http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments...eted_in_bc_an/
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Shamans are not a buff class anymore, and more than ever it’s becoming apparent that we need to unbind ourselves from what was always intended as a buff mechanic and instead focus on what makes shaman iconic thematically, instead of mechanically."
We lost so much during class homogenization.
This was devastating for a class meant to enhance, buff and provide utility for the rest. Others equally got what's taken from us, Mages got Bloodlust which was eventually removed from Arenas later. Windfury gone, Cleansing gone. Shaman has been pruned to death and lost their identity of buffing others.
Since then, we haven't received anywhere near to compensate our loss.
Other than buffing, we had gained a few temporary titles and identities: Turret, burster, THUNDERSTORMED!
How lovely.
We are lost since the homogenization and most of the time, even Blizzard doesn't even know what to do with us. However I do know that they keep telling us any major changes would require expensions. How many expensions can you count since the homogenization?
Blizzard still wanted to give us a few options, because back in the day the spec you know as Elemental had only one button: Lightning Bolt. Raiding would mean spamming the same button for many hours. And it literally looked like a sperm in the air. Imagine the joy.
Enter Lava Burst, Blizzard introduced it since Elemental players were hanging themselves out of boredom; had the potential to fulfill what Elemental lacked: A massive strike! Lava Lash was implemented for Enhancement with different timing but the same story. Particularly Elemental Shaman had an above average taste for RNG, thanks to mastery, spells could be duplicated. A spell which was impletemented to be the massive strike of Shaman could be very OP when stars aligned, so they had to keep it under control to a level that it wouldn't worth to count it as a massive strike compared to others.
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Resto Shamans wanted Spirit Link Totem for ages. That brought doom to all of us. Forums were swarming with angry PvP'ers and they were angry at this small 5 hp totem. "Unsubbed" spam began to take over the PvP forum, so Blizzard choose to release its wrath on all the totems.
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/5848168189
Instead of tunning Spirit Link, Blizzard chose to overkill the class for many reasons: Spirit Link was already an adopted child, it took so long to develop and it was probably a very hard process that day. It was a complicated spell mechanic and could lead more complexities, so Blizzard just uprooted the problem. This shook many Shamans' confidence in Blizzard that they knew what they were doing.
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Elemental Shamans wanted a PBAoE since they were the only single class who didn't have one and were terrible at AoE. EQ was implemented when we used to spend about 40-60 points to different talent trees, EQ used to be the final talent of Elemental. Till WoD, nobody used it and even today shamans are hesitant to use it.
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I can go on with billions of examples; Shaman is outdated. Paladins would be in our spot too if they didn't already receive many revamps. Blizzard needs to change their perspective on shaman. I want no more band-aid solutions, no more bullshit, no more new Stormstrike icons, no more Shamanism buffs.
Enough.