What happened to placing all 4 totems at once

That was a failure of game design, rather than class design. If you didn’t want to play a support class, why did you choose a support class?

That’s like a rogue being happy that they abandoned the damage-dealing aspect of the class and instead redeveloped it as a tanking class exclusively.

You can describe other classes with more accuracy than “DPS.” That you are being so vague just speaks volumes to how muddled, unfocused, unoriginal and homogenized our class has become. Because it no longer has a unique mechanical identity.

For people that have played Shaman classes pre-WoW, they’ve generally been defined by a primary support role. That is what attracted me to the class in the first place. Then, around WotLK, it was decided that there was no room for a support role in this game. So our support was either removed or made homogenous. And we’ve never recovered.

It reminds me of people asking for a Bard class in WoW. That class is just as defined by its primary support role as Shaman is. So what are these people looking for, mechanically? Sure, the theme is strong, just as it is for Shaman, but they’d be entering the game without a clearly defined mechanical identity.

The class flavour is all we have left. Our playstyles are completely interchangeable with any other class. You could easily reskin Enhancement as a specialization of any other melee class, Elemental as any other caster, and Restoration as any other healer, and it wouldn’t feel out of place.

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I remember this fight because I was dabbling in Shaman at the time, I just don’t recall the exact time. The basis for the argument was that was unfair for Shaman to be able to drop 4 buffs with one global.

edit: Thinking more about it, my wife wasn’t happy with the change at all and shifted away from playing her Shaman.

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Do Shaman even have totems? I never notice them and when I’m playing my Resto Shaman, it’s like an afterthought to use one or two every now and then. They have been so trivialized that they don’t even seem to be part of the kit anymore.

I hate those totems, I would be glad if they totally disappeared.

That actually makes a lot of sense, it was unfair.

It did make sense but it was really handy to be able to customize totems like that.

Wat, resto shaman prob uses totems the most out of the 3 specs. Healing stream/cloudburst, earthen wall, spirit link, healing tide, and mana totem are all used in dungeons.

They really need to bring back decent totems.

Resto needs wf and a fire totem.

If you’re not using your totems, you might just be doing it wrong. SL, Cloudburst, Mana tide, Healing, earthbind, cap totem, wall… good resto shaman use their totems A LOT.

I mean, that’s the ironic part about Totems. Even though they are part of the kit…

The totems aren’t trivial though… Cloudburst is EXTREMELY strong, so are spirit link and wall. Mana tide is amazing, cap totem and earthbind/grab are both extremely strong in certain raid encounters and all M+ dungeons. Healing totem combined with healing rain allow you to do DPS and not worry about passive damage going out in tons of scenarios.

None of that even covers PvP where totems are a huge part of what make Shaman viable. To say totems are trivialized is just flat out wrong. Shaman totems are pretty much all extremely useful.

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shhh stop dont touch my skyfury totem :angry:

These are just abilities that have been arbitrarily tied to the totem mechanic because of the history of the class (with a few, like Mana Tide and Earthbind, left over). Without the support role existing, they only serve as a reminder of what was at best, and an active detracting mechanic at worst given that it allows people the opportunity to void some of your strongest abilities.

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Yeah, my wife helped me create my shaman alt and we chose a race specifically for the way the totems were designed. Was a little disappointed to find out that the four stack of totems isn’t a thing anymore. Guess I never noticed that it went away. :frowning:

It went away when pre-patch hit.

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You are missing the point.

Totems are now just another ability that you use. They have lost their flair and uniqueness. More importantly, they are so indistinguishable from any other ability that you hardly know that they are even there.

Its not that there arent totem abilities, its that they dont really provide that fantasy that they once did.

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What fantasy did they ever provide though? In WotLK and BC you macro’ed your totems to a hotkey and dropped them all at once. Like, what are you missing? Fire elemental? Upkeep on Magma totem?

There is significantly more interaction and thought in the use of totems now than there ever was in old expansions.

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Different types of totems. That was when Shaman had raid/party buff totems.

Currently there is no reason why you would want to slam down a set of 4 totems at once, because ultimately you would be wasting the use of two or more of them.

To be fair they haven’t for a long time. I can’t remember how long it’s been since we actuallt had stuff like Poison Cleanse Totem, Grace of Air Totem, Stoneskin Totem etc

I think they were referring to the talent, totem mastery that was removed in pre-patch.

They were the medium through which the support role was realized.

A role which no longer exists in WoW. So they’re just a relic of a type of gameplay no longer supported by WoW.

I mean to be fair, Totem Mastery was boring as heck anyway. Totems were dead long before that was released.