I understand this thread is aging but I too am very sad about searing totem being gone, again. It was the thing I was most looking forward to for SL. Sorry if that seems unbelievable to some of you.
If pressing the button was too much to ask, then make it dropping be a proc from some other ability. I want my little totem to shoot fireballs.
All they had to do to make it more interactive is return it’s function from Cataclysm. Every time it hits it puts a DoT on the target, stacking up to 5, and Lava Lash consumes the stacks to increase damage.
I agree with this entirely, but the problem everyone made of it is that searing totem AI was super un-reliable for such a powerful ability.
The MoP version where the searing totem stacks the buff on you, and fire elemental also build stacks was a nice change. Unfortunately they already nerfed lava-lash into the ground in MoP by the time that change was made.
Why have a useless skill clogging up bar space?
I think hardest part not only is searing totem gone, totem mastery is gone too. If someone wants more than a niche totem to use, they have no choice to reroll enhance for windfury totem.
I know many people have a connection to the “Totemic Warrior” play-style, since it was what drew them to the Shaman class. But I think it’s time to lay totems to rest and let the Shaman dps focus less on placing totems to deal damage or apply beneficial effects on allies and let the Shaman be the source of power everyone wants in their presence. I want Enhancement to actually make use of the whole “Shaman warrior” archetype. Think Night wolf from MK or thunder from Killer instinct. Duel-wielder, calls upon the elements and spirits to empower them and their weapons, and fights along side spirit animals ( i.e Wolves, eagles, bears). Elemental focuses more on their elemental guardians functioning as their totems ( I.e. Earth Elemental functions as tremor/earthbind/damage redirection). As well as have our spells interact with them. Earthquake’s knockdown chance increases while earth ele is standing in it and earth shock heals it. I have other ideas, but I’ve made a long enough post.
I respectfully disagree. The only reason I disagree is because I tried out Resto Sham in BfA just for kicks, and was blown away by how much I enjoyed Earthen wall, Spirit Link, Healing Stream, and Healing Tide as tools in addition to the usual suspects (Tremor, Earthbind, Grounding).
I see no reason why totems can’t be fun, interesting buttons to press, because they’ve done it before. They just need to put a little effort into it.
Do you not like having more attack buttons? Searing totem is part of the class fantasy. Back in mop you used searing totem to buff lava lash
Some want option for totems. What brought me was hype for return of totems for sl, now were entering sl with less totems than we got in bfa. No searing totem, totem mastery is now cooldown. Thats why i made shaman back in bc cause i want totem gameplay, which now im in process of rerollin (or just leaving). Shaman dont feel like shaman to me without totems, just a mail mage.
The issue is that they took away or changed all of the abilities that tied into searing totem (like Fire Nova and Lava Lash). Without those, Searing Totem is just a sad echo of nostalgia.
well they are bringing back fire nova and flame shock. Searing totem isnt useless. Ion Hazzikostas has no clue what hes talking about.
its not an attack button, its just like flamebrand and frostbrand, a throw away button that feels like it does nothing when you press it and for 16s afterword. Not that flameshock feels any different.
false. It is because its a button that you press that attacks your current target. Also frostbrand works the same way the old frostbrand imbue worked. You press it and and your autoattacks put a slow on your current target.
Typically people use it with hailstorm nowadays so its basically flamebrand. And it might be an attack button, but it is passive which doesn’t feel any different than auto attacks because you aren’t doing anything to create the damage it just ticks without you.
Cooldown totems, like Earthbind, Healing Stream, Liquid Magma, Mana Tide, Spirit Link, etc. are great.
But I don’t think “upkeep buff” style totems like Totem Mastery have any place in modern WoW. They’re restrictive, they’re boring and don’t add anything to gameplay (Flametongue and Frostbrand sucked, sure, but at least you had to think about them…) I like the aesthetic of always having your totems around you, and buffing your allies with them is neat, but honestly they should stay in Classic.
That said, Windfury Totem with the Doom Winds legendary seems like the best of both worlds. You drop it once a minute to gain a noticable buff (100% increase to Windfury’s proc rate for 8 seconds), and it just happens to drop a 2 minute party buff at the same time.
I’d argue flame shock will suck more given you will have to dot repeatedly with target swapping.
I dont think you understand what an attack button means.
Wow, ok if you want to get into the specifics, it is an attack button. But its a bad one because it is unsatisfying which is why it was removed. So yes, attack, but also boring as hell.
Thats like your opinion.
yeah we all have our opinions, totems is part of class fantasy stripping them all away to situational cooldowns takes core fantasy of class away, now were just a different flavor mage. If someone doesnt like totem mastery they dont have to take the talent BUT, leave it as option (non cooldown like it is currently in bfa) for those who played shaman since early days to have some class identity left. Losing searing totem sucked especially when they said they were returning totems in sl just to have them removed again, but to also take totem mastery away, is big deal breaker to me. If I didn’t want totems mage has 3 range dps specs for me vs elemental i main on shaman, but its what really brought me fun and enjoyment.