Hi all,
I’m going to apologize in advanced for how negative I may sound when making this post but I have been driven to this point by the absolute MEME that enhancement has become in this day and age. The majority of this post will be about the Severe issues enhancement has in pvp and some potential remedies that may be a fun way to fix these issues. I usually play enhancement shaman at around 2k – 2.2k level in 3s running off-meta comps such as RET/ENH/DISC or ENH/BOOMY/HPAL and I am around 2k in 2s. This may not be the highest bracket for enhancement shamans and I’m sure there are players who are much more skilled than I am but I do believe they will agree with the majority of issues mentioned in this post. This is going to be a long and juicy post so get your coffee out hahah =P.
- WORST DEFENSIVES IN THE GAME
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Some of you may think this might be overexaggerated but I promise you enhancement shaman has the worst defensive capabilities in the game and its by a LONG SHOT. WTF is Astral shift ? 40% dam reduction for 8 seconds – 1.5min CD. First of all 8 seconds is way to short and im very happy to see it buffed in shadowlands to 12. But second of all the CD is way too long for what it does. Comparing it with blur for example which is vastly superior because its only on a 1 min cd, has basically the same damage reduction AND Lasts 2 seconds longer, AND has a 50% dodge mechanic. Astral shift is one of the weakest walls in the game when compared to blurr, evasion, warrior parry, enraged regen, IBF, the list goes on and on.
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We only have the one defensive. While most other classes have a oh-snap! panic button or multiple defensives whether it be instant cc or extra walls/defensives, enhancement lacks anything of the sort. This pretty much ends up in us being trained and recked hard in one setup even if we PRE-WALL it in many cases. Our only saving grace right now is conflict and strife for stun goes but in SLANDS that’s not going to be there.
- EX. WindWalker monks can just teleport to safety then ROP ppl away THEN fist to parry all melee THEN disarm THEN legsweep THEN karma THEN wall all in a row. Where enhance when put in the same situation will just die WITH OUR WALL UP in the first 7 seconds unless healer is pumping heals. The lack of instant cc as well as any real MAP traversing mobility really gimps our survival when compared to pretty much every class out there. Even other classes that are considered not very viable in pvp such as retpaladin or outlaw rogue have more tools to get out of a sticky situation via bubble, shield of vengeance, pony+freedom, and grapple, vanish, blind, kidney/pistolshot. FYI these are bottom tier spec in pvp and they have MULTIPLE more tools than enhancement does.
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The joke that enhancement healing is in current bfa pvp. Seriously, wtf is enhancement healing? Why are we a HYBRID CLASS who has to stop dps and spam heal with MULTIPLE globals to heal for like 20% health? When pure dps classes like rogues, and mages are EASILY out healing us with one global. Crimson vial heals more than me spamming healing surge 5-6 times which is my entire manabar. ITS ONE BUTTON! The reason why enhance is one of the least represented specs in PVP is because of this. You’ve got DKs and DH just full healing themselves or being unkillable for 15-20 seconds because of the insane healing they do with deathstrike/leach. Just thinking about how bad the heals have been nerfed on a class that DOESNT have defensives or instant cc and pretty much ONLY relied on healing to live is frustrating. To be completely honest enhance shamans healing should be the strongest out of all the dps specs in the game because we do not have instant cc, or mobility or defensives. We should be pumping AT LEAST 15% of our health per global spent. Our heals and offheals should be able to keep us and fellow pvp party members sustained when healer is cced and not be some sort of troll gimmick we spam 6 times to die anyways right after. And NO other class with 3x our defensives should be massively out healing us that is just disgusting game design.
2. TOTEMS
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I love totems I think they are very fun and very interesting game design. The problem I have with them is that our totems have moved form being spammable les simportant buffs to important buffs that are not spammable. EX skyfury, counterstrike, capacitator totem.
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Why is this a problem? Well before when ppl right-clicked or hit your totems, and they broke you would just resummons them but now when they break your totems u just lose your buffs/ abilities and suck. For example, I think counterstrike totem is a great defensive/offensive utility spell. Why does almost no high rated enhancement use that? Simple, in high rated pvp ppl just right click it the instant u summon it and its gone! Thus rendering it completely useless. I think totems need to be harder to kill maybe they should have the same amount of health as dk abomination where u can chose to kill it or just kite out of the area. THERE SHOULD BE NO REASON WHY A 45 SECOND CD SHOULD BE AUTO ATTACKED INSTANTLY AND RENDERED USELESS!
- For those of you who don’t understand, that’s like a class right clicking a monks karma or ring of peace and then it disappearing instantly. I’m very sure if we applied the same logic to other classes they would be in a fury of rage or reroll. I want all players to enjoy the game and I don’t think rerolling should ever be the answer.
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CAP TOTEM
This totem is pathetic currently. It is the most unrewarding stun in the game where you also have to A LOT OF WORK to land it. First of all, why is it a 3 second stun with a 1 min cd? That’s absurd! You got kidneys and hoj both of which are 20-30 sec cd with DOUBLE THE DURATION FFS! Half the CD with DOUBLE the duration! Next, not only do you have to time cap totem 2 seconds in advance but it can also be right clicked and not EVEN STUN. So basically anyone with a brain will either walk out of the radius or break the totem INSTANTLY. I don’t think there is any argument that can actually support this spell being this disgustingly bad compared to other stuns.How to fix this? Make CAP totem an INSTANT CHANNELED AOE STUN. So it would instantly stun all targets around it as soon as it is put down but ppl who are out of the cap stun range can still target the totem and break it to free their stunned party members. This is healthy design with interesting counterplay and would also benefit the shaman by giving them an instant cc.
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Counter Strike TOTEM
I love the concept of this spell as mentioned before if this totem was unkillable or took about 4-5 globals to kill, it would be heavily used in so many situations. Being able to stop enemy teams goes with your totems is definitely every shamans dream and also super fun as a class concept.
SHADOWLANDS
Im loving what the blizz dev team has done with class concept and design in shadowlands with bringing shaman back to maelstrom weapon days and allowing spells to be more useful. As mentioned above, for shamans to be viable we will need SOME of the things I mentioned above.
TLDR: PLIS Blizzard enhance needs
More defensives OR More Healing
Totems that don’t get 1 hit
Instant cc OR mobility disengagement tools
Thank you for anyone who has given their time to reading this. And please let me know your thought fellow shammies/ wow players I will try to reply to all comments.