#0 - July 6, 2007, 12:38 p.m.
' This post is my take on the enhancement shaman issues, and ideas on how to improve the class to make it more interesting in both PvE and PvP environments. In the post I will mention other classes and their abilities to show what shaman lack, that every other class has, and not in any way to say that others are “overpowered”. I will leave that for others to discuss ><.
Summary:
1) PvE – Threat generation
2) PvP – Survivability, CC and anti-CC
3) PvP – Offensive capabilities
4) Overall look at skills and talents
5) Suggestions
1) PvE – Threat Generation
The enhancement tree in its current form is somewhat viable, and to some extent successful in end-game 25 man raids. Most of this success comes from the fact that shaman have powerful support abilities, with totems, and unleashed rage. Personal DPS is also quite good, but limited by threat generation; somehow, despite lower DPS than other melee classes, shaman find themselves on the top of the threat list. The main reason for this is the failure in Spirit Weapon’s design, which makes it only affect “melee attacks” (read normal, white damage swings). So the threat reduction doesn’t affect WF/SS damage, which, in my case, represents about 40% of my total damage. Crude math suggests that Spirit Weapons only lowers threat generation by 55%X.15% = 8.25%!
Much lower than the 15% the tooltip might suggest, and even less than the 20% threat reduction warriors in battle/zerker stance experience, and the 29% reduction for ferals in cat form and rogues (for all 3, this reduction is a passive aura, and not gained through talents). An easy modification of spirit weapons would make 5 man heroic content more friendly for enhancement, and allow for more personal DPS in larger raids.
2) PvP Survivability and CC/anti-CC
Now, I will not discuss BGs, as in my opinion they are not the focus of WoW PvP anymore. We all know how squishy our enhancement shaman is, especially against melee opponents. The usual argument is that the ability to heal is a form of survivability (which it is), and that as such, shaman don’t need another skill or talent that goes in this direction. Unfortunately, this argument is completely ridiculous, because it assumes that it is possible and efficient to heal in PvP situations, which it usually is not when facing a good player who knows when to use CC/interrupts. Also, healing spells don’t scale at all as enhancement (0 +healing).
Let us compare the shaman to other hybrids that can heal: druids and pallies. Let us assume both are melee-oriented, ie. Feral and retribution specced. Now, both already have higher survivability from the type of armor they use, but they both have something else in common: a form of CC that allows them to run away and heal up. Whether it be HoJ, cyclone, bash, maim, root both have at least one ability on a relatively short cooldown that, when used properly, buys them time to cast 1-2 heals before getting pounded on again.
This is true for small-scale PvP (1v1, 2v2) but what about larger group PvP, say, 5v5 arena? Well, once again, ferals have bear form, which has tremendous armor and gives a high dodge chance, as well as frenzied rejuvenation, which is actually quite good when being focus fired (lots of rage). Paladins, of course, have plate and their bubble; self-explanatory.
Back to the shaman: we fail to find a form of CC, or increased survivability ability/talent. What shaman do have is the ability to kite with FS and earthbind totem. Unfortunately, because of the damage dealing capabilities of frost shock as an elemental spec shaman, it is deemed too powerful, and as such is subject to diminishing returns. I will not try to make the case that even as elemental, frost shock is not enough to keep a warrior/rogue out of melee range, but that its power is limited when having 0 +dmg. Also, I would like to point out how ridiculous the idea of kiting is when your damage is melee-based, and how hard it is to actually kite once an enemy is in melee range and has hamstring / crippling on you. Just think about how well a hunter would do kiting without Beast Within and/or Scatter Shot + Ice Trap.
