I mained this exact Orc Rshaman in TBC and my exact NE Subt rogue in TBC. I did not play a Rdruid back then and I regretted it most of the expansion. I fixed my mistake this time around and trashed the shaman. I have posted extensively about how bad TBC Rshaman is going to be. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.
Here’s an example from weeks ago:
Even without the macros you’re going to have a bad time. I mained this exact Resto Shaman throughout original TBC and it was incredible. I had a blast. My teams were consistently 2k+ rated and my partners and I got good enough late expansion to sell carries for weapons. Resto shaman felt powerful and impactful. Fast forward 12 years and I find myself on one of those servers we’re not supposed to talk about playing 70 arenas. I, naturally, remade my Shaman. And guess what? It was a bloodbath. I’ve never felt more powerless as a healer in my 16 years playing this game. What changed? People did. The meta. Knowledge. The skill floor. I rarely got kicked in 2007. I could juke 10 out of 10 interrupt attempts on me. In 2019? Good luck. People are way better than they used to be. Latency is lower. Reaction speeds are better. People pre-kick now. I was having Nature’s Swiftness dispelled off me before the animation even finished, with a /cast NS /cast Healing Wave macro. Every team, even at low ratings, where Control-1 pet attacking my totems or using rank 1 moonfire, rank 1 sw:p, anything to stomp. Even hiding totems behind LoS was only marginally effective. I don’t think I ever got even half a mana tide totem duration. Earth Shield is COMPLETELY dispelled with one dispel. EVERY STACK. It wasn’t until 3.2 that this was changed:
So you’re stuck with no totems, bloodlust and ES getting instantly removed by every team with half a brain, practically zero instant-cast options and trying to juke 20 interrupts and pseudo-interrupts to get hardcasts off with your one school of magic. Miserable. The second I started playing Rdruid and Disc priest my experience improved dramatically and my buddy and I went up 400 points in rating the first session.
TL:DR 16 years of meta knowledge and skill creep have turned Resto Shaman from an enjoyable 2vs2 healer into a nightmare fest. Still good for 3s and 5s in some teams, obviously. And like mandatory in raid. But man, the stomp macros are the least of your worries.
I main a Night Elf Rdruid and Night Elf Rogue now, in Classic. And they are my TBC characters. I am on your faction, whether you choose to believe this or not. For obvious reasons I keep the identity of my mains a secret on these forums. I am frequently unpopular here.