Wow Cataclysm Shaman Changes
Written by WoW Cataclysm.
Shaman have had to endure alot of pain over the past several years and have been promised many things. While they did get some major attention in the recent patch with their ‘totem fix’, they still need alot of work. In WoW Cataclysm, Shaman will hopefully get the fixes that they’ve been asking for. There’s already signs that developers are working on the Shaman class in Wow Cataclysm.
List of new additions and changes for Shaman in WoW Cataclysm:
With Battlegrounds gaining more importance in Cataclysm, they should be much more useful in PvP than today even with no changes. Shaman have always had a variety of tools and different options in battle but the burstiness of arena and crowd control never favored them much. Hopefully the new expansion will make Shaman of all sorts be viable and competitive. Check back later with more Shaman news for WoW Cataclysm.
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First!
“AoE Healing will also be imporoved, as Blizzard would like that aspect of the Restoration Shaman to improve” ?
Umh ok.
btw, fix “imporoved”
must admit, this is super shmexy from my shams point of view, Cataclysm seems to be great for every1 but locks
GIVE US 2H VIABILITY FOR PVP =)
Hi when beta comes out i gonna hack all computers then destroy the world of world craft cataclysm go a why or i kill the captain of BlizzArd
took them long enough to decide not to force ele shamans into being turrets anymore.
How bout they do this, get ride of elementals summoned by totems.
Replace them with weaker elementals that support the shaman and are magical and not physical targets. LIke the old totems were. These elementals can only be summoned one at a time and have different raid buffs and adds dps/heals to shaman ( not a huge increase)
For example:
Wind Elemental
Increase dodge chance of raid (1%)
casts lightning at shamans target (nature damage)
Fire Elemental
Increase Parry chance of raid (1%)
casts fiery flares at shamans target (fire damage)
Earth Elemental
Increase Defense chance of raid (1%)
casts shards at shamans target (physical damage)
Water Elemental
Increase spell resistance of all magic for raid (1%)
casts heal over time on lowest health in raid
Summoning elementals will use a reagent. These reagents drop from elementals throughout the world.
Basically this idea adds another layer of buffing to shaman and strategy to playing the class.
But this is just an idea..its pretty similar to how imp is to warlock.
i think shamans are great already and now u make it easier but not for warriors i thing u must just go and just give worriors as much as u give the rest
so far it sucks to be a worrior when cataclysm comes out
please make shamans not able to wear mail
Taking mail from shamans… you’re joking right? it’s not like we’re getting beaten to death by melee classes as it already is lol, and giving us leather… don’t even want to think about it
wow devilz are you seroius thats dumb how all thoes tings are to help tanks they already are buff with raid buffs and totem buff andy more then raids would be easy.. and why not think of something like for pvp we need more survivabilty every class has more cc than shammans do which they need to fix
Why Enhancement shamans never buffed? Always nerfed! WTF I like SHaman very Much i have a enchancement shaman, I play with DW and 2H Please! Buff 2H shamans! and DW too for PvE and PvP ! Shamans only are “good” in Elemental / Resto, not enhacement… Its’s funny. . .Thanks for your reading, Windfuryrape.
how many other shamans go into a BG with 20k health and get hit and first thought is i need to heal or get out of here and its kinda a pain when all i can do is anhk to survive a bit hit and come back with 5k health to be hit once and die again, ele/enh need something to keep them up and resto needs something to take an enemy out in pvp without wasting talent points.
Yea its great ele shaman need more damage from lighting bolt etc. than he have now. I waiting for emails from new changes about ele sham
my enh shaman was quite good in arena when full furious was good but i would like to see 2 handers buffed.
Can we resto shammys get a water elemental totem? the water elemental would be like our off heals? that would definitely cover the whole “improve AoE healing thing” would give us another version of ourselves healing… but you know..not as powerful.
I play an ele shaman, and am starting into arena. Damn, it is great to hear that I can finally survive as the main target in my 2v2 {With Ret Pally} and do decent. I can`t wait until Cat, it promises to be the best thing for shammies since totems.
I say give Shammy’s a Plate Talent, and also an elemental shapeshift form that boosts our armor so we can take even more damage. Add with that some threat boosters and we are gtg for tanking too.
haha, stupid blizzard, they just buff rogues, enhancment shaman die fast, have a regular dps and realy sux in pvp comparated with other classes..
damn i hate be a nerfed class.
ele shammies = cake mix in pvp stun the healer for more then 3 seconds and there dead lol now survivability what so ever
they shouldnt fix rouges i hate rouges but definitly fix shamans
They have to be very careful how they level us. Yes, Elemental is a long range turret that gets nuked in a heartbeat. but gods forbid the enemy lets us actually get our spells off. Enhance? yup, goes down like a punk bitch, but let them build their maelstrom up and they become beasts. we’re a strong, powerful class, but it is almost entirely offensive, with very, very limited defense. i’ve been to the arena a few times with an undergeared elemental shaman. went with a prot paladin, myself, and a boomkin. many times i would be targeted first, and if i could survive for more than a few seconds, i ripped apart whatever i targetted. so yeah, my whole point is this: we’re glass cannons, just like mages or rogues, we simple are made of more fragile glass
What about for ele shamans they get a talent abit like mirror image but they change into the 4 elements and can switch between them each has different skill etc..think about it
dudes when will the shamans be able to use 1h and 2h swords cause even here on cataclysm i still can*t find anything about shamans and swords.
I red so much about this (shamans sword skill)and all say that shamans need swords.I red a thing about which need most weapon improved- did DKs need fist weapons, did rouges need axe and did shamans need sword and at the end all of us(the dudes that have write in the blizzard forum agreed that the shamans need an improve so that they can wear sword and at the end of all this blizzard gave the rogues a axe skill and the shamans -nothing. blizard just fucked us oof
death wind is very cool
Id like to see a viable 2h spec for pve/pvp.
I quit playing enhancement because it was so weak.
why don’t they just give us a few seconds range stun. ive got a a ele sham and i got a glyph that with thunder storm enemys don’t fly away for in pve. that qlyph should be able to be turned off for in pvp
I play on an enh shaman, and all i can say is “it rules”. i have extreme survivability and never running out of mana. after cata… shamans will be godlike. (I think)
I have a ele shaman but I see enh shamans in arenas (2v2) owning everything with those spirit wolf so I think shamans are pretty good as they are now and I dontthink any upgrades are really needed but a change always makes things a little
funner!
Haha, wow, so much delicious, retarded QQ in this post <3
I love my shaman in BG’s I own but in 2′s I have to FS, GW kite a lot depending on the class and what totems you drop you can survive. My arena teams are just my RL buddies and not the best make up so we don’t go far at all enhance is pimp I’m usually the last one alive ele is fun doing hella damage when you get the chance but resto imo is bunk in anthing but BG’s and pve content. Resto has 1 real instant cast hot no real stuns and a crappy 45 sec CD hex, ya hex is cool and all but overall its just an interrupt on the healer when your dropping his buddy in the next two or four seconds. Maybe the new resto spells will make it worthwhile to resto sham arenas so when they try and drop my shaman like they try and drop my druid it will come down to skill not oh SH$% I’m stunned, trinked got riptide on myself stunned and now dead. I want to resto pvp I love shamans and their diversity/utility but I’m not going to get all my pvp gear up for resto like my ele set and enhance set when it is NO good in 2′s imo
I play elem in pvp. When i started out things were very harsh. I got geared and run around with relentless/wrathfull all bought without rating. I pwn every undergeared player more or less and many good geared. Certain classes i can’t stand a chance if the player is skilled. Rogues and good hunters/mages are a pain in the ass. We will always have a nemesis class but i do agree that shammys need some great buff on the CC and defense. I run around with 1.2k res and if 2 people targets me im pretty much dead. So basicly what im saying is that shammys do need a buff compared to other classes but my opinion is to put great weight on improving our CC and defense much rather than our dmg.
lol seriously though, how many times have shaman been promised fixes. Granted blizz has done better lately, I’ll wait till it actually happens before I decide to reup.
AOE healing improved? For reals? Chain heals with riptide is OP as it is. I play resto shaman and I outheal all other healers with higher GS as it is. I just hope they know what they doing cause I love my resto shaman as it is!
elemental shaman need a real shield or buble cause they alway be first to shot in pvp and is the unique class that no have a REAL protection…c’mon guys the shield provided by stoneclaw totem is really stupid
I play an enhance shammy on dawnbringer server and I pulled 12k in ICC… if you’re trying to say they need to be fixed, you might need fixed in the head yourself. I mean I can admit that I’m the only one on the server I’ve seen pulling the dps, but still it’s possible.
i play an enh shaman off spec’d ele…anyways i agree with most other comments. Shamans wether it be enh or ele put out some mass dps but when targeted with a skilled player or more than one enemy they are almost defenseless. i can drp someone in bg’s pretty well but its no use trying to stay alive if im outnumbered.shamans need some sort of bubble like a paladin or a new shock that can be a heal over time.(off subjct: Swords would b sweet/maybe pl8 lol) just a thought guys. hope we dont get nerf’d
As far as defense goes for enh shaman, instant healing waves from MW plus Shamanistic rage are decent to an extent, but having to use that big boost in damage from MW just to stay alive is pretty annoying. Our dps is clearly fine for pvp, i would just be way happier if we could have some way to stay alive, without sacrificing so much damage.
So people intelligently picked to play as a shaman because it was the strongest all round class. But with every explansion the shaman has been downgraded to a point where its the good at nothing and provides unnoticed improvements to groups. The shaman was the general of a group providing the little differences to turn a battle but not anymore. Without a cleansing totem we’re just a useless member to a group providing a little damage and not much else.
ok im a enh sham have most wraithfull peices and around 1.2 resil and enh needs some sort of shield ele has astral shift resto has earth shield wtf about enhance did they forget about us’ stun is pretty much gg for us rouges shit all over us …but on the other hand let us rip and its all over most of the time AND I FUCKING LOVE PURGE mages QQ so much over it best move sham has in my opnion..
Now i’ve read too much QQ about people complaining about Shaman having bad defences.
Shamans have extremley good defnece versus spellcasters. They have Shear every 5 sec with Reveberation, Elemental talent (should be in both Enha and Ele pvp spec) and it’s off the CGD! And they also have Grounding totem every 11.5 sec talented and 4set from pvp.
Elemental Shammys also have very good survivability vs many melee classes, 5 sec root every 15 sec. Elemental Shamans also have TS, which is usable in stuns. Enha Shamans have Shamanistic Rage, also usable in stuns. 30% dmg reduction! It’s almost Pain Suppression! And 5 stack MSw is very good, critting up to 10k with HW.
Even more survivability for Ele, Astral Shift, 30% dmg reduction while in stuns and silences. Imba.
And Woop here said that Ele Shams have trouble against Mages, Hunters and Rogues. Mages and Hunters are some of the easiest classes for an Ele Shaman. Rogues are around 50/50.
Mage: Always dispel FoF(fingers), but don’t do it if u risk dispelling Ice Barrier. DON’T dispel Ice Barrier, i’ll explain soon. Make them use CP, if they’re stupid they will use it on LvB, then you are only locked out of fire and can LB and CL him all u want. But let’s say he’s pro. He will CP u in nature spell. Use some totems of they’re not on CD. When he has use his CP, u are free to heal up, using grounding and Shears. Then you Hex and dispel all his buffs. Then FlS, and here’s the big trick: Cast LvB, and as soon as it’s cast time is over u purge his Ice Barrier. That’s why u shouldn’t dispel it randomly. The LvB will hit him with full force. With Barrier it probably won’t deal any dmg, it’s often completley absorbed. And repeat. Try to stay close at start so u won’t have to trinket DF(using TS)
Hunters: Get close and root. He will use Deterrence. Follow him wherever he goes in GW, When Deterrence is over use FS, switch to GW and follow him again. Do this until next root, then u can start dmging him. When the root is over cast hex and finish him off, if you can’t just run in GW until next root and then kill.
Rogues: Have Lightning Shield and Searing Totem, and cleansing ofc. When he Kidney u, use TS. When he comes back the KS is over unless u are bad at positioning. Then do FlS and root. He will CoS and Vanish. Refresh LS, totems, and w8 for him to come again. Use trinket on the CS and FlS. Do an instant LvB on him. Refresh and just stay alive until next root, use SCT. Keep FlS at him at all times. When root is ready, you root, LvB, if he Blinds u it will be NP coz u have FlS on him ofc. He’ll be almost dead after that LvB because rogues are very fragile and your LS and Searing has taken some dmg. Hex when you see the opportunity. Just never cast any nature spell when he’s close to you, because he will Kick you and rip you apart.
The really hard/impossible classes to beat for an Ele Shaman are DKs(hard to impossible), Affli locks(impossible), Spriests(impossible), Warriors(hard to impossible) And some healers ofc.
-Yeman, Dunemaul. 2.2 achi in all brackets as Ele(now i’m resto
Thank you, TehShaman
You helped me alot. And btw, Nice trick vs those Mages.
i have ele and resto, duel spec i mean, i had enh shaman before switching to ele cous ranged have bigger dps in a group, but i still need some improvements couse as much as i try mages and other range have better dps thane me, i think they should shorten the CD of elemental mastery and ad some shields that are kinda like buble for pala just so we dont die as soon as th boss casts something on us, also they need to improve the totems…….
SHAMANS SUCK IN WOTLK THATS THE FACT WE ARE CARIED CLASS
Blizzard has said that they wanted to equalize buffs, spread them around, so that buffs and buffbots are no longer an important consideration when making a raid. “bring the player, not the buff”.
Which would be fine, except what does a shaman bring? They certainly cannot even so much as off-tank in 95% of circumstances. Our DPS is not competitive enough if elemental compared to the ‘pure’ classes. Our healing is good if we’re specced for it, but we’re nevertheless no priest or druid. What happens to a class when the main reason to bring them no longer applies?
Shaman totems are a clunky mechanic that should’ve been getting heavily revised back in 1.09 when shaman got their class revision. Oh wait, they gave that to someone else. Then 1.10. Then 1.11. Then they simply didn’t bother to read, look for, or hand in the feedback we’d made for them as requested (understand that at the time the shaman boards were almost unnaturally polite and cooperative when it came to these things), then given two small nerfs and a new icon, with mage buffs and warlock buffs as “their patch”, no actual attention, told “now you’ve gotten it, class reviews over, we’re never touching you again, go fuck yourselves”, and then asked “so, how do you like your extensive class review? Aw that’s too bad, you”. Then Bus Shock.
BC’s new abilities were complete crap, except for now having A reason to ever be brought along on a raid, bloodlust. Scaling got worse for shaman. The earth and fire elemental totems still suck to this day. As time went on every class got stronger, Shaman fell behind further and further. As every other class got better versions (usually longer lasting, mobile 100 yard not limited to a 20 yard stick in the ground that requires a GCD and large chunk of mana every couple of steps, and usually a much larger bonus to boot) of all our buffs, “but you can drop several” was the reason why shaman were not to get any fixes at all.
WOTLK comes out, and we finally get a single crowd control. This on the class that has been dying left right and center from day one because they had none whatsoever (as opposed to everyone else), and way to break out from it whatsoever (as opposed to everyone else) and still don’t. This crowd control (much like ghost wolf is a shitty shitty version of a druid travel form) is a half-assed weaker version of polymorph. It was introduced because WOTLK was partly about eliminating the extreme crowd-control in the game. They added diminishing returns more heavily, gave more protection and ways of diminishing CC, and so once it was nowhere near as important, shaman finally gained one.
So then of course they made it so that the same buffs couldn’t stack. Now they’re giving bloodlust away, and giving us back some talents they’d taken away for sucking, in the spirit of “we don’t want anyone to have talents that buff buffs”. Guess what our new talents are. Guess what the “four active abilities per tree” amount to for shaman (hint: its half of four). Guess who lost a bunch of interesting talents in the new trees; the ones that do something, and kept only heavily bloated versions (where everyone else is getting fat cut) of the “1/2/3% damage to this one spell” things. You know, the stuff they said they want to cut out.
Totems are to remain as they are because they don’t want everyone to be able to dispel all buffs/debuffs. In order for this to be true, it, as usual, must be false for shaman. Shaman MUST have all their buffs and a significant portion of their DPS and all utility tied to 5hp sticks that a level 1 critter can destroy. ALL classes must be able to, with no effort at all, destroy totems, or else it “wouldn’t be iconic”. They can’t move, because “it wouldn’t be iconic”. They “provide unique and powerful buffs”, which is “iconic”, except that now they’re not being made better because everyone has a much stronger, wider, cheaper, non-recast-all-the-time version of each of those buffs, usually several, and it “wouldn’t be iconic” to change totems since “they provide unique and powerful buffs”.
Oh, its just a beta. Right now. And the past few patch updates to the beta have shown the direction its going. The same kind of little beta changes that happened when shaman were overpowered.
The original WOW beta.
I have an elemental shaman and am just TIRED of being completely outplayed by all dps. first of all i think shamans need more of a variety of spells its just fs lvb chn lb fs lb lvb fs chn and it goes on i mean you can change that up a little bit but look at locks they have so many rotations its insane. and i like the elemental idea with the raid buffs but are you saying as a totem or as a pet? cause i would rather have my wrath totem out than waste it on a flame elemental
Shamans dont even have a proper stun spell….except they have hex now…for CC….the problem would be mainly solved if they let SHAMANS wear PLATE!!!! Please
Okay this may sound nerdy… But I think it’s a good idea. FIRST of all give us a Fireshield (could be a Ele talent like Earth shield?) that of course gives us a SP bonus, and when a orb is burst it grants more SP. Secondly We need a better level 80 spell… Hex really… LAME Shield of Elements It’s a shield with 2 of all 4 (3 if not resto or Ele)5 min CD and they give 40% of all the bonuses. Also, I agree spirit totems are better, maybe:
Earth reduce all damage taken by all raid/party members by 10% for 30 seconds.
Fire increase damage dealt by all party/raid members by 5% for 30 seconds.
Water restore 2% mana and health every 3 seconds for 30 seconds.
Wind reduce all pushback suffered by 70% for 30 seconds and slightly increase all haste.
im interested what blizzard is pointing out in the so called AOE improve healing for shammy’s please let this be true…..we alrdy have awesome Healing Rain added to our Healing Arsenal….which is a great utility in Raids!!!…not to mention the triggering of other AOE effect spells…i wonder if they would be cast spells instead of triggering ones.
All spec is good only you know how to use it
I dont like the idea of Elementals with Raid Buffs. Especially the ones people have been suggesting. Devilz only benefit tanks (and not very well, either)and Illunna’s are overpowered (2% HP+MP/3 seconds for 30 seconds? Far too powerful. Maybe if it only lasted 9 or 12 seconds, but with that duration it would never be implemented. Ever.
The only thing I hope they change is a couple of the totems. Armor totem for example isnt worth crap now, I desperatly hope they replace it with something like a Spirit totem (Because Kings wont affect Spirit anymore, /wrists) or even straight up damage reduction cause I can never find a use for the earth totem space while raiding (aside from Strength of Earth but there is often another shaman in the group so one of use is wasting a spot).
P.S. reading back over comments again, its funny how the people who are fighting shamans say nerf them and the people playing them are practicly begging to be made stronger.
Shamanigans, you had some points but some of the things you claim are TERRIBLY wrong.
The thing I think is the worst you said was when you claimed that Elemental Shamans can’t compete with pure DPS classes. This is SUCH a lie. First of all, go to Paragon’s combat log for when they killed LK 25 HC. There you will find an Elemental Shaman fourth. And you know they’re skilled. The thing is that most Ele Shamans don’t know how to balance gems and stats (crit, haste, SP) properly.
Totems are NOT BAD what the HELL are you THINKING?
I’ll just mention some totems, think whatever you want, they ARE good: Tremor, Grounding, Stoneclaw, Earthbind (especially with root talent), Cleansing, Searing (vital vs rogues, and NO i didn’t mean magma). Try being a Shaman without those totems.
Also Shamans got the best interrupt in the game, Wind Shear. Now i know some ppl won’t agree with me, to those I say: Get over 2.6k and you will see how annoying a skilled Shaman gets. Some may claim that “Counterspell, Mind Freeze etc are better because they have long lockouts” and yes, that can win the game sometimes, but 2 sec interrupt every 6 (5 as ele) seconds are simply better.
Also, you complain over the “Shamans don’t get 4 active abilities per tree”… Well, FULMINATION is better than all of the other ele talents added (for pve that is ofc)
Otherwise, you don’t need 4 active talents per tree when you got super other talents like
Ele: FULMINATION, Feedback, Totemic Wrath, Earth’s Grasp
Enha: Searing Flames, MSW, imp LL, Ancestral Swiftness
Resto: IMP CLEANSE SPIRIT, CLEANSING WATERS, Ancestral Awakenting, Tidal Waves…
WHY do you say that “hex is shitty” and that “it’s a shittier version of sheep”. Sheep will be broken by any damage, like a DKs HB, warrs BS, Rogue’s Blade Flurry, etc etc. Hex won’t. However in one way, since the target can move, it’s not as good at that point. But stating that “it’s a shittier version of sheep” is just… way too littly analyzation.
EDIT — After the Patch:
I now hope you see that Ele Shamans AND Enha Shamans are one of the Best DPS classes.
-Yeman, Dunemaul