Review on Elemental Shaman Wotlk Talents

[Ellay]

WoW with a side of WoW!

I don't want to get too excited here but all of the new talents for Shamans are flat out amazing on the Elemental side of things.

Laying out the new ones!

Elemental Oath - after a spell crit it reduces mana cost by 2% and increases critical bonus damage by 2%, stacks up to 3 times - lasts for 15 seconds. With 4 Shaman on a boss fight this is the equivalent of 24% reduced mana cost and 24% increase damage to critical strikes... pretty insane.

Paralysis - Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning gain an additional 10% of your bonus spell damage (more damage is always nice!), and you have a 15% chance of paralyzing the target, reducing their movement/attack/casting speed by 75%, 15% goes away every second for 5 seconds. Basically a mini cripple - but with 4 Shaman on the target it will have a 60% chance of landing. To put this in perspective I use to play 3 Fire Mages and spammed scorch which had a 10% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds, needless to say anything I fought felt like it was stun locked :)

There is a lot of other more insane abilities on the list that come with the expansion - Totem of Wrath will easily fit into a PvP build now. Wrath of Air is an aura with 10% spell haste making it very worthwhile to replace a grounding totem with. So many good things on the horizon, only concern now is to see what actually makes it to live.

[Sina]

Well, just a note of pattern:

Talents and skills that made the beta from alpha in BC went live with very few changes. I am fairly confident that the work on talents and skills are now going to be minor tweaks much like the past 2 beta tests. Most of the changes now are going to be envirmental and events/quests.

[Drizzit]

Wrath of Air is an aura with 10% spell haste making it very worthwhile to replace a grounding totem with

Just wonder if that stacks.... bring 9 sham to a 10 man... lol 90% spell haste... 1 pally 9 sham will rule 10 mans lol

[Ellay]

If it's anything like Paladin Auras which it probably will be, it won't stack.

[blast3r]

I didn't see anything about the Hex spell. They axe it?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Shaman#Hex

Shamans are getting "Hex", a polymorph-like spell on a medium cooldown allowing them to turn an enemy into a frog. The enemy cannot cast or attack but is still in control of his character.[4] It will last 8-10 seconds.

The tooltip show at Blizzcon is several months old and does not reflect the current state of the spell. Hex
100 mana 20 yard 1 min cooldown 0.5 sec cast. Transforms the enemy into a random critter, reducing the targets movement speed by 75%. While moving the hexed target cannot attack or cast spells. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only one target can be hexed at a time. Only works on humanoids and beasts.

[Ellay]

It's still in the game - as far as I've been reading, it's also a sweet additional and have some awesome ideas for it in pvp :)

[Drizzit]

The best thing is that it is like a fear. You can still attack it, but might break the spell. Talk about healer lock down. But looking at some of the talents form the other classes there is going to be a huge balance issue. I can see a patch each week narfing everything.

[-silencer-]

The best thing is that it is like a fear. You can still attack it, but might break the spell. Talk about healer lock down. But looking at some of the talents form the other classes there is going to be a huge balance issue. I can see a patch each week narfing everything.
Yeah, like fury warriors being able to equip 2hd weapons in 1hd with only a minor (20-28%) attack speed decrease. Or the warlock's Haunt talent.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The best thing is that it is like a fear. You can still attack it, but might break the spell. Talk about healer lock down. But looking at some of the talents form the other classes there is going to be a huge balance issue. I can see a patch each week narfing everything.Agreed. They're adding stuns to mages and warriors (frost and prot lines). As much as people hate being CC'd, these changes will be highly controversial, IMO.

Also, to continue on topic:

Lava Burst
655 Mana
30 yd range
2 sec cast
8 sec cooldown

You hurl molten lava at the target, dealing 888 to 1132 Fire damage. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will consume the Flame Shock, causing Lava Burst to critically hit.

Earthliving Weapon90 Mana
Instant cast
Requires Melee Weapon
Imbue the Shaman's weapon with earthen life. Increases healing done by 26 and each heal has a 20% chance to proc Earthliving on the target, healing an additional 360 over 12 sec. Lasts 30 minutes.

Looking pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.

[Drizzit]

like fury warriors being able to equip 2hd weapons in 1hd with only a minor (20-28%) attack speed decrease

I wonder if you can equip 2 2hd weapons. I bet you can because i fury war is all about dps, why would you want a shield? Or you can have 1 2hd and 1 1hd weapon... either way it is still insane. With all these killer talents make me wonder how 10/25 raids will be.

[Stack]

now the only question is thunderstorm or NS.
if it really is 20yrds you could keep melee out almost indefinatly.

[succulent]

Just went fiddling with the talent calculator. My problem with the tree is there are now too many talents I want in elemental, so I don't think I'll be getting 20 points into resto for the extra 5% crit on LB! Anyone think Astral Shift is worth taking for PvE? If not, I could see doing 52/0/19. Fears aren't really a worry but stuns & silences can be.

Elemental Oath can get 3-stacked with one opening salvo (hoorah for elemental mastery).

Thunderstorm is pretty awesome. 20y knockback on a rotation is going to be sweet in instances to get meelee off of you.

So much win here.

[Stack]

my issue was if you want thunderstorm , paralyze and oath you have to forgo astral shift and tow or take -1 rank to one of them to get tow. but as it stands if they dont switch tow to say water or a free 5th totem you can drop then its value is seriously diminished by flametonge totem.

however i feel between paralyze and thunderstorm astral shift becomes over shadowed by just not having to deal with melee.

[Vyndree]

my issue was if you want thunderstorm , paralyze and oath you have to forgo astral shift and tow or take -1 rank to one of them to get tow. but as it stands if they dont switch tow to say water or a free 5th totem you can drop then its value is seriously diminished by flametonge totem.

however i feel between paralyze and thunderstorm astral shift becomes over shadowed by just not having to deal with melee.

Keep in mind what was limited to 5-man groups now works raid-wide.

That means that ToW will now work raid-wide, and stack raid-wide (if it still stacks).

[Stack]

keep in mind my shamans pvp 90% of there existance, and were already in a party. so its still a nerf to tow for my purpose for atleast 1 of the shamans in my party.

[Ellay]

If Totem of Wrath is raid wide I doubt it will stack. Imagine 20 Ele Shamans in a 25 man raid, you'd be able to obtain 60% spell crit from just that totem alone, while I have 34% spell crit unbuffed it wouldn't take much to obtain 100% spell crit and at that point .... well that's some seriously overpowered damage for PvE :)

[Stack]

if they remove its ability to stack then id prolly go tow, searing ,searing, flametongue
(in woltk im going 4x shaman, 1x boomkin)

[Anastasiya]

WOW!


WOW!


WOW!

Soo much WIN in elemental Tree! Few things i've noticed... 10% more Int! no longer teh lame 5% more mana.. totally worth over the 5% crit! and NS is nothing compared to Thunderstorm!

Improved Shields!?!?! totally worth going for, and can snag instant Ghost Wolf! Improved Water shield 100% to gain mana from a water shield Charge when you crit a heal. not as good for elemental but still!

Wow!

[Ellay]

Improved range on totems though in the resto tree is also another crucial ability. 20 yard base range is brutal. Instant Ghost Wolf would be nice though.

[Stack]

boomkins get typhoon (kinda like thunder storm), +6% more nature damage for the current target, 20% haste for 8s on crit (30s cooldown), roots, cyclone, trees, etc seems like pretty good synergy to me.

also if they do go thru with the 2 spec system (so you can just flip between 2 specs for free) then youve also scored yourself a tank in pve.

[Anozireth]

Everything I'm seeing so far has me very excited to continue with my team! :thumbsup:

[Stabface]

Thunderstorm = http://youtube.com/watch?v=4OXgP7LyWDI

amirite??

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Thunderstorm = http://youtube.com/watch?v=4OXgP7LyWDI

amirite?? ROFL. AV snowballs.

[Lyonheart]

Some of the things that just helped me stay with the idea of 8 shaman and two paly tanks for 10 mans

New Talent: Cleanse Spirit (Restoration) - Cleanse the spirit of a friendly target, removing 1 poison effect, 1 disease effect, and 1 curse effect. >>NOTE: REMOVES CURSE !!!!! with that and hex.. who needs a damn mage 8) ( ok i still love mages but i don't NEED him for anything other than water and ports now )

Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.( well this is more of a PvP bonus ( the stun part )

Stoneskin Totem now increases armor instead of reducing physical damage.

Strength of Earth Totem now also increases agility

I am also excited about many of the other class changes, I hope most of this goes live! and I hope I get at least one beta invite out of the 12 opt ins i did 8)

[Naysayer]

Thunderstorm will probably suck for most non-shaman multiboxers. Can you imagine your 5 getting zapped by that?


*sigh*

[Elektroz]

Im not sure if ToW will be changed so it doesnt' stack, because aside form a very special mboxing meetup, who brings 20 shaman to a raid? Usually it's 3-4, but still very OP at that lvl too.

[Pent]

ToW stacking will be changed, trust me...
Optimal group might be having a druid in there now... haste buff ftw

[entoptic]

why would ToW be changed? It's not like its super OP. Remember we box and everyone else doesn't so I feel as though if you look at it from the single box side of things that it is still ok and far from OP.

Now if this game was all MBers then yes imo I feel as though it would be OP.

[kwschs]

Im a little late on quin boxing but Im really looking forward to 80 and doing arenas, and hopefully getting REAL high up in the brackets ;).

[Skuggomann]

ToW wont be changed in my opinion, didnt they say they were changing some of the totems to raid wide? not all?

[sWaTs]

didnt they say they were changing some of the totems to raid wide? not all? That's what I heard, too.

[Chibi]

Afraid this will "nerf" ToW, ofcourse pve wise you won't have 20 shamans or something, but just imagine doing pvp with 20 shamans (ofc most would be enchancement lol) but just for the sake of argument lets say all 20 are elemental, that's 60% crit = OP :P
they'll prolly leave it as it is and not affect raids but only group

[Drizzit]

why would ToW be changed? It's not like its super OP.

25 shaman in a raid = 75% to crit

think about it.That is not counting your equipment that you have on... You can easily get 100% crit. And with that much crit you can work on your hit. So you will pretty much be hitting everything for a crit.

[Feehza]

Imho the old Elemental Oath was better: 100% increased hitchance with spells when you got EF or EM -> nice counter for clos.
The WOTLK-Ele-Shaman is a nice CC-class. So it could be happen that much more Resto/Enhancer-Shaman respec to ele -> a single Ele-Shaman -> Thunderstorm 20yards-knockback -> nice against multiboxer

[blast3r]

Thunderstorm video. w00t!

http://www.vimeo.com/1384703

[Skuggomann]

didnt they say they were changing some of the totems to raid wide? not all? That's what I heard, too.

Holy shit, some one read my post XD

[lille]

Improved Fire Totems (Elemental) is now (again) Improved Fire Nova Totem. It now has a 50/100% chance to stun all targets for 2 sec.( well this is more of a PvP bonus ( the stun part )

Changed again:
Improved Fire Nova TotemRank 2
Reduces the delay before your Fire Nova Totem activates by 2 sec. and your Fire Nova totem has a 100% chance to reduce the movement speed of all targets damaged by your Fire Nova Totem by 75% for 4 sec.


Also imagine Thunderstorm at the EotS flag :D

[Frosty]

Thunderstorm = http://youtube.com/watch?v=4OXgP7LyWDI

amirite??

That right there is enough for me to NEVER want to try AoC. Seriously.. that kind of griefing? FAIL.I agree. I'd thought about taking a look at it..but if that sort of thing goes on, I have no desire anymore. :thumbdown:

[Crayonbox]

Since totem range is 30 by default now, going down enhance to guardian totem to drop the cd on grounding by 2 seconds and instant ghost wolf will be amazing. Also i believe call of flame for 3 points is another talent that should not be overlooked. With the glyph that increases flameshock range by 10 yards, you will be able to reliably burst down people even better than with ns imo. flameshock > lava burst > em chain lightning

[Jaese]

ToW is raid-wide as stated in the talent description.

[Monk3yv]

To everyone saying that they are going to nerf ToW or not let it stack, you need to realize that they are designing the new abilities to accommodate 1....ONE character.

ONE shaman with ONE totem of Wrath is 6% spell dmg and 3% crit. Seems extremely fair. 20 of Anything is Overpowered. OMG 20 Consecrates! OMG 20 Tree of Life auras! OMG 20 POM PYROS!

Well, now theres just gonna be another OMG 20 TOW ! Ya'll need to just chillout and realize that Multiboxing a single class isn't the main way this game is played. :P

[simpletom]

To everyone saying that they are going to nerf ToW or not let it stack, you need to realize that they are designing the new abilities to accommodate 1....ONE character.

ONE shaman with ONE totem of Wrath is 6% spell dmg and 3% crit. Seems extremely fair. 20 of Anything is Overpowered. OMG 20 Consecrates! OMG 20 Tree of Life auras! OMG 20 POM PYROS!

Well, now theres just gonna be another OMG 20 TOW ! Ya'll need to just chillout and realize that Multiboxing a single class isn't the main way this game is played. :P

If this were true why doesnt Moonkin Aura stack or why wouldnt Mana Spring totems stack

Im all for this talent being so 6% spell damage and 3% spell power (its not even spell damage so this will buff the healers too) stackable raid wide, it will put my shamen in huge huge demand for 25 man raids. I just cant see this going live i would rather not get too excited about this only to have it taken away, bliz have made plenty of beta changes in the past for shaman that seemed too good to be true and they always got changed right before going live. For those who have being playing shaman long enough will know that Lava Burst is nothing new its been around since the vinilla beta it just got removed altogether before going live, tell a lie i think it has been changed to have the effect with flame shock and also i belive that it was called molten blast.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Molten_Blast

Im really not suppised with the changes in RAF and shamans most popular boxing build, its becomming quite clear that blizzard want more people to multibox.