40 Man Raid vs. 1 Elemental Shaman?

In this little gem of a video we have 2 central adversaries…in one corner the might of an alliance 40 man raid, in the other corner a lone horde elemental shaman. The battle for Thunder Bluff is about to go down and there may be only one victor…

Beyond that I think the video pretty much speaks for itself.

Bojax.wmv

Upcoming Shaman Changes

More pretty big changes for the shaman class this morning. On the elemental front we’re looking at some pretty nice buffs to riptide, which had been looking sub par. Now that riptide can proc tidal waves there should be no question about the rotational significance of the new spell.

Tidal Waves: You have a 100% chance after you cast Chain Heal to lower the cast time of your next Lesser Healing Wave or Healing WAve spell by 30%. In addition, your Healing Wave gains an additional 20% of your bonus healing effects and your Lesser Healing Wave gains an additional 10% of your bonus healing effects.

This change in addition to the increase on initial healing should make the spell an absolute must for restoration shamans.

Some interesting changes on the elemental / enhancement front as well. I like the theory on Blizzard’s reasoning for trying to buff fire for elemental, but it’s a delicate balancing act. Currently an elemental shaman really does nothing in PvE accept drop totems and cast lightning bolt. So adding some sort of situational spells and abilities would be a nice addition. If the devs can work the new lava burst ability into the rotation it would be a job well done.

A small victory for enhancement shamans, initially it was looking like Maelstrom weapon was going to be nerfed to the point it was worthless, but in a last minute change Blizzard have decided to set it aside for the moment. It will certainly make for some very interesting PvP and PvE moments if it makes it all the way through till expansion.

Tidal Waves — Riptide now also procs this effect.

Riptide — We’re going to increase the initial healing component.

Storm Reach — now called “Elemental Reach” and includes Lava Burst.

Improved Fire Nova Totem - Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova Totem by 10/20%, and your Fire Nova totem has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets damaged by your Fire Nova Totem for 2 sec.

Thunderstorm — We will probably boost the mana return to 8% of total mana. That seems more in line with similar effects. We talked a lot about buffing its damage, but decided that may not be a good idea. With its short range, it isn’t a great rotational spell for a raiding Elemental shamans, and making you run up to hit a boss and run back is giving up a lot of cast time. Instead we’re going to try to keep the damage and knockback more situational (in PvP it will get used a lot) and make the mana return the big PvE raiding focus.

Maelstrom Weapon — We have a concern that the proc per minute frequency is too often. According to our numbers, it’s balanced for a two-handed weapon and a bit generous for a dual-wielder. However, this would be a nerf to Enhancement dps overall that we’d have to make up elsewhere, and it seems to be a fun change shamans are enjoying. So we’re going to let this ride for now. It’s something to keep an eye on, but we aren’t going to change it yet.

Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt — And now for a few words on Elemental damage. One of the things we were trying to do to make Elemental dps more interesting was to have a Lava Burst + Flameshock variant. We also themed some new deep talents to support this play style. The problem is that lightning still seems to do more damage than fire, which in turn makes the new talents feel lame because they benefit fire and not lightning.


Now we think that Lava Burst is doing appropriate damage for its cost and if anything Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning are a little too good. (Remember they benefit from Curse of the Elements and similar spells now.) However, nerfing lightning would make it harder to level as well as making 3.0.2 kind of brutal for Elemental shamans, since Lava Burst is level 75. Hurting lightning would feel like a flat out nerf, and even though you’d partially make up for it at higher level, overall we think this would feel, um, yucky. So no big changes to lightning spells.

We talked a lot about just buffing Lava Burst and a deep fire-based talent or two. This will make Lava Burst too good on paper, but it might work out okay in the game itself. We’ll just have to see. We aren’t 100% sold on this course of action, so I’ll update when we decide for sure.

Once again, these decisions were the consensus of our design team, so please don’t give me the credit. In fact, if there are any changes you specifically don’t like — those I had nothing to do with

Daily Blue and PTR Changes Wrap Up

The past few days have been a whirlwind of class changes and blue posts. Make sure you haven’t missed any of the past few days worth of updates.

Daily Blue Wrap Up

• Mage Mana Longevity Buffed
• Death Knight Changes
• Feral Druid Changes
• Hunter Arena WotLK Discussions
• Protection Paladin Buffs, Ret Paladin Nerfs
• Resto Shaman Changes and Spirit Wolves Buffed

Other Important Posts

• WotLK PvP Changes
• Patch 3.0.2 - Build 9038 Class Changes
• WotLK Profession Perks and Bonuses Summary
• WotLK Enchanting Guide

Shaman Resto Changes and Spirit Wolf Buff

The spirit wolf buff isn’t surprising, every other class with a pet will be scaling in WotLK, it only makes sense that shaman’s should as well. The recent changes to enhancement in combination with the buffed spirit wolves are really bringing the enhancement tree to a level it’s never been at.

All 3 shaman talent specs are just looking great. Blizzard has done a great job balancing each spec accordingly. The one somewhat unknown area for me…at least not 100% known is still restoration. In theory the spec looks fine, but it will be difficult to determine if it will be equally effective in both PvP and PvE situations until level 80.

Riptide and Restoration tree
Riptide probably isn’t going to be a crazy awesome raiding tool *unless* you’re in a fight with a lot of movement, in which case it does its job very well. It is situational, but we actually made a lot of the new spells situational because almost every class already had bread and butter abilities well before LK.

Now, I think it does shine in 5-player dungeons, PvP or in 10-player raids, depending on how many hot-based healers you have. The initial heal could probably be a bit larger. That is something we may change after some more testing.

I know Resto hasn’t gotten as much attention as other shaman specs in this forum, but honeslty we think it’s because you work pretty well. Players have gotten made when I’ve said that before, but particularly in raids, everyone knows what they’re going to get from a Resto (CH and Earth Shield) and I don’t think that is going away.

Spirit Wolves
We might have to lower the healing per damage if the damage goes up a lot with the AP changes. In other words, you might not see a buff to healing and damage.

Spirit Wolves scaling with Attack Power
I said Strength at one point, but they never did scale off of Strength. In fact they never scaled off of anything. They were the same no matter what your level or gear. We fixed that though, and they should scale very well (using AP, not Str). Let us know if that isn’t happening.

Then you’re going to love them next build.

WotLK Paladin / Shaman Glyph Changes

A few glyphs changes for paladins and shamans in the most recent beta update, build 9038. I like the paladin changes, though the 100 yards on a holy light seems a bit excessive. I would not be surprised to see this reduced to a more reasonable the 30-60 yard range.

The shaman changes on the other hand are flat out horrible. 3 or 4 minutes off the elemental totems are not going to convince any shaman to take these glyphs. There really is no situation where you can say…”yes, If only I had that extra 4 minutes off the totem…” If these glyphs were buffed to a 10 minute reduction or changed from major to a minor glyph you could make a case for them, otherwise I just don’t see any way you’d choose these over other glyphs.

Paladin

• Glyph of Holy Light - Your Holy Light grants 10% of its heal amount to up to 5 friendly targets within 100 yds of the initial target. (range changed from 5 to 100 yards)
• Glyph of Flash of Light - Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140% of its initial effect over 12 sec. (duration changed from 15 to 12 sec)

Shaman

• Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Elemental Totem by 4 min. (old version was 3 min)
• Glyph of Earth Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown of your Earth Elemental Totem by 4 min. (old version was 3 min)

Shaman Totem Change

Shamans around the world can rejoice today knowing that no longer will you be forced to drag around the obligatory air, fire, earth and water totems. That’s right, the totem tools have been consolidated. Now your requirements will be fulfilled via your relic totem slot.

While it hasn’t been officially announced, it’s assumed that all totem relics will be modified to include this new totem consolidation feature. Perhaps a minor change, but having the extra 4 slots in all shaman’s bags will be a welcome and longer overdue change.

On a side note, no luck for all you lower level shamans. There are no relic totems until level 60, so until then you’ll have to suck it up and use the old school totems.

WotLK Shaman Changes - Build 8982

More changes from build 8982, this time for the shaman class.

Skills
Elemental Combat

• Stoneclaw totem also protects your other totems, causing them to absorb damage.

Restoration

• Riptide heal value has been increased. (764-826 to 1015-1099 for Rank 4, 668-722 to 888-960 for Rank 3, etc …)
• Mana Spring Totem now restores 30 mana every 2 seconds. (Old - 90 mana every 5 seconds)

Talents
Elemental

• Storm, Earth, and Fire doesn’t increase the effect of spell power on your Lightning Bolt but reduces the cooldown of Chain Lightning by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 sec instead.

Seemingly minor changes to the class, but the new stoneclaw totem in particular is very interesting. Having what essentially amounts to a shield totem, should increase the strategic element of totem placement, particularly in arena. If anything else this should make it a bit more difficult for other players to just snipe an entire totem forest in 3 seconds. Though this will all be dependent on the amount of the absorb.

Riptide just looks better and better every time I see it. Now with nearly +300 healing added to it it’s just looking stacked! (as it shoulder considering it’s so deep in the talent tree). A friend of mine who was lucky enough get a beta invite tried out the new talent earlier today, check out his results. Note: he would have had approximately 2500 healing on live with this gear / trinket / earthweapon.

Additionally, earth shield was healing for around 1300 with trinket up, and that’s without the new improved shields talent, which adds another 15%. All in all, restoration is just looking very improved for expansion.

Shaman Guide

In this shaman guide you will find all current strategy guides related to the shaman class on Zug Gaming. This shaman guide will be continually updated to reflect patch changes, new content, updated strategies, etc. If there’s is an area you think this guide need improvement on please drop us a note on the Zug Gaming forums.

Shaman Arena Strategy

• coming soon!

Shaman Talent Builds

• Shaman Arena Talent Specs

Shaman Macros

• Shaman Macro Guide
• Shaman Focus Macros

Shaman PvP Videos

• Kollektiv - Elemental Shaman Arena 5v5

Other Strategy Guides

• Hotkeys Guide - Building for Speed
• Kiting, Line of Sight, and Position Strategy Guide
• Focus Macro Guide - and How to Use them!

Level 80 Shaman Skills

Wrath of the Lich King is going to have a lot in store for the Shaman class. The new abilities that Shaman will gain promise to help bridge the gap between the crowd control based classes and the movement based classes while keeping the burst damage that shaman have come to know and love. Here are some of the new skills and abilities that shaman will be gaining on their journey to level 80.

Earthliving Weapon
90 Mana
Instant cast
Requires Melee Weapon

Imbue the Shaman’s weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by 26 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional 360 over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.

Earthliving weapon is a spell gained at level 30 and a new rank will become available every 10 levels after that. While the exact values of the effect are not set in stone for all the different ranks, it is fairly certain that this ability will be a staple in any Restoration Shaman’s arsenal.

Some notes on this ability from WotLK beta:

• The heal proc has the ability to proc off of each jump on a Chain Heal
• The healing done by the HoT and the threat associated with that heal are both credited to the caster of the heal, not the recipient like Prayer of Mending or Lifebloom’s final tick.
• Like Lifebloom, the HoT ticks every second.

Lava Burst
655 Mana
2 sec cast
30 yd range
8 sec cooldown

You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 888 to 1132 Fire damage. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will consume the Flame Shock, causing Lava Burst to critically hit.

Obtained at level 75, this ability is not only going to help keep elemental shaman PvE more exciting than spamming lightning bolts but it will be great for a burst damage setup in PvP. If you flame shock, wait a few seconds for your shock cooldown to tick down and get setup for a cast (or cast lightning bolts if you don’t have to move), Lava Burst, Elemental Mastery Chain Lightning, Earth Shock, you are going to be putting out a powerful punch that will be tough for healers to react to if they don’t see it coming.

Some notes from WotLK beta:

• Enhancement shaman specced for Elemental Devastation and Maelstorm Weapon will see great synergy by keeping flame shock on their target, waiting for a Maelstorm Weapon proc (Instant cast spells after you critically strike in melee 5 times), then Lava Bursting to guarentee a spell crit which will keep Elemental Devastation up (9% Melee Crit)
• The strength of this spell will cause enhancement shaman to use less earth shocks in times where and interrupt isn’t needed. This frees up stormstrike debuffs for other classes that will be using them like Marks Hunters, Rogues, Elemental Shaman, and Balance Druids.

Hex
150 mana
1.5 sec cast
45 sec cooldown
20 yd range

Transforms the enemy into a frog. While hexed, the target cannot attack or cast spells. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Lasts 30 sec. Only one target can be hexed at a time. Only works on Humanoids and Beasts.

After four years in the making, player-controlled shaman finally get the ability that their server-controlled NPC brothers have had for years. One significant thing about this spell is that it is more like a fear on a long cooldown than a sheep. The target may have slight damage caused to it and being hexed will not cause the target to heal.

Some notes from WotLK beta:

• Hex is currently a Curse, so only mages, druids and resto specced shaman can remove the spell.
• Hex uses a polymorph mechanic so classes that have abilities which remove those effects, like druids that shapeshift, will be able to get out of it.
• The CD is long enough that it can be used in many situations where sap would be used in a 5 man instance. You can also use the ability to re-apply crowd control to a target who’s sap had ended.

Monday’s Must-See Movies

I decided to start a new segment here on ZugGaming, something that will hopefully become permanent in the weeks to come. This will be a bit where I tell you guys what WoW movies came out in the last week that are notable in some way. They can be funny, skillful, or just plain entertaining. If you have any suggestions of things I should check out, just drop a line in the comment section.

Magehancement 2100+

The first must-see movie is about two guys from Shattered Halls - US, playing a rather unorthodox comp. They are a frost mage and enhancement shaman combo playing at the 2100+ rating level. You’ll get to see them fight some of the toughest compositions while the mage carries the shaman to victory! Ok, the shaman helps out some too. While this certianly isn’t a comp you will want to choose for easy-mode shoulders, the two classes work well together with some great communication and a good sense of awareness. The video was recorded in full 1680×1050 resolution so if you download the full version it may run slowly on an older machine. However, it is worth downloading because the author puts in some helpful commentary in the bottom of the screen that may be hard to see if you don’t have the full resolution copy.

Stream or Download Now!

WotLK: The Power of Retribution

The infamous Serennia recently released a new Paladin expansion preview video, featuring some of the current class imbalances that the Retribution Paladin holds. Blue posters have kept the community settled down so far with promises of rebalancing before the expansion goes live but in it’s current state, retribution can be fun to watch. In this lengthy 33 minute video Serennia does a mix of solo and duo 5 man content while PvPing and recording some monster crits. The music isn’t bad for those who are fans of techno remixes; the second track was done personally by rogue hero and part-time DJ Isolee.

Stream or Download Now!

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