Curious about people's opinions...

[Abysire]

I was quite bored and had finished my daily quota for WoW yesterday and begun making some maps in the Warcraft 3 World Editor when I had a look at Witch Doctor's and how Stasis Trap worked. Now, it might be called a 'trap' but it's basically a better less clunky version of Capacitor Totem.

What I'm asking is; why do we have to place a Totem that has a 45 second cooldown, takes 5 seconds (3 if glyphed) to charge and then stun for 5 seconds when we could just have a neater version of Stasis Trap which is much, MUCH easier to use and way less clunky.

The way Stasis Trap works is that you place it down on the ground, and if a unit goes within a certain range of it, it'll explode dealing damage and stunning units in an area.

What I'm thinking is:

Capacitor Totem
50 second cooldown
Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster that gathers electrical energy from the surrounding air over 3 seconds. If a hostile unit walks within 5 yards of the totem, all enemies within 10 yards will be stunned for 5 seconds. Lasts 15 seconds.

Pros:
- 3 second charge up time means you can use a Glyph slot on something else.
- It lasts three times the normal duration.
- It won't be as clunky for Shaman to use and we'll have a reliable stun. (Yes, we do need another reliable CC.)

Cons:
- Choosing Totemic Restoration would result in Capacitor Totem being active almost all of the time. (Offset this by increasing cooldown or reducing duration).

Another idea I've also come across is why do we have to waste a talent point for Totemic Projection? Why can't we move our totems with a Trap Launcher like mechanic and have another more useful talent?

What I'm thinking is:

- Totemic Projection baseline for all specializations.

Totemic Projection
1.5 sec cooldown
While active, your Totems are launched to a target location within 30 yards. Lasts until cancelled.

Buff
Totemic Projection
While active, your Totems are launched to a target location within 30 yards.

Pros:
- The ability to move our Totems more freely.
- You can toggle it off and on just like Trap Launcher.
- Room for another more interesting talent.

Cons:
- 30 yd range to make it weaker than Trap Launcher but still useful at the same time.

and last but not least, an idea for the talent that would replace Totemic Projection.

Totemic Shift
35 second cooldown
Choose an active totem to relocate and phase to over 4 seconds, reducing damage taken by 25% per second while phasing. During this time you are unable to attack or heal. Usable while stunned or silenced. 10-40 yd range.

Pros:
- Gives you the option of teleporting away to a selected totem.
- Helpful in times where you just won't be able to survive.
- The equivalent of Displacer Beast, but with more deteriorating effects and a longer cooldown.

Cons:
- Damage reduction may be too overpowered, could reduce to 10% reduction per second or alter with Glyph.


These ideas are just my two cents to add to the Shaman community...I think we need a bit of a 'quality of life' change, instead of just another damage, healing or defensive buff. The 5.2 changes are welcomed, but still doesn't fix some things that need to be fixed like Elemental's utility, or Enhance's survivability/dependability, etc.

[Spacepunch]

your replacement talent would be a tier 1 talent.

[Abysire]

your replacement talent would be a tier 1 talent.

What exactly would it replace in the Tier 1 talent section?

Reinhart brought up an interesting concept of Astral Shift having an increased duration, but being baseline for all specializations (and Shamanistic Rage removed, or changed ofcourse), would also be interesting to see what kind of talent would replace that too.