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Fat Tire
06-17-2009, 03:22 PM
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source ('http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/17779772445-060609-nevar-forget-shamans.html'))We
have changed Healing Way to work better with HW and we have changed
Improved Water Shield to also work with CH. We also dropped the
cooldown of NS to 2 min so that you can HW more often. We'll try to
make a post of all of the Resto changes soon.


New Shaman Totem Bar

Quote from: Nethaera (Source ('http://blue.mmo-champion.com/8/17779532478-new-shaman-totem-bar.html'))
There
comes a time in all shaman’s lives when they must learn to harness the
power of nature and wield powerful totems. As they grow in power, so do
the opportunities to use these instruments of healing, protection, and
destruction. In the upcoming content patch, Call of the Crusade, the
shaman will be able to quickly place totems of each element, aiding
them in managing these powerful focuses of nature.

We wanted to provide some insight regarding the upcoming shaman-specific
interface addition, the Totem Bar. Shaman will be able to utilize this
new bar to manage their fire, earth, water, and air totems in a more
accessible and convenient way. This bar will appear on the left-hand
side above the standard toolbar, similar to warrior stances or druid
forms. The bar contains space for four totems of the player’s choice,
one of each element. Clicking the respective button will drop that
totem. To the right of the four totems is a button for Totemic Call,
which we have renamed Call of Earth. To the left of the four totems is
a new ability named Call of Fire which will drop all four totems on the
bar at once. The mana cost is the same as if the shaman dropped all
four of the totems one at a time. However, it takes but a single global
cooldown.

Questing shaman will be able to quickly move their
totems of choice forward, while a shaman in an instance, Arena, or
Battleground will be able to replace their totems if they have to move
or if the totems are destroyed.

Shamans will also be able to customize their bar to set Call of Fire to drop less than four totems
if they choose. Access to this functionality is made available at the
same level as Call of Earth (currently level 30.) At higher levels,
Shaman will gain two additional spells, Call of Air and Call of Water.
These function exactly the same as Call of Fire, essentially giving the
shaman three different sets of totems that can be placed at once. New
key bindings will also be made available for all of these slots.

As with all new content under testing, we want to caution players that, as
a new part of the interface, there may be additional changes during the
period of the PTR until the release of the Call of the Crusade content
patch. We look forward to constructive feedback once it is available
for testing.

defactoman
06-17-2009, 03:29 PM
Not sure how usefull this will be to PvP boxers who rely on staggering totem drops to ensure coverage of "pulsing" totems. But definatly a nice buff overall.

Fat Tire
06-17-2009, 03:33 PM
I thought about that too.

I just hope that this isnt their fix to totem stomping.

Enndo
06-17-2009, 03:36 PM
I forgot where I read it, maybe a blue post copied into aj's forums saying they are pretty much going to eliminate totem stomping macros from working. They basically said they wanna force players to have to target individual totems one by one without being able to use macros.

asonimie
06-17-2009, 03:41 PM
Nothing to fear guys. This is NOT the totemstomping fix. And if I can speak for pvp boxers, staggering isn't an issue. To me, 4 cleansing pulses at once is 99% as good as staggered pulses. Keep in mind tremor is not staggerable anymore so don't bring it up as an argument. This is an AMAZING change and thank god its about time.

Altho the resto change seems a little useless... especially for 2v2 restos, who use LHW 95% of the time.

An interview with Ghostcrawler made it appear as tho the upcoming fix to totemstomping will be eliminated by removing the ability to use /petattack [target=***] where ***=pre-defined targets.

/petattack [target=playertarget]
/petattack [target=focus]
/petattack [target=mouseover]

etc will all still work, as they require dynamic definition, and therefore are not mindlessly executed functions.

Fat Tire
06-17-2009, 03:47 PM
I forgot where I read it, maybe a blue post copied into aj's forums saying they are pretty much going to eliminate totem stomping macros from working. They basically said they wanna force players to have to target individual totems one by one without being able to use macros.They have been saying that forever. ^ I love the GC made it appear, good stuff. Hey if something gets implemented its all good.

zanthor
06-17-2009, 03:57 PM
The fastest fix to totem stomping would be to change the names of totems from "Totem Name" to "Bob's Totem Name"

Fat Tire
06-17-2009, 04:03 PM
As for the totem bar change I am looking forward to it.


WTB some BM hunter love!!

Enndo
06-17-2009, 04:05 PM
The fastest fix to totem stomping would be to change the names of totems from "Totem Name" to "Bob's Totem Name"

This would be an easy change, Hot fixable most likely and it would resolve the issue, good call.

asonimie
06-17-2009, 04:44 PM
The fastest fix to totem stomping would be to change the names of totems from "Totem Name" to "Bob's Totem Name"they specifically mentioned this, but they want to implement something more concrete... so this got a thumbs down atm.

Ughmahedhurtz
06-17-2009, 06:35 PM
The fastest fix to totem stomping would be to change the names of totems from "Totem Name" to "Bob's Totem Name"they specifically mentioned this, but they want to implement something more concrete... so this got a thumbs down atm.To elaborate a bit, here's the Q&A piece about that I found earlier this week.

http://www.worldofraids.com/news/664-class-q-a-series-shaman.html

In PvP, we want to make sure we end the use of “totem stomping macros” where a pet class essentially programs their pet to automatically kill any totem they see. It’s perfectly acceptable for pets to kill totems, but the player should at least have to make a decision and spend some of their attention to do so.
I could swear I saw something that insinuated they were desirous of broadening that to cover other things besides shaman totems but I'll be damned if I can find it now. :/

Multibocks
06-19-2009, 03:21 PM
Actually the reason for not changing the names was listed as "too technically difficult." I really dont see how, but then Im not programming for Blizzard. From what I read on the new patch notes, they simply "disabled" the ability to target totems through macros. That sounds more difficult to do that just calling it, "Bob's healing stream totem", but whatever.