#0 - Aug. 20, 2007, 2 a.m.
1) Shaman specs outside of Restoration lack survivability. Such concerns are usually brought down by people saying to spec Resto if one desires survivability, but why should it be that way? Several specs from other classes all provide several reactive, and sometimes active, defensive talents ON TOP OF passive defensive talents.
2) No pushback resistance for Lightning Spells put a hamper on solo grinding / farming as well as in PvP. There's only one other class that has this issue, and that would be priests. However, they also have Power Word: Shield to aid them in this regard, as well as a Fear to get their enemies away from them so they can cast spells.
3) Totems are some of the most costly buffs in the game, and their immobility and short range only adds insult to injury. One or more of those things needs to be changed to improve the system. Blessings have not only received longer duration group buffs, but in Patch 2.2 their durations will be increased for both Blessings and Greater Blessings. Either increasing the duration, adding mobility, increasing range, reducing the mana costs, or several of those would really help bring the Totem System up to date.
4) TBC brought many classes new skills that alter their play style during combat. However, in the Shaman's case, they didn't receive much of anything. Yet another Elemental Shield buff that is useless in situations where you're not getting hit, another Air Totem, two 20-minute cooldowns, and a 10-minute cooldown. Druid's got another CC and a HoT that changes the way they heal. Rogues received more skills to aid in combatting runners and casters. Mage's Molten armor adds defensive as well as offensive capabilities.
5a) Enhancement lacks a way to combat people being at range, and is the only melee spec for a class that hasn't got a method to catch up with someone. Warriors have Charge / Intercept (and to a lesser extent, Intervene in a group situation), Druid's can shift out of all snares / roots and instantly increase their speed by 40% (Travel Form) or 70% (Cat Form's Dash), and they have Feral Charge, Paladin's can use Blessing of Freedom or Cleanse depending on what kind of movement impairing effect is afflicting them, and Rogues can use Vanish, Cloak of Shadows, and can spec for Improved Sprint. (Let me know if I missed anything).
5b) Along the same line of thinking, Enhancement also lacks ways of keeping their opponent from getting away (considering Frost Shock is the only snare with diminishing returns). Warriors have Hamstring, Improved Hamstring, Piercing Howl, Concussion Blow. Druids have Bash, Maim, Feral Charge, increased movement from their PvP set and to Cat Form. Paladins can use Judgment of Justice to keep their opponent from running faster, Hammer of Justice, and Repentance. Rogues have Crippling Poison, Gouge, Kidney Shot, Blind, Deadly Throw, Vanish + Cheap Shot, etc... Shaman have very few tools to keep their opponent where they want.
6) Threat management has always been an issue for Shaman, and considering we have things like Lightning Overload and Windfury (Burst damage we have no control over) this has become an even more prevalent issue. Things like Spirit Weapons only affecting white damage (Not stormstrike or windfury procs), and the low amount of threat reduction on the Elemental Precision talent add insult to injury. All other DPS classes either have Passive threat reduction (Rogues, Warriors in Battle / Berserker Stance, Druid's in Cat Form), threat reduction talents with effects 15% or greater, or threat dump abilities, or all three of the above. Shaman don't have any way to dump / manage aggro outside of stopping their DPS, and their threat reduction talents are weaker than what other classes have access to.
7) Shaman have issues handling an assist train. (When someone gets zerged by multiple opponents). The only option a Shaman has is to roll as a Tauren for Warstomp. Most other classes have abilities to fend off multiple opponents (for example, Frost Nova, AoE fears) or the ability to protect themselves (Divine Shield, Barksin + Bearform).
8) A lack of anti-CC means that we only have control of a fight when people are not paying attention to us, as we have no way to ward off CC effects or opponents themselves. This has a large impact on Enhancement Shaman in PvP, as a simple snare can incapacitate the Shaman and prevent them from reaching their opponents. (Refer to point #5a for more info on that)
9) Itemization is still an issue in Karazhan and up, as there are very few non-set pieces for off-spec Shaman. This appears to be an issue for all healers and tanks anyways, so I'm just going to keep this brief.
10) Flametongue and Frostbrand Weapon both scale poorly. It's always best to be using the fastest weapon possible to gain the maximum benefit with these weapon enchants. However, this is inconsistent with other normalization things, such as when weapons were normalized (so slow, blue weapons were not better than faster, epic weapons). This is also inconsistent in comparison to Seal of Righteous. Currently, Flametongue / Frostbrand only scale at a flat 10%. SoR, however, scales with weapon speed. With a one hander, the SoR coefficient is 9.2% PER 1.0 attack speed. With a two hander, the SoR coefficient is 10.8% PER 1.0 attack speed. (For example, a 3.0 speed two hander will have a 32.4% coefficient). Another issue with FT and FB Weapon buffs is that the only way to improve them is with Elemental Weapons in the Enhancement tree, yet the Enhancement spec does not use these weapon buffs (WF is ALWAYS superior). The only specs that use FT and FB are Elemental and Restoration, yet they cannot afford the points to spec to get Elemental Weapons to make them more effective.
11) In patch 1.8, weapon normalization was introduced. Before this happened, slow weapons were considered superior, and fast ones inferior, especially in terms of using instant attacks. However, this normalization has not carried over to the Shaman. To maximize the benefit of Windfury and Stormstrike, we NEED to take the slowest weapons possible in both hands. This seems to contradict that, back then, Blizzard put in weapon normalization so that epics would always be better than slower blue weapons. However, Stormstrike was never added to weapon normalization, and Windfury's cooldown results in the need to have the slowest weapons possible, and it goes against the very concept of weapon normalization.
12) Totems lack control (specifically Searing Totem and the elementals). Often they end up breaking CCs or they won't attack a target that we want attacked. This results in either lost DPS because we have to stop using it, or because it hits the wrong enemy, pulls aggro, gets destroyed, then WE get the aggro. For a Druid's Force of Nature, while they can't control it, they can at least pick an area to spawn them and they will attack whatever gets caught in the circle. And (someone correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't the priest's Shadowfiend attack their current target?
13) Totems activate the global cooldown, and this causes between 6 to 8 seconds where we're stuck using them. (I say this because its debated that the GCD is either 1.5 or 2 seconds and there's rarely an agreement, but I digress) Totems are the only buffs that are primarily cast in combat (and often times, recast as the group moves out of their tiny range) and this not only delays the time for a Shaman to DPS, this also causes problems for Resto Shaman because they're stuck dropping totems rather than tossing out much needed heals.
14) Elemental relies on a single spell school; a single spell, in fact: Lightning Bolt. There is no spell rotation to make things interesting and fun, and we are completely reliant on the Nature spell school. Shocks are not a reliable source of DPS for a caster Shaman (and are used only for the burst potential and side-effects of each shock). There is no reason to use Shocks in a spell rotation, as taking the time to Flame Shock in between casts of Lighting Bolt is actually a decrease in DPS, especially when you consider the time it takes to run to the 20 yard range. The reliance on Lightning Bolt also causes problems when a Nature immune or Nature resistant enemy pops up (especially a problem with farming Primals).
15) Elemental doesn't provide any benefit to the raid outside of totems and its own DPS, while Enhancement provides totems, its own DPS, AND Unleashed Rage, an effect that remains only as long as the Shaman is DPSing and getting crits. This is something that can be seen in other DPS specs for other healers (except Ret Paladin; they need work too but that's a different thread for a different day). Feral Druids bring Leader of the Pack, while Boomkins bring Moonkin Aura to a party, both of which require them to be in their DPS or tanking forms to provide their benefit. Shadow Priests provide Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch, which act as batteries for their party members as long as the Shadow Priest is DPSing. Elemental provides nothing comparable. The only thing the spec gets is a Totem, but even then, an Ele Shaman can drop Totem of Wrath and go to healing if the raid decides that is best for the group. Elemental needs a reason to be DPSing in a raid for it to be considered for a spot.
As far as I can tell, that's about the only things that could really use some addressing. If I missed anything critical or important other than those 15 points, please add your feedback. (Word limit reached)
