Feedback: Farseer Shaman

[Thunderfist-thrall]

@Jamesshaman-area-52

I would like to avoid these two binary scenarios:

• play X Hero tree for ST, and play Y Hero tree for AoE.
• play X Hero tree to play “fire,” and play Y Hero tree to play “lightning.”

The first is just a matter of tuning. The second I feel is intentional.

[Bimbom-malfurion]

Easily one of the worst advanced combat classes I’ve seen, and I play a lot of action combat games.

This has no soul to it. I think the Class Lead is out of their depth.

If you’re not good at this stuff just copy paste Lost Ark soulfist or something similar. There’s no shame in emulating great designers.

[Thunderfist-thrall]

@Bimbom-malfurion

I think the Class Lead is out of their depth

I honestly don’t think we have a dedicated class lead. I think there is a group of devs that oversee all the classes and they all focus on their favorite. Take notice how some classes get updates constantly and others haven’t been touched in a long time.

It may have been Ion in the past because he played shaman, but that guy is so busy nowadays that I don’t even know if he still plays. I doubt it.

[Clocklock-laughing-skull]

Wasnt this a passive a long time ago with no visuals?

NO!, give me my totems back for ele, just tons of totems!

Heres a easy list:

1. Totems
2. Totems
3. Totems
4. Totems
5. Totems

SERIOUSLY! Why in the world is the most iconic part of shaman a quarter of the class now.

[Rahnrahn-area-52]

What’s even more hilarious (or sad), is that the datamined Totemic talents are very VERY similar to the Farseer talents, but with totems instead of ancestors.

[Zalathel-tichondrius (Zalathel)]

They can 100 percent add more theme to it but I doubt the extra leg would be done for it. Shaman’s haven’t had thematic updates in ages while druids get new ones every expansion pretty much lol.

[Thunderfist-thrall]

@Clocklock-laughing-skull

NO!, give me my totems back for ele, just tons of totems!

Only if they give use back our totem bar with the ability to drop four preset totems with one button push. As it stands, needing half your action bars devoted to totems that each require a gcd to drop is not the answer.

[Clocklock-laughing-skull]

Yes please

[Hunkÿbear-lightbringer]

Now i want for all 3 shaman hero talents to just be

cast ability> summon friend > friend casts weaker copy of spells

would be so funny

[Rahnrahn-area-52]

Stormbringer is going to just summon clouds straight from the Goblin weather machine.

[Majinstorm-hyjal]

Thank you, Team 2, for cleaning up the weird behavioural bugs with Ancestors. They are now on target with the spells and function in a far more reliable manner in the latest build pushed for testing.

Unfortunately, Ancestors play out in a manner that fails to excite me and many others. The subdued graphics (as they are passive) pair with the mechanics that mimic Elemental’s mastery but don’t have anywhere near as many hooks.

At first glance, Ancestors have an inverse value with Restoration and Elemental mastery. Deep healing is less valuable when the portions of healing done by Ancestors do not benefit from it. Ancestors do not directly interact with Elementals Overloads. This seems antithetical to Hero Talents gameplay to make you “what you are, but more.”

Additionally, Ancestors only react to casts from the shaman and are largely passive. This leads to frustration when an Ancestor spawns when the player must disengage from their target, if an Ancestor spawns at the final moments of a pull, or if the player falls victim to crowd control.

Thematically, the theme of Farseer is immaculate to me. I hope the team will bring the gameplay up to a similar bar.

[Lokka-the-venture-co (Lokka)]

I really think Farseer would be better served by making the ancestors a substantive 2 minute cooldown rather than a maintenance effect. Resto and Elemental are already specs plagued by heavy degrees of setup and/or RNG procs in their moment to moment gameplay, which makes it hard to be excited by more of the same. Meanwhile, Elemental practically has no major CDs are DRE has totally supplanted Ascendance, and Fire Elemental is pitifully underpowered; and Resto consistently trails behind other healing specs for impactful throughput cooldowns.

Making Farseer’s centerpiece a 2 minute cooldown that spawns a collection of ancestral spirits the player can interact with in some way to gain boons to their own direct power would be providing a niche that both specs would benefit from far more than additional layers of throughput tax, feel far better to play around, and be more on-theme with ancestors granting the shaman wisdom than just being shaman-flavored Mirror Images.

[Cererin-zuljin]

What if Farseer would turn your Elemental into Ancestor who cast different spells. It could benefit from both Storm and fire effect from the tree and 80% buff from Primal.

It would give player a better control over it. And wold cancel the RNG a little

[Cererin-zuljin]

I liked that. But it would make resto much weaker since you can have more than 1 of the same totem at once. Unlike before when it was like that

[Isheartears-kelthuzad]

I like the tree but I have one issue with it.

https://www.wowhead.com/beta/talent-calc/shaman/elemental/farseer/DAPRFEVBURIUiQZFgQCEFOVVRRRFSJFRgIQQEFRBAAADhj7Ngx4whWz8

This is the most common Elemental Shaman PvP build. As you can see it’s missing Spiritwalker’s Grace and Spiritwalker’s Aegis. With Hero talent in the tree it forces me kinda to take both. The issue is that Elemental doesn’t really need it in PvP as we mostly deal instant damage and we cast Hex/Icefury/Heals - that’s it. If I take these talents I feel forced to make use of it. This means I’d like to have a spell worth hardcasting and I’d go probably this way:

https://www.wowhead.com/beta/talent-calc/shaman/elemental/farseer/DAPRFEVBURIUiQZFgQCEFOVVUUFRSZFQgIQQDFUEEFVVUBADhj7Ngx4whWz8

It kinda pushes me towards Stormkeeper build and I expect Stormbringer to be more Lightning and Stormkeeper focused. This way Icefury would be a rare choice in PvP.

What can we do to improve it? Just make Spiritwalker’s Grace Hero talent and choice nod and move it somewhere else. Or add other choice there. This way you’re not forced into taking this talent.

[Patrickhenry-malganis]

What about ascendance having a 1m cd and turning you spectral, then giving you like a convoke spirits type ‘cast a bunch of spells’ thing then give you a boost to a specific element that rotates , earth, fire, frost, etc?

Maybe on a choice node with a “buffs the next x spellcasts of your first cast spell school” so if you want an zappy build your can still do that, or want a LB build you can do that? Would still work for Resto as well this way I think.

[Cererin-zuljin]

Haha I want an Avatar mode where u cast all 4 elements XD

[Patrickhenry-malganis]

Actually a legit good idea.

“avatar mode” spectral stance that empowers all your abilities a specific way? Legit sounds amazing.

[Günt-norgannon]

@Tobisplash-area-52

That’s not even talking about the hyper focus on lava burst that outside of 10.1 would make one think it’s the only spell in the entirety of elemental tool kit, or

The pitchforks should have came out an expansion and 3 seasons ago… this is unacceptable. not for just the shaman community but for wow balancing in general, when they stopped listening is when action should have been taken with wallets.

[Shamanigenz-moon-guard]

Nice opinion, who did you get it from?