With the latest patch, the shaman community has noticed that there have been some undocumented changes to the way totems function which has affected the tools we utilize to manage them.
From what I understand, totems were on specific totem slots pre-patch, but this has changed with the update.
Examples include totem timer addons which tell us how long our totems are active (including WA created timers) so that we can see when they will expire or if they are alive still, as well as a macro (below) which allows us to kill our active totems so that we don’t need to recast them to move them away from a bad location (for example outside of the Herod door where adds spawn or in the path of a patrolling mob).
The below is the macro example (needs to be ran outside of combat for the first use per session but can then be used within combat):
/run if not UnitAffectingCombat(“player”)then for i=1,4 do n=“t”…i CreateFrame(“Button”,n,UIParent,“SecureUnitButtonTemplate”)_G[n]:SetAttribute(“type”, “destroytotem”)_G[n]:SetAttribute(“totem-slot”,i)end end
/click t1
/click t2
/click t3
/click t4
I completely understand and agree with breaking DestroyTotem, it shouldn’t have worked in the first place. Though, it will make my life a little harder in raids. But, why in the world would they break GetTotemInfo? What nefarious thing could that possibly be used for?
Sadly this will probably get drowned out by all the other problems this patch has introduced. It doesn’t affect enough of the player-base for this thread, or any other like it, to stay near enough the top for exposure.
I can’t be alone in thinking that undocumented changes that force us to change the way we play the game are just not the way to go. It’s 1 thing to tell us in advance so we can prepare for it.
If we were not meant to be allowed to remove totems, why would they allow us to for several months before without notice removing the ability? I personally know of multiple people who have asked GMs and given approval to use the macro, which makes me skeptical of the idea that it’s some sort of bug.
That’s relatively minor compared to removed the GetTotemInfo function from the public API though. What purpose does it serve to have it removed? TotemTimer addons existed as far back as vanilla; I know because I used them myself.
Is this just a sloppy oversight, or is there some meaningful reason to remove it? It feels like we’re being punished, and forced micro manage a tedious aspect of our kit.
We all know that shaman has steadily degraded since classic. That’s part of why we all enjoy playing classic shaman. Are they just expediting the process of ruining the class like they slowly did the first time around?
Definitely /bump. Rather upsetting to not be able to even see totem timers any longer. Also the dismiss function was very useful and I would love to see it return.
Because Blizzard is slow? It took them a long time to remove the raid xp exploit early on, as well as the bug that gave demo shout far more threat than it should have had. Just because those were in for a month + doesn’t mean it deserved to remain in the game…the bugs finally got fixed is what happened.
Some bug fixes take more or less time and are of more or less priority than others.
You were never able to remove totems in Vanilla, except by dropping an identical totem elsewhere. Or, the totem could be destroyed by a mob or they timed out.
But as someone said in an earlier reply, totem timer add-ons have existed since vanilla. So not being able to have totem timer add-ons is not “vanilla like”