[PC] World of Warcraft

US - Cho'gall
WraithTwo 52 Tauren Shaman

Just started playing over Christmas break, but I'm getting pretty bored of the game. I want to get to 60, but I don't actually wanna do the rest of the work involved. Shamans can't solo worth shit, and finding groups is hard.

- WraithTwo -

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Kostaki

Shaman Totems are no longer immune to AOE spells, either. Rumors are circulating that it's an intended change and not a bug.

Paladins won't be the only ones getting the short end of the stick.

Trust me, there is NO way they intentionally made our totems die to AOE. That would be the biggest nerf ever, I would probably leave.

I like how Shamans are now bugged to all hell. Earthbind now aggros neutral mobs (so a fucking critter can run over and kill the totem), Stormstrike will be wasted if you aren't in range for a melee attack when you hit it and our fucking totems are dying to AOE (In PvE only though). Oh, and they nerfed Flurry so bad that I don't even know why ANYONE would spec Enhancement anymore (It now doesn't proc off Windfury AND Windfury eats it all up, creating REALLY bad synergy between an enhancement Shamans two main abilities).

good fucking job Blizz,

- WraithTwo -

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I hate people that say that without having any real experience AS a Shaman. We are horribly screwed up: One of the slowest lvlers, the most useless raiding class and we are average in group PvP. Yes, we are great at 1on1 PvP, but THATS IT. People see the big bolts, the big heals, and the OMGWTFBBQ WF hits, and seem to forget that Shamans aren't specced 31/31/31 (not that it would matter much anyways, all three trees need serious help).

People ARE starting to wise up that we aren't on the same level they thought we were, but its hard to see that until you've been one.

- WraithTwo -

EDIT: BTW, I said that player AEs aren't affecting the totems, just mob AEs. Still, how would the pallies feel if Rag just AE'd all their buffs away (which are superior even if they had that weakness)?

Most amazing jew boots

I started on a low pop server, but I suggest you go high. You'll have an easier time finding groups, and most importantly, you'll most likely be dealing with a more stable economy.

- WraithTwo -

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Okay, about the Shamans totems dying to AE:

The community THOUGHT that it was only PvE AEs doing it, but now we've found that Paladins Consecrate are destroying them. There may still be more, not sure. Of course, Bliz hasn't responded to ANY of these numerous bugs yet, even to confirm which are bugs.

- WraithTwo -

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Xellos

I don't see why your complaining. I played a 60 shaman, both as elemental and enhancement, and I see no reason to whine so much. About the only thing I didn't like was getting out of mana after like 2 fights. I only did pvp though, so I have no idea if they're useful in raids or not.

That put aside, have you guys had some of those new patterns yet?

We got that plate breastplate pattern today in AQ40. All I can say is..nerf?

Thick Obsidian Breastplate

No other patterns so far. I want those plate leggings to drop...they're pretty insane for a fury warrior.

Thats EXACTLY why you were happy, you only PvP'd. Shamans hold their own in group PvP and rock in solo PvP. Thats not where the complaints lie. The fact is that a smart Paladin is every bit as useful in group PvP as the Shaman, and is infinitely MORE useful in group PvE (which happens to the the largest portion of this games content).

Their both horrible in solo PvE, though, and I don't really know much about Paladin solo PvP other than the fact that they are capable of boring people to death or just Bubble hearthing, so I'm not gonna comment on that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Hey no offense meant Kostaki, I have no ill feelings towards the pally, or his bubble. If anything, I feel more for the pallys than anyone else (besides shaman). You guys have to go through a lot of the stupid crap that us shamans do, because one side of the fence wants you nerfed into the ground mercilessly for no other reason than you aren't on their side.

BTW, I said that Shaman rock in solo PvP, so I'm not sure where more credit is due. Shaman's are a true jack of nothing, master of duels...

Also, Zio, I hope that we aren't much competition for your Lock/Rogue, those are our two worst matches .

How ya doing, buddy?

Like I said earlier, Bliz has fucked up the proc system so that you can no longer proc two things off the same hit.

- WraithTwo -

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by El Ray Fernando

A few thousand people in this queue Still 500 more to go = 90 minutes, how lame is that.

They should of opened up more realms to avoid the queuing instead of just 1 pvp realm and 1 pve realm, stupid I tell you.

Anybody recommend some good places to get killer UI's.

Meh, I get all of mine at curse-gaming.com

- WraithTwo -

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Seriously, play a shaman to 60. Get into a raiding guild. If you're not forced into Mana Tide and healbotting, then try to seriously DPS. Any way that you like. And if you're not booted from the raid and /gkicked, watch as you go out of mana within 5 minutes, even with conservation, and are stuck auto-attacking, praying for a Windfury proc yet dreading one because if it crits too much you'll get aggro and die.

THAT is what the review was supposed to fucking address. We're fine in PVP, and we didn't want a PVP buff. You've obviously never fucking played a shaman if you think we're overpowered. Our totems are all but worthless in anything past MC/Onyxia, to the point of even being a potential cause of a wipe in some instances, and this review does NOTHING to change that. Nor does it change anything to allow a shammy specced anything other than Mana Tide to bring something unique and useful to the table.

Again: THE PROBLEM IS NOT THAT WE ARE WEAK. THE PROBLEM IS THAT WE ARE PIGEONHOLED INTO A WEAK SPEC FOR ANYTHING BUT RAIDING, AND THAT WEAK SPEC ONLY MARGINALLY IMPROVES OUR ROLE IN RAIDING, WHICH IS A THIRD-STRING HEALBOT, AND THIS REVIEW DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO CHANGE THAT, DESPITE ESSENTIALLY GIVING DRUIDS THE FREEDOM TO SPEC ANY WAY THEY WANT IN THE SAME PATCH.

How can you honestly support the idea that a HYBRID, an OFFENSIVE hybrid no less, should be stuck doing nothing but healing in a raid?

I find it exceedingly pathetic that core classes like warriors and priests are more hybrid than us in raid situations.

Dear lord. QFT.

- WraithTwo -

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

Holy fuck.

I got into Alterac Valley for the first time today, at level 51.

One of the first things I did was to help out a warrior being attacked by two Alliance.

I lightning bolted the first guy down (60 something), during which the warrior died. Granted, he was weakened by the war, but still.

Then I nearly soloed the other guy, a level 60 hunter.

The ONLY reason I died is that a 60 rogue stun-locked me, and I died before I could get out.

A level 51. Killed a 60, and nearly soloed another.

I NEVER thought I'd say this, but elemental shamans need a nerf.

The worst part is, though, that I said in the raid chat "whoa, I nearly killed this guy," and when they asked his name and I told them, they were like "nice, he's pretty good."

What I wouldn't kill to get this kind of effectiveness in PVE. =D

No, Hunters and Mages just happen to be REALLY easy as a Shaman. Beat some 60 Warrriors, Rogues or Locks and I'll agree. Those three are always a pain, especially Rogues. In fact, with the exception of Hunters and Mages, I don't know of a class that I'd say I win against more than 60/40. I'd say I 60/40 Shadow Priests. Oh, and the Druids are a pain in the ass. Basically, if you're gonna kill them, they escape (and you WON'T catch a decent one), and if you run oom fighting them, they beat you.

Also, you must realize that Shaman abilities don't scale as well from 51-60 as the other classes do. You are currently suprisingly similar to your 60 counterpart. You're missing some gear, a LITTLE damage, and prob 500 HP/Mana.

- WraithTwo -
60 Tauren Shaman, Cho'gall

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Honestly, this Shaman is fucking estatic. Not only is the alliance going to get to see Shaman gimped-ness first hand, but they'll finally have a reason to care about our issues.

In addition, I planned on rolling a Paladin during the expansion anyways, and now I don't have to leave my beloved Horde.

- WraithTwo -

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

Eh, I'm not sure. All I know is that it's taken me forever to get anything done.

Of course, that's most likely because I've been helping my friend level instead of grinding. OH WELL. *shrug*

Thats okay, 50-60 was a hell of a lot harder on my Shaman IMO. 40-50 was pretty steady, then all of the sudden, the grinding was worse than ever, the quests were too long to be worth anything, and it was impossible to get a toon that wasn't 60 into a high level instance, when there are plenty of 60s wanting your slot. I actually quit my Shaman at 57 for over a month out of frustration. When I came back, I just sucked it up and grinded for two days straight to 60.

- WraithTwo -

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

Agreed. However, let's be honest about why Blood Elves can't be warriors:

Charge/Intercept + Hamstring + AOE Silence + Mana Drain = dead squishy.

Granted, a rogue prolly wouldn't be much better (Cheap Shot + AOE silence to prevent a mage blinking out of stun = win)... but hey, since when has Blizzard made much sense? =\

I don't buy that, simply because a Mage will probably still beat a BE War, and Warstomp > AOE Silence, and you don't see people crying about how unbalanced that is.

BTW, my guild has Rag FUCKING DOWN. Last week, we downed him for the first time, surviving 2(!) waves of Sons.
Here's was the (highly entertaining) last 10% on Google video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...15500789958318

Last night we went back for our second downing, and it was awesome. We got him to 29% before the Sons came out, and he was down in a minute after reemerging (with a total of 6 deaths IIRC).

- WraithTwo -

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by immp

I dunno what everyone is talking about, I personally think Gnome warriors are the best class/race combo (besides gnome druids, hunters, paladins or priests if they existed) atleast on my server. Its also one of the best combos for annoying horde in pvp =D.....they look hilarious in the tier armor and gnomes get the best names.

I say you go prot spec...you'd be like a little nugget of metal.

I agree, Gnomes are the best wars IMO. Not to mention that they keep buffing Escape Artist, its 0 cast time, 1 min cd in the XPac, and it was already good.

- WraithTwo -

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Six Machine

Orcs are easily the best warriors. Grab an axe and enjoy resisting every stun ever.

Snares kill Warriors, not Rogues.

- WraithTwo -

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Zio

Everything the horde has is undead save for the classes that undead can't be.

Eh I just don't like how undead look nor thier areas

I just pick races based more so on looks then thier racial abilities unless they really matter such as resistance to stuns, more HP and etc but to me Will of the Forsaken is still overrated IMO.

I dueled a deathwish warrior as a demo lock and still owned.

I dunno, it may seem like that, but I'd rather be a Tauren OR Orc over UD Warrior, easily (and would play Gnome Warrior over any of the 3). In addition, while Will IS hot, I think the two previously mentioned races in particular give the Forsaken a run for their money. I'd prefer an Orc Warlock for instance (although either are excellent choices). Even though my Priest is Forsaken, there have been times in which I wish I had rolled Troll (although if I had the choice to change race on the guy, I wouldn't).

In short, I agree that while no one can deny that UD are powerful, I don't consider them the best race in the game, not even on the Horde. It really depends on what the class tries to accomplish, depending on what you're playing, Stoneform or (especially) Escape Artist smoke it, and that's just talking about the "break" abilities.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Zio

Wraith, I just hate how they look and thier starting areas. Or else I'd proably be them, besides there are so many, it's overrated.

Taruen give the nice HP bonus plus AOE stun. Orc can resist stuns and have axe specialization plus blood fury. I think both work quite well.

I don't know about gnome though, it's a nice ability but it's on a 1 sec cast + it seems overrated to me. Sure a extra escape + 5% more int is good but meh, I'd rather be a human or night self. I can't stand midgets in WoW, that includes dwarves too.

It's not even what you are trying to accomplish, it's what you want the most.

Trolls pwn in caster classes cause of berserking. Nothing like pulling off flash and great heals at about 30% faster then everyone else(That is if you burn yourself like my brother does.), he eats a few runes that eat life for mana. Berserks and go wheeeeeee!

THe only reason my rogue is troll, not only cause trolls look a lot better but I liked berserking. It's nice to have a 30% extra attack in PVP after you potted, with blade flurry and slice n dice since my rogue is mace spec combat spec PVP build. It's great! Plus now with deadly throw, throw spec for troll racial is useful.

The only reason I like NE is cause of the ability to eat and shadowmeld. It's very useful IMO. Humans have nice extra spirit, double rep rewards, plus that increase stealth sight.

Orc lock = stun resist, extra pet damage( whee fel guard!), and blood fury. Nice 126 or so extra spell damage for 15 secs.

I already listed why for the others. Fel hunter + perception = bye bye stealthies.

Just a couple things to add:

I agree with you COMPLETELY on the hatred of the Forsaken's appearance. I can deal with the decomposing and hunched appearance, but there is NO excuse for having all their armor cut off at the arms and legs and their own ribs showing through everything. It automatically makes 99% of gear look horrid on them.

Secondly, they buffed Gnomes Escape Artist AGAIN in the expansion, to instant cast (still 1 minute CD).

- WraithTwo -

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by dagget

Boy that ain't no shit. I went from 60-67 grinding in protection. Now granted, I can do some pretty nasty damage. I don't know why, but I've always been a really hard hitter, even in protection, but when I went to Arms to level it was like "woah". I could kill off 5-6 mobs easy without worrying about my health dropping too much. Once I hit 70 I went back into protection and now it's like I hit less than I did before I left it. My best Shield Bash (slam?) hit used to be for up towards 600+ crit in protection.

I used Commanding Shout last night and noticed it gave me like 1100 health and I was like "WTF, did I get another rank and not know?!?!" I looked down, still Rank 1 but instead of 780 it was like 1030 (1080?) and I just went "fucking sweet".

Second Key fragment got. I FUCKING HATE, hate hate hate LOATHE Steamvaults. Granted it was my first time being in there, but that instance pisses me off so bad. Sadly, I don't think my gear is good enough to be in there, either that or you really need two healers. ooooh I hate that place. Also, that second boss in Shadow Labs (the one in what looks like the school room cafeteria) can fucking kiss my ass too.

I haven't been this upset over bosses in quite a long time, I love it

Please explain in detail why you're hating on Steamvaults. My Shaman has solo healed normal and heroic Steamvaults multiple times, and I'd have to call it the easiest 70 instance. Maybe I can find what's going wrong, because I'm sure any 70 player that isn't wearing greens of the boar can run that place.


- WraithTwo -

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by dagget

What's your gear? Karazhan? Beyond? Yeah, I've got 12k HP buffed. I get smacked around for about 1500+ hp/hit from bosses. I hate it because it's frustrating. I can't stay up long enough to do any decent sort of tanking (and yes, I'm protection spec). Oh and I might have about 2-3 greens on total.

To answer your first question, at this point, I have 4 Kara epics, 1 Heroic epic (but it blows for Shaman, I just have nothing better) and 1 green (although, in all fairness, the green kicks major ass). When I started Steamvaults though, I was fresh to 70 with 0 epics (unless you count my ZG bracers, heh) and a few greens. Armory profile below.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#c...ll&n=Wraithtwo

Dude, you sound fine, are you sure your healers are up to it? The hardest part about the instance is probably the bog lords that you kill up to the first boss. Skip the water elems on the right, they are even worse. On the first boss, as long as the dps destroys the water elems, and everyone moves out of the clouds, she should go down easily. Second boss, dps downs adds, tank and spank boss. Third, the moment the boss starts drinking, everyone downs water canister before he goes berserk.

- WraithTwo -

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Man, I know . There was nothing better from quests on the way to 70 (they give you a billion different choices of chest/gloves and a few others, but bracers are almost completely ignored). There are great bracers in Black Morass, and out of the 10 runs I've done of it (7 in one sitting, BTW), I've seen the bracers ONCE. On that run, a Shaman friend was with me, and she won the roll.

I've now finished my 5th week in Karazhan, still haven't seen Whirlwind bracers from the first boss, but I keep my fingers crossed.

- WraithTwo -

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SouthJag

Arright so I just got backin to WoW after some seriously long down time, and with all the changes, I've got some things to figure out. I haven't played since a good six months before Burning Crusade. Yikes.

Anyway, the UI mods are getting really hard to separate into good, bad, and ugly. I've tried Cosmos and Titan, and I prefer Titan just a bit more. But is there another UI mod that's a little more cleaned up and error-free?

Specifically, and from what I can remember about the mods before BC and before I took my break, I'm looking for mods that show where gather points are (mining, herbalism), reveal the whole world map even though you haven't explored it yet, and overall interface improvements without getting too crowded.

Like I said, the Titan UI mod comes the closest, but it's still lacking. Any suggestions?

Edit: Oh yeah, one of the features I liked from a previous mod was something of a quest helper. It pointed you the right direction for a specific quest, or something like that.

wowace.com is a good start for excellent mods, and dl'ing their updater makes, well updating, much less of a chore. FuBar is a great alternative to Titan, Cartographer should have all your gathering/mapping needs, they have an excellent quest mod there(can't remember the name ATM), and pretty much anything else you'd need.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

They haven't set a release date yet. It's not in beta yet, either, so I'd say that at the rate it's going, it won't be until June/July '08, as the most optimistic estimate I could think of.

also lol resto shamans get nerfed into uselessness in 2.3.2.

"Hey blizzard! Blizzard! My earth shield is dispelled all the time! Can you do something to stop this?"
"It'll be on a 30-second cooldown now."
"Nyoro~n"

Eh, you're right about PvP usefulness, as Resto Shamans are the least useful of the four healers, but on the raid scene, they are healing gods, that no other class can compare to, especially with the new Lifebloom nerf.

My guild brings as many Resto Shamans as possible to nearly every encounter, typically that has been 3, but on situations that they could pull it off, there have been 4 of us. This is in ADDITION to the enhancement and elemental shaman also in the raid. So, 4-5 Shaman every week.

Lets face it, Chain Heal is a godly spell that scales unbelievably well, Earth Shield is a required buff for any tanks, the buffs totems provide to your group are among the best in the game (only competing with Paladin, which our guild prefers 2 of per raid) and everyone's favorite spell, Bloodlust, which just makes about every fight in the game so much easier for each shaman you can cram in (some fights, our melee group will recieve all 5 bloodlusts, other encounters 2-3 dps groups get them).

I'm not trying to downplay Shaman PvP issues, but just to remind people that there are other aspects of the game that Shaman happen to thrive in ATM.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

Earth Shield is nice for tanks and AOE situations (slap it on that 'lock and go to town), but it's hardly necessary. Resto shamans are good raid healers, yes. However, their single-target heals are comparatively weak (Lesser Healing Wave is insanely mana inefficient, and Healing Wave has the lowest base healing out of any class), and before Water Shield they had nothing but Mana Tide/Spring for mana regen (and Mana Spring pre 2.3 required half of its duration just to return the mana cost).

Yeah, totems are good buffs, but they've got a lotta problems too. It takes 6 seconds to fully buff up a group, and you have to buff again every 2 minutes, no matter your spec. For elemental shamans, this is a big loss of DPS. For Resto, it's lost spirit regen. The only one that isn't all that chuffed about it is Enhancement, because they have several free GCDs in their spell rotation (which I believe is Flame Shock, Storm Strike, Earth Shock, Earth Shock, repeat), and their godly mana efficiency means they can afford to not only drop totems, but also twist totems by using a macro to drop Windfury for the 9-second buff, then dropping Grace of Air and dropping Windfury again when the buff expires.

But yeah, I was pretty much talking about PVP when I mentioned Resto being useless. Which is pretty big, since the days of raiders steamrolling anything that moves are long gone.

Put bluntly, if you want to be a good arena healer, you roll a druid for 2v2 and 5v5 4-DPS teams, priest for 3v3 and 2345 5v5 teams (AKA Elemental Shaman, Frost Mage, MS Warrior, Holy Paladin, Disc. Priest), and paladin for 3v3 and 5v5 (and decent 2v2). Resto shaman have all the weaknesses of a holy paladin (incredibly vulnerable to interrupts, easy to keep in melee), without the mana efficiency and utility.

Oh trust me, as a shaman for over two years now, I'm well versed in our weaknesses, and I agree with many of your points. I just think that not only is Resto is a pretty overpowered PvE spec, but the other two are doing just fine in that particular area of the game. That being said, I stopped PvPing altogether on my Shaman when my 3s team broke up halfway through season 2, and I'm now rolling a Druid on another server with PvP aspirations.

It may just be my style and personal preference, but aside from doing a little enhancement farming, I feel underpowered as ele or enh compared to Resto, and have trouble playing either spec for any extended period of time.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by The_Griffin

Spell damage and healing - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

Coefficients is not based on the level you learned it at, but on its casting time (or duration, if it's a DOT).

The formula for direct-damage spells is basically x + (y/(z/3.5)), where x is the base spell damage, y is your spell damage (or healing, where applicable), and z is the casting time of the spell*. A 3.5-second cast (like Starfire) gets 100% of your +damage applied to it, but a 1.5 second cast like Lesser Healing Wave only gets roughly 43% of your +damage. Also, an instant cast spell like a shaman's Earth Shock is treated as a 1.5 cast for the purpose of ensuring it scales in some fashion. In addition, there are several penalties applied to the coefficient. In Death Coil's case, it applies a debuff (terror) AND heals you. That means that not only is it getting an already paltry coefficient (43%), it's also being penalized for the debuff and healing effect it does on you. WoWWiki, the site that you should be going to to begin with, states that Death Coil's coefficient is 21.4%. That means that either you don't have enough +damage to see any scaling (and since you talked about the level 68 DC, that means your gear SUCKS i.e. power-level tailoring and get the Frozen Shadoweave set dickweed, it's the best thing you'll see until around T5-T6 levels), or you are seeing scaling, it's just small enough so that it usually falls within the damage range of Death Coil.

*-There are some exceptions to this formula, such as the 2.3 shaman's Lightning Bolt, which has a base cast time of 2.5 seconds (meaning it should get a roughly 75% coefficient), but due to balance concerns was given an 80% coefficient.

You're both wrong. You're coefficient info is correct, and so is his. In other words, the coefficient is based on cast time AND level. The level adjustment was put into place as a nerf to downranking when 2.0 came out a year ago.

Jam it back in, in the dark.