Shadowlands Enhance Skill Bloat

[HCLM]

Because the design of totems never evolved to match the game's newer design. They're not impactful or easy to maintain, nor are they powerful enough to warrant being as clumsily designed as they are. It's like everyone else moved towards using self-flying cars and we're still riding around on horses, shouting about how great the "good old days" of shoveling horse crap was.

Sorry but what? Totems are not easy to maintain? Pressing one button whenever you leave the range is difficult for you? Another post showing that not totems are the issue here, but people who are too lazy to press one more button from time to time.

[Kithelle]

Ye, some of the class changes are pretty nonsensical, and made only to appease this crowd. Corruption for Demo and Destro, but with a cast time? Shield Block and Shield Slam for Fury and Arms, but you need a shield equipped? Dumb.

Really, they added it back with a cast time? I haven't been paying attention to it that close...OMG it really is like they're just copying and pasting from classic lol

[Saltysquidoon]

I think shamans absolutely should keep totems (because they're shamans).
I am worried about edge cases though; if windfury is on the gcd in a high movement fights could cost an enhance shaman throughput.

[yeast]

I think shamans absolutely should keep totems (because they're shamans).
I am worried about edge cases though; if windfury is on the gcd in a high movement fights could cost an enhance shaman throughput.

Why not just add more utility totems instead of rotational ones? They'll still feel like an important part of our kit but won't directly affect our performance.

[Advent]

Sorry but what? Totems are not easy to maintain? Pressing one button whenever you leave the range is difficult for you? Another post showing that not totems are the issue here, but people who are too lazy to press one more button from time to time.

Is that really all you got from that? Perhaps I misspoke, because I assumed that it was obvious that I wasn't referring to the difficulty of dropping totems, I was talking about the hassle of being the only class whose buffs have an effective range, can be targeted and killed/interrupted, and had very irritating bugs that would often mean you spent a ton of wasted globals dropping them over and over during fights because the boss's attacks would despawn/kill them randomly. If you never encountered this, I envy you, because it was not an enjoyable experience. Are you going to address what I said about them not being particularly impactful? Not since TBC have they been unique or powerful enough to warrant them being such a hassle to use sometimes.

[Craaazyyy]

I was wondering how long until I'd see threads like this. Years of People crying about Pruning, suddenly crying about too many buttons.

Can never win.

well maybe it's just different people? ever thought about that?

even before unpruning some people were content with pruning and wanted more pruning to be done(LMAO)

some people would probably be "fine" with having 2 abilities, as long as they can still oneshot old content and other easy stuff cuz that's the only thing they're doing. There are also people that literally only care about finishing stuff and don't care about how they do it.. Fortunately they are a minority

pruning was one of the worst things that has happened to the game. Also the fact that all these threads are full of people that have absolutely zero idea about the game and how classes work is pretty telling

[Nadiru]

8 buttons, with two or three cooldowns is perfectly reasonable in a post-unpruning world.

[deenman]

But muh #unpruning! I thought you wanted useless cumbersome mechanics, isn't that why Classic is so popular? MUCH CONFUSED.

well the difference is that today all those cumbersome mechanics are all needed to be efficient,in classic 99% of abilities are literaly useless and you just spam 1 ability

[Super Kami Dende]

well maybe it's just different people? ever thought about that?

I never said it was the same People. My point is the People complaining about Pruning will now be content and the People that were fine with pruning are now going to be the insufferable idiots we have to listen to.

Hence the "can never win"

[barrsftw]

I'm pretty concerned for both Enhance and Ele tbh. From a PvP perspective, they already have like double the binds as some other melee dps, and have quite a bit more than most classes. Seems like they're adding like 4-10 more binds on top.

[Oxna]

4 gcds before you start doing damage....great

[Rettoz]

Shadowlands class design is intended to eliminate this mindset. You are a shaman, not a spec.

Just remove every spec from the game then with that logic

[Orwell7]

I don't know why Blizzard uses abilities "on their own".

Where are the interactions, synergies between spells?
Like - casting 5 SS makes your next LB instant and deal 200% more damage.
If Flame Shock is present on a target, then hard-casting Chain Lightning will spread the dots to CL targets.
If Windfury procs 10 times, your next SS deal extra damage.

Or something along those lines

[cocomen2]

I don't know why Blizzard uses abilities "on their own".

Where are the interactions, synergies between spells?
Like - casting 5 SS makes your next LB instant and deal 200% more damage.
If Flame Shock is present on a target, then hard-casting Chain Lightning will spread the dots to CL targets.
If Windfury procs 10 times, your next SS deal extra damage.

Or something along those lines

Your example would make Shaman good class with synergy , but as we know only rogues/mages/warriors can have this (shaman+druid =must be gimps and nerfed into oblivion just to make players of other classes feel better)

[Thestrawman]

Like why u people who hate totems even play shaman. Without totems shaman would be just another mage spec...

Also totems look awesome.

I'm fine with Shaman having totems back as a fundamental element of the class but couldn't they make them interesting? I mean searing totem is basically a DoT that can be out ranged. That's not fun, that's not interesting, it's basically a button to hit for the sake of having a button to hit.

[TorAndre]

I just want them to update the lightning bolt animation. Which is now an lightning-nudle animation. It was a complete uproar when it came like 10 years ago. It was not an improvement. And it has to be the oldest animations in the game at this point.

[HCLM]

I'm fine with Shaman having totems back as a fundamental element of the class but couldn't they make them interesting? I mean searing totem is basically a DoT that can be out ranged. That's not fun, that's not interesting, it's basically a button to hit for the sake of having a button to hit.

Agree on this, Searing Totem should be a part of Totem Mastery or something. Wasting GCD to cast it is completely not satisfying.

[Kalarm]

What's up with all this people that don't like shamans being shamans discussing? No totems? Get rid of lighting bolt and chain lightning? Maybe that's the reason shaman got such a poor treatment through all these years, listening to these people.

I think we're seeing a disconnect right now as people who joined the game for legion and only knew the legion's redesign are giving feedback while people who played much before that are also giving feedback. Both want different things :-/. Personally, I think I made it clear I preferred BC -> WoD enh. Partly because I loved the fantasy of being an elemental shaman that throws it's shocks and spells in the enemies face instead of far away.

[Kralljin]

What's up with all this people that don't like shamans being shamans discussing? No totems? Get rid of lighting bolt and chain lightning? Maybe that's the reason shaman got such a poor treatment through all these years, listening to these people.

No, Totems are simply not a great mechanic that works that well in WoW, let alone the modern game.

The reality of the situation is simply: Totems have been more of a curse than a blessing since Wotlk, where Buff totems were no longer unique.
Then, every buff totem was pretty much inferior to the tools other classes had, because they had to no range restrictions and were not tied to some immobile stick in the ground.

Not to mention, certain totems were just a braindead mechanic, Searing totem being the prime candidate here, it's simply not a great spell.
It has no real niche, it's just something you press on CD because numbers tell you to.

There are some totems where the mechanic works fine, Grounding or Tremor for example, some Resto Totems, but simply going "yay totems" is a terrible idea.
Often times, they feel just like inferior spells of something another class has with the downside being an immobile stick with 5 hp.

Totem *can* work, but they require work and thought on Blizzards end to work properly without becoming a major detriment of the Shaman class that just drags it down.
And whether Blizzard is willing to put that effort into them to make them function properly is something i doubt.

TL; DR Shaman sucked since Wotlk largely due to Totems, that's why people don't like them

[MakeMeLaugh]

No, Totems are simply not a great mechanic that works that well in WoW, let alone the modern game.

The reality of the situation is simply: Totems have been more of a curse than a blessing since Wotlk, where Buff totems were no longer unique.
Then, every buff totem was pretty much inferior to the tools other classes had, because they had to no range restrictions and were not tied to some immobile stick in the ground.

Not to mention, certain totems were just a braindead mechanic, Searing totem being the prime candidate here, it's simply not a great spell.
It has no real niche, it's just something you press on CD because numbers tell you to.

There are some totems where the mechanic works fine, Grounding or Tremor for example, some Resto Totems, but simply going "yay totems" is a terrible idea.
Often times, they feel just like inferior spells of something another class has with the downside being an immobile stick with 5 hp.

Totem *can* work, but they require work and thought on Blizzards end to work properly without becoming a major detriment of the Shaman class that just drags it down.
And whether Blizzard is willing to put that effort into them to make them function properly is something i doubt.

TL; DR Shaman sucked since Wotlk largely due to Totems, that's why people don't like them

Yea, just play something else and leave shamans to those that like shamans.