#0 - April 16, 2007, 8:37 p.m.
*** ADDED: PATCH NOTES FEEDBACK ***
Hi again everyone,
The original thread is locked out, due to maximum number responses or some other reason. I've decided to repost everything in a new thread (here) to continue the feedback.
** Please report this thread for sticky - we need the attention! **
Also, I've added, as the *first* part of this review, to include feedback on upcoming *changes* to our beloved Shamans. These are not whines, they are constructive feedback on *WHY* the changes will break our class. Please don't break our class more. Pretty please, with sugar on top. Now let's all be friends and sort this out.
** Note: I need more feedback on the Patch Notes. Please keep it constructive.
*** Note 2: We need some testing on the PTR to confirm the Poison bug is fixed.
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PROLOGUE: A Preemptive strike to try and prevent our class from being *more* broken.
The upcoming PTR patch notes spell doom for 2 spec lines of Shamans - Elemental and Enhancement. This may sound melodramatic, but it's the truth. Our class in it's current state teeters on playability, and the upcoming *changes* hurt our viability as damage dealers as Elemental and Enhancement Shamans. Please listen to our feedback on these issues.
To be more specific:
- "Elemental Focus": This talent now reduces the cost of the next damage spell by 60%. It will also now trigger from bonus spells cast by "Lightning Overload".
This is a fatal blow to Elemental Shamans. In our current state, we have mana issues. With this nerf, we go back into the realm of un-viability against Mages, Warlocks, and Priests as a DPS class. Our mana efficiency is troublesome as it is.
Is this because of our Tier 4 bonus? Are we *soooo* mana efficient at the moment that we need this to be nerfed? No, we are not.
This change will make the Elemental spec even less viable for PVE and Raid environments due to other DPS classes having far more utility, sustainability and overall use than a Shaman.
- "Mana Tide Totem": This totem will no longer sometimes grant mana after it has been destroyed. It will also consistently grant mana 4 times instead of sometimes 3 and sometimes 5.
This should be a bloody trainable skill. It's archaic to still have to spec into Resto for this. Perhaps now that Resto is our only PVP and PVE viable spec...
- "Windfury Weapon": Mixing two different ranks of "Windfury Weapon" while dual-wielding will no longer increase the number of "Windfury Weapon" procs.
This, along with the 3 second cooldown nerf, will seriously limit DPS of Shamans in PVE (PVP is already a problem, covered later). At the moment we're a liability due to no damage mitigation abilities, no aggro dumps and horrible PVE melee mechanics. With this nerf, our damage will be cut down to a point where we do significantly less damage than before. While we bring support to group, the lack of damage is going to seriously jeopardize our spots in a Raid and Heroic environment.
In summary, the upcoming changes to Shamans, for the most part, will limit most Shamans to one line for PVP and PVE: Restoration. The viability of other specs is being seriously hurt with these changes, and should be looked into.
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Burning Questions for the Devs:
1. Are we going to see an anti-CC / escape ability for the Shaman? (Desperately needed in PVP)
2. Will we ever have our Totems/Healing Spells/Lightning seperated into different schools? (All Nature right now). On the same subject, are Elementalists ever going to get another sustained DPS spell that is not-Nature damage?
3. As DPS oriented Hybrids (and that's stated from Blizzard) - how can it be justified that Restoration is by far our best raiding / PVP spec at the moment? With upcoming changes to EM and Enhancement DPS, it's only going to get worse. We're supposed to be Offensively oriented yet our Offensive Talent trees are inferior to our Healing tree. Can we get a clear answer on what our end game Raiding and PVP Arena role should be? Are our DPS Trees going to be made *Raid Viable* ?
4. Is our archaic Totem System ever going to be seriously looked at?
5. Will we ever see our beloved Spirit Wolves? (We'd take them even as a hugely difficult epic quest or whatever!)
*END OF PROLOGUE* -- to be updated later. On with the original thread:
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