9.0 Shaman redesign suggestions

[Kralljin]

That's kind of the problem when games change classes to much. You get some people that like the old styles of play and some that like the new.

The issues of totems as a mechanic were simply too big.
The mechanic felt already outdated in Classic in comparison to Paladin blessings, but the strength of these buffs simply carried the mechanic so to speak.

Once these buffs were no longer unique (Wotlk and onwards), totems as core mechanic officially fell through the floor.

I mean, Blizzard even made some attempts to go back and make stuff like Earthquake a totem, but they fucked up the tech behind it and the targeting was constantly bugged, so they removed it again.

The concept of some immobile sticks as core mechanic simply doesn't work unless you design the entire class around it.

[Rafal]

They won't, but I hope they nerf the living #&$_# out of Cloud Burst Totem for resto shamans. After two expansions of it being the go to talent I am sort of sick of playing around it. It's basically mandatory for every single raid encounter and is a waste of a talent slot.

[dopefishz]

just revert ele back to where it was at the end of mop and i'm the happiest guy on earth
god, how much i miss casting LB on the move

[Sughs]

I like dual wielding as Enhancement. More, I like how Enhanc is right now. Just solve a few things to make us able to compete better with other dps specs.

[Kalisandra]

just revert ele back to where it was at the end of mop and i'm the happiest guy on earth
god, how much i miss casting LB on the move

So do I. I could live with no CD on Flame Shock plus Gust of Wind as a replacement though.

[Razgard]

Will speak about enh here:
Even it they change stormstrike to nature dmg (and plz stormbringer to reduce cost to more like 50%) i would be happy.

And as a reply to people calling for totems in the rotation, old maelstorm, and big overhalls, i could not disagree more.
Mop enh had 2 good things, Ascedance burst and (arguably) fun aoe with fire nova, wotlk enh had the awkardness of searing totem (which i hated with a passion) and a clunky maelstorm mechanic.

IMHO legion was the most fun enh has ever been and by keeping the base part and improving it (not make it worse like they did), they can make it even better.

[Sevyvia]

For me to truly enjoy Resto Shaman again, I'd prefer that it go back to something TBC-like. Healing Rain is a clunky piece of shit, and the sooner we get rid of it, the better. How many expansions later are we now? I've missed my Resto Shaman since WotLK ruined it with that spell. We can keep all the other new stuff, I don't mind. But just more of a CH focus than I experienced in Uldir-era BFA. I doubt it's better now, but since I haven't played since then, I obviously can't say for sure. The same goes for Cloudburst Totem - get rid of it.

I'd also much rather have permanent-uptime buff totems again than random utility - though that's fun too. I enjoy having Tremor Totem for the times where it's useful, even if it isn't very often. But I'd much rather lean more towards the support-type healer we used to be. I used to be wanted in this or that raid group because MP5, agility, windfury procs or whatever mattered to people. I never asked for Hex, or the AoE stun totem, or whatever. I'm fine not having CC. I'd prefer to be the supporty healer again.

As far as the other specs go, don't care about Elemental, and Enhancement is fine. I'd like if it went back to its WF proc-focused roots, but I'm not super fussed. But I definitely don't want it to become a 2h spec. Not only is that space already crowded, I also don't know who thinks Enh was a 2h spec outside of the 1 token debuff Enh in Classic raids. You could go 2h for PvP, but when Enh became a viable DPS in TBC, it was absolutely dual-wield that was optimal, not 2h. There is no 2h to go back to as far as that's concerned - it was never a thing as far as being optimal goes.

[Advent]

MoP Enhancement with Alpha Wolf, Doom Vortex and Crash Lightning from Legion, and just remove searing totem. THAT would be my ideal version of a "redesign" because right now, mashing the crap out of Stormstrike is spammy, awkward and kind of removes a lot of the thrill of pressing the button in the first place. It's the exact thing I despised in Wrath when Arcane Mage was strong during ToC and the start of ICC. Mashing Arcane Blast ad nauseum made me want to throw my computer out the god damned window.

[music49]

Anything but BfA launch shamans and I'm happy. When resto spec is your strongest dps class there is a slight issue. There are a few talents that are just really fun to play with and it's a sham the other talents on that row is a must to be competitive. Give me ascendance and elemental blast back please

[Northy]

From a PvPers perspective...Not a fan of current Ele. Just make Lava Burst super beefy again. Get rid of Lava Surge. Take all the damage you shoved into lame stuff like Ascendance (spamming one ability zzzz), Icefury, and ele pets and shove it all into Lava Burst. Even our spender Earth Shock is underwhelming, its damage is weak, except when critting.

It's super annoying when in PvP I can cycle through my rotation on an enemy player over and over yet hardly see their health bar budge. Use the WotlK model for how to make Ele fun imo. We were immobile but we had a strong nuke spell. We were very counterable as we needed support from allies to max our performance. In BFA I feel like a slightly more mobile BB Gun when I want to feel like the standard plant totems immobile Ele cannon who thrives off help from teammates.

Also MORE persistent totems (I loved my totem forest...especially searing)

[Razion]

Throwing down totems is something Shaman want to do. Say you throw down an air totem at your target. It could act as a conduit for your Chain Lighting ability, able to be a free jump target to go out to other enemies, maybe being empowered when it jumps to the totem, with your Chain Lightning prioritizing the totem because of it being a conduit. You could further enhance your summoned totem abilities by dealing increased damage when they're dropped down on enemies, splashing with elemental damage when they land, and continually spilling out elemental damage, maybe mirroring your abilities, or summoning minor elementals to attack, with maybe the elementals multiplying your attacks or acting as conduits as well.

Same could be done for enhancement. You throw totems at your enemies, which land and burst out elemental force, augmenting your weapons and chaining your attacks to nearby enemies, with subsequent elementals being summoned causing their attacks to empower your abilities.

I think this kind of gameplay can encourage a safe way to introduce totems back as core abilities, without any of the hassle of the buffs breaking the group dynamic by making it integral to the Shaman's kit specifically.

[Wangming]

Throwing down totems is something Shaman want to do. Say you throw down an air totem at your target. It could act as a conduit for your Chain Lighting ability, able to be a free jump target to go out to other enemies, maybe being empowered when it jumps to the totem, with your Chain Lightning prioritizing the totem because of it being a conduit. You could further enhance your summoned totem abilities by dealing increased damage when they're dropped down on enemies, splashing with elemental damage when they land, and continually spilling out elemental damage, maybe mirroring your abilities, or summoning minor elementals to attack, with maybe the elementals multiplying your attacks or acting as conduits as well.

Same could be done for enhancement. You throw totems at your enemies, which land and burst out elemental force, augmenting your weapons and chaining your attacks to nearby enemies, with subsequent elementals being summoned causing their attacks to empower your abilities.

I think this kind of gameplay can encourage a safe way to introduce totems back as core abilities, without any of the hassle of the buffs breaking the group dynamic by making it integral to the Shaman's kit specifically.

I like the conduit idea for elemental and maybe resoration, but Enhancement needs to keep its own identity as a melee shaman, so I would probably recommend a few enha only totems that work as a sort of buff auras that give you positive effects when you are near them, but it keeps the shaman centric melee combat aspect. And is also a nice party buff.

[Razion]

I like the conduit idea for elemental and maybe resoration, but Enhancement needs to keep its own identity as a melee shaman, so I would probably recommend a few enha only totems that work as a sort of buff auras that give you positive effects when you are near them, but it keeps the shaman centric melee combat aspect. And is also a nice party buff.

I'd agree. Keeping the Shaman augmentations to the individual Shaman as self-buffs is a good way to make the summoning of totems good for Enhancement as a way to be different than Elemental's conduits. Could be fun to literally bash someone with a large totem before throwing it down - and can even reference that scene in that WoW opening where the Tauren does that to an enemy. Fun flavor.

[Wangming]

I'd agree. Keeping the Shaman augmentations to the individual Shaman as self-buffs is a good way to make the summoning of totems good for Enhancement as a way to be different than Elemental's conduits. Could be fun to literally bash someone with a large totem before throwing it down - and can even reference that scene in that WoW opening where the Tauren does that to an enemy. Fun flavor.

Oh absolutely. Hell you could probably enhance your totem with proc effects to change how the totem smash effects the target. Or maybe give shamans an ability where you consume the nearest buff totem by picking it up and punching the nearest mob with it and depending on the totem itself, the effect is slightly different. Like along with the damage the enemy gets a burn, a slow a stun or a silence (fire, earth, lightning, air respectively). It could be a nice finisher to a fight if you know you will move out of totem range soon anyway.

[kosajk]

i will just leave it here

The old totem was kinda bland really. I am kinda hyped to see what it does exactly. I do think they want to still stay far from "fire and forget" stuff. It's like how ret aura is not just something you press and forget about, it will actually bring something to the table.

I wouldn't be surprised if it has some new mechanic linked to it.

I'd also very much like to see fire elemental come back. I miss that buddy. I do understand they don't want to give too many CD tho because that just remove from the overall power of the class / spec.

there may be some problems related to it,
-like what range it will have?
-how much overal dmg % will be tied to it?
-how much hp it will have

that was allways problem with totems they could be outranged, insta destroyed and didynt do enough in their time frame to feel satisfying, beside some specific ones like tremor which had it times of glory
Adding a cd to list of its problems may be annnoing, will see i suppose how things will play.

my reall concerns are related to things that are not mentioned, like:
-ascendance being basline, btw can someone explain why its not being trigered by "visions of perfection"? Any reason given?
-lacking decent defensive cd, that actualy everyone else have in more or less crazy form (fucking DH Rain from Above, or monk Touch of Karma shit, or pala bubble without any penalty to dmg done, beast master buble up while pets eat everything alive, dodge, parry and many, many more, wth)
-making spirit wolfs do something more than being some extra autoattacks, for medium long cd they have
-making SS being affected by mastery on some level
-last but for sure not least, getting back old talent "ancestral guaidance" to self heal + raid utillity while doing dmg, that was been actually seriously decent shit in every shaman toolkit and on top of that really, really nice defensive/utillity cd in pvp

ps.
-old flame shock+ fire nova mechanic with basicly infinite scalling was been crazy good and so op so dont even counting this to get back in any form
maybe limiting it to 4-5 FS at same time would be enough for actualy getting back this, sweet to use and look at, skill combo :P
Although DK have it with slightly lower scaling which is mindfucking for me