- No totem stomp.
- Totemic recall in classic
- a rune that offers greater totem that’s a 15 minute buff. If not for all totems, then at least a TOTEM OF SALVATION. (Ally is getting Agi and Str totem on a single rune, access to windfury on another, and we’re still stuck with not nearly as good grace of air.)
- If you’re still going to make them put down totems every fight, they should put down all 4. Shaman have to spend 4gcd all day every day just getting it up and that just ain’t right.
- If ally are getting shaman’s best buffs via runes why aren’t horde getting paladin abilities…
3 Likes
So I agree that it would be good to have the totem ui that you can select four totems (one each of the four types) an then have a single button that will drop all of them in a single gcd. Though still allow shamans to drop a totem on a need to drop situation.
The issue with gaining a totem of salv is that shamans already have it at a later level bracket, and so they would need to change the level that this totem (totem of tranquil air) is gained at.
I could see a rune that causes the active totems of a shaman to give paladin’s bom/bow to all affected by them (for earth and water), but what would such a rune like this give via the wind an fire totem? But that idea would be interesting an work in a way that is worth it.
All 4 totems should drop at once.
Their range should be increased 100%
The should effect every ally in that area
They should cost 1 mana each.
Agreed, perhaps to keep this balanced they could be “dispelled” like the pally buffs.
Yes please. Not being able to cancel totem can be a major issue that the opposing faction simply do not have to deal with.
Not only is Tranquil Air inferior to Salvation in the amount of threat it reduces. It also requires in combat mana allocation, has a proximity requirement, and (most importantly) can not be used in the tank group or you screw your tank over.
Allowing the “Call of” spell, perhaps two set ups, would narrow the gap between paladins and shaman. Again, totem recall should be with this.
Paladin buffs are superior in every way to Shaman totems. The easiest way to balance this issue would be to have totems give players a 5 min buff when dropped. That would remove the proximity requirement and allow the shaman to buff pre-pull.
Horde get windfury bears too, which takes away the need to totem twist. Hunters on both sides get kings so horde got that and with the nerf to lone wolf you now have your best hunter run it. Salvation doesn’t come until lvl 26 so ally won’t have it in the first level band so there is no way horde will have it but you know they will get it and based on windfury bears and king hunters you know it will be better than either. That said, there is already tranquil air which now can be dropped since totem twisting is no longer a thing.
I think our totems should have alot more health so they can’t be killed while we are ccd. Give them 50% of the health the player has. And while dropping 4 totems at once would be nice at least give us recall and have it restore some mana based on how much time was left on totem. Also increase the range of totems to 30yards and have point in resto increase to 45 yards.
I agree on no longer needing to twist, but that’s also ignoring other issues pointed out in comments:
Blessings have no proximity or group requirements and Tranquil Air is weaker in threat reduction (though I see that as an easy fix to just increase to match).
The other issues I see are Alliance gets a combined Grade of Air / Strength of Earth buff from Horn of Lorderan as well as a constant Tremor Totem from Inspiration Exemplar; both buffs for party only, but that’s the same for totems.
Hunter Kings is also proximity based, and seems to be more favored toward melee since the other rune options aren’t great for melee, and they don’t take away the ability to use Aspect of the Hawk like a MM or BM would want. (A suggestion I saw to fix this would be making Aspect of the Lion an aura similar to Trueshot so it could be used with another aspect)
I don’t expect anything in SoD to be strongly balanced, but there is a fairly glaring disparity between the factions.
I’ll still be rolling horde and probably mess around with shaman at some point anyway, but I can see why some are not thrilled about some of this.
EDIT: Forgot to add in the other bit pointed out. In PVP, all classes can remove totem buffs by killing the totem; blessings require purge / dispels.
SO I would rather see an ability that moves active totems to the area around where the shaman is located, and the cost to do this might be slightly reduced (say 65% of the normal mp cost to drop four totems), while renewing the duration of these totems.
I could also see a rune ability that boosts the effect and/or range of all active totems (not just the player’s totems, but all shaman’s totems) for a short time, while also imparting the same effect of paladin’s bom/bow would fit nicely i think would fit nicely without feeling like a full on paste over from paladins.
True and a better version since its not a weapon imbue. Problem is pallies got Strength of Earth AND Grace of Air in a passive aura that takes zero mana or gcd’s in combat.
Yes but again its an inferior version of that Paladins have. Paladins can buff prior to pulling and there is zero proximity requirement. Also it allows the alliance a spot for a higher dps spot in their raid since they are not pigeon holed into bringing a hunter.
To drop tranquil air (assuming you have feral that has wild strikes) you still must forgo dropping Grace of Air, again a buff that holy paladins bring passively that INCLUDES the equivalent of Strength of Earth. But the biggest issue is you can not have traquil air in the tank group so for 50% of the raid group, in 10 mans, its a no go on threat reduction.
No matter how you try and spin it, shamans currently have been given the proverbial “short end of the stick” and the alliance buffs they gained are superior in every way. This needs to be addressed unless Blizz just thinks the Horde should be inferior. If thats the case then so be it but at least be transparent.
Tranquil air also can not be used in a tank group.
Totems should give a 5 min buff when dropped. This would bring them closer to the paladin blessings.
1 Like
THing is how long do fights last in the lvl 25 bracket? Unless they make the totems basically blessing (which for both sides ruins abit of the feel for both) you could be losing alot of that duration unless the tank pulls back towards your totems. If they had a rune that allowed you to port your active/dropped totems to you at a reduced cost, while also renewing their duration, it is almost better since you can buff the group for less an quicker than a paladin can when rebuffing every 5 mins.
I agree mind you when we get into higher content that fights take longer meaning you would need to re-drop totems (though a rune that ports them to you and renews the duration help with only needing to use one spell to renew totems in mid battle), than we will need to see the duration of totem increased to compensate.
I think that tanking stances/spells/abilties that put you into tanking should negate all threat reducing effects outside of boss or mob abilities.
Sorry, I don’t think I articulated my point very well. My proposal is that when a totem is dropped instead of giving a proximity aura the totem casts a buff on players in range that lasts 5 min regardless of proximity to said totem. The totem itself could still expire in 2 mins. Not a perfect solution but it brings the shaman closer to its counterpart.
I would also add that a paladins can buff the entire raid where as shaman totems are group specific.
No I get that just not sure the devs would want to give that to the shamans as that would affect all of their totems potentially. Now if they kept the duration and prox radius of the totems basically the same, but maybe had them give those affect a attack power an spell power buff that is exclusive with grace of wind an strength of earth it could work. Since the horn makes it that you can not have bom on you as well.
Other thing is that paladin and shamans are still faction locked. So outside of druid bring windfurry it looks like they would still be a viable choice for groups/raids, and so having two shamans each in different groups with their totems out can keep the raid buffed up. If they were dropping paladins an shamans into both factions then changing how the totems would work starts to be more desirable.
Keeping the status quo though makes the alliance an overall superior faction to the horde, numbers wise at least, in every aspect of the game. I’m not really concerned about the shaman’s raid spot as much as I am the massive imbalance between the identifying classes of each faction.
I kinda think most of these are fine as they are.
Totem stomping is an important part of the pvp meta and if it goes away then totems lose what makes them totems. They’re buffs you can kill. Maybe they should have some more health, but not so much that it’s better to ignore them.
Totemic recall may not be the exact answer to the problem, but there does need to be a way to pick up totems. They’re a liability in tight dungeons. But you should be rewarded for pulling a Shaman away from their totem forest, they should have to drop them all over again or stand their ground.
People have noted that Tranquil Air exists but it could certainly use a buff to match salvation. It also will be available one phase later than Salvation, which is a problem worth addressing.
Spending GCDs at the beginning of the fight to set up your totem forest is kinda cool. My only gripe is that with 20ft totem range you have to get pretty close to where you’ll be fighting before you can start dropping them. Less than ideal, range buff definitely warranted. If you can drop them further away your uptime comes sooner.
Horde did get Kings. Mana Spring Totem is a counterpart already to BoW. And if pallies want SoE/GoA then they do have to dedicate a chest rune to it, which means prot and ret probably want other runes. Holy doesn’t, so that might be worth addressing.
It also can not be used in a tank group and the shaman must forgo using windfury and grace to use Tranquil
Having a couple “Call of…” spells would help dramatically. Would still be inferior to buffs but would only consume one gcd.
An inferior option though since it is proximity based and the hunter must forgo superior rune options, at least for range specs.
Again, its is inferior due to the gcd, proximity requirements and the fact its only party. A single paladin can give BoW to a whole raid and not spend a singe in combat gcd. I would also point out that paladins get DSac which alone is a game changer.
Why would you use hawk when lion is better?
The change should be that when a shaman drops a totem, that buff applies the aura around the totem (*i.e. the 20 yard range of strength of earth) to both the totem, and the shaman who cast it while the totem is active.
I’ve always hated using some totems because of having to place the green bullseye. It took to long for me to place and cast these things and I simply stopped using some of those harder ones to cast. As another member said above… it should be an auto instant cast based on your location and not having to use some green bullseye marker.
What?
Are we playing a different game? When do you need to cast down a totem like an aoe spell?
1 Like
I think means the reticle for it. I do remember that being part of using totems as you could actually choose the location, but it made placing totems more fiddly.
1 Like