WOLK and shaman team future (totems)

[Vyndree]

From 51 to 70 stacking ToW was decent and does help. You've got to be crazy to think it doesn't and he shouldn't be a little upset about losing it.

Oh, and speaking of mana... It's not like this isn't MORE overpowered than ToW...
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=51470

Quoted Your spell critical strikes grant your party Elemental Oath, reducing the mana cost of spells and abilities by your party by 2% and increasing critical strike damage by 2%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 15 seconds.


You know, because it's on a tier BEFORE ToW.

Ok, so let's say I only 4-box...

I've got one specced ToW, and the rest not. That's 3% crit and let's ignore the fact that it also buffs damage (via crit).

I've now got a brand new spiffy Elemental Oath (on the LO tier) that increases damage (let's ignore that bit again) and reduces mana cost of all spells and abilities (including emergency heals) by up to 6%.

Every time I crit, the mana cost of my next TWO spells is decreased by 40%. Now the math is a little complicated, but we'll just assume best case scenario and that you don't double-crit (since you know, your gear sux so bad pre-BC). If you have a 3% crit chance, and a 40% *2 = 80% mana reduction when you crit, that's an effective (80% / 100) * 3 = 2.4% mana cost reduction on spells.

2.4% mana redux from ONE tow + 6% mana reduction from Elemental Oath = 8.4% mana redux for best-case scenario.


Now let's do the same for 4x stacked ToW...

2.4% * 4 totem of wraths = 9.6% mana redux from stacked ToW.



Now let's look at the damage increase from both.
4x ToW = 12% crit * 100% increase in damage each crit = 12% increase in damage.

New ToW + Elemental Oath 3 stack = 3% crit * 100% increase in damage each crit + 6% ToW flat damage + 6% crit Elemental Oath 3stack * 100% increase in damage each crit = 15% increase in damage.


So you're trading -1.2% delta in mana efficiency for 3% damage increase....

... and this is a problem that must be QQed about?

The key here is "balance". They can't BUFF our existing talents/abilities without "DEBUFFING" existing talents/abilities. This sure looks balanced enough for me, considering the mana efficiency issue being touted about here only exists from level 50 (ToW talent minimum) to level 60 for itemization, and 62 for water shield.


There's a reason why most of us don't fill out Unrelenting Storm. For one, it sucks, and two -- we really don't suffer from mana issues. Most of the PvP shammies don't even TAKE ToW because it was so WEAK of a talent. Now it's actually WORTH speccing -- oh, AND it buffs and entire RAID. They're not going to design things specifically for us multiboxers, you know -- but even so, it's not a BAD nerf. It's just BALANCED compared to the overwhelming BUFFS we received.

I take it also that elmental oath does not stack either correct?

I'm assuming it does not effectively stack, since it specifically mentions "stacks up to 3 times".