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2h Axes and Maces might be free for Shamans
While we were at BlizzCon, Eliah did a great job of catching something even I missed (and I played-- and respecced-- my Shaman on the event server, although I don't have any points in Enhancement, so that's probably why I missed it). Shaman are very likely picking up some serious buffs in an upcoming patch. And now, Drysc has confirmed that if one of those buffs, Shamanistic Focus, goes through, then Shaman will get 2h Axes and Maces as a baseline ability, no talent points needed.Pretty darn sweet-- now, I can use my healing mace to heal, my spell damage dagger to DPS, and my 2h mace (haven't found one yet, but I will) to melee. And think of the itemization in the future-- a 2h mace with uber spell damage and Windfury on it? Hawt!The original thread that brought about Drysc's comment was asking for Shaman swords, and I do agree that even if 2h talent doesn't get made free, Shaman should be able to pick up 1h swords-- we're already at enough of a disadvantage with our low mana efficiency to have to pass on those swords to Mages and Warlocks (sure, the lore doesn't really fit, but this is Shamans we're talking about!). But I'm more than willing to trade those away for free 2h Axes and Maces (and the promise of itemization for us in WotLK). Because what I really want to wield as a Shaman is one of those gigantic 2h totems, and Maces are just a step away from that.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Play Your Alts!
Every week Matthew Rossi sits down to write The Care and Feeding of Warriors because he cares. He cares as much as an old Faith No More song. He cares so much that he's writing the column even though he's stuck in the frozen hinterlands while everyone else gets to go to Blizzcon. But he's not bitter, oh my no. Well, okay, maybe he's a bit bitter.Speaking as someone who really loves the warrior class, at times it's hard to understand why anyone would prefer another. I mean, paladins can seem like a watered down priest grafted to a watered down warrior, druids are three classes stuck together (maybe four, even), I couldn't even begin to tell you what shaman are supposed to be... and that's just the hybrid classes. Why would you want to be a coward hiding until you can stab people in the back or a guy in a dress who blows things up from a distance and does everything in his power to avoid going toe to toe with the enemy?Well, besides the fact that those are biased and unfair generalizations, the reason you might want to play another class is to get better at your own.
A spec guide for classes that aren't yours
Nowadays, you lucky kids have the Armory, and you can, on demand, look up the point-by-point spec of any player in the game. You can see who's Fire, who's Affliction, and who's Resto at a moment's notice, and gone are the days where you had to guess what spec a player was from the spells they cast.Or are they? I'd hazard a guess that most players don't have the Armory on quick dial, and yet all players still encounter different specs of classes every single time they play. In an Arathi Basin, by the time you've looked up the other guy's spec on the Armory, the game is over.So it's still valuable to know specs just by glancing at the spells players are casting, and this is a guide to help you do that. Want to know at a glance whether your main tank laying down Mortal Strike is really specced Protection as he says, or if he's got a few extra points in Arms than he should have? Want to know if that Warlock who sent a Felguard after you in the battlegrounds is specced Demonology or Destruction?I've put together a handy guide to spotting specs of classes that aren't yours-- there are a few telltale spells in each class that will giveaway a player's spec at a glance, and save you the momentary trouble of having to punch their name into the Armory. I've also given you a short brief on what each spec can and can't do for you (so you're not asking priests in Shadowform to buff you with Divine Spirit). To check it out, hit the link below.
Guildwatch: A good healer is hard to find
Maybe it's just because Karazhan is full of undead, but it seems like healers are in dire need by guilds these days-- used to be that tanks were hard to find, but now almost everybody needs more healers-- holy Priests and Pallies, and resto Shamans and Druids. If you can cast a healing spell, we need you!Guildwatch is your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting notices from all over the realms, in both the US and the EU. For this week's glance at guild turmoil and triumph, hit the link below. And to send your own info in, just drop a line to wowguildwatch@gmail.com!
The ins and outs of totem placement
I love playing a Shaman, and one of the main reasons is the unique gameplay of totem buffs. Paladins can buff just as well as we can (if not better-- those blessings are very nice, I'll admit), but no other class can just slam down a totem into the landscape, and either buff a group or damage mobs instantly. There's a whole other strategy, as kayholder is finding out, to totem placement, and it's different from almost everything else in the game.To answer her question, I don't lay all my totems every fight, but there are a few totems-- as a Resto/Ele Shaman, I try to have Wrath of Air and Mana Spring out-- whenever possible. At the highest levels, totem buffs are really powerful-- most melee people love Windfury, but Strength of Earth is a real boost to DPS as well as block for tanks. Her shaman is playing along with a Shadow Priest, so the Mana totem will be a big help, and Wrath of Air will boost both his shocks and her spells. As for placement, the comments on LJ are right-- she should have him lay totems down, and then pull mobs in one area to that place, in order to get the most use from them.But even in larger situations, I love how totems work-- I love coordinating with my group what totems will be dropped, and I really enjoy paying attention to where my group members are in order to place the totems correctly. If I'm in the MT group, I run up with him to get Strength and Windfury down near him, and then move back to the caster group to put Mana down. When I drop Mana Tide (which I have, since I'm Resto), I always do a shout out to the casters in my group that "Mana is going down near me," so they can move in to get the bonus (the new animation helps a bit for that). Totems are definitely a unique way of laying down buffs, and I really enjoy the extra element of gameplay they add.
Totem Talk: Tales of a Blueberry Shaman
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Shaman issues, interviews experienced Shamans and reports her findings in Totem Talk.This week I interviewed Xarkness, Level 70 Draenei Shaman on Gul'dan. Before BC, he used to raid with his Paladin but rolled up a blueberry shaman when the expansion came out.Robin: I love your Elemental Noob video. Is that your current spec?Xarkness: I have spent a lot of time with each talent spec, but sadly, I always find myself dragging my feet back to the resto tree. When I first dinged 70 I was enhancement, and had leveled exclusively through enhancement from 1 to 70. Upon reaching 70 I respeced Elemental in hopes for a change in pace, also I found my DPS to be too uncontrollable as an enhancement shaman. (Windfury crits = you are dead) After being elemental for some time I became quite fond of the spec. Time continued on and one day the guild needed me to respec resto for Karazhan. Upon respeccing the difference in my survivability and viability in PvP was like night and day. I not only felt incredibly useful, but anytime I was stun locked or assaulted by a melee class I actually could survive. Also my teams' ratings in the arenas began rising across the boards. As elemental or enhancement, I was usually always the first to be killed -- stunlocked, counterspelled, CC'd, or focus fired. The only real thing I was good for was getting Heroism/Bloodlust off before I died.
Building a better DamageMeter
WyldKard sent us this great piece he wrote over at mendax.org about building a better damage meter. DamageMeters is a pretty standard addon by this point, and considering that even Blizzard has started to include damage and healing figures in some battlegrounds now, players have generally agreed that tracking your healing or damage output is a fairly good way to determine your skill as a player.Except that it really isn't. Wyld lays out a few reasons why, the most obvious being that one player outputting tons of damage doesn't mean your group actually succeeds. As a resto Shaman, I often get the short end of the stick on damage meters-- I do both healing and damage, so I never end up at the top of either list. Also, Earth Shield still isn't listed correctly even in the latest version of DamageMeters-- all of that healing, which I'm clearly responsible for, gets listed as the warrior's.That's more of a bug fix, though (DM just has to get its numbers straight), and Wyld has bigger ideas in mind for damage meters.
Let my Orc shoulders grow
Change comes a lot in this game. Some changes are small, and some are big. Some changes players hate at first, and then they learn to live with and even like them. But some changes are simply and totally unacceptable. And of course when I say that, I mean the change to the male Orc shoulder size.We male Orcs are especially proud of our powerful, broad shoulders. I love my shoulder pieces-- I once ran UBRS countless times (and I do mean countless times-- just ask my guild, who I dragged through with me) just to get the Pauldrons of Elements. We have broad, towering, expansive shoulder armor, and we are respected, loved, and feared because of it. Your male Orc Warlocks, your Warriors, your Shamans, Rogues and Hunters all stand proud knowing that each of our shoulder pieces is as big as our head.Or at least they were. Now, after the patch, they're small, a fraction of their former size. They're diminuitive, tiny, and a paltry shadow of what they should be. They're-- dare I say it-- puny and pathetic. We are male Orcs! Like Thrall, we are the real heroes of Warcraft. We're the ones who rage into battle at a moment's notice. If anyone deserves gigantic shoulders, it's us. We are true heroes, sung and unsung-- we are Orc males, and our shoulders must be large, majestic, and befitting of our muscular stature. Blizzard has acknowledged the bug, sure, and they say it'll be fixed in the next major patch.But this-- this, my friends, is a true injustice. The next time you see your favorite male Orc, don't make jokes about whether size matters or not. Resist the urge to mention "shrinkage." We are our shoulders, their size, their width, their girth-- when they suffer, we suffer as well.[ Thanks to all who sent this in-- I feel your pain, my brethren! ]
Multiboxing madness
I'm not sure I understand the idea behind multiboxing. I mean, is it really worth it to spend all that money and time just to completely rock a whole PvP battleground with 15 of your own toons, or down a raid boss all by your-- oh wait, maybe I do understand it. Still, if multiboxing is your thing, then these pictures, sent to us by the great Xzin himself (whom we interviewed a little while ago), are right up your alley. Not only are there some c-c-c-crazy monitor setups (I especially like the guy who tilted his EQ monitors around himself, like a little MMORPG womb), but you also get some neat screenshots, like the all-Shammy run of SL that Xzin did above-- bonus points on the tanking Earth Elementals, but I'll bet cash that zero Shaman gear dropped.Bobbo also sent us this Dual-Boxing.com forum thread, which gets just insane-- this guy runs 23 characters, and his girlfriend runs 23 sitting next to him for a total of 47 characters together (his picture actually shows 57 different WoW boxes, so that's at least $1000 right there, even without all the hardware). I can't imagine the amount of money and time going into something like that, but Blizzard nods vague approval to the whole thing, so more power to them, I guess. It seems like a completely different game than the one we know and love, but twinking is the same type of thing (a game of resources), and lots of us do that and have no problem with it. So multibox away, you crazy character-controlling overlords.
Totem Talk: What's right with Shamans
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Shaman issues, interviews experienced Shamans and reports her findings in Totem Talk.This week on Totem Talk, I ask Onnix the Shaman what's RIGHT with the Shaman class since that is the question he actually wanted to answer in our first interview. There's a lot of belly-aching going on about the Shaman being the least balanced class in the game and Warcraft Realms is still showing them as the least played class -- though honestly, I don't know how often their census is updated. But Onnix maintains that the Shaman class is a blast to play, even with all the limitations.So, what is right about about the Shaman class?Onnix: We are a Jack-Of-All-Trades class -- I think the most fun one. The versatility of our class allows us to be instantly flexible in a variety of situations as opposed to the druid class, who have to shift forms to access limited skill sets.Why should a shaman be invited to a heroic instance run? From a resto perspective, contrary to popular belief, the shaman can main heal or even solo heal just fine in Heroics, but they require a competent group -- tanks that can hold aggro, DPS that don't pull aggro. A competent group is always the ideal, but with a priest healing, there is a larger margin of error within the group. I believe priest heals generate less threat (not positive) but if they pull healing aggro, they can fade, they can also Power Word: Shield targets to give them a chance to catch up on heals. Also, their heals are so much more efficient that they don't run out of mana as much.
Everything we know about 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion
EU Forum MVP Schwick has posted a very nice and very thorough listing of everything we know about patch 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion. As far as I know, there's nothing really new here, but it's a terrifically indepth listing of every rumor, hint, and suspicion that we've heard so far.Some of the exciting ideas still coming are new emotes, a tanking Pally revamp, a new stealth animation for Rogues, and totem timers for Shamans (currently, I use Totemus, and that suits me just fine). Also on the to-do list includes VOIP, guild banks and housing, and speculations for the next expansion include Northrend (I've got my money on this one, because the Scourge have it coming), "Beyond Outland," and the Emerald Dream.I'm sure we'll learn more eventually (expect big things at Blizzcon, I foresee), but until then, this roundup is as comprehensive as it gets. Thanks to Schwick for compiling this all together for us.
Breakfast Topic: You're the shaman now dog!
You all were fantastic with your praise and encouragement of mages yesterday! Now today we turn toward shamans -- share with us everything you love about playing a shaman, playing with a shaman, or going head to head against a very competent one in PvP. Today is "Shaman Day" here in the Office of Breakfast Discussion at WoW Insider, and the time has come to see shaman hearts uplifted!Think of it as a Chain Heal of love for our elementally spiritual friends.
Totem Talk: What's wrong with Shamans?
Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Shaman issues, interviews experienced Shamans and reports her findings in Totem Talk.First of all, let me get this out of the way. I don't like the sound of Shamans as a plural for Shaman. I much prefer Shaman, but I'm going with WoWWiki, at least for now.Secondly, I am not a Shaman. I am reporting on Shamans. I am interviewing Shaman veterans. I am provoking Shaman discussions. I am in ur forumz reading ur threadz. You will notice when reading the newspaper or Fark or whatever that these people you are reading are not presidents and soldiers and socialites. They are writing about presidents and soldiers and socialites. And I am writing about Shamans. Regardless, I've been through this before, so my fire resistant gear is equipped. I am, however, constantly bombarded with all things Shaman because my husband is a rabid, raiding, Level 70 Tauren Shaman. As I write this, he is in Serpentshrine Cavern with his Barbie DreamShield and his cape taken from a little girl and I'm trying to get him to take some screenshots. You may already know him from this story, but right now he is Onnix, the Shammy Healbot from the guild Grim on Daggerspine.According to Warcraft Realms, the Shaman is the least played class currently among characters played in the last 30 days above level 10. And the Alliance have not raced to make as many Blueberry Shamans as the Horde have made Belfadins. Clearly, the general WoW population considers Shamans the least fun/useful class to play at this time. So I asked Onnix why he thought that was the case. Onnix would rather have answered the question "What is fun about playing an endgame Shaman?", but I was able to put that off to a future column. Instead, he told me the top 5 things that should be changed to make the Shaman a more successful class.
Forum post of the day: Patch 2.2... not really
While I have to admit, I wouldn't normally have thought of the Shaman forums as being the party place to be lately, this thread claiming that it had the 2.2 Patch Notes has certainly lived up to that feeling more than most. Sure, some of it is pretty dark (such as the part claiming that they've just deleted Shamans altogether) but I have to admit, even the parts that poked fun at my favorite classes were fairly funny. Here's a few of the highlights: General Notes * Changed flight points to make them go the scenic route more often * Adjusted flight point costs to reflect the longer distances. Longer distances = more money. * Poor players will no longer be able to speak. Sorry. No begging or gold website advertising. * Will of the Forsaken will be removed, due to popular opinion. Replacing it will be Emo Feelings of the Forsaken, which makes the /dance emote cooler. I mean, coolioo.So for a Forum thread that is full of silly fun (or perhaps just full of weird, depending on your sense of humor) head on over to the Shaman forums and check the "2.2 patch notes" out. [via the Shaman Forums]
Orc & Troll "monsters" oh my!
Many people have crafted cool WoW-themed items for their friends and families. We've seen cool WoW cakes, nifty paper non-combat pets, We've even seen different takes on people's characters. Recently, I was gifted with a "monster doll" of my own character -- the Troll Rogue on the right. She now sits above my monitor, protecting my desk from any bad guys who decide to raid it. (Sadly, my dear little monster Rogue is not terribly effective at staving off the dreaded Housecattus Napimus though.) In the interest of sharing some of the neat things dreamed up by the WoW community that are out there, I sat down with the artist, Nicole, to find out more about these WoW 'monster' dolls!
Shifting Perspectives: How fun is a druid?
Welcome to Shifting Perspectives! This is a new feature here on WoW Insider, which will bring you various perspectives on shifting forms as a druid, from David Bowers one week, and Dan O'Halloran the next.I'm here kick off our little druid feature for this week with a simple pair of questions to answer: "Is playing a druid fun?" and "should I play a druid?" I reply to both with a resounding yes, of course. "But why?" you ask. "What has the Druid class got to offer me that other, so-called 'superior classes' haven't got?" The answer is, naturally, everything! Well mostly everything. You see, more than any other class, druids have such a variety of abilities and can specialize in these abilities to such a degree that there are many very different play styles available to each druid player. The Druid is the ultimate class for the player who wants to tank sometimes, stealth and kill sometimes, heal sometimes, and then sit back and nuke things from a distance for a few months in order to get a change of pace. A druid can alternately be very good at healing, tanking, dealing up-close melee damage, or dealing far-away nuking damage, filling the roles of a priest, warrior, rogue or mage -- all in one class!
Not quite a set - Typhoon
We've looked at a couple of the Tier 2 look-a-like sets in the past (the Green Wrath and Purple Judgement sets for those keeping score at home) and I felt it was time to continue. Maybe it's just me, but I really like when my armor set LOOKS complete. My shammy is currently striding about Shattrath in his Tidefury set, and I've had quite a few nice comments on the character's overall look. So, if you're as strangely obsessed with completing a look as I am, I hope you'll find these articles on non-set sets appealing. If you prefer gear with the best stats over looks, you may not be getting that here.This time around, I'm looking at a Shaman healing set, which happens to mimic the look of the Ten Storms tier 2 set. The graphics really don't do it justice, as you'll actually get little bolts of lightning playing around the shoulders and head when you put this gear on. As everything in the set has a slightly nautical naming convention, and the colors give off a deep-sea kinda vibe, I am now dubbing this set "Typhoon". Feel free to spread that around, folks.
Get in line! Rezzing order and you
So someone moved, someone pulled aggro, someone didn't heal fast enough, or you just don't have the DPS. It's a wipe. Everyone's dead on the ground, and the raidleader calls for a Shaman to pop, or for someone to use their soulstone. I'm a resto Shaman, so this happens to me pretty often: I Reincarnate and I'm standing over 24 dead people. Who do I rez first?Obviously, the first people I go for are those who have a rez to use, so we can do some chain rezzing. Priests, other Shamans, and Paladins. But after that? Caralynn lays it out: while your first instinct may be to rez your MT or your friends, you should really be rezzing pet and buff classes before melee.Which makes great sense. Warlocks and Hunters need to drink and resurrect their pets, and that's a lot of time wasted if you rez them last. Mages and Druids use all kinds of mana casting those buffs, so they usually have to drink, rebuff after a wipe, and then drink again. And Warriors and Rogues are easy to refill-- Rage doesn't refill, and I wish my mana filled up as quickly as Energy did.So it's Other Rezzers > Pet Classes > Buffers > and then Melee. There are other schools of thought on this (one player says to rez RL girls first, wink wink say no more), but this plan seems to be the best. Plus, Caralynn points out that this has the added bonus of not having melee standing around trying to pull while clothies are rebuffing. If you time it right, everyone can be ready to go again at the same time. And this time, watch that aggro!
Officers' Quarters: Keeping your hybrids happy
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. This week's question deals with a topic that another recent addition to the WoW Insider team, Jason Lotito, has been covering in his excellent Hybrid Theory column. Of all the classes in Warcraft, I find that the true hybrids -- Druid, Shaman, and Paladin -- can cause the biggest issues when dealing with loot. Sometimes you can really find yourself in the lions' den, and in Warcraft those feral kitties have sharp claws! Here's a common problem: Hey Scott, I stumbled upon your column, and I'm happy to see that someone is taking the time to address guild leadership. My original guild started on Everquest, and moved to WoW when it came out. I was an officer/raid leader in that guild for eight years, then they recently split up [. . .] I decided to pack up and start anew on another server, this time as Horde. A good chunk of players decided to follow me [. . .] So now we've leveled from 1 to 70, [ground] out our Karazhan keys, and blam-o, we're back to raiding again. We used to use the typical earn DKP/spend DKP system, but I haven't decided to apply it in Karazhan. I figured it's a 10-man zone, and 25-man is the greater goal. So I've done with just rolling 1-100. But the other night, I had a problem that, as Alliance, I didn't have to face before.
Build Shop: Shaman 40/0/21
Late again, dear readers, and without a good explanation this time. To compensate, I'll look at a build from the class everyone's been clamoring for: Shaman. Now Shaman is, without question, the class I know the least about in the game. I did some research before writing this, but it's still going to be a bit shaky, so you'll just have to excuse that. It'll also probably be shorter than your average Build Shop, simply because I won't be able to segue into extended discussions of individual talents or skills as often.I didn't get very many Shaman builds, despite the class's vociferousness in the comments. To be specific, I got three: two elemental, one enhancement. I know enhancement is undergoing some shakeups right now, what with the dual-Windfury nerf and all, so I'm going to avoid that and just do an elemental build. Without further ado, I give you: 40/0/21. Shaggyg on Destromath thinks this build, taking points in both Ele and Resto, should "increase crits and improve casting performance" once his up-and-coming shaman hits endgame. (Aside: props on the <My Little Pwnies> guild name; I've seen it on a few realms now and it always makes me chuckle.)
