Question to the Devs about Shamans

Q u o t e:
Blues dont reply on class forums.

I'm feeling a bit cerulean today.

Q u o t e:

I'm kind of curious about your Shaman experience Neth, have you played a Shaman at all in higher end raiding or arenas? If so, what spec, and did you enjoy it compared other classes you've played??

I have played a Shaman. It is one of my higher level characters. She's enhancement currently. I enjoy the class. It definitely has a different feel to it. I'm not going to compare it to the other classes, since each of my characters has something about it that I enjoy for the sake of the class. I'm also not going to say I have high end raid experience with her or Arena experience with her though I've PvPd before. That said, I've taken part in higher end raiding and arenas before as well as talk to others who have higher end experience and pick their brains for what they've experienced and try to learn about their style a bit whenever I can.

I'm sure some will wonder if I can fully understand what you're talking about or why you feel a certain way, but I can. Don't worry about that. I read wherever I can, talk to the rest of the team, and am picking your brains as we speak. ;)

Q u o t e:


leveling an enhancment shaman and end game Shaman are like two different games.

In one, your good, can hold your own, the playstyle is awesome and you can kill things

in the other, you suck, cant hold your own, and are basically a liability to raids and arena when compared to other classes.

You will start to realize that people are only LF priest/druids/sometimes pallies for everything PvP and PvE

Please oh Please, All im asking is that you level up to lvl 80, get geared, step in the arena as any of the three specs and see what you think.

I'm aware of the differences between what you experience leveling versus end game. ;) Believe it or not, I've been around a long long time. I like to consider myself smart enough not to assume that my experiences are the same as others, thus one of the many reasons why I've been continuing to read and keep tabs on everyone here.

Q u o t e:
one of the blue responses have been directed explicitly at resto sham, there is the question thread of which i have my doubts and will take weeks to answer (neth said that herself) and the ele bug related one.

I was just talking to a high end raiding Resto shaman this morning as well as looking at some other information I've seen from guilds. I fully recognize there are questions in regard to this spec the same as I recognize there are many questions in regard to Elemental, Enhancement, and shaman in general.

I'll continue to take part in conversations here as much as possible so that hopefully, more of you can become a bit more comfortable that I can see the questions you have and understand your viewpoint.

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she's spying on us!

I replaced one of your totems with a homing beacon. 0.0.

Q u o t e:


Im just saying that the entire thread might seem like endless QQ and asking for buffs to people who just come read it and havent played through it. I just dont want it to come off that way, and I really would like people to truly to understand where the shaman community is coming on this.

We have glaring problems and all we ask is that we have someone who understand them fully and can bring them to the table when discussion of moving the class forward comes up. I dont think its too much for the shaman community to ask for a person who fully fully fully understands us.

You'll just have to trust me then won't you? Just keep in mind, we're going to be answering questions, not offering solutions. We hope to give more insight into what is going on in the minds of the developers as well as let you know why they make the choices they do, what they might be flexible about or thinking of, and what could happen in the future. It's a tall order that most likely won't live up to everyone's expectations, but that's not going to stop us from giving you what we can and hopefully, some people will appreciate it for what it is.

I also have learned that it doesn't matter how much we share about our own experiences, there will never be that one person that everyone agrees "fully fully fully" understands you. Everyone has different experiences and different expectations of what that means. There are millions of amazing people that play this game, and no one person can stand up to all of those expectations. But, it doesn't mean not going to continue to try.

Q u o t e:
Neth, if you and a rogue were dying in phase 4 mimiron i would shoot my pretty yellow laser at you and let that dirty rogue die .

/cheer

Q u o t e:
But shaman have had legitimate complaints about simple things like no Ele gear, or tedious totems for a long, long time. Like this stuff goes back to the beginning of BC. Probably further, but I didn't play a shaman before then. And nothing has been done about it.

We get asked for our opinion on totems in the Totems, Totems, Totems thread, and haven't heard ANYTHING since then, other than totem stomping macros are bad. It honestly seems like a black hole. Info and ideas go in, nothing comes out. Just look at the latest patch notes for shaman, we weren't even mentioned.

The latest patch also wasn't a major patch. It mostly contained fixes and adjustments. The Secrets of Ulduar patch had far more class changes as a result of continuing adjustments being made from the release of Wrath of the Lich King.

I'm not going to share opinions with you very often, I'm sorry if that disappoints you. Opinions aren't based on design philosophy and get misconstrued as design philosophy far too often. That said, however, the totem discussions are also on my radar.

Every class believes they have legitimate complaints. Every class is looking for that next bump up in power. We need to be vigilant about making sure the decisions we make in changing how anything in the game works, make sense and fit in for the overall health of the game. We also need to take into account what sort of technology changes we would need to work the right way and we'd need to make sure we have the time to develop that technology. We all wish we had a switch that allowed us to change things more rapidly, but we don't.

Q u o t e:
So neth, does this whole questioning the shaman population and other classes mean that the devs are actively trying to fix us or just want to hear what we think is wrong with the class. (i know they are always working for make classes as even as possible) but can we expect any results soon or is this more of a, compilation until icecrown thing?

Hrm.. Perhaps a bit of both? We want to know what your top issues are so we can answer from our viewpoint why we agree or disagree with it and why. From there, it also gives us great insight into what things we might be able to change along the way to make your gaming experience better in a way that is beneficial to the game as a whole.

The whole point of doing what we do, is to entertain, and make things fun for everyone. It's easy for people to lose sight of that or believe we've lost that passion, but for us, making you happy in a way that works well for everyone makes us happy. That may seem simplistic in nature, but it's the root of all things. We also want to have fun too. You can believe that if we're not having fun, we're telling those with the ability to make change all about it.

Q u o t e:
How about taking a stab at these questions?

Shaman start with 500 less health then every other class. Why? I can understand how the itemization differences (even if I don't agree with how they ended up) led to where enhancement shaman are 6000 health below most other melee dps classes but why did we start so low to begin with?

Why are our Totem buffs so inferior to all the analogous buffs? It was understandable back in TBC when they were very strong so their inconveniences offset their strength but now that they can all be brought by other classes why are they still so inconvenient to use? DKs get to use all their defensive abilities while being buffed with Horn of Winter, why can't we do the same?

Elemental Shaman. They are nicely balanced with all the other dps if allowed to use Searing/Magma Totem and still receive the ToW buffs from another shaman or from a combination of a warlock + moonkin. Why not just let them have the ToW buffs whenever they have Searing/Magma totem active? Wouldn't it be more fitting to have their dps more reliant on the iconic ability of the class, totems?

Wind Shock, why does it need to share a cooldown with Earth Shock? Why does Earth Shock still need to interrupt now that we have Wind Shock? On any fight with an interrupt I either need to sacrifice a lot of dps to keep my shock cooldown free for interruption or even worse have to use another shock to avoid using Earth Shock because I could accidentally interrupt and my lockout is so short it hurts the raid rather then helping it.

Do you mind adding these to the Q&A thread so they don't get lost?

Q u o t e:


every class wants a bump in power.

When you do the Paladin questions, i guarantee all the ret pallies are going to ask for a slow or MS. Every class is going to qq their hearts out to try and get a buff. When in reality paladins are perhaps the strongest overall class in the game.

the reality is that Shamans are the worst healer and and one of the worst dps in almost every situation PvP and PvE. The shamans know it, most of the community knows it, other classes have started asking for shaman buffs.

I just want the downward skid of the shaman class to stop and for our problems to be addressed by people who understand, so this all doesnt sound like endless qq and buff asking.

Just out of curiosity, for the sake of discussion, where is it you think you should be?

We'll take it further and break it down more.

PvE

• Solo
  
  
  
  • Elemental
    
  • Enhancement
    
  • Resto
    
  
  
• Raid
  
  
  
  • Elemental
    
  • Enhancement
    
  • Resto
    
  
  

PVP

• Battlegrounds
  
  
  
  • Elemental
    
  • Enhancement
    
  • Resto
    
  
  
• Arena
  
  
  
  • Elemental
    
  • Enhancement
    
  • Resto
    
  
  

Q u o t e:
Hey Neth, when the Q&A's are answered, can as many questions as possible be answered? Even if it's just a flat out 'No' to whatever question is asked, with a little background info on the answer?

For example: saying 'No, you can't have thunderstorm moved up the ele tree because it enhancement might spec into it.'

I'll try to make sure we cover as much as possible in them. If we don't cover them all in the Q&A, I'll work on at least filling in some of the gaps where I can too afterward.