No reports confirming the change in the LB Coefficient, no mass hysteria. Pretty sure it can be said with certainty that the coefficient nerf never happened and it was just a good troll post.
However, what did happen today was the Mortal Strike debuff from Flametongue has been removed from the latest PTR build, and Kalgan has confirmed that Shaman will not be seeing a Mortal Strike effect. While this is good in the sense that we MAY see further changes, this has resulted in effectively dividing the Shaman community on whether the MS effect was a good thing or not. No buffs were given with this build of the PTR, and no confirmation as to whether there will be further changes before 2.4 goes live.
However, Kalgan had said there were buffs in the works, so I remain hopeful that there will be something substantial coming. But, that isn't to say we should stop voicing our concerns. I urge the Shaman community to keep posting their feedback from the PTR, making logical, sane, and mature arguments to support said feedback, and to stop tearing into each other like a pack of ravenous dogs. We're all Shaman, we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves, and should instead be working together to get our feedback heard so we get something changed for the better, for once!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Lightning Bolt Coefficient Nerfed?
Unconfirmed reports are coming in from the PTR that Lightning Bolt is doing less damage on the test servers than it is on Live. Nothing has been confirmed by a Blue yet, and Shaman seem to be going back and forth on the issue.
Hopefully, this is just a really good "troll" trying to rile people up. But considering how much came true from the fake patch notes that were released early last month, and my pessimistic nature, I wouldn't be surprised if they did stealth nerf the coefficient.
Hopefully, this is just a really good "troll" trying to rile people up. But considering how much came true from the fake patch notes that were released early last month, and my pessimistic nature, I wouldn't be surprised if they did stealth nerf the coefficient.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
New Toughness not Intended to Affect Immobilizes
As stated here by Hortus: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976331506&pageNo=2&sid=1#22
" The new implementation of Toughness is not intended to affect roots. I have pointed out to the developers the inconsistency of the tooltip with other abilities that do remove roots."
What does this mean? This means that, unlike abilities like Dire Bear Form, Vanish, and Improved Sprint, that say "movement impairing effects" and remove both snares and immobilizes, Toughness is not meant to remove immobilizes, only snares.
This makes the talent only slightly better than pre-2.4 toughness. And the sacrifices necessary to get it are absurd. One would either have to give up healing pushback, or Unleashed Rage (from the standard PvP build) to get it, and neither is a worthwhile trade off for this gimped version of Toughness.
Blizzard, why is it that everytime you change the Shaman class, there always, ALWAYS has to be some asinine change that makes it nothing more than a bone being thrown our way? Why can't we have a straight up buff for once!
" The new implementation of Toughness is not intended to affect roots. I have pointed out to the developers the inconsistency of the tooltip with other abilities that do remove roots."
What does this mean? This means that, unlike abilities like Dire Bear Form, Vanish, and Improved Sprint, that say "movement impairing effects" and remove both snares and immobilizes, Toughness is not meant to remove immobilizes, only snares.
This makes the talent only slightly better than pre-2.4 toughness. And the sacrifices necessary to get it are absurd. One would either have to give up healing pushback, or Unleashed Rage (from the standard PvP build) to get it, and neither is a worthwhile trade off for this gimped version of Toughness.
Blizzard, why is it that everytime you change the Shaman class, there always, ALWAYS has to be some asinine change that makes it nothing more than a bone being thrown our way? Why can't we have a straight up buff for once!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Buffs in New PTR Build
So apparantly two new buffs have appeared on the PTR...however, these only address Enhancement viability in PvP, and doesn't help the other two specs at all. Regardless, these are some very strange changes.
The first is a change to the talent Toughness, as seen here: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7493/wowscrnshot022708220043ka9.jpg
Basically with 5/5 Toughness, the duration of all movement impairing effects is reduced by 50%. Frost Shocks wil only last 4 seconds, Hamstring will only last 7, etc....I honestly don't believe this will help prevent being kited against anything other than Hunters, Shaman, Mages, and Druids, but its a good step in the right direction.
The other change is definitely unexpected, which can be seen here:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/flametonguedebuff.jpg
Seems Flametongue has gotten a Mortal Strike effect added to it. This is really out of the blue, and I wouldn't be surprised if this gets removed.
And here's yet another change, this time to Shamanistic Rage:
Duration reduced by half, mana return doubled.
And apparantly, there's news coming in that Totems will only have a 1 second Global Cooldown rather than a 1.5 second one. No proof as of yet for the last two. I'm wondering why Blizzard has decided to do this though. This doesn't address the fundamental issues with Enhancement Shaman in PvP. This is a bandaid, and nothing more. I don't like the idea of a "Mortal Strike" on Flametongue, it'll be used against us as an excuse not to give survivability buffs to ANY spec. I'm really hoping they revert it and give us a less lazy change that address the problems we have.
Giving Mortal Strike to classes that perform badly in the Arenas is NOT the answer!
The first is a change to the talent Toughness, as seen here: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7493/wowscrnshot022708220043ka9.jpg
Basically with 5/5 Toughness, the duration of all movement impairing effects is reduced by 50%. Frost Shocks wil only last 4 seconds, Hamstring will only last 7, etc....I honestly don't believe this will help prevent being kited against anything other than Hunters, Shaman, Mages, and Druids, but its a good step in the right direction.
The other change is definitely unexpected, which can be seen here:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/february/flametonguedebuff.jpg
Seems Flametongue has gotten a Mortal Strike effect added to it. This is really out of the blue, and I wouldn't be surprised if this gets removed.
And here's yet another change, this time to Shamanistic Rage:
Duration reduced by half, mana return doubled.
And apparantly, there's news coming in that Totems will only have a 1 second Global Cooldown rather than a 1.5 second one. No proof as of yet for the last two. I'm wondering why Blizzard has decided to do this though. This doesn't address the fundamental issues with Enhancement Shaman in PvP. This is a bandaid, and nothing more. I don't like the idea of a "Mortal Strike" on Flametongue, it'll be used against us as an excuse not to give survivability buffs to ANY spec. I'm really hoping they revert it and give us a less lazy change that address the problems we have.
Giving Mortal Strike to classes that perform badly in the Arenas is NOT the answer!
Why Elemental will still need Survivability Buffs
Shaman, despite what some mages will say, ARE glass cannons. Due to a lack of both defensive talents and abilities, they are sorely lacking in comparison to their closest counterparts, the Balance Druid and Shadow Priest.
Many people will say that, coupled with Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem, Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem, Earth Shock, and Nature's Swiftness, we have plenty of burst already. I'm here to tell you, they are mostly wrong. First off, I'd like to introduce you to two macros that render the first two defenses on that list obsolete:
/stopcasting
/castsequence Ice Lance (or Moonfire, or Corruption(Rank 1), or Shadow Word: Pain(Rank 1)), Polymorph (or Cyclone, or Fear, or Mana Burn, etc..)
This stops your current cast, casts a low mana cost, instant that destroys the Grounding Totem, then begins casting a more critical spell. People who say that you should drop grounding totem as they're casting are foolish, because this macro negates that. Someone could be casting Mana Burn, I'll drop the totem, then they click this button to kill the totem and begin casting mana burn again.
/petattack Tremor Totem
/cast Fear
Any warlock without a macro like this is a fool. It renders the Tremor Totem useless and will almost always destroy the totem before it has a chance to break any fears.
Now, regarding Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem: The only classes that we use this against as a defense have a multitude of ways to get around it and get on us: Paladins can Cleanse it, or more simply toss a Blessing of Freedom on themselves. Druids can just shapeshift out of it, or if specced for it, use Feral Charge. Rogues can Cloak of Shadows or use Improved Sprint, or can simply Vanish and sneak around behind us to start another stunlock. Warriors can intercept (quite often actually) and once we're hamstrung, we're unable to kite them any longer.
Earth Shock isn't that great of a defense, because there's still 4 seconds between the end of the interrupt and the firing of another earth shock, and during that time we're quite vulnerable. Sure, we can stop a critical, life saving heal, but then again, that's not usin the ability defensively.
Now when someone says "Use Nature's Swiftness for a heal!" they aren't realizing that, while they are correct, it's a great defensive tool, that we use an "EM+CL > NS+LB > ES/FS" rotation for a lot of burst at the beginning of an arena match. If we save our NS for a heal later in the match, we're prety much negating the reason we were taken on the team in the first place, and that's BURST. In the case of a Shaman saving NS for a heal, the group is most likely better off taking a different class like a mage.
I've heard people also say that, because we have heals, we don't deserve defensive abilities or the title "Glass Cannon". This is simply not true. "True Glass Cannons", like mages, have a multitude of ways to keep opponents off / away from them, as well as abilities to stop and mitigate spells, something Shaman cannot do outside of using Earth Shock and Grounding Totem (and I've already explained those away). Our heals can be mitigated by MS-style effects, unlike most defensive abilities which will prevent more damage than an MS'd heal would restore, and most defenses can't be interrupted to lock out everything, including damage, unlike our heals. The other issue is that Elemental has no escape tools to get those heals off in the first place, which is quite dissimilar to our counterparts, the Balance Druids and Shadow Priest.
So what is my point after all this rambling? Well its that Elemental STILL needs some form of survivability buff to be able to perform in PvP as anything more than a "bloodlust, then burst and usually die" kind of class. I don't care whether its a talent or some form of ability that doesn't rely on totems, the fact of the matter is, the "Glass Cannon" needs some form of defense to be something more than lackluster.
Many people will say that, coupled with Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem, Frost Shock, Earthbind Totem, Earth Shock, and Nature's Swiftness, we have plenty of burst already. I'm here to tell you, they are mostly wrong. First off, I'd like to introduce you to two macros that render the first two defenses on that list obsolete:
/stopcasting
/castsequence Ice Lance (or Moonfire, or Corruption(Rank 1), or Shadow Word: Pain(Rank 1)), Polymorph (or Cyclone, or Fear, or Mana Burn, etc..)
This stops your current cast, casts a low mana cost, instant that destroys the Grounding Totem, then begins casting a more critical spell. People who say that you should drop grounding totem as they're casting are foolish, because this macro negates that. Someone could be casting Mana Burn, I'll drop the totem, then they click this button to kill the totem and begin casting mana burn again.
/petattack Tremor Totem
/cast Fear
Any warlock without a macro like this is a fool. It renders the Tremor Totem useless and will almost always destroy the totem before it has a chance to break any fears.
Now, regarding Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem: The only classes that we use this against as a defense have a multitude of ways to get around it and get on us: Paladins can Cleanse it, or more simply toss a Blessing of Freedom on themselves. Druids can just shapeshift out of it, or if specced for it, use Feral Charge. Rogues can Cloak of Shadows or use Improved Sprint, or can simply Vanish and sneak around behind us to start another stunlock. Warriors can intercept (quite often actually) and once we're hamstrung, we're unable to kite them any longer.
Earth Shock isn't that great of a defense, because there's still 4 seconds between the end of the interrupt and the firing of another earth shock, and during that time we're quite vulnerable. Sure, we can stop a critical, life saving heal, but then again, that's not usin the ability defensively.
Now when someone says "Use Nature's Swiftness for a heal!" they aren't realizing that, while they are correct, it's a great defensive tool, that we use an "EM+CL > NS+LB > ES/FS" rotation for a lot of burst at the beginning of an arena match. If we save our NS for a heal later in the match, we're prety much negating the reason we were taken on the team in the first place, and that's BURST. In the case of a Shaman saving NS for a heal, the group is most likely better off taking a different class like a mage.
I've heard people also say that, because we have heals, we don't deserve defensive abilities or the title "Glass Cannon". This is simply not true. "True Glass Cannons", like mages, have a multitude of ways to keep opponents off / away from them, as well as abilities to stop and mitigate spells, something Shaman cannot do outside of using Earth Shock and Grounding Totem (and I've already explained those away). Our heals can be mitigated by MS-style effects, unlike most defensive abilities which will prevent more damage than an MS'd heal would restore, and most defenses can't be interrupted to lock out everything, including damage, unlike our heals. The other issue is that Elemental has no escape tools to get those heals off in the first place, which is quite dissimilar to our counterparts, the Balance Druids and Shadow Priest.
So what is my point after all this rambling? Well its that Elemental STILL needs some form of survivability buff to be able to perform in PvP as anything more than a "bloodlust, then burst and usually die" kind of class. I don't care whether its a talent or some form of ability that doesn't rely on totems, the fact of the matter is, the "Glass Cannon" needs some form of defense to be something more than lackluster.
EM + NS Shared Cooldown Nerf Reverted!
As confirmed by a blue in this thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976427746&pageNo=1&sid=1#13
However a veteran poster named Kainazzo, someone who's very intelligent regarding the Shaman and our history with Blizzard, had this to say regarding this issue (Original post found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976277921&sid=1)
=== ===
" Blue confirmed: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976427746&pageNo=1&sid=1#13
It seems that the nerf to the EM+NS cooldown was intentionally reverted to its pre-2.4 state.
Normally I'd say "Yay, good job guys! Blizzard DOES listen!", but under the current circumstances I cannot and will not make that assertion. You see, the thing is, Kalgan - king of all things class balance - STILL said that they do not intend for classes to have "one-dimensional burst damage", and the Shaman was not exempt to this. Why now, would he go back on this and have the change reverted?
Simple - they are not going to be giving Shamans the survivability buffs Kalgan alluded to when he said that there are buffs coming, but that certain ones won't make the patch due to time constraints. To nerf Elemental and not give them the buffs they need in other areas (making the class more complete and thus NOT "one-dimensional"), would spell doom for them in PvP and in 5v5 specifically, where Blizzard currently feels Shamans are doing ok.
All in all this should leave a nauseated feeling in your stomach, because in the end we're going to come out looking mostly the same (with a few modifications to Enhancement to help them, but certainly not fix them) and once again get the shaft just before an expansion, meaning we'll have to wait until then, maintaining the possibility that we'll get shafted in the expansion as well.
Don't stand for it. Cancel your accounts if this all comes true, because it seems to me that they now KNOW what they need, they are just not giving us high enough priority to actually get it done."
=== ===
In a sense, he's right. Its not something we haven't seen before (the Earth Shock on DR nerf back in 2.3 that was reverted but nothing else substantially changed) Myself though, I'll be reserving my judgment until all of 2.4 has been finalized...but it wouldn't surprise me if Kainazzo was right.
However a veteran poster named Kainazzo, someone who's very intelligent regarding the Shaman and our history with Blizzard, had this to say regarding this issue (Original post found here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976277921&sid=1)
=== ===
" Blue confirmed: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4976427746&pageNo=1&sid=1#13
It seems that the nerf to the EM+NS cooldown was intentionally reverted to its pre-2.4 state.
Normally I'd say "Yay, good job guys! Blizzard DOES listen!", but under the current circumstances I cannot and will not make that assertion. You see, the thing is, Kalgan - king of all things class balance - STILL said that they do not intend for classes to have "one-dimensional burst damage", and the Shaman was not exempt to this. Why now, would he go back on this and have the change reverted?
Simple - they are not going to be giving Shamans the survivability buffs Kalgan alluded to when he said that there are buffs coming, but that certain ones won't make the patch due to time constraints. To nerf Elemental and not give them the buffs they need in other areas (making the class more complete and thus NOT "one-dimensional"), would spell doom for them in PvP and in 5v5 specifically, where Blizzard currently feels Shamans are doing ok.
All in all this should leave a nauseated feeling in your stomach, because in the end we're going to come out looking mostly the same (with a few modifications to Enhancement to help them, but certainly not fix them) and once again get the shaft just before an expansion, meaning we'll have to wait until then, maintaining the possibility that we'll get shafted in the expansion as well.
Don't stand for it. Cancel your accounts if this all comes true, because it seems to me that they now KNOW what they need, they are just not giving us high enough priority to actually get it done."
=== ===
In a sense, he's right. Its not something we haven't seen before (the Earth Shock on DR nerf back in 2.3 that was reverted but nothing else substantially changed) Myself though, I'll be reserving my judgment until all of 2.4 has been finalized...but it wouldn't surprise me if Kainazzo was right.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Elemental Burst Nerfed, Now How About a Buff?
No doubt everyone is already aware of the nerf to Elemental's ability to burst in PvP due to the 10 second cooldown on EM + NS, as well as the nerf to pushback resistance, which hinders our ability to get spells off in the first place. My biggest concern at this point is that Elemental's performance and representation in 5v5 (the Arena blizzard USUALLY balances around) will steadily decline once 2.4 hits, IF it remains in its current state, which is no buffs to Elemental.
Shaman, especially elemental Shaman, have few survival tools at their disposal outside of Mail + Shield, Grounding Totem, and Tremor Totem. I am almost certain, that this is because of our ability to burst opponents so well. That was the balancing factor: We're pretty much a "glass cannon" right out of the box. However, our burst has been nerfed in a sense. We can't fire off an EM + CL then hit NS + LB to deal upwards 3k non-crit damage to an opponent in patch 2.4.
At this stage in the PTR, Elemental has received no buffs to compensate for the change in PvP play. Our survivability, as well as our "sustained" damage capabilities are the same (although some could argue the latter is nerfed due to the 4-piece set bonus change), and I'm of the belief that either some form of DPS increase (unlikely) OR survivability increase (more likely) will need to be added to Elemental to allow it to retain a healthy representation in Arenas. All we had was our burst, Bloodlust, and totems. You take our burst away, and we're "glass cannons" with spongey "Nerf (tm)" ammo. (Yes, I know its an exaggeration, but bear with me please)
Some form of reactive buff (that occurs when we're crit), a change to the Earth's Grasp talent to provide a chance to root a target when Earthbind Pulses, making instant ghost wolf baseline, or any number of other ideas will come to mind for most players. I don't doubt that by the end of the 2.4 testing phase there will be SOMETHING, but I just figured I'd put in my 2 copper on the issue.
Shaman, especially elemental Shaman, have few survival tools at their disposal outside of Mail + Shield, Grounding Totem, and Tremor Totem. I am almost certain, that this is because of our ability to burst opponents so well. That was the balancing factor: We're pretty much a "glass cannon" right out of the box. However, our burst has been nerfed in a sense. We can't fire off an EM + CL then hit NS + LB to deal upwards 3k non-crit damage to an opponent in patch 2.4.
At this stage in the PTR, Elemental has received no buffs to compensate for the change in PvP play. Our survivability, as well as our "sustained" damage capabilities are the same (although some could argue the latter is nerfed due to the 4-piece set bonus change), and I'm of the belief that either some form of DPS increase (unlikely) OR survivability increase (more likely) will need to be added to Elemental to allow it to retain a healthy representation in Arenas. All we had was our burst, Bloodlust, and totems. You take our burst away, and we're "glass cannons" with spongey "Nerf (tm)" ammo. (Yes, I know its an exaggeration, but bear with me please)
Some form of reactive buff (that occurs when we're crit), a change to the Earth's Grasp talent to provide a chance to root a target when Earthbind Pulses, making instant ghost wolf baseline, or any number of other ideas will come to mind for most players. I don't doubt that by the end of the 2.4 testing phase there will be SOMETHING, but I just figured I'd put in my 2 copper on the issue.
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