Miss the old totems.

[zimboombafoo]

I mained elemental from wotlk all the way through normal soo...then switched to boomkin. I have to say playing a shaman doesn't feel like it used to..while some people felt the old totem system a nuisance, I for one found it more of a staple to the class I enjoyed playing. Putting up different buff totems to help my party/raid made me feel useful, it gave me more to do, it made me feel more powerful and that I had so much utility. I could give passive healing, mana regen, buff our resistances, provide extra armor/stats/haste, I loved it. At first I liked the new totem system but as time went on I started to feel like with the absence of the old totem mechanics my class felt more like a mage where I'm pretty much dps with the "occasional" healing totem cooldown..I made a shaman to feel like a shaman, not a mage. Elemental became very boring and I found most of the time I was either repeating a 4 button rotation or just spamming chain lightning..pulling big numbers with one spell is fun for a while but..only for so long. I ended up switching to something more complex, a boomkin. Anyone else feel the same way? Was looking at old screenshots tonight of my old totem bars in cata and it prompted me to make a thread about it.

[Venziir]

No. The Totem change hardly affects your overall gameplay, nor does it make you feel like a mage, nor did it affect your rotation. You still refresh Searing Totem when you have to, you still pop Fire Ele when you can. Instead of having to drop Wrath of Air you now give that buff as a bonus by yourself, same goes for the old crit totem. Only difference is, that instead of dropping a semi redundant buff totem every 5th minute(!) you now drop a raid buff like Stormlash now and then. The utility totems such as Stoneclaw, Earthgrab and Healing Spring are still there and do EXACTLY the same.

So no. I much prefer a more organic totem system instead of a bland and static buff-totem system.

[zimboombafoo]

No. The Totem change hardly affects your overall gameplay, nor does it make you feel like a mage, nor did it affect your rotation. You still refresh Searing Totem when you have to, you still pop Fire Ele when you can. Instead of having to drop Wrath of Air you now give that buff as a bonus by yourself, same goes for the old crit totem. Only difference is, that instead of dropping a semi redundant buff totem every 5th minute(!) you now drop a raid buff like Stormlash now and then. The utility totems such as Stoneclaw, Earthgrab and Healing Spring are still there and do EXACTLY the same.

So no. I much prefer a more organic totem system instead of a bland and static buff-totem system.

"The Totem change hardly affects your overall gameplay, nor does it make you feel like a mage, nor did it affect your rotation." Your opinion. I feel an enormous difference in gameplay where totems now feel like more of a dps buff cd and the rest is a mage rotation. Before, I could plan my totems ahead of time to fit my groups format and what would benefit us the most. It felt much more dynamic.


"The utility totems such as Stoneclaw, Earthgrab and Healing Spring are still there and do EXACTLY the same." Healing spring is not EXACTLY the same. Before it was passive healing every couple seconds for 5 entire minutes, now it's a a very minor HoT every 30 seconds that you have to use a global cd for. Mana spring is no longer there, nor is the elemental resistance totem, stoneskin totem, or the str/agi totem. So no, the utility totems are definitely not EXACTLY the same.

[Lavindar]

Healing Stream Totem is IMO stronger than the old version, also, the elemental resistance glyph still exist.

I actually prefer the new totem system, but I play as Enhancement, so I actually feel more shamanistic now than before. But I have to agree that Elemental Combat is too simple, I too made a Balance Druid for when I want to play as a caster.

[Socialhealer]

no the old totems were just passive 5 minute buffs, how is that feeling like you bring utility? drop this and forget about it until you need to refresh it in 5 minutes time.

now healing stream does something during raid damage, stone bulwark i can actually notice during raid damage compared to stoneclaw that DID NOT SCALE, by the last tiers you would be better off healing yourself than using its pathetic piss poor absorb for like 4300 damage i think it was.

stormlash is good, healing tide is good, just a shame dps shamans are losing them oh well, same 4 button rotation just half the utility......WoD will be exciting with 50% less keybinds.

[Chiquihuite]

As an Ele/Resto main, I greatly prefer the "new" system. I personally wouldn't mind seeing Searing Totem changed to follow the same philosophy, as it's now our last vestige of a "boring passive buff" totem. In any case I've had way more fun in MoP than I ever did with my Shaman previously, and the totem change was a big part of that.

[seasawl0l]

I mained elemental from wotlk all the way through normal soo...then switched to boomkin. I have to say playing a shaman doesn't feel like it used to..while some people felt the old totem system a nuisance, I for one found it more of a staple to the class I enjoyed playing. Putting up different buff totems to help my party/raid made me feel useful, it gave me more to do, it made me feel more powerful and that I had so much utility. I could give passive healing, mana regen, buff our resistances, provide extra armor/stats/haste, I loved it. At first I liked the new totem system but as time went on I started to feel like with the absence of the old totem mechanics my class felt more like a mage where I'm pretty much dps with the "occasional" healing totem cooldown..I made a shaman to feel like a shaman, not a mage. Elemental became very boring and I found most of the time I was either repeating a 4 button rotation or just spamming chain lightning..pulling big numbers with one spell is fun for a while but..only for so long. I ended up switching to something more complex, a boomkin. Anyone else feel the same way? Was looking at old screenshots tonight of my old totem bars in cata and it prompted me to make a thread about it.

its still somewhat the same, just totems feel a lot more powerful now imo. it used to be a stick with a buff, now they are somewhat strong cooldowns. Elemental has always been not that complex; even with lava burst which came out in wotlk! Anywho elemental does provide good healing support; I know my guildie ele shaman drops a healing rain for healing intensive fights, and ancestral guidance is also helpful. I was in the same boat until I realized that the new system is less clunky than the old. I guess its a nostalgia factor if anything

[Deleted]

"The Totem change hardly affects your overall gameplay, nor does it make you feel like a mage, nor did it affect your rotation." Your opinion. I feel an enormous difference in gameplay where totems now feel like more of a dps buff cd and the rest is a mage rotation. Before, I could plan my totems ahead of time to fit my groups format and what would benefit us the most. It felt much more dynamic.

There is no "enormous difference" between placing buff totems every 5 minutes and not placing buff totems at all.

"Planning" what totems you put down was not dynamic lol, and it's not even necessary now because since the start of MoP there are only 8 raid-buffs which are pretty easy to obtain even on 10-man. So there's no point in having them do what they used to do. It was a waste of a global every 5 minutes.

Or every 2 minutes on Madness.

[Anzaman]

I enjoyed how totems worked in WotLK.

Nowadays I'm even "forced" to download Totem Bar -AddOn, because for some reason Blizzard decided to remove their own.

[Deleted]

I also disagree with OP on this. The old totems were 5 minute buffs that you chose at the start of your raid/party and your choice never changed the rest of the instance. It was no choice at all. Especially in 25 man, it was often that at least your Air and Earth totems were completely redundant. The totem system now works so that (apart from Searing Totem) you really notice every time you drop a totem.

I enjoyed how totems worked in WotLK.

Nowadays I'm even "forced" to download Totem Bar -AddOn, because for some reason Blizzard decided to remove their own.

They removed it because they are meant to be cooldowns now. The only one you actually have to track is Searing Totem.

[Anzaman]

They removed it because they are meant to be cooldowns now. The only one you actually have to track is Searing Totem.

True, but Totem Bar saves some space from action bar.

[Omanley]

Get yourself that minor glyph of totemic concealment or how it's called. When you put down Searing Totem, you will put down three pretend totems of the other elements. You "nest of totems" will be there for your nostalgia needs. That's all that really changed really. In wotlk, you used an ability (call of the ancestors/spirits/elements) every once in a while to refresh your totems, now three of them are passives and can be visualised voa glyph. Nothing changed really gameplay-wise. You're imagining things, because of rose-tinted glasses. Disadvantages were removed, and some people (you among them) cling to these flawed designs, explaining it with flavor, but really, it was just bad.

@Zeruge: There's a big difference. Whenever you're part of heavy movement fights, or in pvp where movement is crucial, having to constantly waste gcds for totem replanting was quite a setback. Even worse, due to the flawed other disadvantage of totems (1/element school), buffs couldn't be up at the same time as utility effects.

Removing abilitiies from totems is the best blizz has done so far in terms of totem development. The base design is even more flawed than at the beginning even, due to silence nerf, homogenisation, totems turning to cooldowns and the removal or changing of lots of totems that remained unique throughout the years.

Reintroducing the old totem would be a huge mistake. If you enjoy looking at the game with rose-tinted glasses, use Totemic Concealment Glyph, but dont expect blizz to bring back that crap (thank god there's no chance for that).

- - - Updated - - -

True, but Totem Bar saves some space from action bar.

Use Dominos then (or other action bar addons), allows multiple action bars. Totem Bar takes place just like any other does

[Chaosturn]

There is no "enormous difference" between placing buff totems every 5 minutes and not placing buff totems at all.

"Planning" what totems you put down was not dynamic lol, and it's not even necessary now because since the start of MoP there are only 8 raid-buffs which are pretty easy to obtain even on 10-man. So there's no point in having them do what they used to do. It was a waste of a global every 5 minutes.

Or every 2 minutes on Madness.

It was also a waste of 1&½ action bars clogged up with weaksauce boring totems.

[Roamingstorm]

Eh...I'm on the fence on this...

On one end if buffs didn't work how they are now, I'd be down for having that old system, I do miss call of the elements though and dropping 4 totems at once. (Surprised that isn't a CD or something for our class.)

On the other hand I do miss things such as Disease/Poisen cleansing totem, resist totem, and mana spring. I would like to see more variety of totems, of what I don't know, and I say this mainly because you look at water totems and realize (especially coming into WoD) if you're ele/enh you're only going to have 1 water totem.

[Darksoldierr]

Back then we had a really nieche role as support, especially with the old WF, totem dancing in SWP with Agi/WF on Muru, good old str totem, mana spring and tide, etc. But ever since 3.0, Blizzard is giving away our buffs to every other class, so you do not really feel the support role anymore, hell i'm not even sure enha and ele support at all. Is the support role still exists in WoW even?

[Aleksej89]

Whenever i see these "i miss old totems" posts, it sounds to me like someone says "i miss the leprosy" or "i miss the feeling of my bones breaking".

How can you miss something so bad, so awful, so disgustingly annoying?

The old totems were..... beyond horrible.

[Pyromelter]

Old totem mechanics were horrible, but I always liked the look of the garden of totems. Which is why I'm glad they added that glyph, although the glyph has disadvantages (the fake totems can pull mobs, or get in the way of clicking a clickable object on the ground).

[Deleted]

Old totem mechanics were horrible, but I always liked the look of the garden of totems. Which is why I'm glad they added that glyph, although the glyph has disadvantages (the fake totems can pull mobs, or get in the way of clicking a clickable object on the ground).

I'm glad they are removing totems pulling aggro in WoD, it was always a majorly annoying QoL thing.

[Jester Joe]

Healing spring is not EXACTLY the same. Before it was passive healing every couple seconds for 5 entire minutes, now it's a a very minor HoT every 30 seconds that you have to use a global cd for.

It's actually a very major HoT, seriously, it's a huge amount stronger than the old one.

Also, like you said, it's opinions, but saying "Oh, do we need x buff?" isn't really dynamic. The new system is more dynamic, where you have to plan what totems to use when during a fight, rather than only worrying about totems before the fight, and then having two shamans in the same group, talk about annoying having to set up who's dropping what.

All they really removed was the buff totems, made one passive basically.

Also oh God the annoyance of having to drop totems before every single trash pull in dungeons. Yeah, it's not the worst thing, but it wore me down so much...

This thread actually made me realize I hate the old totems, before I was indifferent.

[Deleted]

To all the people saying they hated old totems, remember pre-ICC where you had to drop all 4 individually? Oh man that was the worst. 4 seconds in the middle of every single fight to stop and drop all your totems, especially bad for elemental who desperately wanted to use Searing Totem for the extra DPS but were forced to use Totem of Wrath for the raid benefit.