I know, not the greatest comp, but the raid leader tells me until my druid or priest has gear that rivals my shamans, I'm gonna come on my shaman) and before the patch, myself and the other shaman were always fairly close to each other, but lagged behind the holy pally by 200-300k total healnig done. After the patch, every fight we did last night we were within 50k total heals of each other, with somebody occasionally edging others out due to rng procs and crits.

With the patchm I am quite happy with where shamans are, with pvp, I'm even enjoying resto pvp, and I suck at it, so yeah...

[harida]

What purpose does this class serve in the game? Elemental Shaman are weaker than mages, and mages can bring Blood lust now. Arcane mages can even give the group a damage buff. Warlocks give the equivalent of Totem of Wrath, and like mages, their DPS is superior. Why bring an Enhancement Shaman when they do mediocre DPS, and their buffs are covered by other classes? Resto Shaman are arguably the worst healers in the game.

If this class vanished tomorrow, I don't think most people would care, and their role would be quickly taken over by other classes. Blizzard needs to do something with this class to make them unique and worth playing, because as of right now, I see no purpose for this class other than Thrall being a major character in the franchise.

i hate to break it to ya, but the 2 enhancement shamans in my guild, do top dps behind our unholy dk in 25 man with the 2 elemental shamans not far behind. and i myself happen to be a resto shaman, who competes with 2 resto druids and 2 holy palies and i am almost always 2nd or 1st even on the charts. so whatever shamans you've been seeing, obviously arn't playing their class right.

[Rivin]

Everyone's buffs are covered by another spec. What you are asking for is a raid spot back, which means one of a few things: a) your guild is min-maxing so you weren't brought because someone brings your buff and does more damage; b) your guild doesn't want to bring you because your dps is poor; or c) your guild just doesn't want to bring you for some reason.

Based on State of DPS's rankings, shaman appear to have been doing fine, so B is your own problem. C is a guild problem, and A is unavoidable (there will always be imbalances like this).

[Rhamses]

Enhance shamans that do mediocre DPS, are doing it wrong. Enhance DPS is great right now.

But its not the best, that's the point.

[Rivin]

But its not the best, that's the point.

Only one spec can be the "best". If you only want to play the best spec, you're going to be changing classes a lot.

[Asmodejjj]

We like your mana tide totem. Otherwise........you have pretty totems? :S

[Rhamses]

Everyone's buffs are covered by another spec. What you are asking for is a raid spot back, which means one of a few things: a) your guild is min-maxing so you weren't brought because someone brings your buff and does more damage; b) your guild doesn't want to bring you because your dps is poor; or c) your guild just doesn't want to bring you for some reason.

Based on State of DPS's rankings, shaman appear to have been doing fine, so B is your own problem. C is a guild problem, and A is unavoidable (there will always be imbalances like this).

Wrong on all three. I was just observing all the classes, and noticed that Shaman are pretty much covered by other classes. There's truly nothing that a Shaman can bring that can't be found elsewhere by superior classes.

---------- Post added 2011-02-10 at 03:08 AM ----------

Only one spec can be the "best". If you only want to play the best spec, you're going to be changing classes a lot.

Its not even top DPS. Its right in the middle.

[Rivin]

Wrong on all three. I was just observing all the classes, and noticed that Shaman are pretty much covered by other classes. There's truly nothing that a Shaman can bring that can't be found elsewhere by superior classes.

---------- Post added 2011-02-10 at 03:08 AM ----------



Its not even top DPS. Its right in the middle.

Okay, now tell me: which spec brings a raid buff/debuff that no other spec does? The whole point of revamping the buff/debuffs (again) in Cataclysm was eliminating those unique buffs.

Enhancement is listed at 22k. That's just barely below the highest (24.3k), and this was in 4.0.3 (i.e. before the nerfs to those top specs in 4.0.6).

[Dakho]

Shaman, which were originally a buff class, are now just another class. Everyone shares buffs now.

I personally hate homogenization, but it's a fact of life in WoW, in the same way that there's no such thing as customization.

[Strakha]

Wrong on all three. I was just observing all the classes, and noticed that Shaman are pretty much covered by other classes. There's truly nothing that a Shaman can bring that can't be found elsewhere by superior classes.

---------- Post added 2011-02-10 at 03:08 AM ----------



Its not even top DPS. Its right in the middle.

my interrupts bring all the boys to the yard and they're like damn right it's better than yours

[Asmodejjj]

my interrupts bring all the boys to the yard and they're like damn right it's better than yours

Tank interrupts will teach you, but they'll have to charge.

[BlackZero]

Enhance shamans that do mediocre DPS, are doing it wrong. Enhance DPS is great right now.

Enhancement is doing poor as piss atm.

http://www.simulationcraft.org/Raid_T11_372_406.html

[Boley]

What purpose does this class serve in the game? Elemental Shaman are weaker than mages, and mages can bring Blood lust now. Arcane mages can even give the group a damage buff. Warlocks give the equivalent of Totem of Wrath, and like mages, their DPS is superior. Why bring an Enhancement Shaman when they do mediocre DPS, and their buffs are covered by other classes? Resto Shaman are arguably the worst healers in the game.

If this class vanished tomorrow, I don't think most people would care, and their role would be quickly taken over by other classes. Blizzard needs to do something with this class to make them unique and worth playing, because as of right now, I see no purpose for this class other than Thrall being a major character in the franchise.

Resto shammies the worst healer in the game?.... lulwat?
On my resto shammy healing all of BWD this week I was top of the charts, did not have a single issue with mana and rarely dropped below 50% mana. The pallies were the ones suffering this time around which was humerous.
An enhance shammy topped the charts this week for dps, beating out 5 feral druids and DW unholy dks.
We don't run with ele shammies but my guess is they still rock....

So what blizzard made our class not have any super shiney buffs that get us an invite.... They did that to every class if you have not noticed. Only few special buffs I can think of are Focus magic and Dark intent, but hey i'm not complaining.

Something that needs to make this class unique... hmm... Maybe blizzard could give us something cool that we place upon the ground that can do various things without taking up our mana... yet not being pets like a warlock or hunter... and not taking up so much time we lose dps on a boss... hmm if only they could, and they could even make them have cool colors and pulse around too!

[xGLxAnubis]

Its not even top DPS. Its right in the middle.

Not in my guild. I play Enhance, and my DPS is King on almost every fight. Rogues and Locks are right up there with me. After patch my DPS even got slightly buffed with the change to Windfury, Avalanche Enchant, and DMC: Hurricane. I gained a 2-3% DPS increase from 4.0.6, and that's when I was using SP MH with FT/FT even. (I use WF/FT NOW, and have 3% more damage than using FT/FT 4.0.3, before people get confused)

[Rhamses]

Okay, now tell me: which spec brings a raid buff/debuff that no other spec does? The whole point of revamping the buff/debuffs (again) in Cataclysm was eliminating those unique buffs.

Enhancement is listed at 22k. That's just barely below the highest (24.3k), and this was in 4.0.3 (i.e. before the nerfs to those top specs in 4.0.6).

That's the problem; Shaman's claim to fame was providing unique buffs to groups and raids. When that was taken away, the class' usefulness dropped like a rock. So Cataclysm's buff homogenization, while sounding good on paper, indirectly killed the class.

As for Enhancement's DPS, you need to check again. As of 4.0.6 its not so great.