Any issues with 5 Shammies after patch/expansion?

[wizofid]

I have heard that one of the things that is great about 5 shammies is that some of the things stack... Totem of Wrath for one. But my understanding is that after the patch they are changing a lot of things, including changing totem of wrath to a simple +spell power buff with no +hit. I am not even sure if that totem will stack anymore. Does anyone know about this or other changes that may impact the viability of a 5x shaman team?

For example this would mean no more rotation on 5 Heroisms:

Finally, we have modified Heroism and Bloodlust to affect the entire raid. However, all affected raid members will be unable to cast or benefit from Bloodlust/Heroism for 5 minutes.

and

Bloodlust: Cannot be recast while caster has Sated debuff, and those with Sated debuff cannot be affected by it.

[Fuzzyboy]

[quote='wizofid',index.php?page=Thread&postID=13070 9#post130709]I have heard that one of the things that is great about 5 shammies is that some of the things stack... Totem of Wrath for one. But my understanding is that after the patch they are changing a lot of things, including changing totem of wrath to a simple +spell power buff with no +hit. I am not even sure if that totem will stack anymore. Does anyone know about this or other changes that may impact the viability of a 5x shaman team?
[/quote]The topic has been covered several times, but to recap: ToW won't stack and it isn't really a nerf as far as crit vs. spelldamage (see [url='http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=128258']ToW math[/url] ), untill you hit 2100ish spelldamage. And that isn't even including the 3% crit debuff. As for the +hit part, remember that the hitcap that is usually discussed relates mostly to boss-level (73) mobs, which you'll rarely be facing as a 5-man team.

As for back-to-back heroism, ask yourself how often you really need it? Not once have I needed to cast heroism back-to-back to down a boss.

The most significant impact, as far as wotlk-reports go, is the tanking viability of elementals, which hopefully will be fixed. The bigger problem is the coefficient-nerf on lightning, but that can be countered by adding a lock or a druid to your team (CoE or Earth and Moon).

[magwo]

No back-to-back heroism is a big nerf to 5v5 shaman teams. Any priest with a tiny amount of skill will mass-dispel heroisms, which is why it needs to be recast several times. I would hope that blizzard implements this so that:

1. Another heroism can not overwrite a currently active heroism buff.
2. Only when heroism effect expires after its full duration do you gain the debuff that prevents the effect to be repeated.

[Schwarz]

The most significant impact, as far as wotlk-reports go, is the tanking viability of elementals,

I think the problem with this was that they didn't get scaled to level 80. And I think they changed that. I thought I remember someone posting that they cleared a heroic with 5 shaman on the PTR.

I 100% think that all these changes are buffs not nerfs. We might have to practice kiting a little bit but it should be fairly easy with our knock back spell and fire nova totem slowing down movement speeds.

[suprafro]

5x Thunderstorm and 5x Hex just seems like it will make heroic trash completly ezmode

[Rowdysattva]

nerf to lightning really hurts. there are reports on the boards of ele shaman doing less dps in heroic raids than the prot tank. that is not a five box situation but the dps of one shaman effects the dps of five shaman. i don't want to have to add a lock or a druid to the mix to get the damage up. i want them to address the damage issue with the shaman directly. this effects solo play as well. i am really wondering if balance druid will have greater dps than shaman come xpac.

[Fuzzyboy]

The most significant impact, as far as wotlk-reports go, is the tanking viability of elementals,

I think the problem with this was that they didn't get scaled to level 80. And I think they changed that. I thought I remember someone posting that they cleared a heroic with 5 shaman on the PTR.

I 100% think that all these changes are buffs not nerfs. We might have to practice kiting a little bit but it should be fairly easy with our knock back spell and fire nova totem slowing down movement speeds.

Yeah, something about the elementals still being lvl 70. I don't know if it has been fixed yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be :-)

[Fuzzyboy]

No back-to-back heroism is a big nerf to 5v5 shaman teams. Any priest with a tiny amount of skill will mass-dispel heroisms, which is why it needs to be recast several times. I would hope that blizzard implements this so that:

1. Another heroism can not overwrite a currently active heroism buff.
2. Only when heroism effect expires after its full duration do you gain the debuff that prevents the effect to be repeated.

I was thinking in PvE terms - I guess I should have mentioned that :-)

Btw, correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the ToW change be a buff for PvP since res takes into account only crit and not spelldamage?

[Fuzzyboy]

5x Thunderstorm and 5x Hex just seems like it will make heroic trash completly ezmode

Yeah, if they somehow fix the coeff, and make the elemental able to tank bosses heroics should be very doable :-)

[Fuzzyboy]

nerf to lightning really hurts. there are reports on the boards of ele shaman doing less dps in heroic raids than the prot tank. that is not a five box situation but the dps of one shaman effects the dps of five shaman. i don't want to have to add a lock or a druid to the mix to get the damage up. i want them to address the damage issue with the shaman directly. this effects solo play as well. i am really wondering if balance druid will have greater dps than shaman come xpac.

I think I read a blue quote stating that they nerfed the coeff because of the druid/lock debuff now included nature damage and that shaman would be too high on raid dps if they didn't. But it does suck royally for solo/party play, but again, it's only beta and they are currently looking at a fix although I don't know about ETA and what kind of fix.