Glyph of Stoneclaw totem

[Otlecs]

I've seen this mentioned in a few threads, and I've brought it up myself, but I'm really agonising over the decision as to whether I really want to use it now I'm closing in on being more useful in PvP.

It was a no-brainer for my resto spec - I didn't lose anything useful - but it's tougher for my elemental specs.

At the moment, they each use Glyph of Lava, Glyph of Lightning Bolt and Glyph of Flame Shock (sorry, no item tags there because it just makes the text unreadable).

I DO struggle to stay alive against more than one whirl-winding warrior, even with instant GW to bug out, so I could definitely use some more survivability, but I don't know which of the existing glyphs I would drop.

So, for you more experienced PvPers.... could you tell me if you use this glyph, and what your thought processes were in deciding what glyphs to actually run with?

Thanks in advance.

[remanz]

Don't know about others. But I use this glyph on all my shamans. The way I see it is this: Let's say without it, you have to hit your "spread out" button to get out to avoid AOE dmg. Then no doubt you will stop casting and lose damage. And if you cast one less lightning bolt due to this "moving out". That to me, is a huge loss.

So personally, i don't think other glyphs are as good as this one. It absorbs around 4k dmg after you drop the totem. You can immediately replace the stoneclaw totem with others (earthbind, tremor). And not lose the buff.

(I couldn't access my old forum user, make a new user and start over -__-)

[Naysayer]

I use it. 4000 health shield.

power word: shield shaman

[asonimie]

Otlecs it depends whether you are talking about open PVP or arena.

[heyaz]

I never found it too useful in arena, seemed like it was gone instantly, and none of the glyphs I had before were ones I could really sacrifice: lava, shocking, and thunder

[asonimie]

Ya stoneclaw is useless in 5v5. Open pvp its ok, but still kinda pointless.

[Naysayer]

Most of the top 5v5 shaman use it. It's not useless...

[Gares]

As a single player shaman its good in arena, but as a boxer shaman in arena its fairly useless

[asonimie]

Most of the top 5v5 shaman use it. It's not useless...

Argh. First off, I am the top shaman in 5v5, and the 2 of us boxers at 1900+ right now are not using it This was discussed long ago and here's the reason. If stoneclaw totem didn't eat a GCD, then it would be much more useful. However it does, and in boxer 5v5 it consistantly takes LESS than a second to take 5k aoe damage. So if you cast this, the problem is you just wasted 2 full seconds (1gcd+1 tremor recast) to shield yourself for less than a second, not to mention your tremors will no longer be staggered. That's essentially like standing there doing nothing for 1-1.5 secs. That time is much better spent rotating thunderstorm or healing.

And yes lightning bolt glyph is a raiding glyph for long duration rotations. Not gonna buy you any kills with it.

This is in my guide which is almost complete, but the best 3 glyphs are lava, shocking, and thunder... with TOW being a decent 4th option in place of shocking or thunder (shocking is a must for arena tho).

[Naysayer]

Argh. First off, I am the top shaman in 5v5, and the 2 of us boxers at 1900+ right now are not using it This was discussed long ago and here's the reason. If stoneclaw totem didn't eat a GCD, then it would be much more useful. However it does, and in boxer 5v5 it consistantly takes LESS than a second to take 5k aoe damage. So if you cast this, the problem is you just wasted 2 full seconds (1gcd+1 tremor recast) to shield yourself for less than a second, not to mention your tremors will no longer be staggered. That's essentially like standing there doing nothing for 1-1.5 secs. That time is much better spent rotating thunderstorm or healing.

And yes lightning bolt glyph is a raiding glyph for long duration rotations. Not gonna buy you any kills with it.

This is in my guide which is almost complete, but the best 3 glyphs are lava, shocking, and thunder... with TOW being a decent 4th option in place of shocking or thunder (shocking is a must for arena tho).

No you're not. The top 5v5 shaman plays on my server.

Stoneclaw helps you in matches that begin with a rushdown gib attempt. Gives you an advantage and dropping one of them immediately before they drop one of you, which is huge. Gives your healer some room to breathe. Don't tell me it's useless, that's ridiculous.