#0 - Oct. 30, 2008, 9:16 p.m.
Taken from the Beta Shaman forums : http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10951965318&sid=2000 THIS IS WRITTEN BY THERGOR
I will cover several points, while trying to keep this as focussed and brief as possible;
1. Small group function (solo, 5-man)
2. Raid function (10, 25-man)
3. Arena
4. Other
5. Talent Tree
6. Scaling
7. Other suggestions/feedback
First, I have played a Shaman since open beta in 2004. I was one of the extremely few Shaman players who was able to "work" my gearing to be able to raid as an Elemental Shaman in the most progressed Horde raid on my server. It was extremely difficult, and when tBC came out the final changes to Elemental Shaman made the experience much more enjoyable. Since most feedback generally consists of players giving feedback about negative aspects of the game (and this one won't be entirely different), I just want to point out up-front that I am appreciative of many of the changes Blizzard has made to the Shaman class. I will try to keep this a mix of what I feel is going well in the expansion, and what I feel is on the wrong track or being overlooked. Then, if applicable, I will try to offer some suggestions that would fix any problem that I perceive.
1. Small Group Function
a) Solo: I feel that the solo aspect of the Shaman class (questing, etc) has dramatically improved. This is due mainly to the new version of Eye of the Storm. Since generic mob that a player runs across in most questing experiences never crit players, the old EotS was rarely beneficial, and all the pushback mechanics made questing as Elemental a real PITA at times. Kudos for this change.
b) 5-man: Specifically with relation to Heroics, Hex basically revitalizes the Shaman class in terms of acceptability. Even though my raid has cleared all but KJ and I am geared to the proverbial teeth, if I want to do a daily Heroic in Live and no guildies are on I almost always get this response from pug groups "Sorry, we need CC" whenever I ask to join. People can make the argument that they are idiots or whatever, but the fact remains: I don't get invited. Many days I do not get to complete the daily Heroics at all because of this lack of CC. With Hex, now I basically have the PvE CC comparable to a Rogue's Sap, so while I am not preferable to a Mage's CC, I am acceptable to fill a CC role. So Kudos for the PvE part of Hex.
2. Raid Function
a) 10-man: Buffs. Elemental Shaman bring a lot more powerful buffs to small groups. This really over-laps into the 5-man and solo play feedback segments as well. Totem of Wrath, Wrath of Air, and Eleemntal Oath add up to a lot of powerful buffs for small groups and small raids that just don't have the space to fit every spec of every class into the raid. Yes, Balance Druids and Retribution Paladins and Warlocks can all nullify our buffs, but in small groups it is likely that all 3 will not be present within the same raid, so this give the Elemental Shaman a lot of flexibility in filling a raid DPS spot. Kudos here.
b) 25-man: Buffs. Elemental Shaman don't bring anything unique. In 25-man raids, it is very likely that the three previously mentioned class/specs will be present. This leaves the Elemental Shaman in a position of having to put out comparable DPS to every other DPS class/spec. Or, as Koraa or GC said, "within the background noise" and "a good hybrid player should be able to beat an average X player in DPS." So far Elemental Shaman totally and completely fail in this regard. This is due to several reasons, that I will get into later, but I want to show some proof so that I can not be dismissed as making wild and unfounded claims.
1. http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/SampleOutput
- Simulationcraft, places Elemental Shaman dead last among all DPS-casters and DPS-caster specs. And not by a small margin, either;
Warlocks are doing 49.8% more DPS.
Mages are doing 42.7% more DPS
Balance Druids are doing 30.4% more DPS.
This is not "within the background noise." There is no way that even a great Shaman player can beat a terrible player of any other caster class/spec, at those DPS gaps. A Warlock player, for instance, would literally have to be AFK for 50% of the fight for a perfectly played Elemental Shaman to keep even.
2. http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t27016-elemental_shaman_-_wotlk_talents_discussion/p47/
- Elitist jerks thread with multitudes of discussion on this, has reached a fairly unanimous agreement that Elemental Shaman are extremely far behind every other DPS-caster spec in terms of 25-man raid viability. While they don't all agree on exactly how to fix the problem (disagreements mainly arise out of disputes regarding what would be sufficient enough), they all agree that gear scaling is the root cause of the problem. I will get into that more, in the Suggestions section of this feedback.
