Do you think Shaman DPS is low because of us?

[Ellay]

Specifically Elemental. The Shaman player base happens to be the lowest % of a class played in WoW, add on top of that Elemental is the least played spec of Shamans. It just so happens that the most popular multiboxing option is stacked Shamans (us!) With that in mind Elemental Shamans around the world are crying at the DPS we put out compared to other players.

Myself I have been doing a ton of PvE with Arena being down and this last week not counting/points being reset. I've gone in with terribly geared players doing ZA and top of the line players doing BT. What I have found is that our DPS yes is definitely much lower than our counterparts and other classes. Elitist Jerks has numerous write ups on the scaling issues we have vs other class/specs at 80 and the developers have identified this issue and plan to implement more raw damage into some of our higher tier talents, no mention as of when though.

Our main synergy with the class is stronger than ever, which comes in the form of frontloaded burst damage. A guaranteed Lava Burst Crit will be hitting for 8k+ at 80 fully geared, you can throw in a Chain Lightning (can guarantee the crit on this if you want as well) and an Earthshock for good measure. Your looking at an INSANE amount of damage all at the same time. Our claim to fame still remains.
For PvE the same scenario still stands, we can brute force our way into any instance, kite or use earth ele tanks if needed.

PvP even with the changes we are still very potent. Currently on my newly rolled Alliance characters - mostly S2/S3 I am able to pick apart almost any team by adapting to different playstyles, including the crazy burst some classes are unloading. (Arcane Mage / Ret Paladin), and all you see right now in 5's in 4 dps which is our hardest team makeup. I expect this to switch back to 3 dps 2 healers at 80.

I guess through all my rabble and rumbling, do any of you feel our existence and adehsiveness to the Shaman class is influencing how the developers balance it? Are we a factor that is causing Ele Shamans to suffer in other areas?

[Lyonheart]

I think about this all the time. I'm not sure though. It would seem odd that they make design decisions based on a minority of the player base stacking a class.

[Signal7]

I think Elemental shaman should be on par with the DPS for say a Balance spec'd Drd or a Ret Pally, but given our ability to wear mail and our more than decent healing abilities I feel it would be unfair to have Elemental shaman matching up to mages, locks, or hunters who lack lesser if any healing capabilities. Don't get me wrong here, I roll a 4 Elemental Shaman team as well so I'll take any increase in DPS that Bliz wants to throw at me, but honestly this boxers feels we got it pretty good even as is at the moment. Throw in Lava Burst for DPS and Hex for CC at 80 is just icing on the cake to me.

As for Blizz Devs taking multiboxers to mind when they balance out Elemental Spec'd shaman DPS I think it's is entirely possible considering the Elemental Spec has gotten a lot more attention, as well as the shaman class itself, since this site and your videos greatly contributed to the shaman crazy of boxers in "07" and "08". That being the case though I think it would be unfair of Bliz to nerf or buff a class based on the assumption that the majority of that spec of a class are playing muliplte toons of the same spec at one time. I mean they should know that if Druids or Locks become the "flavor of the month" because 5 of them can accomplish more that shamans can most people will just reroll that class. So imo they should look at each class as it would perform from a single character perspective, and not a "what would it be like with 5 of these" kind of view. Just my thoughts.

[hardcoded]

I do not believe there is any malice. From my interpretation of Ghostcrawler, they simply have no idea what they're doing with Shaman.

Elemental is not highly played, and they seemingly prioritized it as such. First they claim that damage is "fine" for a month or so, then "oh its bad but wait for newamazingtalent" and "we know its bad but we're not balancing you at 70".

It really does seem that they've "gone back to the drawing board" with shaman, and that means we'll be in limbo(in an underpowered state, unfortunately) until they figure out how our class is going to work. They certainly seemed to have repositioned themselves publicly on how they present the shaman class is supposed to work several times, and admitted major "miscalculations". It may even be by design(for scheduling purposes, not malice) that they balance the least played spec/class late, by depending on a talent is only available till after launch.

[algol]

No.

If anything, the practice of stacking shamans in raids by more traditional players is orders of magnitude more significant to the design process.

[moog]

The Blizzard developers keep claiming that 3.0+ Elemental Shaman DPS is balanced at 80, not 70.

Bah! That is such a lame fucking stance for the developers to take... we are 70 now, there will always be some chars at 70, why shouldn't the game be "balanced" for them, too!

[entoptic]

Specifically Elemental. The Shaman player base happens to be the lowest % of a class played in WoW, add on top of that Elemental is the least played spec of Shamans. It just so happens that the most popular multiboxing option is stacked Shamans (us!) With that in mind Elemental Shamans around the world are crying at the DPS we put out compared to other players.

Myself I have been doing a ton of PvE with Arena being down and this last week not counting/points being reset. I've gone in with terribly geared players doing ZA and top of the line players doing BT. What I have found is that our DPS yes is definitely much lower than our counterparts and other classes. Elitist Jerks has numerous write ups on the scaling issues we have vs other class/specs at 80 and the developers have identified this issue and plan to implement more raw damage into some of our higher tier talents, no mention as of when though.

Our main synergy with the class is stronger than ever, which comes in the form of frontloaded burst damage. A guaranteed Lava Burst Crit will be hitting for 8k+ at 80 fully geared, you can throw in a Chain Lightning (can guarantee the crit on this if you want as well) and an Earthshock for good measure. Your looking at an INSANE amount of damage all at the same time. Our claim to fame still remains.
For PvE the same scenario still stands, we can brute force our way into any instance, kite or use earth ele tanks if needed.

PvP even with the changes we are still very potent. Currently on my newly rolled Alliance characters - mostly S2/S3 I am able to pick apart almost any team by adapting to different playstyles, including the crazy burst some classes are unloading. (Arcane Mage / Ret Paladin), and all you see right now in 5's in 4 dps which is our hardest team makeup. I expect this to switch back to 3 dps 2 healers at 80.

I guess through all my rabble and rumbling, do any of you feel our existence and adehsiveness to the Shaman class is influencing how the developers balance it? Are we a factor that is causing Ele Shamans to suffer in other areas?

No it's mainly you! :thumbsup:

[Gaffy]

One thing that I didn't see mentioned is the change to raid wide buffs. Imagine a 25-man with 15-20 shaman.
They did the same thing to Ferocious Inspiration, 3% damage increase. Pre 3.0 it stacked party wide (5 BM hunters made for insane dps) but post 3.0 you only get one FI buff for the 3% increase.

[Ellay]

No it's mainly you! :thumbsup:

Heh, I may have started the the engine, but there's a whole swarm of us now it's not just me!!

[Lilith]

:P not rly, think using 100% crit flame shock inst lava burst.
They just have elemental a new i win button