#0 - Nov. 30, 2006, 1:20 a.m.
Intro – I have transferred over to the beta with great amounts of gear for every play style and spec as well as kept a great assortment of all types of loot while leveling up, questing, and instancing. I have respeced for possibly every conceivable build and tested it in solo, PvP, and group content. Without further adieu, here is what I can tell you to be true.
Section 1 – Elemental Focus
Strengths – Solo Grinding, Small Group DPS, PvP/Burst Damage
Weaknesses – A lot of agro, Inconsistent DPS, Lack of melee lethality
Elemental is hands down our strongest grinding spec, it has less downtime/fight time than even Enhancement. Unlike Enhancement, you can grind +2 level mobs effectively and anything 1 or 2 levels below you dies as it gets into looting range. If you want to tear through content, specing 31 – 40 points into Elemental will get the job done.
Elemental is also very good in 5 man settings to a point, I actually believe the DPS capability is far beyond Enhancement; however agro will be your limiting factor. Elemental will get you killed often if not careful, also know that Lighting Overload is your nemesis for group work, please consider it as only solo/pvp viable or wait until the mobs hit 85% before beginning to cast…further gimping your DPS.
Elemental in PvP is still king, L.O. will give you a lot of pleasure here, look to 2/3 shot many a fool. Do not however, expect to be awesome in PvP with a full 41 point Ele build, support ele with the crit/hit/nature swiftness offered in the resto tree and prepare to let lose.
Things that simply do not work – Coupling a heavy Elemental build with Enhancement, there is simply only time to do one or the other, ele/2h or ele/tank is complete garbage.
Section 2 – Enhancement Focus
Strengths – Decent Solo, Amazing in Groups, fairly consistent
Weaknesses – Poor Mitigation, Mana Nightmare, PvP garbage, agro, survivability
Enhancement is considerably solid in solo PvE, you will need to heal yourself a lot more, as you will be exposed to damage longer, and have less mitigation than ele/resto does. You will however get by just fine and have a livable amount of downtime for mana/hp. You will however feel a bit jealous watching other classes grind more effectively.
The bonus for enhancement is your group work. There is an amazing synergy when grouped with a feral druid, warrior, and paladin that cannot be described…only experienced. In the right group configuration, you become an unleashed DPS cannon that propels the entire group into obliterating all obstacles…your small group presence is strong indeed. You will be the first to pull agro however, over even the fury warriors, but it is at least somewhat more controllable and less costly/permanent than chaining 3-4k L.O. Crits…which boss mobs do not let you live to tell about.
I will imagine you will see considerably fewer enhancement shaman on pvp servers and bgs, because it completely sucks for it….and yes this is coming from a long time 2h/wf one shotting sum*%!*# artist…enhancement is really really bad for pvp now as burst damage is no longer a viable alternative to CC.
Section 3 – Restoration focus
Strengths – Our best overall tree, raid friendly, group friendly, good DPS/caster support, live forever like a paladin
Weaknesses – Only that the tree solos/dps slow when not supported by other trees, not really a problem.
Shaman healing got major love…great thing for a dps/support class I know. If you love to heal, you will love the tree, period. Earth shield is hax, you can literally just cast it on a tank once every 30 seconds and go afk or throw in some dps.
For the pure healer, you do not need to extend to any other tree to complete yourself, save maybe the 5% mana in enhancement, but other than that you can stick entirely to this tree and be delighted with the results.
For those who want to expand some dps with a 41 point/earth shield build look to elemental rather than 2h/enhancement to compliment you better. There is ALOT of caster dps in resto to support a 20 point elemental build for those who wish to pvp/solo with a resto build as well. Look for many wise, balanced shaman to spec 20/0/41 and love it.
I can’t really complain much with the resto tree at all, only that I think it should not be our strongest spec as a “DPS/Support” class.
Section 4 – Totem Pets
Totem pets are 100% lol, that is all I can offer for them in their current state. Not at all powerful enough to warrant any cooldown whatsoever, much less be leashed to their respective totems.
Section 5 – Overall
The Shaman needs something more to make it complete and competitive in all fields simultaneously, there is too much give for the take when specing for damage output via elemental or enhancement. I will make my recommendations now.
Elemental – Is mostly complete, but needs the agro reduction moved to the second tier and needs a “path” to stable output and a “path” to burst output, requiring far more than 41 points to pick up both but only 41 points to specialize. This would satisfy the party/raid community while not taking away the pvp lethality many elemental shaman have come to love. The elemental shaman should not feel that 21 of his points are better spent in a healing tree…no?
Enhancement – Full and Complete Melee potential must be realized at the 31 point marker…period (incuding DW spec, SS and UR). The later half of the tree should pick up mitigation and buffing talents giving enhancement more flexibility to keep themselves alive via mitigation, alive via resto, or maximizing output with the other 30 points to resto or elemental. The tradeoff to spec 41 into the enhancement tree gimps a shaman as severely as his gearing requirements do.
Resto – Needs Unrelenting Storm (in the Elemental Tree) moved to the 3rd or 4th tier, that is all. Unrelenting Storm is too universally good a talent for any build, even enhancement focused to not have access to while taking their 41 point talent in addition to it. Put Unrelenting Storm up higher in the elemental tree and watch your “we cant raid cuz we are oom” crowd dissipate.
This is all I have patience for to share atm, feel free to ask specific questions and I will either answer or directly test them.
I will leave you with this, a Survey of the Beta Community regarding class balance. I believe it to be fairly accurate as I do not feel we are nearly as strong or versatile on beta as we are on live. Decide for yourselves I guess.
https://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1441133&sid=1
