Shaman population dwindling?

[Xruptor]

I must be going crazy but I've been noticing a massive decline in Shaman population on at least my server. Ever since 8.0 and all the negative stigma and issues the Shaman are having, the population for them have been dwindling like mad. I barely see one and when I'm surrounded by hundreds of players I may see like 1 or 2 in the masses that are shaman.

The only thing I can think of is the following:

1. People are waiting for the 8.1 buffs to Shaman (if it even fixes them)
2. People have given up on the Shaman and have rerolled to Monk (which seems to be the class most Shaman convert too) or something else.
3. People have given up on the Shaman altogether because it seems to get shafted every expansion?
4. People are not playing them because they are seeing all the bad reputation and stigma associated with Shaman right now.

This is kinda sad and I do hope Blizzard is aware of the damage they have done the class at this point. I'm hoping things roll around for the Shaman but it's looking pretty gloom so far.

Anyone else have this issue on their server or at least have seen the same thing?

[Deleted]

I can only speak for myself but I'm re-rolling from Shaman, I just want to play a class that's gonna have a better time in both raiding and M+. Plus our MW Monk has to stop raiding, so seemed like a good time for me to switch as I've always enjoyed Monk healing. I played RShaman consistently since late vanilla but I've had enough, at least for now.

[freddy090909]

I've given up the Shaman, for now. I was really hopeful for Ele getting some much needed love in 8.1, but after the blue post last week I've lost all confidence. I'll just play my Mage and keep a close eye on if Blizz will take Ele any further on the PTR.

Even outside of changes to gameplay, I can't believe Blizzard has left the spec (all three specs, to be honest) in such a poor place since the launch of the expansion. I'd argue Ele could use an 8-10% buff right now, which means I consider the spec significantly off from where it needs to be.

[Rend Blackhand]

Shaman has been my main since TBC, he now just exists to farm mail tmog gear for my Hunter main.

It's a fucking scandal that Shaman made it out of Beta in this state and 8.1 shows no significant improvement.

[Deleted]

It was the first character I ever made on my own account, I've stuck with it through thick and thin bar a small stint maining a mage in 4.2 and 4.3, 470 days /played, tons of unobtainable items, mogs etc. my shaman has been "home", synonymous with WoW to me for almost 13 years, it's currently ilvl 366 and most of my best bfa boss rankings are in the 95th+ percentile. But yeah, I've also rerolled.

I'll come back to it when or if the class development team finally stops treating the class like sh*t just because they like it the least, or whatever the reason has been for the continuous crapping all over it every single expansion.

I'm super attached to the character though, and don't know if I'll even make it to 120 on my survival hunter before I unsub. I really wanted BfA to be good, too.

[McFuu]

I must be going crazy but I've been noticing a massive decline in Shaman population on at least my server. Ever since 8.0 and all the negative stigma and issues the Shaman are having, the population for them have been dwindling like mad. I barely see one and when I'm surrounded by hundreds of players I may see like 1 or 2 in the masses that are shaman.

The only thing I can think of is the following:

1. 1) People are waiting for the 8.1 buffs to Shaman (if it even fixes them)
2. 2) People have given up on the Shaman and have rerolled to Monk (which seems to be the class most Shaman convert too) or something else.
3. 3) People have given up on the Shaman altogether because it seems to get shafted every expansion?
4. 4) People are not playing them because they are seeing all the bad reputation and stigma associated with Shaman right now.

This is kinda sad and I do hope Blizzard is aware of the damage they have done the class at this point. I'm hoping things roll around for the Shaman but it's looking pretty gloom so far.

Anyone else have this issue on their server or at least have seen the same thing?

Shaman never had a big population, and I'm sure the vast majority that were around near the end of legion and early BfA were just left overs from people playing shaman when they were pretty powerful at the end of legion. If shaman are made more viable again, I'm sure players will return, the base gameplay is pretty much the same.
The Ele changes look decent enough where we could fill a cleave spot again, maybe halfway decent ST as well.

[Alayea]

My shaman was my very first character and she's been my main since the day she was created back in 2005. I don't think the class has sucked this much since (ironically) Cataclysm, but I stuck with her then and I'll still be playing her throughout BfA.

[Marrilaife]

All 3 specs of Shaman are in a poor state and aren't in demand for raiding or m+ and even for pvp there are better specs out there. Why would people play a class that isn't good? Only people who play it are 1) die hard fans of shaman that won't reroll even when the class hits rock bottom 2) casuals who don't remotely care what is good / useful atm.

About shamans rerolling to monk, I'm quite certain at least resto shamans have 100% reason to do so, mistweaver replaced resto in the "must bring one to the raid", resto is in the worst spot it's been for years, they always had a raid spot and now not anymore. Also mistweaver is extremely strong now, and viable for all content.

About enhancement, they're again unwanted in raids / m+, no idea about pvp, but in pve, you wanna play melee and not be scrutinized / declined constantly, you have to play rogue, warrior, dh or monk. That are the classes that have enough numbers and utility to have a spot.

Ele I dunno what they can reroll to, but atm you wanna spot in pve as ranged, you have to play mage / lock / hunter or maybe boomkin. Ele and shadow got completely marginalized.

Tell me why should people stick to a class that Blizzard constantly shafts with suspicious regularity?

[Spiel]

Shaman has been my main since TBC, he now just exists to farm mail tmog gear for my Hunter main.

It's a fucking scandal that Shaman made it out of Beta in this state and 8.1 shows no significant improvement.

Same here. I lvled and got her to about 335 ilvl doing lfr and random stuff. Now she sits all day in boralus waiting for a mail from my new main. Sometimes kind love letters, but its usually just herbs to mill and greens to disenchant

[melodramocracy]

I finally dusted mine off, saw the flame shock cd and GoW removal, laughed, and promptly put him back on the 'continually bad class design' scrap heap. Maybe 8.1, if my sub hasn't run out yet.

[Bling]

Ya, first character I ever made was a shaman and although my main has been a Paladin since vanilla, Shaman has always been the first alt I get to max level. There's been a few points in WoW were I wasn't raiding and I played mostly just my shaman for months. And if it weren't for the 80+ exalted reps, etc I have on my pally I would have probably had a shaman as my main from WotLK on.

When BfA came out I leveled my pally up fast and quickly geared him. I then had my shaman maxed by the end of the 2nd week. Got him up to 345 but its sad, I can't get groups for anything on my shaman, luckily I was able to get him geared through warfronts. But my pally in ret does nearly twice the dps as my shaman with only a 10 item level difference. Its sad, I leveled up my shaman 110-117 as enhancement, mostly in war mode for the 3 extra dps pvp talents. I started getting attacked a lot more though and found I was an extreme disadvantage as a shaman, so I turned off war mode to finish leveling. My dps plummeted and I had just got a really good resto/elem weapon so I switched to elemental and saw no dps increase, in fact it was slightly lower. I figured it be easier to gear elem/resto when I hit max level, got my shaman up to 345 I found when I had hero and cooldowns up I could pull about 15K dps, but when I didn't I did like 5K. So I started farming as resto for weapons for enhance finally got 2 340 weapons and switched and my dps still sucked balls, I saw maybe a 1K dps increase. I've stopped trying to gear my shaman now and am just waiting for 8.1 hoping they stop sucking horribly.


Worst part is my raid guild. I have two shamans in my guild that have been top performers for years, almost always get 90%+ parses. They both got cut by the raid leader last week because they weren't able to pull enough dps to meet our raiding criteria. As an officer I argued for them saying that their numbers were actually very good for a shaman on their logs and were actually ranking higher than most of the dps above them on their shaman rankings. He didn't care he told them they were cut until they could hit the marks required, that just cause they are good and a shitty class doesn't mean we have to take them when we can take worse players from other classes and they can do more dps.

[Kesandri]

Worst part is my raid guild. I have two shamans in my guild that have been top performers for years, almost always get 90%+ parses. They both got cut by the raid leader last week because they weren't able to pull enough dps to meet our raiding criteria. As an officer I argued for them saying that their numbers were actually very good for a shaman on their logs and were actually ranking higher than most of the dps above them on their shaman rankings. He didn't care he told them they were cut until they could hit the marks required, that just cause they are good and a shitty class doesn't mean we have to take them when we can take worse players from other classes and they can do more dps.

I'll be honest, I cant believe you have shamans in your raid team who are achieving 90%+ percentiles and now are being cut due to lack of dps. Shaman ST dps right now needs work but is not awful. Because of this if these players are indeed performing as well as you say they are then your raids dps requirements must be pretty damn high meaning a bunch of other classes/specs wont be appearing either.
On top of all the above I also cannot believe such players would be cut if they have given years of loyal service to a raid team.

'IF' what you say is correct than for the life of me I cant imagine a scenario where anyone would even want to be in such a guild when there are plenty out there on all levels of raiding desperate for players.

On a note about groups, I personally have yet to have problems finding m+ groups when I do choose to pug, granted it would probably be quicker if I was a mage/hunter/rogue etc but I never have to spend longer than 5 mins to find a key/group I require.

I have found now im 365 ilvl the spec is playing and feeling a little better but obviously still needs changes that have been discussed over and over.
All I'm saying is with gear the performance does improve (more haste especially)

[Checkt]

Might I ask how you are quantifying this depopulation?

As for myself I still play my shaman, and am currently leveling a lock cus it's one of the last classes I don't have at 110 or higher.

[Bangdingow]

Why would any serious player play a shaman right now unless for some sort of sentimental value? Class balance is a relative thing and Shamans aren't great at ANY one aspect of the game. Maybe that changes in the next raid where you bring a resto shaman to some super gimmicky fight where the entire raid sits stacked up at a really low HP for the entire fight (not betting that we get a fight like that). Or maybe they make Ele aoe decent again but right now all 3 specs are in a bad place for PVE and have no reasonable niche whatsoever.

[Stormbornsham]

I really enjoy enhancement’s position right now. Even more if im part of a minority. Even more if people feel bad because that means buffs incoming.
Im not a hardcore mythic 8/8 raider. But like to raid with my guild and im topping dmg meters with them and also doing really well on m+, in which my aoe shines brightly.
Speaking of aoe, the meme build in pvp, forked lightning+chain lightning is the most absurd cleave i’ve seen in a while, with big juicy numbers.

Thank Thor im not ele.

[Voltsmasher]

*queue in the arms of angels*

Thousands of shaman everyday feel unheard, abused, and flatout unuseful. But with your donation of $30 a month you can sponser a shaman in need.

(Begin reel of shaman pictures with dps charts and chat showing scathing reject)

[Xruptor]

Might I ask how you are quantifying this depopulation?

As for myself I still play my shaman, and am currently leveling a lock cus it's one of the last classes I don't have at 110 or higher.

It was just something I've noticed and I was wondering if anyone else was also noticing a similar pattern on their servers. I don't have concreate numbers other then observations I've done. In general it just seems like less and less people are playing it that's all. I'm curious to see what others have reported at least from their server observations.

[shammypie]

I'll be honest, I cant believe you have shamans in your raid team who are achieving 90%+ percentiles and now are being cut due to lack of dps. Shaman ST dps right now needs work but is not awful. Because of this if these players are indeed performing as well as you say they are then your raids dps requirements must be pretty damn high meaning a bunch of other classes/specs wont be appearing either.
On top of all the above I also cannot believe such players would be cut if they have given years of loyal service to a raid team.

'IF' what you say is correct than for the life of me I cant imagine a scenario where anyone would even want to be in such a guild when there are plenty out there on all levels of raiding desperate for players.

On a note about groups, I personally have yet to have problems finding m+ groups when I do choose to pug, granted it would probably be quicker if I was a mage/hunter/rogue etc but I never have to spend longer than 5 mins to find a key/group I require.

I have found now im 365 ilvl the spec is playing and feeling a little better but obviously still needs changes that have been discussed over and over.
All I'm saying is with gear the performance does improve (more haste especially)

same the difference between the top and the bottom isn't big enough of a deal for 99% of guilds. Heck I'm resto and run in a mythic guild and still top the meters. I'll admit after you down the boss once I go way down because damage just completely starts falling off as people wise up. But who cares at that point it's easy kills. I do see a lot of people struggling. We have another shaman in the raid who's enhance and 10 ilvls ahead of me that's forced to switch to heals when we need it because his damage isn't the best. But I outheal the crap out of him so that's meh.

For the most part just don't do M+. As far as enjoyable content it ranks below island expeditions in my book. It's just there for all the no lifers with a bunch of time on their hands.

[Metaslave]

Not looking great, it gets worse once you move the slider to 120 only. You have company though.

https://realmpop.com/eu.html

https://realmpop.com/us.html

[mqrtk]

well who wants to play a Class thats been forgotten and ignored for so long ?