I used to think that Shamans had so many totems and not enough space on their action bars to put them all. Whether that was really the case or not, it’s always nice to get something new to help things out. CM Nethaera just announced something quite exciting to help shamans out with totem management and to give some more customization and functionality. Behold the Totem Bar feature coming in patch 3.2!

shaman totems

The new Totem bar is a shaman specific interface that allows the shaman easier access to his totems. It will located in the left hand side of the screen just like the warrior stances and the druid forms. The Totem bar consists of four slots where the shaman can put one totem of each kind and two other special buttons to the left and right of these four slots. The button to the right is called Call of the Earth, which is bascially the renamed version of Totemic Call, the ability that calls the dropped totems back and refunds a percent of the mana cost. To the left is a button called Call of Fire, which will be available at level 30 (same as Call of Earth) which is the feature mentioned in the Q&A where the shaman can drop all four totems at the same time in one global cooldown where the mana cost would still be as if you dropped all of them. This could be customized so that you can drop less than four if you wanted to. At later levels you get the abilities Call of Water and Call of Air, which is the same thing as Call of Fire. This gives the shaman three sets of totems that can be customized and dropped at the same time, one for a different scenario.

This feature should make things more interesting and convenient for all shamans out there!

After reading all the complains and angry posts that you see in the forums, you might be asking yourself “what are the devs thinking?”. While a lot of points may be just complaints that don’t really have much backing, there are some that are real concerns. That’s why it’s a great idea that Blizzard actually spent some time to share what the devs are really thinking by putting up a new piece in the WoW Community Site, the Q&A.

shaman totems

The first Q&A is all about the Shaman class and based on what Blizzard implies, they intend to do the same thing for all the other classes. It’s a great read especially if you play a Shaman as your main character. basically it shares what Ghostcrawler and the rest of the development team have in store for the shaman class for the future and even ideas they’re working to implement, a lot of them are still just ideas they’re playing around with. Below I want to highlight some of those ideas that they’re thinking of adding to the game somehow. Even if it doesn’t make the cut, at least it gives you a look into their heads to understand the direction of the class.

1. Being able to drop all 4 totems at once in one global cooldown

The dev team is looking to implement on a feature that will allow the shaman to drop the four totems one by one like shamans do right now can cost some valuable time in groups or even PvP and can be a major bummer while leveling. Dropping them at the same time could make using totems more attractive.

2. Totem turn in at low level

The totem that Shamans get at higher levels and place in their ranged slot acts as all four totems so the shaman no longer needs to carry around his totems in his bags. The dev team is looking to allow low level shamans to turn in their 4 totems for 1 generic totem like the ones they get at higher levels. This will allow the shamn to free up some bag space. Read more

Over the years it seems that the shaman class has been the subject of a lot of complains a few more times than other classes. I’ve seen complains concerning their totems, their damage, lack of AoE abilities and a lot of other things for both PvE and for PvP.

lightning overload tooltip

One of the latest complains I’ve been seeing was about the damage output of Elemental Shamans especially in Ulduar. Well it looks like Blizzard listened and according to Ghostcrawler, they agree that shaman dps is indeed a bit low. A buff to the Elemental talent Lightning Overload is going to be buffed and the cool thing si that they don’t need to wait for the next patch to get it since it will be hotfixed within the next few days.

This upcoming buff involves increasing the proc rate of Lightning Overload from 7 / 13 / 20% to 11 / 22 / 33%. This means that the half damage, no threat Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning Elemental shammies get for free from this talent will happen with more regularity and according to Ghostcrawler this should result in roughly a 5% increase in total dps for a raid buffed level 80 shaman. Ghostcrawler also mentions that when the hotfix does come out the tooltip of Lightning Overload will still display the old numbers and will only be updated in a future patch.

This is a pretty spiffy buff they are getting and I sure hope it does the job of making Elemental shaman dps more acceptable.

CM Eyonix has posted that they are changing Mana Spring Totem for Shamans and Blessing of Wisdom for Paladins. This is part of their effort to provide raid wide buffs just like other buffs for Wrath of the Lich King. Similar buffs do not stack and Blizzard is making use of this to further deal with the mana regen issue which they are nerfing in 3.1.

We are making a change to these spells so that their benefits are exclusive in patch 3.1.0. The buffs will be equivalent, but will no longer stack. Mana Spring will affect the entire raid instead of just the shaman’s party. We felt that both paladins and shamans brought too many unique buffs to a group. Additionally, we have been trying to tone down mana regeneration in large groups, and were concerned raids would feel the need to stack paladins or especially shaman to have enough Mana Spring totems. We have also been trying to get more benefits out of the party and into the raid, and Mana Spring previously was still a party only buff. With this change, if there is only one paladin, he or she can bring Blessing of Kings while the shaman offers Mana Spring. If there are two paladins and the second offers Blessing of Wisdom, then the shaman can offer healing or cleansing with their water totem instead. source

So with this change, Blizzard killed two birds with one stone by making Mana Spring Totem a raid wide buff but also nerfed mana regen by making it not stack with Blessing of Wisdom. This announcement seems bitter-sweet since it comes at a cost. My understanding is that holy paladins who spec into imp BoW will make it better than mana spring totem so this will further reduce it’s effective ness since it won’t stack on those people who have the imp version of BoW. In a way it allows flexibility between the buffs that both classes provide but overall it just doesn’t come out right.

Healers like myself have been cherishing the remaining time we have until the mana regen nerf is implemented since we are the ones most affected and targeted by the changes. The aim of the nerfs is to make mana conservation and management a big thing and not just rely on our regen to tide us over while we heal endlessly.

Ghostcrawler came up with more details about this nerf in a post in the official forums. Based on what he wrote, there’s some cause for celebration since the nerfs don’t seem to be as bad as we all thought. I won’t go into detail with what he says but if you want to see the details then you can go ahead and read his post. The long and short of what he wrote is this:

Mana regen while not casting will be reduced by 40%

Mana regen while casting remains unchanged.

Talents that provide mana regen while casting (spirit tap, arcane meditation etc) will be increased by 67%

Paladins will have their Divine Plea healing penalty reduced to -50% and spiritual attunement mana gains decreased for non tanks.

It’s still sad for us healers to see our regen get nerfed but as you can see from the details, it’s not as bad as we thought. Sure we won’t be able to take much advantage of those big regen ticks when we’re not casting but at least the regen while casting still remains the same. In fights where we’re constantly casting our heals, this nerf won’t make a difference.

MMO Champion tells of a patch 3.09 that could be coming out this week. Since I haven’t tried checking the PTR or even if it’s up at all and the PTR forum is currently out for me, I can’t really check if this is really true. There isn’t even a patch 3.09 PTR notes so that makes the situation a bit worse. In any case, there’s something out there and it’s going to change a few things, even glyphs. Some of the change entries I’ve seen before as legit changes for the future so that might lend some credence to this. As always, you can find the latest PTR notes here so you can check it out if it eventually shows up.

Druid

* Ferocious Bite: This ability now only uses up to 30 energy in addition to its base cost.

Hunter

* Kindred Spirits (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet damage at max rank.
* Serpent’s Swiftness (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet attack speed at max rank.

Pets

* Lava Breath now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
* Poison Spit now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
Read more

Yesterday, I wrote about the announcement for class changes that are coming for patch 3.1. Ghostcrawler mentioned that they were working on a few things and that they would announce said changes soon. Now when Blizzard uses the word “soon” it actually usually takes a while so I’m very surprised that some of the changes are announced already. this must be the fastest “soon” ever.

According to CM Eyonix, they’ll be announcing the class changes in a three part series. This first one happens to be for priests, rogues and shamans. The changes are listed below and are subject to change as per Eyonix’s note.

PRIEST

# Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
# Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
# Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.
# Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.
# Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.
# Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.
# We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.

ROGUE

# Hunger for Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.
# Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.
# Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.
# Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.
# Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
# Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.

SHAMAN

# Chain Lightning – now jumps to 4 targets but does less damage. We wanted to make the distinction between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning more clear.
# Storm, Earth and Fire – this talent now increases all damage done by Flame Shock, not just periodic damage.
# Spirit Weapons – now reduces all threat, not just melee threat.
# Unleashed Rage – reduced to 2 ranks, now also increases your critical strike chance with melee attacks by 1/2%.
# Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.
# We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.

source

Originally, I thought that most of the changes will be for PvP but after seeing the changes so far, it seems like there are a lot of cool changes that aren’t just for PvP. The discipline priest talent power word: barrier looks like a very fun spell to use and the buffing of some of their AoE heals will definitely benefit raiders. There are also some changes that could be taken the wrong way by some players like the change to chain lightning for shamans and the change to hunger for blood for rogues but I think they’re seen as buffs by most people. After seeing nature of the changes in this first edition of announcements, I feel quite optimistic for the classes that I play whose changes will still be announced.

Just when Blizzard added the Death Knight hero class to address the tank shortage, it seems like a healer shortage is another problem that might have to be addressed. I say might because these are all observations from some people as the Wrath of the Lich King expansion approaches.

Dizeh of the Northrend-US server tells of having a healer shortage within their guild since they want to be something else. Cipher from the same server says that he has a hard time finding healers for instances. It seems that the culprit is a combination of different things.

One reason I can think of is the one mentioned above, players wanting to be something else. With the introduction of the Death Knight class and the cool stuff that many of the dps classes are getting, it seems like a lot of players want to try them out. Right now in fact, some of my very own friends who play tanks as doing some last minute leveling before the expansion comes out and the popular choices are mage and warlock but there are some rogues and hunters as well. Only a few of my friends who have dps or tanks as their mains are leveling healers.

Another reason I can think of the removal of downranking and its effect on healer efficiency. A lot of healers have relied on downranking to be more efficient and stay effective in longer fights. With its removal, the fear of going OOM and possibly causing wipes because of it has scared away a lot of players. Not being able to heal properly makes a job that some already find boring annoying as well.

Personally, I liked my relatively short stint healing as a holy paladin so much that I’ve decided to level a druid and try healing as a Tree in the expansion. It was part of my backup plan to have another healing class in case holy paladins weren’t going to be great in the expansion. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having two healer toons if both turn out to be great. So if there will indeed be a healer shortage, my friends can count on me if they need one.

What do you think? Do you see a healer shortage looming in your server?

I decided to try out playing a shaman after seeing some of the nice talents coming for the expansion, especially for the elemental tree. I figured that since I have so many horde characters in the server I play in, it’s a nice opportunity to try out the Alliance once again (I’ve had some failed attempts in trying out the Alliance in the past). I find that the combination of having a flexible character that can fulfill several roles if geared and specced properly and playing an interesting race as a Draenei would help in making the experience worth trying out.

As I was leveling up in the lowbie zone, I eventually noticed something that really bugs me. I really don’t like seeing errors in spelling and grammar whenever I read something. I tolerate “1337 speak” because it is what it is. But generally, I hate seeing wrong grammar and spelling especially when it’s made by Blizzard themselves.

Shaman totems always have the name of whose totem it belongs to. The model of ’s totem is fine for most cases except for when the player’s name ends with an S like my draenei shaman. In that case, basic English grammar tells us that only an apostrophe is necessary. I know it takes extra work to program some sort of If,Then command into the code for totems to distinguish between players with and without S as the last letter of their name but I really think it’s something that should be done.

Right now I’m actually thinking of recreating my character so I can rename her so I won’t need to see that annoying grammatical error all the way until the level cap.

Being at the beta stage of the development of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the talent trees that were released are in no way final. Changes from minor tweaks to complete scrapping or adding of talents were expected to be made. Because of this, it’s really the best practice to reserve judgment of these talents for until the final versions come out. A few changes were made to the talents of Arcane Mages, Enhancement Shaman and Retribution Paladins, as listed by World of Raids. You can see the latest WoTLK talent tree calculators here.

Shaman: Enhancement

Maelstrom Weapon now makes any spell instant cast when stacked to 5, not just Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Lava Burst. New tooltip: When you critically hit with a melee weapon, you reduce the cast time of your next spell by 4/8/12/16/20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 15 seconds.

Paladin: Retribution

Vindication now gives a 20% debuff for 2 talent points instead of 15% for 3. New tooltip: Gives the Paladin’s damaging attacks a chance to reduce the target’s attributes by 10/20% for 15 sec.

Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 talent points. New tooltip: Reduces the chance you’ll be hit by spells by 1/2% and increases movement and mounted movement speed by 8/15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

Mage: Arcane

Arcane Potency (tier 6) no longer requires 5 points in Arcane Concentration (tier 2), but 1 point in Presence of Mind.

Student of Mind (tier 9) moved to Tier 3.

Potent Spirit (tier replaced with Mind Mastery. New tooltip: Increases spell damage by up to 5/10/15/20/25% of your total intellect.

Netherwind Presence (tier 10) moved to Tier 9 to replace Student of Mind. The talent has also been reworked to give 6% passive haste. New tooltip: Increases your spell haste by 2/4/6%.

Missile Barrage (tier 10) new talent to replace Netherwind Presence’s instant casts with faster Arcane Missiles. Tooltip: Gives your Arcane Barrage, Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt spells a 3/6/9/12/15% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles spell to 1.5 secs and fire missiles every .3 sec.

New change still currently unlisted at World of Raids: The talent Arcane Impact has been renamed Spell Impact and now also affects Blast Wave, Fireblast, Cone of Cold, and Ice Lance in addition to Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion.

As the talents continue to get tested we should continue to see more tweaks and changes here and there. I can’t wait to see if there are more cool changes to the classes and specs I play coming soon.