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The Anvil of Crom: Combat, casuals, and birthday cake
So I've got a week's worth of healing under my belt, or more accurately, a week's worth of playing a healer class. Suffice it to say that I'm in uncharted territory here, despite the fact that I rolled through the familiar environs of Tortage and the semi-familiar environs of the Wild Lands this past week. Along the way, I met with a handful of friendly Massively readers, took a bunch of purty screenshots, and generally had a swell time. In a little over 15 hours of play, I managed to get my Bear Shaman to 30 and came away with a fairly solid understanding of the class's utility in low-level PvE. I also got reacquainted with Age of Conan's melee combat system, which, depending on your perspective, either makes Funcom's MMO the best thing on the market or one to avoid at all costs.
Shifting Perspectives: The Druid-Shammy double whammy
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them.Lately I have been leveling a Shaman, and I was surprised to learn that Druids (my all-time favorite class) and Shamans (might become my second favorite) are quite similar. I know I am a Shammy noob, having never leveled one before, but am quickly learning to love them and hoping to suck in all the knowledge I can in coming days. Not only with Shamans and Druids, I guess you could say that there is a lot of class crossover in many areas, for example, a Warlock functions much like a Hunter, being a long ranged fighter with a pet, or how druids double up on many of the Rogue's trademarks, at least in feral form. The list is endless, and I could go on, but after all, this is a Druid column, so let's get to it.I don't think crossover is all that uncommon, nor is it detrimental to any class, in fact, much of the time, the class crossover actually helps and can fill a void especially in instances when your (insert loser class here) bailed on you at the last second before a big fight. This is what makes druids the cream of the cat, um, crop. We druids can do almost everything, but with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on spec, motivation, and of course fun-ness index. Shammies are also quite versatile and varied in their skills, which makes me like them for sure, and thus our first class crossover comparison between Druids and Shammies today.
Patch 2.3 and you: Elemental Shaman edition
Earlier today, the up-close-and-personal Enhancement shammies got some boosts, and Elemental improvements were promised for patch 2.3 as well. And here they are! Eyonix delivers: Being a level 70 elemental shaman myself, I'm particularly excited as currently I feel the class is in good shape, but in need of a few minor tweaks. I'd say the one I'm most pleased with (especially after seeing the results of change on an internal build) concerns lightning overload. When 2.3 launches it will have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to occur, though the additional spell will cause half damage, still ending up being a noticeable increase to overall dps Also, the additional spell will cause no threat whatsoever. [Regarding] the mana spring totem. Previously it restored 12 mana every two seconds at maximum rank, for your entire party. As of patch 2.3 it will restore your groups mana by 20 every 2 seconds.This equates to 50mana/5 for each member of your party without the talent points in restorative totems. The second change impacts water shield. This spell will no longer cost any mana to cast (which also means the five-[second] rule will not be affected) and the mana granted per globe has been substantially increased. Additionally, the spells duration has been shortened to one minute and at the end of its duration it now grants mana for any remaining globes. Elemental Focus will now reduce the mana cost of the next two damage spells by 40%. Now before theorycrafting begins, this is actually a buff except in cases where your chance to land a critical strike with spells was extremely high. Frostshock will no longer be subject to diminishing returns which I'm sure players will find useful, especially in pvp. Lastly, we are making a change that will cause a reduction in dps, however, the elemental shamans overall dps will still be improving with the change that we're making to lightning overload. We're reducing the casting time of Lightning Bolt to 2.5 seconds (from 3 seconds), and chain lightning to 2.0 (from 2.5 seconds), causing benefit from spell damage to be reduced appropriately. The mana cost for these two spells are being lowered as well.The lightning mastery talent's cast time will now be reduced by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds. So, casting time for the spells ends up being the same as before. (All of the above from this Eyonix post) We're increasing the additional mana granted by water shield for both the Tidefury Raiment and the Totem of the Thunderhead. (Eyonix) Now that is what I call a lot of changes. Well, my LB-loving friends, are you happy with this stuff? Not all of these changes are Elemental-specific, of course; the mana spring totem change, for instance, helps everyone, Shaman or not. How do you think these changes will interact to help or hurt Elemental shamans?In other Shaman news, Eyonix has said basically "no cc 4 u", at least until Wrath: If we give shaman a cc abillity it won't be until Wrath of the Lich King.
Confirmed: Enhancement Shaman buffs for 2.3
Back at Blizzcon, some improvements were previewed for Enhancement shammies that were going to go in "a future patch". It has become apparent as things progress that this patch is probably going to be 2.3, and now we have confirmation of that from Eyonix. Specifically, the details he confirmed for patch 2.3 are as follows: Shamanistic rage will also reduces all damage taken by 30% for the duration of the ability (30 seconds), in addition to its current effect Spirit Weapons will also reduce melee threat by a total of 30% rather than 15% (source) There will be changes that benfefit [sic] the elemental and restoration shaman as well. And yes, more enchancement improvements are absolutely going into patch 2.3. (source) Yes, all shaman will be able to equip 2-handed axes and maces (proper training required of course), without having to spend a talent. In it's place, a seemingly solid replacement talent called elemental focus. Basically, what it offers is this -- after landing a melee critical strike, you'll enter a "focused state". The focused state will reduce the mana cost of your next shock spell by 60%. (source) There is some confusion over whether Spirit Weapons' threat reduction affects yellow damage; Eyonix reports that extensive internal testing shows that it affects white damage and Stormstrike and Windfury procs. He also promises to drop in on a thread discussing Elemental improvements, so keep an eye out for that.
Pandemic wins again at WSVG Louisville
WSVG's Louisville event took place this past weekend, and the results say that Pandemic has done it again, winning the 5v5 3v3* tourney and taking home the big prize of $10,500. Nice work if you can get it!Pandemic, you'll remember, won it all in China as well. They definitely look like a winning arena team-- Warrior, Paladin, two Priests, a Shammy and a Mage. Strangely enough, both Priests are Disc/Holy, which might not surprise you arena vets, but it surely surprised me. Their Paladin is Holy, too, while the Shammy is a more reasonable Elemental, and their Warrior is specced Arms.Grats to Pandemic for that one-- the next WSVG WoW arena event will be in Dallas on July 5-8 (and if you haven't signed up yet, they're giving away Blizzcon tickets to a few lucky participants). Will Pandemic three-peat? Considering their arena season 2 score is 22-1, it seems a pretty safe bet.Full list of this weekend's winners and their prizes after the jump.*Update: My fault, this was a 3v3 tourney, not a 5v5. The team on the Armory may or may not have been the team that played, or if it was it's likely they switched players in and out. Thanks, commenters evo_dragon and Den!
PVP Revamped, 25 Man Max, New Hybrid Buffs in BC
1up is reporting, courtesy of Lead Designer Tom Chilton, that Illidan's Black Citadel will be the most challenging instance in Burning Crusade at release-- and it will have a 25-player limit. Eyonix has confirmed, so if you were planning to take 39 of your friends to a brand new raid in Burning Crusade, better disappoint a few of them.Other bombshells: The PVP system will be completely revamped-- no more ladder system. Instead, you'll earn Honor Points, which can be spent for different rewards, including new gear. "Arena PVP," in which players can get a charter to form teams for 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. Also, a "season-based concept" for arenas. Your guess is as good as ours on that one. Chilton says that putting Shamans and Pallys in both factions will let them "differentiate them more." Shaman will get Bloodlust, a level 70 party haste buff. Pallys will get a castable AOE taunt buff-- cast it on a player that's getting attacked to bring mobs to the Pally. Instances will have different difficulty modes at different times-- an instance played at 62 will be easier and give different rewards than the same instance at 70. Wow. A new PVP system alone will be great news to a lot of players (and terrible news to others who have spent hours gaining ranks in the current system). Arena PVP sounds really interesting, and should help more and more premade groups get together. And speaking of being a Shaman looking for an endgame role, the new buffs sound wild.
