Shaman population dwindling?

[Marrilaife]

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.

Tbh that's a bit shitty. Either you're a casual guild and then it doesn't matter, you can play with ferals, shadows and shammies and still clear raid. Or you're hardcore and then probably those shamans would think themselves about a backup plan and discuss it with the guild, because shaman has notorious history of being bad especially starts of xpacs. I know our players from "dangerous" dps specs planned a backup, ele shammy made a warlock and spriest made a hunter. And ended up they're playing these alts until their mains become useful in mythic raiding. Sad but true, check logs for fetid devourer mythic: nearly 400 warlocks and hunters, 25 ele shammys, 6 enhance and 21 spriests. Shows which classes are not picked.

[Silver Forte]

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?

I don't get why people think this. I haven't been looking at sims or any of that super technical stuff, but when I switch to elemental, there's a noticeable increase in the time it takes me to kill mobs. Enhance, I can kill mobs in under 5 seconds.

[Byleth]

A combination of all four issues for me. I shut up my Shaman for business 2 weeks ago.

[bonewax]

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?

I have a friend that works at blizzard and secretly installed a camera in the shaman team's development area, here's what we saw.

[obesemidget]

I am rerolling priest. I have been a shaman main since Wrath but there is no point anymore. The gameplay is stale and unrewarding seeing as there is a cap under the top tier of gameplay I just can't reach as shaman. Shaman need tank healing abilities or they won't be able to clear top end content.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't get why people think this. I haven't been looking at sims or any of that super technical stuff, but when I switch to elemental, there's a noticeable increase in the time it takes me to kill mobs. Enhance, I can kill mobs in under 5 seconds.

Go resto instead of ele. You kill things faster and have more survivability
.

[Volitar]

Yeah, there is a reason there are very few DPS Shaman mains still around in top tier guilds and its gotten so bad that its started to bleed over into the casuals as well. Why play an underbalanced shitty version of a Mage when you could just play a Mage?

[tyng1]

Came back to wow a week after bfa launched. Leveled my enhance shaman and put 5 days played time at 120 to realize the poor state that shamans are in after being denied from so many m+ and raids. So i rerolled. So sad.

[Marrilaife]

I don't get why people think this. I haven't been looking at sims or any of that super technical stuff, but when I switch to elemental, there's a noticeable increase in the time it takes me to kill mobs. Enhance, I can kill mobs in under 5 seconds.

For m+ mostly because their aoe is extremely poor and they don't bring anything indispensable to compensate for it. You're probably better off bringing a havoc demon hunter.

For raids, there are some melee unfriendly bosses and you already need dh for the magic debuff, warrior for battle shout, maybe monk for the physical debuff, and out of all these 3 classes only monks are widely played as raid tanks, then there are some bosses where grips are useful so you also want a dk, maybe ret for wisdom, and then if you have to choose between rogue or shaman / feral / survival hunter, rogue wins, even after all the nerfs.

P.S. Oh look as I was typing the post, they're buffing shamans (doubt it's enough).

[Deleted]

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, those officers don't seem very competent to me. If these Shamans were performing that well for their class, they're good players. You never cut good players from your roster. Plus, I'd rather take players who are mechanically solid and who play for the team over players who only try to get higher parses during progress - the latter type of player is more of a liability to your group. I feel bad for those Shamans, as well as other Shaman players in the same predicament. Right now it doesn't matter how good a player you are if the class itself is too undertuned.

As far as I'm aware, Enhancement at least is looking at some major buffs in 8.1, a flat 5% damage increase. Think Elemental is getting some attention as well. The class will improve, at least for DPS specs. Not sure about Resto yet, but if Blizzard do turn around and decide to buff Resto I'll be very surprised. It's possible they're working on more major changes for Resto to make it competitive in spread healing fights or M+, but who knows at this point. Either way I am not optimistic.

For now at least, the Shaman population is dwindling and that trend will continue. Resto Shaman is already dead in the water, but at least the DPS specs might have some hope.

[Deleted]

A flat 5% buff won't save enhancement and its terrible toolkit and clunky playstyle.
A 15% LB/CL/EQ buff won't save elemental. The other changes on PTR makes it look a little less bad, but it's still not even close.

[Malikath]

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.

what's worse, shaman isn't alone.
blizzard has been dropping the ball on player's heads for years.

[Silver Forte]

For m+ mostly because their aoe is extremely poor and they don't bring anything indispensable to compensate for it. You're probably better off bringing a havoc demon hunter.

For raids, there are some melee unfriendly bosses and you already need dh for the magic debuff, warrior for battle shout, maybe monk for the physical debuff, and out of all these 3 classes only monks are widely played as raid tanks, then there are some bosses where grips are useful so you also want a dk, maybe ret for wisdom, and then if you have to choose between rogue or shaman / feral / survival hunter, rogue wins, even after all the nerfs.

P.S. Oh look as I was typing the post, they're buffing shamans (doubt it's enough).

I wouldn't know anything about either of those situations as I've not done any of it since Legion. I can easily see how the AOE for Elemental would be preferred over Enhance. Sometimes I switch to elemental for random dungeons but it gets boring building maelstrom just to drop earthquake over and over and I end up missing my enhance rotation... even though it relies way too much on stormbringer.

[Drunkenfinn]

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.

Wut? At the very least Elemental was amazing in Cataclysm ever since the Firelands patch.
But yeah, the class is in dire straits at the moment... In the past I could just say "well, at least I can still play Resto and be kind of viable", but now I can't even do that

Not much I can do about it, though... once a Shaman always a Shaman.

[ganiccus]

Stopped played this game after MoP (ex-resto shaman main raiding hardcore), glad to see how things never seem to change for shamans.
-Garbage mastery that only matters in PvP
-Garbage spread healing
-Stupid stacking healing niche that doesnt even make the spec shine over the other healers (all healing classes benefit from a stacked raid duh)
-Disc priests, resto druids and MW monks sniping your heals 24 7.

So basically, resto can only shine if encounters are designed to let the raid stack (which is just boring boss design, something that Blizzard rarely does) or your raid derps so hard that you finally feel like you actually have a mastery. Whenever content is on farm status (which should be in theory your 2nd kill), your raid executes fights better, take less damage, and other healers outscale the shit of you, so you feel as useless as nipples on a man. And that will never change as long as resto shaman has that terrible excuse of a mastery and is stuck with that broken toolkit that doesnt let you heal effectively on spread fights.

[Xruptor]

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

I suppose the consensus is from what I've read here and from observations that shaman population is somewhat diminishing as of late. Perhaps the upcoming patches will fix that. It's a pretty sad state how things have gotten to this point for Shaman. Perhaps Blizzard is trying to remedy this. Only time will tell.

[PhantasmagoriaX]

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.

As a (EX) Resto Shaman I have re-rolled to monk to heal, It makes me sad cause my shaman was my first healer I ever made and its what got me raiding.

[ro9ue]

What the hell's a shaman?

[Exkrementor]

Nobody can blame someone not playing a shaman.
They are pretty much always bottom last numbers wise. At best they are mediocre like in Antorus or Firelands. And when the gameplay sucks too like now in bfa, why would someone play such a thing?
Shamans have no real utility. Purge is nice, everything else is shit compared to other classes. Look at balance druids. Their damage is not very good but they have so much utility. Treants, Typhoon, Massroot, Sunbeam, wtf?

But Blizzard is not helping. Shamans were adressed in the AMA but it took 3 weeks to get some tuning.

Every class sucks more than it did in Legion but it seems like they just dont give a damn about Shamans. Shaman is the class that high end guilds only have as alts because maybe one is usefull at some Boss maybe not.

We get some minor tweeks in 8.1 because 9 months of Beta are not enough time to change 3 talents.

Blizzard doesnt give a shit about shamans, that is clear for years now, but sometimes they are fun to play. Just not now.

[bbr]

Everyone should roll either shaman, druid, priest of paladin,. having a class that can either dps, tank or heal is insanely useful for your utility, and meanss you can get into raids more easily.

As a pure dps class myself i can tell you i'm jealous most of the time of the damage some hybrid classes are able to pull off... :/

[Drsloth]

Everyone should roll either shaman, druid, priest of paladin,. having a class that can either dps, tank or heal is insanely useful for your utility, and meanss you can get into raids more easily.

As a pure dps class myself i can tell you i'm jealous most of the time of the damage some hybrid classes are able to pull off... :/

Congratulations, you've just won the dumbest post of the century award.