#0 - June 23, 2007, 5:49 a.m.
I went to reply to a thread just now and realised i had a little more to say. So i thought i'd say it here.
My take on our three talent trees.
Elemental - Pvp, Pve(solo/grind)
Enhancement - Pve(raid/5man/sologrind) More effient at all pve aspects, not not so much in pvp
Restoration, Pvp/Pve (5man/raid) More efficient in the pve aspects, but not a solo option
Now to me that looksa kinda damn fair. We have tree's that allow us to play whatever we want.
Now im not saying we have no problems. There are issues. Imo these problems are :
Pvp - Survivability .. We have none, save for Restoration but that means we don't get to pew pew!
Pve - 5man / Raids .. We can DPS, hell yeah we can. But we have problems with threat.
Because you cant play one of the above 3 specs in a way you want to, does that mean they suck? No
Now its said that we aren't a cc class - fair, but in restrospect of this we need a way to at least stand a chance of surviving such things. I don't mean anti cc (though a chance to resist stuns without rolling orc would be nice)
We have useless enhancement talents that give useless bonuses like +shield block / amount. + Armour & +dodge. We don't need these. (although +armour is a little useful for pvp)
Why not introduce resillience into the game a little more, its still a new idea. Better still. Why not give shamans talents (or modify existing ones) to further enhance our resillience because that does
help us to survive. Why not change toughness to give us a flat +stam bonus? this would also
help us to survive. Ask any Arena shaman, HP+ Resillience = Helpful.
I like elemental as it is, for its uses. Please, don't majorly change this. A few talents here and there need a tweak but thats about it. (like Elemental Shields and Eye of the Storm)
Now, as for this threat building issue. I see this "Windshock" idea floating around (whats with all the knock back suggestions btw?) that would just piss everyone else in my group right off, having to chase mobs around. Plus a chance to knock one mob into another bad, bad idea. A recent Storm Strike thread gave me an idea. Why not indeed make stormstrike trainable, but why not remove the +20% nature damage bonus? It doesn't help us to do reasonable damage with our shocks. Such buffs imply that we make good hybrids by combining trees - we dont, there's not enough in the tree's to compliment each other - something we'd need if we were to truly be Hybrids. Instead, why not instead of the +20% make it reduce threat on the target? Ok it becomes a little less Pvp and a little more Pve (but still enhance based). Hell, Stormstrike could even slow targets by x amount for x amount of seconds, its not exactly cc and its barely anti-cc. A little like thunderclap, but its not an aoe effect. (or you could introduce/change a talent to make it include this bonus).
Could we not have perhaps a rage/frenzy ability - yes, another - Why not? its shamanistic in my mind. But make it another proc ability, i like that enhancement is lustful and about proc's. But instead of it being a group buff, make it a single buff of some sort.
Now my take on us being "Hybrids" we have what, 4 talents to compliment other trees? (which they dont at all, they're crap). These being Nature's guidance, Elemental Devastation, Mental Quickness and Tidal Mastery, none of these are awesome and while Tidal mastery is nice, it requires 25points to utilize. And these are all we have to play with, to enhance other tree's and become Hybrids? Come on.
Why not impliment new talents/skills (after the removal of others) or modify more useless, existing talents to compliment other trees and further improve our ability to play as Hybrids? .. Example, the above mentioned new rage ability could give a chance to give more +spell damage. Give lightning shield more charges and change the talent to also give a bonus + lightning damage each time a charge is expended (yes this would also include subsequent lightning shield damage, because its not great even improved via talent). Modify our totem talents. Totems are the best thing to ever happen to a shaman and the talents to improve them are useless (except enhancing). Why not improve the speed of Ghostwolf through its current talent (why not, oldskool Pvp Boots gave us such a bonus)
Why not also have Elemental Devastation improve the damage bonus of a melee critical strike. Change clear casting to also include healing spells, Why not include Elemental Fury to also include healing spells. Why not modify lightning overlord to also give party members that same proc chance (would give elemental shamans something to offer to casters besides ToW). Its on parr talent req. wise as Unleashed rage. I say the same for elemental totem talents like Call of flame and earths grasp as i do for enhance totem talents). Earths Grasp could perhaps (on a sensitive cc note) give Earthbind a chance to root for a short duration. I think Eye of the storm would benefit from being a proc chance upon taking melee/range DAMAGE, not critical strikes. Then Elemental shields would be nice when combined with some Resillience (pvp orientates, much like the emelental tree).
As for restoration, i really like a spirit link idea for a talent/skill. Not sure on what it'd do - but i like the idea!
More on resillience, why not give our healing spells a talent that (much like the arena totem reward) gives healing spells a chance to increase resillience rating. Or A chance to improve armour (instead of Toughness) - I dont mean Ancestral healing either, why not replace that with Spirit link? - Give our useless totems (like Stoneskin) an increase in armour or defense rating - THEN have guardian totems increase the amount given. Infact, why cant Spirit link be/replace ancestral healing and have it givr a certain percentage of one of our base stats like int/str/stam/agi/spi as a buff to someone we've healed. Like a Hex, or Voodoo power of some form. If not stats then Spelldamage/Healing/Armour/Attack power in the same way. Or have it give a chance to grant a random fixed amount to a target healed. That way the buff given would be better depending on your main spec. Elemental shamans would provide higher Spelldamage bonuses or Int bonuses. Enhance shamans could provide higher strength/Ap bonuses. Resto shamans could provide higher +healing bonuses. Obviously make sure the buff it gives will only be one of use to the target casted on. Remember that Ancestral Fortitude is low down in the tree. So anyone could realisticly spec for it. Another way to be a Hybrid, introduces another way for us to offer to other players.
Why not throw in a talent that converts intellect to spell damage much likes Natures blessing. Make it reasonably accessible so that Enhance spec shamans can use it to hybrid. It wouldn't be imbalanced, Enhancement shamans aren't exactly big on Intellect (but it would compliment mail DPS gear that actually has +int on it, because right now. Nobody wants it, we'd much rather be looking for Mail DPS kil with +agi/stam.
I also think Water Shield could give a +Mp5 bonus while active, then give mana back per expended charge, im sick of it being useless to us, in pvp but more so during pve and raids. I just sit there and heal with a water shield on that 95% of the time gives me nothing, i take a hit very rarely and when i do, big woop. I have +120 mana.
Oh and if you guys want a new shock, what about a lightning shock Moderate damage, slows casting/attack speed by x % for x amount of seconds while cast - would also make enhancement Shock usage cool with the proposed + nature damage buffs above.
Now consider all of these options posters. Would these changes not give us many ways to pick and choose our talents and truly become more customisable, effiecient hybrids that we're supposed to be? I think such changes would make better use of the useless talents we tend not to use while giving up plenty of reasons to spec a little deeper into multiple trees (trait of a true hybrid, indeed!). The best part about my proposals is that imo it solves alot of issues and makes alot of changes, but doesn't add in loads of extra wild spells/abilities that would only make us something completely different to what we are. Simply uses existing talents to make the changes (which to my mind are acceptable and certainly for the better).
Now for a bolder suggestion? Who says totems have to have 5HP, not being able to use the coolest thing i have in Pvp is a shame, Totem using bosses lay totems and they take actual effort to shift. (
Give us the unamored (sp?) totem as a trainable skill! i like that idea! it'd be like a buffed up Mana spring with a cooldown. I know for a fact this isn't imbalanced, because of the totem quest reward we had, it worked so incredibly well regardless of spec and yes, it did compliment mana tide quite well. Also, remove Two-handed Axes and Maces, Stormstrike (already discussed) as talents and let us train them. Thats two talent points to us and would give us that little extra freedom to play with our tree's more too.
I thankyou for the time.
