Shaman needs some Solo-PVE love

Classes Shaman
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[TLDR] In short this is a Solo-PVE quality of life complaint,
Support classes need some solo questing zone/rep-quest chasing buffs. If we are not with a team we should not have to have the worst experience there is in the game.

[Long version]:
My tank wasn’t this hard, but boring play style
My hunter was not this hard, but too many compete for end game to want to be DPS. (See long waits)

Proposed Solution have an un-grouped buff for support classes. Auto applies as soon as you break a group, or log in.
For shamans… basic buff to damage stats all 3 classes, or even enough mana to keep ourselves healed in combat, and fire/earth elemental timer reductions.
They really should not exceed one minute when running solo. Buff naturally cancels if anyone groups with us… Then normal mechanics apply.
This really applies when you are talking PVP servers. It is just not even a match against other classes. I wont even join those servers because the imbalance (1v1) is too significant.

For purposes of showing how I use my shaman:
Current DPS rotation is Prebuff lighting shield and flametongue, healing stream totem. the other totems may as well not exist without a group.
Then active engagement rotation. Frost shock, flame shock, Lava burst, frost shock, echoing burst, stormkeeper, lava burst, ice shock,flame shock. isnta-lightning, insta-lightning. Use insta-flame shock and insta-earth shock from rotation. There is more buttons I could add to rotation but honestly Watching my bar timers and looking at the mob effect timers plus watching the environment. It is getting pretty ridiculous. The shaman needs to get a simplification buff. Whats worse is now we have extra buttons for coven crap. Just maintaining rotations is getting more complex that the most difficult button combos in games like mortal combat. Which is my point below about trying to watch the environment attacks. We are too busy watching around 10 or so timers and rotations. You can’t even enjoy the games art because you don’t have time to look at it.
There is not enough toolbars with so many tools. Some things just need to be combined into a single actions Insert [pre-buffs button here]. Simplify, there is just too much BS going on with buttons in an action movement environment. We have to watch handfuls of timers in different segments of the screen. It is ridiculous. How are we supposed to maintain good rotation while environment holding the mouse to move?

Next up of BS statements about our supposed validity.
Our elementals are a rubbish tool and are not countable in PVE, at best they are a rescue tool. With timers of 2 and 5 minutes. They are not unmentionable.
You take that away and you see a real DPS factor. Which is our Median not max factor.
DPS ELE shaman Maximum is 13.96-median 9.85, Enh Maximum is 11.52, median is 9.08.
Resto shaman isn’t really a thing to measure in this argument but if I was going to I would say it needs a major buff in ALL 3 classes, there is not enough mana to sustain yourself in most PVE environments.

Part of my argument is the time to level argument. This doesn’t mean just getting to sixty. It means reputation related things as well as that is the same thing required to level them… quests and mobs.

NOBODY wants to group in this game for basic PVE stuff that means solo is solo.
So our DPS is trash, our heals is trash. That means the whole class is trash.

I get it our heals are okay in group. I wont argue that because I can’t level enough to get there and see for myself. I am literally stuck on random things for the covenant.

Literally the heals are so trash I have to stop between every mob to eat or drink. Mana is not enough to full bar, or maintain self. So I may as well not have it.
Timers make elementals useless.
**DPS solo regular rotations is around a minute to kill most regular mobs with half or less life at the end of each one on one mob fight. Then stop to eat to take on just one more single mob.

I know other support classes also suffer this and they need love too.

I am not proposing an all the time buff mechanic. I am asking that when we are not in a group we have some normal zone buff mechanic that allows our class and other support classes to enjoy the game more.

All support classes look on as the tanks and true DPS classes outclass us in all ways in solo PVP. Then at the end we are getting buffs if we are geared specifically for our contributive role. While being expected to suck it up to improve other players capabilities.

I love being a resto-shaman, but the game punishes us for being support, even if we switch to DPS classes for PVE purpose. No one wants to share gear so we can have the necessary equipment to do both. Without our elementals we have no real DPS to speak of. Since elementals are too long to wait they are not a real function of the class.

i have a lot more to drone on about regarding this but this is my version of the short and sweet.

I am literally at a game stoppage because I cannot complete a solo quests, and no one will group with me because I am geared as DPS because the game is to hard to solo-pve as a resto shaman. Which means extra challenging for building up the anima reservoir… since I cannot complete 1 in 5 quests for that sort of thing. I can start them I can do part of them. Then I get to the last steps and start a group to watch everyone leave once they get in group and see the I-level of the shaman… How the hell can we even level if everyone is being snobs about grouping with us?

Current DPS rotation is Prebuff lighting shield and flametongue, healing stream totem. the other totems may as well not exist without a group.
Then active engagement rotation. Frost shock, flame shock, Lava burst, frost shock, echoing burst, stormkeeper, lava burst, ice shock,flame shock. isnta-lightning, insta-lightning. Use insta-flame shock and insta-earth shock from rotation. There is more buttons I could add to rotation but honestly Watching my bar timers and looking at the mob effect timers plus watching the environment. It is getting pretty ridiculous. The shaman needs to get a simplification buff. Whats worse is now we have extra buttons for coven crap. Just maintaining rotations is getting more complex that the most difficult button combos in games like mortal combat.

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This was a long read so sorry if this has been covered… but I use chains of devastation leggo, kyrian (kleia), and a crit versa build.

I’m pretty tanky against most mobs and can blow through a pack in a heartbeat.

I don’t play echo of elements either. So much more fun using all of the available shaman spells except flying meatballs.

And I just play in the range of mythic 10ish. I hold my own and can easily provide healing relief on heavy movement fights. Typically I compete with top dmg and right behind the healer too. With higher gear I’ll move up in mythic plus.

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I am trying to primary healing meaning that anything I do as an elemental is simply to support SOLO play. Not group play.

The reason I am trying to find overall solutionS is 30 minutes of people grouping and insta-bailing the group when they see my shaman. I need to be able to run solo without true elemental focus build… for rep purposes and farming materials. Otherwise I want a primary focus on healing.

Like I said with whatever it is I am doing I can only handle one mob at a time. then rest between each mob making it around 1.5 minutes or more per mob encounter. Which is not conducive to adult life. Basically means this game will be over before I get decent enough gear to do basic raiding.

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Something is seriously wrong if you can only handle one mob at a time as ele.

Elemental is one of the best solo specs in game, even without earth ele you should be able to handle at least 5 mobs at a time with little or no downtime even without gear.

Are you using cap totem/slow totem? Are you using thunderstorm? Lust on big packs? Spiritwalkers grace? Healing stream totem?

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No I don’t have enough bars to do 50 buttons. Not even sure what those are.
Cap totem doesn’t exist… not as you name it.
Spirit walkers grace isn’t functioning as advertised and doesn’t really become useful as mobs just stay on top of me anyway. So not really useful. Really useless to move unless there is an identified ground attack that you have to get off of.

In general they do not provide much use because the actual DPS is trash.

Use healing stream as needed.

Lust? anything with a 5 minute cool-down is not a really effective tool unless you stop every 5 minutes and wait to play… Which makes it moot because you can solo mob at that pace.

Seriously they have gotten carried away with the buttons and timers. It takes 4 bars to contain all these actions.

WHICH GOES BACK TO YOU CANNOT WATCH THE GAME PLAY IF YOU ARE FOCUSED ON 21 BUTTONS AND TIMERS.

I am literally watching any other class that is not related to healing smoke everything in less than 3 seconds. Hell by what I can see they kill everything in about 3 attacks.

I guess I would need to see it used effectively because I am not seeing it.

But again anything with a 5 minute timer is not a tool. It is a joke. Adults have jobs. We get maybe 2-3 hours a sitting… Work cooking and so on. I don’t have 8 hours a day to dedicate to 5 minute timer cool-downs.

Do you mean hex. That is good on one mob per 20 seconds

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Sorry, but this is pure and simple PEBKAC.

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You have a ton of bars, just activate them.

Capacitor totem, your aoe stun

How so? Have you tried thunderstorming mobs away from you and then using spiritwalkers grace to kite while continuing to use spells?

Whenever lust is off cooldown, you can do an extra large pull. Not saying you need to do it every mob.

Shaman have been majorly pruned over the years, we actually have lost a lot of spells.

This will come with time spent playing. Just a comfort thing

You should be able to do this too. You may just be super undergeared, what is your ilvl and where are you trying to kill mobs?

One thing you can try doing: run around on your mount and aggro as many mobs as you can. Use stormkeeper, drop cap totem, press chain lightning, press Earthquake, press chain lightning, press earthquake. You can easily kill 10 mobs in under 5 seconds doing this

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I do think Ele needs a little help but not necessarily because of your complaints.

Ele has such a simple rotation or more complexity if it’s what you want. Simple rotations you flame shock, lava burst on CD, earth shock with resource, and lightning bolt as a filler. If it’s AoE you replace earth shock with earthquake and lightning bolt with chain lightning.

Part of why I love Ele is it’s simplistic but has some nuances or complexity you can add in. Forget all the utility for a second, if 5 mobs are your issue just stormkeeper then down. Heal after if you have to and pull slow for a moment then stormkeeper another big pack. Throw in the utility and you can do very well solo.

The only real buffs Ele needs is a lava burst interaction with crit and ascendance as a base CD. A little mastery rework could be good but overall Ele feels solid to play and just needs some small things to go further.

Maybe you just don’t like Ele or don’t understand it well? Both of which are fine, but it’s not the spec if you are struggling in solo. Intent.

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(In case I did not mention it. I am just back after more than a decade away. So the difference is very much shaman is very very nerfed. It feels like you are slow boiled frogs. My shock at how junk we are is ridiculous. There is no real role for a shaman now. We were a great healer removed post BC, We were great enhancement in BC, has been less than the equal of elemental since Vanilla, Elemental barely holds its own without gear and trickery. Before you suggest switching, know that I have a firm stance that doing that suggest too much like microtrans BS, if that is the game now and you cannot dedicate yourself to a class and roll. Then I guess Wow possibly needs to go to the F-it shelf permanently… maybe that is why the game parent was sold like an old wart covered hooker.)
If I engage two mobs I don’t survive my health is too low. 22k. Literally a single mob say from the mob, mobsworn deadeye…If second gets pulled I lose my life and progress basically making progress impossible. I have had all my stigma neutralized by deaths… 3 in the last 10 minutes. I tried following some youtube suggested build and rotations. That didn’t help.
Change whatever I want net result is sh!t show DPS, mana, and slow build mana 2 bar. Call it what you want it is just a secondary static build up mana bar instead of a drain mana bar, I know it has a name but it is so lame that it doesn’t name itself when hovered over. So Mana 2 buildup bar it is. If game tooltip cannot name it … any name is made up. That is a fit and finish complaint though. Only leaving it here because it relates to what I am trying to get across.

Cannot tell you timing of the mana 2 rotations… I cannot see a consistent pattern for the mana 2 bar. Sometimes I get 5-10 spells cast to 1 rotation of mana 2. Other times i may only cast 2-3 things and get it. The insta’s for lava burst and earth shock are as random the powerball lottery So I cannot count them into rotation because I may not actually get them.

My now rotations…
Icefury
Frost Shock
elemental blast
Lava burst
frost shock
Primordial wave
lava burst
storm keeper
lightning
Lightning
(Mix in insta’s if they occur wherever they occur)
Have tried Thunder blah it isn’t much help… 103 damage and faster movement.
Skeet Skeet big woop. Enemies have 12k or more health this seems moot.
Also, did not feel the presence of a cap totem to be useful. Long timer in high density mob zones and again not enough damage to actually make it useful. Cool they got slowed for a few seconds my DPS killed one guy the rest of the mob wrecked me.
Wait theres more Throw out my earth elemental so I can run away if it isn’t already to late.

Or in todays case die over and over and over until you have negative gains in progress items. Such as removal of stygia… making the progress to possibly better gear even less likely.

I feel like many of you replying had joined when it started and have a different experience. Trying to catch up seems derp and ill thought out.

I even opened a group… Adding to the complexity. The other player was not help either. Because the base foundation of Shaman is nerfed. Not enough Mana to help me let alone rescue team members. I was a liability to the group more than a benefit. Was only two, but none the less neither they or i presented anything useful to the single mob that was not an elite, but it was what I will call pre-elite mob.

My argument is that the foundation of the shaman has been crumbled. I would make a video so you guys can see what I am running into. Maybe it is simply an education thing. I can’t imagine I am too far off from usage mark.

I think the websites claiming our great DPS stats are using things that have timers that are too too long to actually be counted. They are also looking at raid groupings. Where your buffs are buffed. But it does not properly measure a solo run through open world where long wait timers are simply ignored because they are not a reliable tool. If you have to stop the game to wait minutes between doing things it may as well not exits. It is a disruption value that makes the game not enjoyable. Which leaves you trying to engage like I do to keep a movement flow that doesn’t make you look out the window to watch squirrels.

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Resto is one of the best healers currently in the game, especially for mythic plus. And while enh and ele may be mid to bottom tier on the dps charts, for at least enh 9.2 is looking to be near or at the top.

You not being able to play the class properly is not a class problem, it’s a you problem. Whatever you want to deem as the “worst” class in this game, it wouldn’t struggle with the things you claim to have problems doing.

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You take away the elementals and long time items. They get what is called the median damage. Because that is what is readily available at all times.
ELE
Max 13.96… looks good on paper
Median 9.85… 7th worst

Enh
Max 11.52
Median 9.08… I want to say in median the absolute bottom of DPS polls.

Resto… My end goal.
Max 24.36
Median 12.72… I want to say that This may or may not be good I cannot get passed certain basics in the game without excessive struggle. Again., everyone auto-drops group for raiding. So that is not an option to get any gear. I am stuck in crafting and or quest gear. The latter is very stagnant in gains as most mobs are rolling me like a puppy. Low base mobs are manageable.
As soon as I can edit it I will put a link to youtube for critique. Then you all can see what I am doing. Probably a better way to show what is happening than these walls of text. … I have never recorded or edited a game though so bear with me as I am sure it will take me a minute to sort out.

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Sorry, and I’m not meaning to be blunt, but no class has problems questing without using their big cooldowns on anything short of elites. You’re either doing something seriously wrong, or you’re way undergeared for what you’re trying to do.

First thing to do would be to post or link to your actual shaman if you want help.

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Shows my usage gear and talents. I still think there is no reason that there is so many actions necessary… You go add heal assist in there and it is all Chaos… I do not remember what add-ons I used to use, but I am pretty sure they are pointless this far away from when I had them… I remember healbot and that is all.

First is mob kite assisted so ignore that, Second is also,and is poor cycling. Third is roughly my repetitive cycling.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/us/greymane/xlander

Let the flaming begin… 14 years away almost to the day.

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Grab a weak aura package. It will help you manage CDs w/o having to look at the bottom of your screen.

https://wago.io/shadowlands-weakauras/classes/shaman/elemental

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Side note if it makes my tirades more bearable. Some 3 years ago I was given a medication that did not list the side effect that occurred. They say it was a 1 in a billion response. Anyway, I blacked out on a motorcycle crashed into a car and flew into a moving train.
Side effect of that is TBI. The logic portion of my brain is completely missing. I psychically recovered as much as I am able to, but it tends to create anger issues, and obviously seeing a logical process is probably missing.

So feel free to flame, I do have thick skin, but I would actually appreciate any guidance that I can make sense of. Think of repeatable visible things that I can see, or visualize.

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I downloaded it. Doesn’t seem to have any obvious functions.
Opened the in game applet. Nothing intuitive there.

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its a weak aura. So you first have to download the weak auras app.

Then you click the link on wago.io for the specific weak aura that you want that says “copy import string”

Then open weak auras app in wow and open it.

At the top there should be an “import” option.

Click that and then paste the weak aura string for the weak aura you want that you copied from the link on wago and import the weak aura.

Note that you may need to have wow already open before you click on the copy link on wago. So open wow first, then alt tab out to wago and copy then alt tab back to wow and paste.

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Couple notes from me after watching gameplay.

  1. You are 143 ilvl, which means you are very low ilvl. A good way to get gear is either to buy 200 ilvl gear from the auction house, or do the covenant campaign which will give you gear, and then upgrade it using anima to 197.

  2. Always caste stormkeeper before you get into combat. Then open by casting lava burst first, then flame shock while it’s in the air. You’ll still get full crit. Then slow, then cycle lightning bolts and lava bursts, with earth shock when ready. Make sure to have healing stream totem down as well.

  3. You may find it easier if you Keybind your abilities instead of clicking them.

Good luck :slight_smile:

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I watched your video. I don’t know if this is a choice you would be willing to make, but I highly recommend starting to bind your abilities to your keyboard. In that video you were typing so it looks like you are more than capable with a keyboard. Being able to use your keyboard for your abilities will make you much more effective because you will be able to run from the enemy while you fight. A lot of ranged classes don’t do well if you are just standing in front of the mob eating hits while dps’ing. If you decide to start keyboard binding abilities, you don’t have to do them all at once. Perhaps just bind a single ability to get used to it. I personally would start off with binding flame shock because it’s one of the first abilities you will be using and you can’t cast it repeatedly.

As someone mentioned your ilvl is also very low. Getting to the 200 range is very fast once you hit max level. If you have some gold or don’t mind spending 20 bucks for a token, you can use it to get a 230 ilvl piece of gear and a 200 ilvl trinket. Just make sure you only buy 1 piece of 230 gear because you can only equip one of them.

When you take on multiple mobs with a ranged spec you can’t sit there and eat a ton of damage for a long time. You simply NEED to use your cooldowns and utility. You can talent and conduit into your cap totem(stun) is on a very short cooldown. You can drop your healing totem, use your defensive ability, and talent into ancestral guidance. I know it’s a 2 minute CD but when using ancestral guidance on a group of mobs with a few earthquakes thrown down and you can’t die. Earthquakes also have the benefit of being a kind of dot that you can throw down and run around it a bit. Remember that frost shock is a slow.

I also forgot to mention that you could consider taking the aftershock talent instead of elemental blast. This will remove a button you have to press and will allow some pulls to be auto-win with a few lucky procs.

After re-watching your video I also think the priority of your rotation is a little off. You are casting lightning bolt and lavaburst when you either have ice fury charges or ice fury itself available. Ice fury takes priority over lightning bolt and a non-instant lavaburst. The frost shocks do a lot of damage, are instant cast, and generate 8 maelstrom.

I know you mentioned you don’t like having a lot of abilities so in addition to taking aftershock you could also not take icefury and instead take surge of power or primal elementalist. For soloing you might like surge of power because it will allow you to reduce the CD of your fire/storm elemental and has a few other functions. If you keep icefury I don’t blame you though because it’s so good for solo play…just make sure you prioritize the ice fury and frost shocks.

I’m sorry this is so disorganized but I keep thinking of things. I just noticed you were necrolord. You can use your fleshcraft which is a pretty nice shield as well. Also, for the first row you could take Earthen Rage as it will help with your damage and in a way reduce the amount of buttons since you won’t be able to cast lavaburst as often. Earthen rage does a pretty solid amount of damage too.

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I don’t know what you’re doing but I love my setup. I can basically tank with Chains of Devastation :man_shrugging:

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