Shaman Totem usage?

[crowdx]

Hi All,
so I have been looking around the forums and I am wondering are the totems Healing Stream, Stoneclaw, Searing and Magma the default totems everyone is using, i.e. the set that are most used except when certain instance situations need a different fight dependent totem drop.
I have just started leveling my shamans and so very much a noob with them, they are currently level 66 (with one sitting at 70 waiting for the rest to catch up :P )
All help welcome :)

[zenga]

I always drop a 4x4 set rather than dropping individual ones. My standard call of the elements looks like this for pve

toon a:
stoneskin
totem of wrath
cleansing
wrath of air

toon 2
tremor
frost resistance
fire restistance
nature resistance

toon 3
strength of earth totem
flametongue totem
healing stream
winfdury

toon 4
earthbind or stoneclaw
nothing
mana spring totem
grounding totem

Then i have a 6 different keys that pop (staggered)
- 4x fire elementals
- 4x magma
- 4x earth elemental
- 4x tremor totem
- 4x grounding
- 4x earthbind

Those are all staggered as that way i can control how much totems of each i pop (order is always the same). On special encounters i might change the default setup to more nature resist, etc ..

and obviously a fire nova key

I only

[crowdx]

cool :) , again being a noob, how do you stagger the totems? Just spam the macro while running and using round robin?

[Slimjim19]

you are staggering them time wise not location wise.

it would basically be a different cast sequence on each where the totem was in a different location

tremor totem,,,
,tremor totem,,
,,tremor totem,
,,,tremor totem

you really only need 3 and tap the button 1 time per second. That way it pulses every 1 second instead of every 3 seconds.

[crowdx]

Cool, excellent info :)

[Ualaa]

I stagger my Call of the Ancestors (or whatever the spell is called, where you drop 4 totems at once).
Actually have two sets of 4x totems, both staggered; not using the 3rd set of 4 totems.

My normal set (team with 3 shammies, warlock and paladin):
- ToW, Healing, Grounding, Tremor.
- ToW, Healing, Grounding, Tremor.
- ToW, Healing, Wrath of Air, Tremor.
My shammies are all glyphed for ToW.

AoE set, same team:
- Magma, Healing, Grounding, Tremor
- Magma, Healing, Grounding, Stoneclaw
- Magma, Healing, Wrath of Air, Stoneclaw

Have several totems on either round-robin, or 3x dropped now.
- Fire Elementals on round-robin (glyphed for 5 mins).
- Earth Elementals on round-robin (have not used since adding pally to the team).
- Earthbind on round-robin (haven't used this in forever).
- Grounding 3x now.
- 2x Cleansing, 1x Healing, on the same bind.
- A resist button, which has one shammy do Nature, one do Fire and one do Cold resist totems.

Probably others, but don't use them much, for my now entirely PvE team.

[crowdx]

So now that I have played my shammies a bit and they are half way through lvl 72 I am curious as to why people are using multiples of the same totems? From what I have researched most totems do not stack? What is the benefit?
Thanks again for the help :)

[Talos]

Some totems still 'stack' in some sort of way:

4x grounding totems -> 4 different spells being absorbed before having to replant them
4x healing or mana totem -> in the past only healing stacked, but right now also the mana totems stack. use 2x healing/2x mana or 4x one of them for extra effort (in pvp with 4 shammies i use 4x healing, in pve with my pally tank i use 4x mana).
4x searing/magma totem (or 1x ToW 3x searing/magma) for extra dps (or as Ualaa mentioned 4x ToW totems if they are glyphed for the extra ToW +% that is only on cast on the player laying down ToW)

[nimbuk]

Some totems still 'stack' in some sort of way:

4x grounding totems -> 4 different spells being absorbed before having to replant them
4x healing or mana totem -> in the past only healing stacked, but right now also the mana totems stack. use 2x healing/2x mana or 4x one of them for extra effort (in pvp with 4 shammies i use 4x healing, in pve with my pally tank i use 4x mana).
4x searing/magma totem (or 1x ToW 3x searing/magma) for extra dps (or as Ualaa mentioned 4x ToW totems if they are glyphed for the extra ToW +% that is only on cast on the player laying down ToW)
i was under the impression that healing totems stack, but mana does not. also, mana totems do not stack with blessing of wisdom (if you have a pally).

[cmeche]

Mana does not stack.

[crowdx]

So only healing stack? Is there a max of how many healing stack? I presume that only one wrath and one air are worth using? But I also read that the highest totem is what gets applied? How would that work when all totem levels would be the same and also the shaman's talents would be the same in a multibox scenario?
Still confused :(

[zenga]

You can use wrath for every shammy and glyph it. It will not stack though, but the effect should apply to every shaman who dropped it.

[cmeche]

So only healing stack? Is there a max of how many healing stack? I presume that only one wrath and one air are worth using? But I also read that the highest totem is what gets applied? How would that work when all totem levels would be the same and also the shaman's talents would be the same in a multibox scenario?
Still confused :(

Healing Totems only work party wide. So there is a max of 5 that will stack.
Correct, it is only worth it to drop 1 wrath and 1 air totem.

[Ualaa]

You only need one Totem of Wrath down for all of them.
But, if they're glyphed for ToW, you'd like each shammy to drop one, at least once every five minutes for the buff.

I have had ToW x3 (all shammies) on one key, separate from my totem stomp macro.
Just to push that periodically, for each to get the buff.
Currently, the team is basically doing pure PvE, so I have 3x ToW in the stomp macro.