5 Shaman PvP Totem Sequence

[Hachoo]

The Shaman GCD is 1.5 seconds, but totems are on a 1 second GCD. It sounds like you're suggesting dropping 4 or 5 tremor totems at one time. The problem with this is that they would all pulse at the same time, and therefore wouldn't be much more effective than one single totem. Since they pulse once every 3 seconds, most people drop 3 totems at one second intervals, then an earthbind or something. I use my big totem macro for tremor totems, but I also have them on a separate key for when my totems are being targeted.

Thats the exact opposite of what I'm saying. The tremor totem pulse is 2s. If you're dropping all of them in 4 or 5 seconds, you're wasting valuable seconds of not being able to control fear. Ideally however many tremors you have should be staggered so that they all land evenly spaced within 2s or so. This way the pulses are every .4 seconds. If you're dropping 4 in 4s, your pulses are once every second. Thats extra time for your clones to run away further before a tremor totem pulses, or maybe even get completely out of range of the totems.

This is why I have a separate cast sequence just for tremor totems, the FIRST thing I do in pvp, even if its not a fearing class, is stagger 5 tremor totems approximately every 0.4s. This way if their friend comes to help that CAN fear, I already have the tremors down.

With a "master castsequence" this is effectly impossible, and if you have a separate macro for important totems like tremor/grounding anyway, you might as well just keep them all separate.

The difference between using a giant cast sequence for totems for pvp and separate macros for each type of totem, is the same as using the keyboard to turn instead of the mouse. It WILL make you much less effective.

[aNiMaL]

I've been pondering about the best of 2 worlds for a while,
In the end I rather keep mine seperate.

Having one big sequence will require a reset option aswell in the macro, (most probably a modifier key)
since after a few fights where 1 shaman missed a gcd a few times you'll have a completely different castsequence
and you might screw up the staggering tremors completely by dropping a few at the same keypress.

I was already to much used to dropping them seperate,
so I went back to it when they messed up the castsequnece farm a few times.

[Thulos]

Lots of info to ponder here and I really appreciate all the info. To be clear I do have the ability to stagger drop just tremors and the ability to drop any of my totems that I need individually. The idea behind the castsequence is to be able to drop an entire farm with one key. I can't imagine that it's a bad idea because if you watch Ellay's pvp videos this is exactly what he does. Of course he could have changed that by now.

[asonimie]

The OP DOES have staggered tremors built into the sequence above, and I completely agree with his sequencing, its almost identical to what i use. (Only differences is I use 1xManaSpring instead of that 4th poison. 3x cleansing has always been enough, even in arena. I also replace 1-2 of the searings with Magma - it will help pop Stealthies in open pvp and is at least a small threat to keep rogues at bay in arena).

Even in arena there is no harm in recasting the entire totem sequence, after 1 round of casting I'm still at 98% mana which tops off within seconds(Magma is a hog however, so plan accordingly, my magma shaman burns mana much faster recasting totem city).

Its not a problem to use 4 seconds to refresh 4 grounding totems?

Have you even played arena when you state that casting all your totems over when your zeged aint a problem...

A warlock+mage will bring down the totems faster then you can cast them.

Ofc its alot easier if you cant manage the stress to drop right totems at the right time.

Major pain in the ass would be if you wanted to do arena with a healer and had to rotate on your shamans..

I can easily do that since my fourth and fifth shaman drops the same totems while someone with a premade sequence most likley would have to rewrite it.

Not sure what you're trying to dispute here, but yes I do tons of arena and am pretty successful. I never said take 4 secs to refresh groundings... and the quote you chose makes no sense. I'm not going to restate, go back and read correctly this time. The first cast of my PVPsequence includes 3-4x groundings, and the rest in cast 2. Then I can refresh all 4-5 at once with a keyclick once my base totems are down.

Attention to detail.

[asonimie]

The Shaman GCD is 1.5 seconds, but totems are on a 1 second GCD. It sounds like you're suggesting dropping 4 or 5 tremor totems at one time. The problem with this is that they would all pulse at the same time, and therefore wouldn't be much more effective than one single totem. Since they pulse once every 3 seconds, most people drop 3 totems at one second intervals, then an earthbind or something. I use my big totem macro for tremor totems, but I also have them on a separate key for when my totems are being targeted.

Thats the exact opposite of what I'm saying. The tremor totem pulse is 2s. If you're dropping all of them in 4 or 5 seconds, you're wasting valuable seconds of not being able to control fear. Ideally however many tremors you have should be staggered so that they all land evenly spaced within 2s or so. This way the pulses are every .4 seconds. If you're dropping 4 in 4s, your pulses are once every second. Thats extra time for your clones to run away further before a tremor totem pulses, or maybe even get completely out of range of the totems.

This is why I have a separate cast sequence just for tremor totems, the FIRST thing I do in pvp, even if its not a fearing class, is stagger 5 tremor totems approximately every 0.4s. This way if their friend comes to help that CAN fear, I already have the tremors down.

With a "master castsequence" this is effectly impossible, and if you have a separate macro for important totems like tremor/grounding anyway, you might as well just keep them all separate.

The difference between using a giant cast sequence for totems for pvp and separate macros for each type of totem, is the same as using the keyboard to turn instead of the mouse. It WILL make you much less effective.

To each his own. IMO taking 5-8 seconds to achieve a .4 sec pulse interval is a death sentence. All 20 totems of mine are down within 3-4 seconds and I'm blasting, .5 sec pulse vs 1 sec pulse is trivial compared to 3-4 seconds of blasting away.

[asonimie]

I've been pondering about the best of 2 worlds for a while,
In the end I rather keep mine seperate.

Having one big sequence will require a reset option aswell in the macro, (most probably a modifier key)
since after a few fights where 1 shaman missed a gcd a few times you'll have a completely different castsequence
and you might screw up the staggering tremors completely by dropping a few at the same keypress.

I was already to much used to dropping them seperate,
so I went back to it when they messed up the castsequnece farm a few times.

Not at all. Set the reset to equal your largest cooldown (that you care about) in the sequence. My PVP sequence reset is set to 15secs, because thats when Grounding is back up. It works beautifully. In between I can recast EB, Nova, Stoneclaw, or even another set of groundings if it goes on for long enough. 15 sec reset also clears any sequencing mistakes caused by 1 sham being CC'd or what have you.

Go try it before you assume too much. It has been flawless for me. In real PVP you don't want focus on your totem casting... you want focus on the battlefield. A master macro with a little logic built in that you can mash in times of crysis > all.

[Thulos]

Can we get this thread a bit back on topic and focus on feedback of the farm itself and not the merits of castsequence vs individually dropping the totems.

[Kaynin]

I'd drop one frost resistance totem instead of a searing, by the way.

[Dominian]

The OP DOES have staggered tremors built into the sequence above, and I completely agree with his sequencing, its almost identical to what i use. (Only differences is I use 1xManaSpring instead of that 4th poison. 3x cleansing has always been enough, even in arena. I also replace 1-2 of the searings with Magma - it will help pop Stealthies in open pvp and is at least a small threat to keep rogues at bay in arena).

Even in arena there is no harm in recasting the entire totem sequence, after 1 round of casting I'm still at 98% mana which tops off within seconds(Magma is a hog however, so plan accordingly, my magma shaman burns mana much faster recasting totem city).

Its not a problem to use 4 seconds to refresh 4 grounding totems?

Have you even played arena when you state that casting all your totems over when your zeged aint a problem...

A warlock+mage will bring down the totems faster then you can cast them.

Ofc its alot easier if you cant manage the stress to drop right totems at the right time.

Major pain in the ass would be if you wanted to do arena with a healer and had to rotate on your shamans..

I can easily do that since my fourth and fifth shaman drops the same totems while someone with a premade sequence most likley would have to rewrite it.

Not sure what you're trying to dispute here, but yes I do tons of arena and am pretty successful. I never said take 4 secs to refresh groundings... and the quote you chose makes no sense. I'm not going to restate, go back and read correctly this time. The first cast of my PVPsequence includes 3-4x groundings, and the rest in cast 2. Then I can refresh all 4-5 at once with a keyclick once my base totems are down.

Attention to detail.

Im sorry if i was unclear and i saw atleast one TYPO on (zeged=zerged)

What i mean is that there aint time for me atleast to use 2 Global cooldowns to refresh my grounding totems. My other totems rarley get touched so why would i want to refresh all other totems?

So if i understand you right you got one spam button? Then a seperate button to only refresh groundings?

[Thulos]

I'd drop one frost resistance totem instead of a searing, by the way.

Thanks for this feedback. I like this idea.

So if i understand you right you got one spam button? Then a seperate button to only refresh groundings?

I'm not sure about Asonimie but that is exactly how I handle things. Not only that but I have seperate buttons for refreshing Searing, Magma, FireNova, Grounding, Elies, a tremor sequence, and pretty much every other totem in the game. The spam button is just for getting a farm down quickly, without thought. After I'm in position everything is situational and I have my on demand totems ready to go. Which is why I'd like to keep this thread on topic and discuss the Sequence itself and NOT the merits of a Spam vs individual drop system.