TOW vs NS comparison list

[Crayonbox]

I know this discussion is for tbc, however I would like to point out that in WotLK, ToW will most likely not stack. They changed the totem to give % based damage increase to all spells and made it raid wide. In terms of raid utility, the totem has gotten a buff, however as a multiboxer, the totem got a huge nerf. No more insta hit cap + 50% crit with spells.

[Lyonheart]

I know this discussion is for tbc, however I would like to point out that in WotLK, ToW will most likely not stack. They changed the totem to give % based damage increase to all spells and made it raid wide. In terms of raid utility, the totem has gotten a buff, however as a multiboxer, the totem got a huge nerf. No more insta hit cap + 50% crit with spells.

you might be right about ToW getting nerfed. But they have not nerfed it yet. Most guilds will never have more than a few Ele shamans in the raid.. so over stacking ToWs is, and always will be< unique to multiboxers. They are not going to nerf ToW just because of 5 boxers. But they could nerf it.

Has anyone given thought how you might spec now that Thunderstorm is in? I mean you wont be able to have TS and NS. Might be able to have a few with NS and a few with TS.

[Crayonbox]

There have been couple of threads flying around about wotlk specs. Personally I think getting instant ghostwolf and guardian totem and the rest in elemental is what im going to go with.

[Tizer]

For everything exept Arena ToW is a lot more usefull then NS. currently lvl 64 and my first thought was to go for 40/21, like everyone. But after some AV's i couldn't see the point in having NS for BG. So i'm just staying 41/20 till i got some decent pvpgear to do some more serious tries at arena. With less then 200 resi i rather farm more easiliy, PVP and PvE and be pretty much sure to lose 5vs5 then have NS to have a small chance to win 1 out of 10 games.

I disagree, you cant beat going into a tower in AV and letting rip with an insta nuke. Plus it has a huge "lol" value to make those boring BGs a little more fun. I still grin every time i do it It just makes things a little more interesting tbh :P

[Nixi]

tbh I like what magwo is trying to do. He's trying to do something different. We've all told him how awesome NS is, and he's tried it. So just let him continue to do what he's doing and if he ends up having nice success, i hope he can say "i told you so" and then I'll have the balls to try it too. :P

But until then, personally, i'm sticking with NS.

I managed to push to 1855 before getting knocked down to 1840 to close out the night. So I feel NS works well for my play style.

[magwo]

I like to start my arenas 4v5 and ToW cant do that for me xD

I'm really torn on this issue.. due to the big killing capacity you gain from TOWs, I can basically start my games 4v5 aswell, but not always.
From there on, when it's 5v4, and I have TOWs, I'm in a MUCH better position than 5v4 with NS on cooldown.

Then there's the nova/etc totems to consider.. can't really make up my mind.. I've respeced back and forth about 5-6 times the last month.

[Boylston]

We covered this a while back. ToW Theorycrafting in Arenas. I started out feeling just the same, but practical experience has proven that NS is the better choice by a long margin.

If all you were going to do was BG, PvE, and maybe just dink around in arenas, you could get away with a ToW spec. To be competitive in arena, you need NS.

The big question for me in WotLK is whether to get the last elemental talent or to get ToW + NS... I think the last talent is going to be pretty damn good, though.

[Boylston]

The one interesting historical tidbit from that thread is that Ellay used to love NOT taking the improved fire nova totems, claiming that he could drop them so that they would go off right when a rogue's Cloak of Shadows wore off. Personally, that never seemed to work well for me. Ellay and I are both back to the shorter duration fire nova totems, I think.

[mitoshy]

I know this discussion is for tbc, however I would like to point out that in WotLK, ToW will most likely not stack. They changed the totem to give % based damage increase to all spells and made it raid wide. In terms of raid utility, the totem has gotten a buff, however as a multiboxer, the totem got a huge nerf. No more insta hit cap + 50% crit with spells.

you might be right about ToW getting nerfed. But they have not nerfed it yet. Most guilds will never have more than a few Ele shamans in the raid.. so over stacking ToWs is, and always will be< unique to multiboxers. They are not going to nerf ToW just because of 5 boxers. But they could nerf it.

Has anyone given thought how you might spec now that Thunderstorm is in? I mean you wont be able to have TS and NS. Might be able to have a few with NS and a few with TS.

Someone with a beta account has confirmed that as of current beta, TOW works as follows:

+6% spell damage
+3% crit

...and it stacks!

You call this a nerf?

[merujo]

and it stacks ?

Blizzard said totems and other buffs are now raid wide buffs, meaning, u dont need a class per group, just in the raid.
Would like to see is stacking with those stats.