Kalgan made a long-awaited The original thread was mysteriously deleted, but Kalgan responds to a thread confirming his statement. In particular, he says, Blizzard is looking at the severely gimped, non-mobile totem dropping mechanic as well as improving some under-used totems (Windwall Totem, anyone?). In an uncommon display of candor, Kalgan also expresses the direction they will be taking with the forthcoming changes, noting that Shamans are "pretty well gimped" in 2v2 Arenas. Enhancement Shamans should also expect an incoming buff as Blizzard is expecting to get at least one spec viable in 2v2 -- and it's, gasp, Enhancement!
Asked if these changes will actually make it into Patch 2.4 or if these will be another tease+heartbreak by Blizzard to the Shaman community, Kalgan unequivocally replies, "Ah no, don't get me wrong. There will be buffs in 2.4, it's just a question of which buffs." So apparently, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I know it's easy to be skeptical about this considering how Shamans have repeatedly been shafted, but Blizzard's surprising openness -- heck, the mere presence of a blue! (and not in a thread-deleting kind of way) -- in the forums is a refreshing change of pace.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-20-2008 @ 8:22PM
Lucas said...
FUCK YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
love and kisses kalgan
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2-20-2008 @ 8:23PM
theRaptor said...
Awesome, gratz on the buffs shamans. Im sure you will really enjoy the new icon for some inconsequential ability.
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2-20-2008 @ 8:40PM
Lucas said...
:C
Its not inconsequential... Its the most important ability to one of our specs...
2-20-2008 @ 8:40PM
Lucas said...
:C
Its not inconsequential... Its the most important ability to one of our specs...
2-20-2008 @ 9:04PM
Biff said...
Woooo finally! I'm holding my breath.
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2-20-2008 @ 9:22PM
Gogey said...
Just make sure you don't bus shock this one.
In all seriousness, I happen to be taking a shaman to 70 so Im happy :D
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2-20-2008 @ 10:13PM
Baluki said...
Wow, it's like they're finally getting around to all the totem changes they've been putting off for the past 3 years. First they put totem timers in, and now they're actually going to do something about the entire totem mechanic, AND fix the worthless ones?
Egads, it's like a dream come true, but 3 years late!
I'm REALLY starting to wonder what they have in store for us in WLK. It must be something big.
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2-20-2008 @ 10:51PM
hoviboy said...
I hope the new totem mechanic will be nice, maybe totems floating around the shaman, even if they stay 2 minutes, that could be nice
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2-21-2008 @ 8:19AM
Clasifyd said...
And more importantly, we could call them 'Floatems'! What could be better?
2-21-2008 @ 1:23PM
Eleazar said...
Clasifyd: You win the thread, lol. FLOATEMS FTW.
2-20-2008 @ 11:14PM
Floyd said...
Call of Thunder getting nerfed is silly but that wasn't the main reason for the shaman uproar. Elemental Mastery and Nature's Swiftness now share a 10 second cooldown timer... that along with the Lightning Overload nerf more or less makes the Elemental tree useless in PvP.
And this supposedly because Kalgan's arena friend Leiah was asking for these nerfs.
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2-21-2008 @ 1:30AM
Baluki said...
He seems to be suggesting in that thread that shamans will be getting some sort of CC against Elementals at some point in the future. Interesting...
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2-21-2008 @ 1:34AM
SaintStryfe said...
I truely hope this is honest and not just talk. If it is, I'm glad I stuck through it. I'll like to see what they're planning though, before I celebrate. Still, very nice to see a blue talking candidly about the issues we deal with.
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2-21-2008 @ 1:50AM
innajunglestylee said...
Next time some d-bag accuses me of QQing over shaman suckiness in 2v2, I will point him to Kalgan's comment.
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2-21-2008 @ 2:04AM
Good_Idea said...
When I see a significant buff, I'll believe it. Blizz has made statements like this before to shut us up, but nothing happenned. I seriously doubt ENH will be viable for 2v2 short of giving them a 15 second intervene and MS on stormstrike. Then they'd be terrifying.
One "buff" I'm happy about it a totem interface, finally! Most non-shamans don't know, but I can't even tell when many of my totems are up, like Windfury, poison cleansing, tremor, just to name a few. I use other add-ons to help me with these, but in pvp when other players destroy them, the addons are not always reliable. So this interface fix, which should have been added ages ago, is welcome.
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2-21-2008 @ 3:42AM
Shamantha said...
omg.. i don't know what to say! that news actually made my day. finally something good for enhancement shamans - 2v2 viability wooooooot.
and i can't believe they're going to look at totems! i thought we'd have to wait for wotlk for that, or never get it at all!
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2-21-2008 @ 5:03AM
Rocky said...
Post by Kalgan calling for buffs,
Fervent anger replaced by cautions optimism.
I think I can hold my breath.
Hell I'm happy that we've at least got a post saying something.
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2-21-2008 @ 5:54AM
guck said...
What i heard was" there will be buffs along with the nerfs". well big deal. what good does it do me as an ele shaman if they nerf me yet again and buff enhance shammies? none. So i don't expect much. once again i say that we need some CC in order to be viable as raiders. i'm tired of begging to get in a group and being passed up for dps?cc!
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2-21-2008 @ 7:40AM
thatquietgamerdude said...
They need to stop the ridiculous nerfs to elemental and help out all specs. Resto is our strongest spec right now, but they still have no way to keep away from the melee classes (besides Frost Shock, which is useless when you are stunned or cc'd, and when you're hamstrung you aren't gaining any ground). Elemental is having the same problem, and will now be losing some damage if they implement the changes we have heard about, and enhancement is basically suicide (believe me, I know about this one).
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2-21-2008 @ 7:48AM
Tridus said...
They said this about Priests too, and we got CoH doing 25 more healing.
The upside to this is that as a developer, Kalgan is someone actually in a position to *do* it (unlike the CMs). The downside is that he didn't give real specifics. While an improved Windwall would be nice, I don't think its what people are looking for in terms of buffs.
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