Restoration Shaman Feedback -- Build 21249 -- 9-Mar

Please feel free to reply to this thread with feedback you have on this specialization in the most recent version of the Legion Alpha.

This thread and subforum are for class feedback. We may not be attentive to other threads on this subject. Please confine discussion in this thread to issues related to this spec only.

Thank you!

Ancestral Protection Totem's effect is not intended to consume a combat resurrection charge in raids (if it did, it would provide no benefit to a raid group). Please let us know if you see it do so on alpha. As people surmised, the changes in this build are meant to bolster the intended use of the spell--protecting the raid during what the Shaman deems to be the most dangerous portion of the encounter.

While Ancestral Vigor shares the name of the similar effect from past expansions, it does not have nearly the same consistent raid coverage or uptime, which may be coloring the first impressions. It is a powerful effect and can be tuned however necessary during the alpha while observing its uptime in practical situations.

A damage cap on Ancestral Protection Totem triggering (much like Guardian Spirit, which is the spell most similar) is something we've discussed and have always known is an easy option if it winds up being needed. That said, if the only major concern with the talent is that it will be abused in a Mythic raid context to break encounters in problematic ways, there is the entire alpha (with most raid testing yet to come) to give specific feedback on encounter situations. The argument that there is a serious problem will be better handled in the context of real examples that we can evaluate and decide how to handle. Bear in mind that we have a default preference for class abilities to work as advertised in all game situations.

Please do give the feedback when you have significant examples however; this is exactly what alpha/beta is for, and this is an unusual ability that we want to watch throughout. All this is is to say--we don't necessarily want to have the world where new and unusual class abilities are filtered through a gauntlet of potential high-level raid problems (or severely premature analyses of Mythic raid compositions) and "fixed" before they've been played with in that context or in any other. Most broadly, as always, the best mode of alpha feedback to describe actual experiences (positive and negative) from playing the game.

Thanks for all the feedback. We discussed and decided there's little downside to putting on a damage cap, akin to Guardian Spirit, to help alleviate these concerns, so we'll go ahead and do that soon (not 100% sure yet on the precise mechanics or when it will show up on alpha). What I posted above still holds with regard to spotting problems with the spell generally, but we agree the one relating to meteor-type effects is easy enough to anticipate, and the fix doesn't impact the intended use of the spell in any way.

The other discussion that's been interwoven--how to evaluate the intended use of the talent in the absence of the specific encounter concerns--is an interesting one, and I've seen a variety of very different evaluations both here and elsewhere.