Shaman - Cataclysm Preview Compilation

[Northy]

Stoneclaw Fissure: The next ranged or melee attack used against the shaman will stun the attacker for x seconds. (3-5 secs likely). An on use ability, last 10 secs or until the effect is consumed. 1 minute CD.


My PvP idea. It will be the one defensive CD shamans would have.

[uka]

i still dont feel confortable with spirit->hit conversion for elementals.
it just feels odd.

[scvd]

I don't get why so many people have issue's with Enhance, what's wrong with 11k dps average stand alone fight :/

[pomop]

I don't get why so many people have issue's with Enhance, what's wrong with 11k dps average stand alone fight :/

Thats not at all what we are having issues about. While a warrior has 32k health, i'm in ICC with 21k. I was one shot because Deathwhisper wanted to MC one of my friends (or so i though) and he hit me for 23k. I was literally one shot as enhance, but i'd still be alive if i were another melee class. Even rogues have more health than us.

Why? It's quite simple actually. Out of all of the classes, enhance needs the most stats. That leaves us with overall less stamina on gear compared to other melee classes like rogues and warriors. On top of that, enhance has caster based health in melee combat.

[Stay]

TL DR: SG easily countered in PvP, little synergy with GW (would be OP if it had synergy anyway). Unleash Weapon decent. Healing Rain limited use for PvP, optimistic for Spirit Link. Need some passive survivability for enhance (only spec I can comment on). Nature damage only from mastery could go either way.

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As a PvP Enh shaman I facepalm'd at these changes like (I assume) most of the PvP'ers did.

Spiritwalker's Grace:
Casting while moving sounds great, though likely your need to move comes from being attacked by melee, usually being attacked means being snared. So you're both snared since you likely dropped EB or a FS and now you're casting while moving away from your totems while still having the melee guy(s) on you.
I know there are ways around it; a short burst of GW, partner(s) locking them down, LoS'ing, etc, but in those situations I don't really see how it'd be useful since you've already gotten distance, locked melee, LoS'd or what have you.
Apart from these things you can just be CC'd when you pop it or have it dispelled/stolen which is great! They may wait 'till you pop it to blow a stun/CC they may have just used when off CD, which may make your life easier.
Not trying to say it's terrible. It will work in some cases, but don't believe it's as clutch as I've seen it portrayed. Also I'm worried that they'll consider this a survivability tool for Enhance and expect us to run around spam healing ourselves, possibly without heals scaling at all from our gear.

Unleash Weapon:
Cool, more to fit in the rotation, but that's not a big problem if they're making LL even less useful.

Healing Rain:
Like someone else said, the PvP uses are limited at best. Spirit link will be great if it's anything like it was going to be last time they came close to releasing it.

Are any of the other Enh PvP players thinking that we really just need some better passive survivability? Or some talent(s) that don't bring our dps to a screeching halt when we switch to shield when focused. Not really a fan of receiving a CD and telling us we're fixed. CD ends and we're in the same place we were in LK.

As far as nature damage only from mastery, depending on the numbers, it could be great in one case; they might consider Enh to be closer to pure than it is now since our healing abilities will be worse, which may mean more damage and passive survivability.
Overall though I'm with the rest of you in thinking it's an overlook that'll be changed to Elemental Damage before beta let alone release.

Constructive criticism of ideas, gogo.

[DeadS]

Spiritwalkers Grace as elemental is probably <30 DPS gain in PVE for Elemental who casts the most.

Most fights do NOT have 10s of movement. Fights with movement require you to move for about 2-4s, and very very often (putricide, LK etc). Meaning the point where using the spell won't even matter at all.

If I had to say anything, its basically a PVP "buff". PVE it doesn't help very much (maybe 1/1000 of a second sooner the boss will die?)

[Arathull]

I don't get why so many people have issue's with Enhance, what's wrong with 11k dps average stand alone fight :/

because we suffer so much DPS loss while moving and switching targets we lose probly the MOST dps for moving, maybe arcane mage suffers a ton if they are moving alot but this isnt the point. the point is that we need more on the go dps, when we are standing still we can be one of the decent dps. but it falls with the class with beinh such a hybrid whore

[Gilian]

Thats not at all what we are having issues about. While a warrior has 32k health, i'm in ICC with 21k. I was one shot because Deathwhisper wanted to MC one of my friends (or so i though) and he hit me for 23k. I was literally one shot as enhance, but i'd still be alive if i were another melee class. Even rogues have more health than us.

Why? It's quite simple actually. Out of all of the classes, enhance needs the most stats. That leaves us with overall less stamina on gear compared to other melee classes like rogues and warriors. On top of that, enhance has caster based health in melee combat.

How do you get 21k hp in icc? I have 32k as elemental. Maybe you should gear first before you go there.
If you were undergeared in TBC you had the same problem.

[Pinkdressed]

Why change so much?
I dont want spirit to get mp5...
I hate standing in any form of rain..
I dont want another 'o shit' button..

Ah screw it.. It will probably be fun after a while :-*

[slaise1]

Now, they only have to bring back the old wf totem, since cata is about to focus on more "fun" specs an abilities and delete the "boring" ones.

[detramental]

How do you get 21k hp in icc? I have 32k as elemental. Maybe you should gear first before you go there.
If you were undergeared in TBC you had the same problem.

he clearly said enhance.
elemental gear only has intellect and stamina, whereas enhance has stamina, intellect, and agility.

i'm in practically all 264 gear, and barely break 29k fully buffed.
as a melee, that's horrible and we just get steamrolled if there's constant damage or aoe.

[Omanley]

How do you get 21k hp in icc? I have 32k as elemental. Maybe you should gear first before you go there.
If you were undergeared in TBC you had the same problem.

unbuffed =/= buffed.

[Zulcatt]

If they itemized our gear for more health i'm sure they would have to take some from our damage buffs, they always seem to give and take like when they changed the warrior set to give more armor they took away stats. I have 21,400 base health in full 264 gear but with raid buffs and the 10% zone buff health its around 30k which is bare minimum for most hard modes. As enhance shaman we spend some fights sitting there with our maelstrom proc ready to hit an instant heal on ourselves which is a waste of good dps.

[Mem]

As enhance shaman we spend some fights sitting there with our maelstrom proc ready to hit an instant heal on ourselves which is a waste of good dps.

If your healers are doing their jobs, you shouldn't have to worry about using your maelstrom procs for anything but dps. I remember spamming a lot of lightning bolts and chain lightnings but only chain heals when I decided that I should be healing instead of dpsing. That's why I decided to go to heals when the dual-specs were implemented. I enjoyed it so much, it became my main spec for the duration of the expansion.

[Mem]

I have a feeling enhance should be feeling a priority change in the expansion.

Wolves
MW5x (LL->LB->CL)
UW (WF/WF)
FS
SS
ES
LL
~refresh totems/shield

Is what I envision atm, comments appreciated. Anyone have any sims or ideas for the numbers on Unleash Weapon?

[pomop]

How do you get 21k hp in icc? I have 32k as elemental. Maybe you should gear first before you go there.
If you were undergeared in TBC you had the same problem.

I am in ToC gear. And either way, its not good. The other melee classes have room for a few mistakes, enhance shamans have none.


edit - and said before, you are ele. We focus on three main stats when you focus on two, as well as needing other bonuses like AP, expertise, crit, haste, etc.

[Miranger]

I still love how they claim "totems make shamans unique" no inadequate and outdated systems make us "unique"
Everyone puts up a buff and they dont have to worry about running out of range... We do...
ENH shammies fail hardcore in PVP because we have to redrop totems everywhere we go do pallies have to blow a cooldown to keep up their buffs? no they're tied in to their abilities...
I'm sorry but i cant be mediocre class anymore i barely wanna consider playing in cata if they dont wipe out totems altogether and just give us buffs like normal classes. I dont wanna be "special with a niche" its dumb and it makes us weaker. It saddens me to be one of the few enh shamans out there that actually knows their class well enough to reach 2300+ rating in pvp. Every class is getting buffs and were getting some abilities but the core issues have yet to be fixed.
it Took 3 1/2 years to break me down but if this doesn't change i might just reroll Paladin or DK come the expansion and press 2 buttons to do the same dmg i do now after i press 5 buttons.

/rant over >

[Northy]

TL DR: SG easily countered in PvP, little synergy with GW (would be OP if it had synergy anyway). Unleash Weapon decent. Healing Rain limited use for PvP, optimistic for Spirit Link. Need some passive survivability for enhance (only spec I can comment on). Nature damage only from mastery could go either way.

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As a PvP Enh shaman I facepalm'd at these changes like (I assume) most of the PvP'ers did.

Spiritwalker's Grace:
Casting while moving sounds great, though likely your need to move comes from being attacked by melee, usually being attacked means being snared. So you're both snared since you likely dropped EB or a FS and now you're casting while moving away from your totems while still having the melee guy(s) on you.
I know there are ways around it; a short burst of GW, partner(s) locking them down, LoS'ing, etc, but in those situations I don't really see how it'd be useful since you've already gotten distance, locked melee, LoS'd or what have you.
Apart from these things you can just be CC'd when you pop it or have it dispelled/stolen which is great! They may wait 'till you pop it to blow a stun/CC they may have just used when off CD, which may make your life easier.
Not trying to say it's terrible. It will work in some cases, but don't believe it's as clutch as I've seen it portrayed. Also I'm worried that they'll consider this a survivability tool for Enhance and expect us to run around spam healing ourselves, possibly without heals scaling at all from our gear.

Unleash Weapon:
Cool, more to fit in the rotation, but that's not a big problem if they're making LL even less useful.

Healing Rain:
Like someone else said, the PvP uses are limited at best. Spirit link will be great if it's anything like it was going to be last time they came close to releasing it.

Are any of the other Enh PvP players thinking that we really just need some better passive survivability? Or some talent(s) that don't bring our dps to a screeching halt when we switch to shield when focused. Not really a fan of receiving a CD and telling us we're fixed. CD ends and we're in the same place we were in LK.

As far as nature damage only from mastery, depending on the numbers, it could be great in one case; they might consider Enh to be closer to pure than it is now since our healing abilities will be worse, which may mean more damage and passive survivability.
Overall though I'm with the rest of you in thinking it's an overlook that'll be changed to Elemental Damage before beta let alone release.

Constructive criticism of ideas, gogo.

This post is dead-on. PvP'ers most certainly Facepalmed at the changes for Shamans. SpiritWalkers Grace is clearly sub-par for pvp, for all the reasons stated above. I'll stick with using Ghost Wolf instead of Spiritwalker's Grace, thanks anyways Blizz.

[Laita]

OMG, can't wait for "Healing Rain" another OP heal inc, gotta love shammy heals, my favourite class in the game, followed by paladins (nobody heard me say that), Cata is gonna be so sweet for resto spec shamans, we can run and dance like a druid while healing (only for 10 secs once every 2 mins) but who cares, i can finally heal and move outta the fire when burning, its not a case of should i move and risk letting someone die so i can get outta the fire? or should i just finish my cast then move? now its like oh shit, i'm on fire, <insert Spiritwalker's Grace macro here>, boom diggity hawt dang, lookie here, i can run and heal... oh crap its on CD now... /cry /QQ... 2 mins later, i can do it again, i mean come on Blizz, in case ya can't tell i'm being sarcastic here, 10 secs once per 2 mins CD, are you seriously nuts, thats like giving a fat kid a candy shop for his B'day and telling him he can't have more then 1 lolly a day... why is it that druids can run their asses off, jump around like their nuts are literally on fire and still top the healing done for a 5 mins boss fight? and yet every other healer class literally has to stand still to cast, oh come on, the "Healing Rain" idea is literally fuckin AWESOME, but like i said, Spiritwalker's Grace is already sounding likes its gonna be pretty crap and unless you intend to design boss fights so that healers and ranged only have to move once every 2 mins then how about making it like 30 seconds with a 2 mins CD, or 15 seconds with a 1 min CD, that would literally make more sense, especially when it comes to PvP, i can tell you now i never really use my cooldowns ever unless the tank is in serious need of a BOM heal, then its hit the macro, instant cast healing wave crit (usually for about 32K) then back to healin the raid, i can literally go for 10 /12 ICC 10 man run in one night and use my cooldowns on Prof Putricide and not need to use my cooldowns on any other bosses

anyways rant over for now

[Dalinth]

Spiritwalker's Grace to me looks like (yet) another big red target saying "PLEASE CC ME SO I CAN'T HEAL".