WotLK took my shammie-love away (and misc. 3.0.8 thoughts)

[Fuzzyboy]

Yeah, really. Don't get me wrong, I still like them, but I no longer love them. Well, at least not the elemental-spec. Usually my moonkin will be 500ish DPS in front of my shaman on the damage meters. Where they used to be nasty wrecking balls, they're now more like a mediocre caster-type contributing over my resto shaman only with a +140 spelldamage buff and a few extra grounding totems. If I could, I'd gladly replace my whole dps-crew with 3 hunters, or at least replace one of them with a mage.

However, 3.0.8 will bring some nice changes. Better scaling for both LB and Lava Burst (+10%/20% of bonus damage) and LB will now be better dps-wise for single targets than CL (as IMO it should be). Changes to magma totems are nice also (although I practically never use AE damage except for certain specific situations), so I really hope this will fix the DPS issues I'm having. I don't mind hybrids being on the low side of dps compared to pure-dps classes, but being harder to manage (manual flame shock apply etc.) AND being on the lowside of other hybrid casters suck.

I'm also hoping for a fix for /castsequence although that's not a likely scenario. On the bright side: Mechanostriders for my whole team :-D

[zanthor]

I had thought I was doing decent DPS on dungeons and such until last night, went with a hunter geared about the same as my guys and while I'm pushing out a very consistent 1200-1300dps she was pushing 1500-1800... full dungeon clears for the numbers there, so it's not like it's a burst difference or something similar.

All said and done, I really am enjoying the game, I like that Blizzards spinning raids towards the everyman, and it will be interesting to see how far that goes and how long it lasts.

[Fuzzyboy]

...and without tremor totems down, one good fear bomb will likely destroy you.

Shaman may not be DPS king/queens anymore, but the utility they provide more than makes up for it IMO. And Hunters are getting the nerf-bat.

My healer shaman can supply the tremor totem just fine :-) (DPS crew = moonkin + 2 elemental shaman)

Edit: And also, I only PvE - I don't PvP.

The reason I used the hunters as an example is because hunters don't require a support debuffer (spell dmg taken) in the same way that shaman does (they do however require different specs). Hunters are getting nerfed, but I'll bet you 10.000 gold that they'll be doing damage at least on par with moonkin. Hunters also have utility spells (through their pets) that rival that of the elemental shaman.

One note that needs to be made is that in terms of PvE shaman do well enough. Even though their dps is sub-par, they still do enough damage to farm heroics, which is pretty much what I'm looking for. Once I'm decked out with my current crew I'll be looking for new challenges and replacing an elemental-shaman with a mage and trying out 3xhunter for heroics is on the project list :-)

Lastly, the changes to LB and Lava burst might put the shaman dps back up where it belongs (on par with other hybrid specs), we'll have to wait and see I guess.

[Ellay]

I think the Age of the Shaman for multiboxing is hopefully over and players spread there options out to other classes. I still enjoy playing the class immensely but whenever everyone plays one, and it becomes the staple class it is never a good thing. So the events unwinding show a healthy boost for us.

[Fuzzyboy]

I think the Age of the Shaman for multiboxing is hopefully over and players spread there options out to other classes. I still enjoy playing the class immensely but whenever everyone plays one, and it becomes the staple class it is never a good thing. So the events unwinding show a healthy boost for us.

I agree - I think it's a good thing when there is several options to choose from and the shaman isn't the only viable choice. I think it's a shame that it's coincidental (sp) and that the game we play (multi-wow) is a different one from the one the rest of the playerbase plays. The game is designed for them, not for us, and the effect that changes to their game has on ours are for the most part both random and unintended. Luckily for us, WoW caters a broad audience, meaning that the game is unlikely to ever be complex to a degree that makes multiboxing impossible.

Apart from the fact that I now have to level up several new chars, I'm glad about the way the wheel has spun, but also a bit frustrated that our existance is so profoundly secondary. In the end, I'm having fun though. Lots of it :-)

[algol]

It's not just individual DPS to consider, either. Paladin + 4x Shaman allows you to run with four DPS spec members at times. Could be better than three characters with higher individual DPS.

Pally + 4 shamans is probably going to always be the easiest, most robust team. It doesn't mean other teams can't be better in specific scenarios, or more fun for someone to play. The best team is the one you enjoy most, it being a game and all. But a crafted mace getting nerfed, or doing lower damage than a class that's about to get nerfed...yay, but that's not critical to why the team layout is so successful.

[Fuzzyboy]

More or less immune to:
Fear
Poisons (totem + spells)
Diseases (totem + spells)
Anti-Spell caster (grounding totems)
Paladin can cleanse magic debuffs.
Resto Shaman can cleanse curses.

...and you can do all this at the same time with multiple Shaman.

Ultimate anti-wipe (each member can rez and heal, and even auto-rez)
What you give up in top-end DPS, you gain in massive utility.

I've toyed with swapping in a Hunter for a Shaman, or a Warrior tank instead of the Paladin. The "net gain" is always negative.

Except for multiple groundings, you can achieve that with a resto shaman as well. Tremor totems stacking isn't of much use in PvE and I've yet to be in a PvE scenario with my team where one disease or poison cleanse totem didn't satisfy my needs. Not only are the shaman lacking dps at the moment, they're also harder to dps with. My moonkin with /castrandom wrath, starfire is out-dps'ing my shaman with manual FS-cast + lavaburst / LB / CL by 500 dps.

Hunters have massive utility as well, I'd dare say on par with a shaman and they add a lot to the equation as well. Feign death is very nice. Pet utility is immense with three hunters, both in terms of offtanking and aggro management, but also special abilities: stun, disarm, slow, spell interrupt, casting speed reduced, root, atk debuff, atk buff etc.

I'm not saying the shaman is dead - simply that other classes can offer the same advantages and utility and sometimes more.

Edit: Wrong statement removed.

[algol]

Tremor totems don't stack, but they only pulse every four seconds. If you drop one every second, then they collectively pulse every second.

Shaman Multiboxing 101.

[Fuzzyboy]

It's not just individual DPS to consider, either. Paladin + 4x Shaman allows you to run with four DPS spec members at times. Could be better than three characters with higher individual DPS.

Pally + 4 shamans is probably going to always be the easiest, most robust team. It doesn't mean other teams can't be better in specific scenarios, or more fun for someone to play. The best team is the one you enjoy most, it being a game and all. But a crafted mace getting nerfed, or doing lower damage than a class that's about to get nerfed...yay, but that's not critical to why the team layout is so successful.

It all depends on your scenario - mine is PvE. When I started doing heroics I gave up most of the dps'ing I did with my healer and I haven't missed it. I don't agree that pally + 4 shaman is the easier more robust team (already the spell dmg taken debuff is a pretty big blow).

Shaman don't just do lower damage than a class that's about to be nerfed (hunters), they do the least damage of all the dps specific classes. Sometimes my paladin has higher dps than the shaman.

That's not to say that shaman are in any way useless - I believe the dps-issue is about to be fixed (at least in part), and noone is disputing the large amount of utility they bring, they're just not as good as they used to be, which in retrospect is actually something that I don't mind. At least not once I'm done levelling my alts to replace some of them :P

As for the mace, it's a 85 spell damage loss - I don't really care to be honest, I thought it was OP to begin with, although I do wish they had announced it a bit sooner so I could have spent my money better. It's still decent post-nerf, just no longer the best choice pre-raid.

[Fuzzyboy]

Tremor totems don't stack, but they only pulse every four seconds. If you drop one every second, then they collectively pulse every second.

Shaman Multiboxing 101.

I was sure they removed that in 3.0, but doing some research it seems that was just my imagination. I was convinced since the one I'm dropping almost always remove fear within 1-2 seconds, so I figured they removed stacking but made them pulse more often.

Apart from that I don't appreciate your derogatory 101-comment.