Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi has been rediscovering his restoration roots this week, so of course he's decided to write a column all about the offensive aspects of the shaman class. There's something seriously wrong with that boy.
Damage dealing. The next few columns will discuss just how shamans go about putting the hurt on people: this series (The Arsenal) is about totems, shocks and the two lightning bolt spells, the offensive arsenal of the shaman class. As you first start out playing a shaman, you quickly learn that there are a variety of ways to output damage as a shaman: offensive totems, instant-cast but short range shocks, and longer rage lightning bolt and chain lightning spells with a casting time. As time passes and you settle into either a melee role using weapons or a caster role (meaning that you don't want to be anywhere near the things you're killing) you'll change the way you use these abilities. There are effectively two 'play styles' for the shaman, which we'll call 'elemental' and 'enhancement' for the specs that make the optimum use of these styles: a restoration shaman can act like an elemental or an enhancement shaman as he or she chooses, but even in equivalent gear she'll of course be less effective at dealing damage than they are, since the restoration spec is optimized for healing.
This week we'll be primarily talking about totems in a direct offensive role.
Some totems, of the fire variety, deal direct damage, either through a directed fireball effect (Searing Totem) an area effect burst (Fire Nova Totem) or a continuing AoE pulse (Magma Totem). There are other totems that an enhancement or elemental playstyle benefits from dropping during combat (we all know about Windfury, Grace of Air, Wrath of Air, and Totem of Wrath by now I'd assume) but these are not direct damage totems and so this paragraph is the last time I'll be mentioning them. It's interesting to note that Totem of Wrath is a fire totem, and so you can't drop any of the direct damage totems if you use it, but by the time an elemental shaman has Totem of Wrath he or she probably prefers it for most situations anyway. A starting shaman will probably be dropping Searing Totem as much as possible, mana permitting, as it's one of the first offensive totems you'll get (level 10 vs Fire Nova at level 12 and Magma Totem at level 26).
Totem Talk is the column for shamans. Matthew Rossi has decided to spend this week's column exploring the odd notions people, including up and coming shamans, sometimes get about the class. He'll admit that he was guilty of one of these himself, and looks forward to your guesses.
I was thinking I might talk about how to solo and quest as a restoration shaman. After all, there are a lot of new dailies out now and you might not have anyone online to run them with. Since elemental and enhancement are both DPS options, I thought it would be reasonable to talk about some things like putting Frostbrand or Flametongue on your weapon instead of Windfury (I always used to use Windfury with my dinky, 41 dps healing mace, and it was the wrong move) if you're soloing in your healing gear. Both frostbrand and flametongue get the benefit of 10% of your spell damage, making them better than Windfury for elemental or restoration shamans who won't be doing a lot of weapon damage - I use frostbrand on my resto shaman and would prefer it over flametongue if I were elemental, because I like to try and get back out to casting range, but flametongue can do a lot of damage on a fast weapon so a lot of elemental shamans like it better. And I definitely think I'll probably still do a column about proper soloing for the healer shaman. (Hint: your healing gear has a decent amount of spell damage now.)
But then I got into a discussion with an old game friend I haven't talked to in a while about shamans, and things he's had people ask him or tell him while he was playing his (he has three, making me feel like a shaman slacker) and he told me that a group he was running with recently got upset with him for not shifting to Ghost Wolf to clear an entangle.
Perhaps they thought he was a druid, you might say, even with the totem dropping and the being a troll. I find these kinds of errors to be regretfully common, and so I decided that for today, we could cover a few of them and try and clear up any mistakes people might have about shamans. A lot of these will seem obvious to long term shaman players and those familiar with the class, but believe me, sooner or later (in my case, often sooner) you will group with someone who does not know this stuff.
Totem Talk is your one stop shop for talking about Shamans. If you shop for that. If, like most people, you just click on a web link, then we're that, too. All we can say is that Matthew Rossi, player of two shamans, is incredibly bent in the head and has weird notions about this 'internet' thing he hears people talk about while he's chowing down on some tasty gruel from his cave in the heart of the taiga.
Recently some of the folks behind the scenes here at WoW Insider have been piqued to start their own shamans. This led to a discussion about how best to level as a shaman (enhancement! enhancement oh sweet lord roll enhancement! It's the best thing ever!) which of course I and others answered with our usual cool detachment. (Enhancement!) This then led to a discussion of the old saw among shaman players that while grinding you shouldn't drop totems.
This was an old saw I hadn't heard. I believe I actually sputtered when I read it. Let's recreate the moment.
Retribution Paladins and "Classic" hybrids rejoice. Even in the midst of all these recent nerfs, Blizzard is working on a few buffs. The latest news from the PTR via MMO Champion is that we can expect to see a few tweaks to Relics and Retribution Gear alike, mostly on the good side. Various pieces of Retribution Paladin focused gear, mostly from the heroic dungeon level, has had its spell damage removed and replaced with strength. Not great news for Shockadins, perhaps, but good for Retribution Paladins, whose talents and skills have been moved more to the side of shedding all spell damage for quite some time.
Druids, Shamans, and Paladins can rejoice at seeing a lot of their Idols gets a boost, with various stats and effects on them being boosted, sometimes by as much as twice their old values.
There's also a somewhat interesting, but probably ultimately minor tweak coming to arena and honor weapons, as all three levels of Feral Druid and spellcaster PvP weapons have seen their attack speed reduced by 1 to 1.60 seconds. You'll rarely see any of those classes using those weapons to melee anyone to death, so it seems a bit superfluous, but perhaps it was done for consistency with the recent Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe change.
There will probably be a few more changes when the server comes back up, of course, and we'll be here to deliver you the news on them, so stay tuned.
Kalgan made a long-awaited return to appearance on the Shaman forums, quieting somewhat the brewing thunderstorm of discontent brought about by the nerfs on the PTR. This progressive patch is shaping up to be one of Blizzard's best, however, with parceled changes that are being dealt in bite-sized pieces. After the Elemental talent Call of Thunder was nerfed to be, um, more in line with other abilities, Shamans were in an uproar. Breaking the uncomfortable silence from Blizzard, Kalgan posted to say that "Shamans in general will be getting buffs to go along with their nerfs."
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.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi not only plays a shaman, he's come to appreciate their presence even when he's playing one of his other characters. That's his ridiculously mustached human warrior (who is still wearing a green belt to tank in SSC) next to one of the raid-saving shamans.
It can at times be easy to forget why we rolled a shaman in the first place. Sometimes it seems shamans are overlooked and underplayed, and its fair to say that the last year hasn't been the kindest to the class. With all this negativity and upset, it's fair to say that sometimes shamans must feel like there's no point to playing their class at all. So here I am to tell you that, while shamans may indeed have suffered (especially in PvP) over the past year, they're still incredibly viable in PvE, and if anything I wish we had more of them.
We've talked before about the shaman as a pinch hitter or panic button class, and these are both functions that they do excel at. But in running the 10 and 25 man instances, another aspect of shaman versatility is their broad array of totems and abilities - there's almost always a situation where a totem, a shock or a special ability like Heroism can help immensely with an encounter. I know having the ability to cycle in shamans to our DPS groups for heroism made a huge difference in our Tidewalker and Lurker kills, as well as finding the particular strength of Chain Heal very, very useful when a group of us are trying desperately to keep those murlocs tanked. Furthermore, I personally love having an elemental shaman in my group taking care of the priest add on Fathom-Lord Karathress, not only due to the damage they can inflict (and having seen it, I have had to re-evaluate my understanding of elemental shaman DPS - it's much, much better than I'd believed when geared properly) but due to their ability to buff not only their own DPS but the healer's healing at the same time with Totem of Wrath and Wrath of Air as well as being able to interrupt the heals after a tidal surge.
Tork offers us this image from Shatterath City showing off an unusual sight... or, as Tork explains it, this is what happens when your Earth Elemental Totem crits. At Around Azeroth, we have not personally experienced a so-called "totem-crit" and cannot vouch for its accuracy -- so when trying to get your own totem crit, remember that your mileage may vary!
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them.
Lately I have been leveling a Shaman, and I was surprised to learn that Druids (my all-time favorite class) and Shamans (might become my second favorite) are quite similar. I know I am a Shammy noob, having never leveled one before, but am quickly learning to love them and hoping to suck in all the knowledge I can in coming days.
Not only with Shamans and Druids, I guess you could say that there is a lot of class crossover in many areas, for example, a Warlock functions much like a Hunter, being a long ranged fighter with a pet, or how druids double up on many of the Rogue's trademarks, at least in feral form. The list is endless, and I could go on, but after all, this is a Druid column, so let's get to it.
I don't think crossover is all that uncommon, nor is it detrimental to any class, in fact, much of the time, the class crossover actually helps and can fill a void especially in instances when your (insert loser class here) bailed on you at the last second before a big fight. This is what makes druids the cream of the cat, um, crop. We druids can do almost everything, but with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on spec, motivation, and of course fun-ness index. Shammies are also quite versatile and varied in their skills, which makes me like them for sure, and thus our first class crossover comparison between Druids and Shammies today.
Eyonix has been spending a lot of time hanging out in the Shaman Discussion Forums lately. I got introduced to the concept of Totem Twisting when he declared that it was not an exploit, but that Blizzard plans to "address" it at some point.
So I asked my in-house Shaman expert about Totem Twisting (there is also a good explanation in the forums). For those of you who don't know (like I didn't), Totem Twisting is when you drop 2 totems of the same element in such a way that you have both of them active concurrently. Usually, the Shaman will drop Windfury to get the 10 second buff and then immediately drop Grace of Air until just before the Windfury buff is up. With creative use of hotkeys and a good rhythm, you can keep both totems active simultaneously. This technique is very mana intensive and severely limits the other things you can do at the same time.
Totem Talk is the column for shamans, and Matthew Rossi has been obsessively trying to get his draenei shaman into outland this week. He's maddeningly close. He might have made it today if the Bark for the Barleybrew quest hadn't bugged out on him, but at least he got his Wolpertinger. No, this column won't be about Brewfest, but I had to show off my cute new pet or my wife would have been displeased with me.
Like all true hybrids, Shamans are remarkably versatile. They can heal, they can melee, they can nuke. And like all true hybrids, they can only do one of these things, and then only if they properly gear and spec for it. While it is possible and worthwhile to really push the borders of the inherent multi-tasking of the class, most folks pick a role and stick with it, either because (as is my case) they don't have the gear to do anything more than their generally designated role or because they don't really want to. My resto shaman cannot DPS. Not even because of spec, but because he simply has not the gear for a DPS role and as a result there's no point in him attempting it. If I had good enough enhancement gear, I would probably try and DPS a lot more, but with the limitations of what he's carrying around in his bags it's simply not possible.
Your spec is like an aptitude: it defines what your character will have the most options in. As a resto shaman, I have plenty of added punch to my healing, talents like Healing Way, Improved Chain Heal, Earth Shield and Nature's Blessing. But I'm lacking the offensive punch of the talents from Elemental for my spells, which means even if I had the gear, my shocks and lightning bolts are not going to match up to a shaman who has spent the points. I won't have Lightning Overload or Elemental Precision. And if I try and mix it up in melee, I lack the ability to Dual Wield, the enhanced weapon buffs of Elemental Weapons or the bite of Weapon Mastery. I still have the basics that Elemental and Enhancement shamans use in combat, of course, and they still have the basics of shaman healing, but there is always a noticeable drop in performance when doing something outside of your spec.
Of course, some of you are probably saying "tell us something we don't know" while still others are ready to point out that even if an enhancement shaman can't heal as well as a resto shaman, he can still heal. And that's actually a good point. An enhancement shaman or an elemental shaman can, in fact, still heal. This leads to an often overlooked aspect of the class - basically, you bring a shaman along on a run because a shaman, in addition to whatever DPS or healing he or she can provide in a main role, can also provide what I like to call 'panic button' capacity.
Totem Talk talks about totems this week, in a stunning and entirely unexpected turn of events that no one could possibly have forseen even if said non forseeing types were actually Farseer Nobundo himself. Well, okay, he probably could have seen this coming. Matthew Rossi once again apologizes for the incoherence of the introductory paragraph. He didn't see this coming.
Okay, so you have decided to roll a new shaman. You start off in the starting area, fresh faced and ready to run around dropping totems only to discover you haven't got one yet. Confused, you run around with a mace hitting things until you reach level four, when the questgivers suddenly remember Oh, right, this class is supposed to be about dropping pointed, decorative sticks into the ground and you get your first totem quest.
The totem quests are a fun, sometimes easy, sometimes challenging way for a new shaman to get a handle on the class. Well, I think they're fun, anyway. Except that water one, that one is hard for a horde to pull off... well, to be fair it's not much easier for alliance, really. As you might expect, horde and alliance shamans have different questgivers and as such different quests in (mostly) different zones. The horde ones require a bit more travel than the alliance ones, which were put in for the expansion and, in my opinion, are slightly better in their design and play. But that's to be expected as Blizzard put the lessons they'd learned designing the original quests into play for the new ones.
Anyway, we'll talk about the horde quests first, as is fitting for horde shamans have been around longer.
Another week, another Totem Talk, a column by and for shamans and those that love us. Well, okay, you don't have to love us to read it, but why wouldn't you? Look how cuddly we are! We even provide Bloodlust or Heroism for your 5 mans and raids. Don't you want to adopt one of us and take us home right now? No? What do you mean, no? Matthew Rossi is disappointed that you haven't already made a shaman plushie and cuddled it upon finishing this paragraph.
Okay, so my introductory column for Totem Talk went about like I expected, with most folks disagreeing with the idea that shamans need help. This isn't a new problem, of course, and it's not likely to go away for a while. Most players have enshrined the concept of shamans as OP and either deliberately or unknowingly exaggerate certain abilities (as an example, complaining that Grounding Totem, an ability which has a 15 second cast cooldown and which dies in one hit, is eating half of their frostbolts. How is that mathematically possible? Frostbolt has a max casting time of three seconds. You can cast five of them in the time it takes to cast one Grounding. It's just not possible for it to be eating half of your frostbolts, even assuming a one on one mage vs. shaman battle) but this happens to everyone. When I play my warrior, I see people complaining about 6k executes, and I'm sure every single class in the game has a similar ability or two that everyone complains about far more than it is actually capable of.
But this week there will be no complaining. No, this week we're going to celebrate shamans and what they're capable of and try and sell a really interesting and fun class to everyone in WoW. So read on for tales of high adventure! Or at least tales of stuff that would be good to have along on an adventure, anyway.
After Druids got a blue's attention last week with a well-written class issues list, the Shaman have done the same. Danemoth of Blade's Edge server has posted a short, concise list of Shaman issues. And already got a blue response. The response was just a tag by a CM, but it shows they are listening.
Here is a summary:
1) Shaman specs outside of Restoration lack survivability. 2) No pushback resistance for Lightning Spells put a hamper on solo grinding / farming as well as in PvP. 3) Totems immobility and short range need to be buffed. 4) Other classes got new skills/spells in TBC that changed their playstyle, Shamans did not. 5) Enhancement shaman lack significant ranged combat abilities as well a way to chase down fleeing opponents. 6) Threat management is a bigger issue than ever with the TBC talents boosting shaman dps. 7) Shaman have issues handling an assist train. (When someone gets zerged by multiple opponents). 8) Lack of a way to deal with other classes' crowd control abilities put shaman at a distinct disadvantage in PvP. 9) Off-spec Shaman itemization is poor in Karazhan and beyond. 10) Flametongue and Frostbrand Weapon both scale poorly. 11) Windfury and Stormstrike demand the shaman using the slowest weapon for maximum dps gain, but that concept is counter to the weapon normalization introduced in patch 1.8. 12) Shamans need more control over their fire-and-forget Totems to direct them at a specific target or to stop them from breaking cc. 13) The large global cool down associated with dropping four Totems in combat makes it difficult for the Shaman to be responsive to changes in combat.
Read the whole list through the link. If I've misinterpreted something, list it below.
Totem Talk is the column for Shaman players. Matthew Rossi plays a Shaman. It's like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup except with less peanut butter and chocolate and more talking about Shaman issues. According to WoWwiki, the correct plural of Shaman is Shamans. This seems weird to me, but I guess they should know, they're a Wiki.
Well, we could spend a lot of time messing about, but this week we have already seen that Shamans have issues. The comment thread this generated is very long and very rancorous. To be honest, that's the way the Shaman forums gets sometimes, too. Being the proud papa of two shammies, a level 70 resto on the Horde side and a level 44 enhancement on Alliance, I feel like I should say that I really love the class. It's fun and engaging. I leveled as Elemental to 50, Enhancement from 50 to 70, and specced Restoration for my guild, which of course means that the only mail that drops is Enhancement or Elemental. My healing kit? Way too many Elemental pieces I've socketed to try and make up the difference. But ultimately, I love my Shamans and I love playing them.
And yes, the angry Shaman players are right. There are problems with the Shaman.
I love playing a Shaman, and one of the main reasons is the unique gameplay of totem buffs. Paladins can buff just as well as we can (if not better-- those blessings are very nice, I'll admit), but no other class can just slam down a totem into the landscape, and either buff a group or damage mobs instantly. There's a whole other strategy, as kayholder is finding out, to totem placement, and it's different from almost everything else in the game.
To answer her question, I don't lay all my totems every fight, but there are a few totems-- as a Resto/Ele Shaman, I try to have Wrath of Air and Mana Spring out-- whenever possible. At the highest levels, totem buffs are really powerful-- most melee people love Windfury, but Strength of Earth is a real boost to DPS as well as block for tanks. Her shaman is playing along with a Shadow Priest, so the Mana totem will be a big help, and Wrath of Air will boost both his shocks and her spells. As for placement, the comments on LJ are right-- she should have him lay totems down, and then pull mobs in one area to that place, in order to get the most use from them.
But even in larger situations, I love how totems work-- I love coordinating with my group what totems will be dropped, and I really enjoy paying attention to where my group members are in order to place the totems correctly. If I'm in the MT group, I run up with him to get Strength and Windfury down near him, and then move back to the caster group to put Mana down. When I drop Mana Tide (which I have, since I'm Resto), I always do a shout out to the casters in my group that "Mana is going down near me," so they can move in to get the bonus (the new animation helps a bit for that). Totems are definitely a unique way of laying down buffs, and I really enjoy the extra element of gameplay they add.
Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi has been rediscovering his restoration roots this week, so of course he's decided to write a column all about the offensive aspects of the shaman class. There's something seriously wrong with that boy.
Totem Talk is your one stop shop for talking about Shamans. If you shop for that. If, like most people, you just click on a web link, then we're that, too. All we can say is that Matthew Rossi, player of two shamans, is incredibly bent in the head and has weird notions about this 'internet' thing he hears people talk about while he's chowing down on some tasty gruel from his cave in the heart of the taiga.
Another week, another 
I love playing a Shaman, and one of the main reasons is the unique gameplay of totem buffs. Paladins can buff just as well as we can (if not better-- those blessings are very nice, I'll admit), but no other class can just slam down a totem into the landscape, and either buff a group or damage mobs instantly. There's a whole other strategy, 
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