The Ultra Nerf to Arena Shamans on PTR 2.4

[Ellay]

Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown.
This takes away a pretty big chunk in our damage spike arsenal. The good news is I always shoot for an overkill anyways. I'm going to play some decently high rated teams this week and completely drop Elemental Mastery out of my playbook and see how I do.

[Vyndree]

Just saw this.

Made me depressed, but more because of the unending list of buffs that have been ever since BC came out. I think I'm kinda numb to the pain since then.

Nearly quit shammies in 2.3, but now that I've spent so much time and effort into leveling my group I don't think I'm going anywhere until this class gets burned to the ground.

[glo]

I knew when they announced they would make shaman available to alliance pre BC that it would be nerfed to death. With an expansion and level cap increase they will continue nerfing them to an unplayable level.

[Diamndzngunz]

lol. wow thats [lame]. Ohh well I'm sure thats nothing to a boss man.

Xzin: Colloquial or not, please be respectful of others with the words you use.

[Mosg2]

Well, let us know how it goes Ellay ><

[Ellay]

Well I played a bunch of games and completely dropped the ability and never used it, and I won them all :) I never failed the kill the target instantly when I used NS. So don't be down Vyndree or anyone else ^^ This will not stop our powa !@!

Also** the way I am imagining incorporating EM back into the system will prove as a very powerful backbone if for any reason the Insta Kill fails or to ensure another target dies.
Basically just leave both on the Instant Cast macro for Chain Lightning but make sure NS is always first, the next time you cast CL will most likely trigger EM making your next prey that much easier. There is always a positive! :P

[Vyndree]

Well I played a bunch of games and completely dropped the ability and never used it, and I won them all :) I never failed the kill the target instantly when I used NS. So don't be down Vyndree or anyone else ^^ This will not stop our powa !@!

I'm not worried particularly about the EM+NS change for multiboxers, but for solo shammies (I was a 70 shammy solo well before I started multiboxing). We still have our uber focused burst damage.

But it's been a slipperly slope since BC and light at the end of the tunnel has yet to be seen. Shame, since shammies are my favorite class.

[Tasty]

You shamans on this board are smart and resourceful you will find a way to still own everyone :P and besides while unlikely they may nerf the nerf before it goes live or they may remove it all together. Just do me a favour and dont .shock the wow forums!! :( it kills me a little inside when people loose reason

[Stealthy]

Cuz Mages are the only ones who should have PoM Pyro, right? :P

Apart from loss of burst damage, there are 3 real problems I see with this nerf:

1. NS heal being locked out for 10 secs after an EM LB/CL - maybe not so much a problem for Arena's, but more so for BG's and world PvP

2. Big reduction in ability to shut down runners / kiters, esp if they are outside of shock range

3. EM now has a much greater window to be purged/dispelled.

I understand Ellay being able to get away with not using the EM/NS combo, probably becuase past a certain level of gear it becomes less important. But this was a great way for undergeared shams to compensate for their lack of gear. If this change goes through, I can see gearing up in Arena's will be a lot more painful...

Anyway, lets wait until patch day to see if this makes it through. There's already a massive shitstorm brewing on the Shaman forums...



Cheers,

Stealthy

[Djarid]

But it's been a slipperly slope since BC and light at the end of the tunnel has yet to be seen. Shame, since shammies are my favorite class.

never a truer word spoken. erm... written

[sway]

but 2.4 not brings only bad things


Alterac Valley
- There is now a Join as Party option.
Shamans
- Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4.

sounds good to me

[Kyudo]

Hmm I;m also not a fan of this upcoming change, but for me the this means I'll more likely switch to 41/0/20 in PvP as well as PvE, and just forget NS altogether.

[Monkofdoom]

A challenge made harder is still a challenge :love:

So it just ups the requirements slightly / involves us changing our methods by a bit, I welcome the new nerfs with open arms and new macros !

[Vyndree]

Another Shaman nerf:

From: http://www2.wowinsider.com/2008/02/20/ptr-notes-patch-note-watch-2-20/


Shaman Elemental PvP Sets: The resistance on Lightning Bolt spell pushback has been reduced to 50%.

This one's been there for a while.

[Mith]

Let me apologize profusely guys. Every time i decide to dedicate myself to a class, it gets nerfed. Paladins got some gross nerfs about 2 weeks into me playing one (mana back from heals one of many). Seems to be the same case w/ shaman =/. Maybe i should roll a warlock to get the game somewhat in balance again...

[Stabface]

Some light at the end of the tunnel that might cheer you up :)

"Matchmaking: If a queued player has a personal rating higher than their
team rating, the matchmaking system will now use the highest personal
rating of a queued member of that team for matchmaking purposes,
instead of the team rating."

[Eastt]

Well I played a bunch of games and completely dropped the ability and never used it, and I won them all :) I never failed the kill the target instantly when I used NS. So don't be down Vyndree or anyone else ^^ This will not stop our powa !@!

I'm not worried particularly about the EM+NS change for multiboxers, but for solo shammies (I was a 70 shammy solo well before I started multiboxing). We still have our uber focused burst damage.

But it's been a slipperly slope since BC and light at the end of the tunnel has yet to be seen. Shame, since shammies are my favorite class.Oh yah i agree, solo shamans will lose their role almost entirely in 5's... Im dropping the elemental shaman from our 5's for an affliction warlock ='/

[Squiggoth]

Yes, but now The Zerg can preform AV. O.o can you imagine 8 manning AV? =D Okay, it wouldn't work well....but it would be awesome.

[kayb]

I don't mind this nerf, I feel it's somewhat justified. It certainly takes some of the sting out of our insta nuke, but instant lightning bolt/chainlightning is still pretty powerful for a class that can achieve 40% critrate without much problems. I'm glad they did this nerf. To be honest, I was expecting something much much worse. For example they could have denied elemental shamans to wear a shield, through talents maybe. It wouldn't have hurt shammy in pve at all, but some adjustment to pvp builds would have been needed. They could have made grounding totems unstackable ("a more powerful totem is already in use"). They are bringing down tremor totem tickrate to 3 seconds. In normal battlegrounds you'd not need more than 2 tremor totems in the rotation. In arena you could just double up if you felt that totem sniping was a problem. NS is still a very valuable talent to go for, much more valuable than totem of wrath imo. In bg's I'm using fire elemental totems and magma totems all the time, so that totem of wrath just isnt very tempting.

[Vyndree]

instant lightning bolt/chainlightning is still pretty powerful for a class that can achieve 40% critrate without much problems.

Resilience.


That NS isn't necessarily used for burst damage -- many times it's used as an instant emergency heal.

[yarr]

Kalgan made a post in the Shaman board that they think shamans currently (as of 2.3) are a bit underpowered in pvp, especially in 2v2 and 3v3. They are hoping to buff the class as a whole for pvp. Perhaps the pushback and the NS/EM nerfs were to allow them to buff shammies as a whole (not just elemental) without overpowering ele shamans in 5v5? Who knows? But I am very glad that they are taking steps to help the class in 2v2/3v3 (Unless Kalgan is Lying)

I will take the same attitude to this patch as i have for previous patches that seemed like nerfs: I won't form opinions until 2.4 comes out.