Cataclysm Changes: Shaman

[defactoman]

Since all the classes are changing they might be changing the poison system to something a bit more manageable.

[Heavyd]

Paladins should still be able to cleanse poison

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/24038...pel-mechanics/

• Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic, curses, and poison.
• Paladins will be able to dispel defensive magic, diseases, and poison.
• Priests will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and disease.
• Shaman will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and curses.

[Fat Tire]

nvm- HeavyD was correct.

[Fat Tire]

Hopefully Spirit Link makes it thru this beta. It got scraped in woltk beta.

[genocyde]

Man, I had dropped a similar concept to spiritwalkers grace in the suggestion box many times (for mages but they don't really need it as much anyway) glad to finally see something with the ability to cast while running. These changes look about on par with what I was hoping for early expansion info.

Next up is probably the priest class. I'm hella nervous about this one. Been a priest main since before ZG in vanilla. I've been more than tempted to roll a 5 priest team about 1000 times and if theres anything too good in there preview I'm going to start grinding tonight lol

[Shodokan]

For paladin/4 shaman this looks solid still since we don't really lose much PVE wise.

I actually think the extra attack for enhance could be fun too and make a more rotation based attack sequence easier to manage.

[universal]

regarding the dispels:

s previously mentioned, we are providing three dispel capabilities to all healing classes as follows:

Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic, curses, and poison.
Paladins will be able to dispel defensive magic, diseases, and poison.
Priests will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and disease.
Shaman will be able to dispel defensive magic, offensive magic, and curses.

There is some trade-off that is being made in making these changes and we wanted to expand on this further.

Protection and Retribution paladins will lose their current ability to dispel magic.
All shaman will lose dispel disease and dispel poison in exchange for Restoration gaining dispel magic.
Restoration shaman, Restoration druids, and Holy paladins will need to talent into their defensive magic dispels.
Shadow priests won’t be able to remove disease in Shadowform.
Mage, hunter, and warlock will retain their current dispel mechanics.
Body and Soul remains the same, and basically any dispel mechanic not mentioned above is currently planned to remain as it is.
When possible, we’d like to combine dispels into a single action. For example, the druid ability to dispel curses and poisons might be a single spell with a Restoration talent that also allows it to dispel magic. This part of the design isn’t finalized, however.

As with all of our Cataclysm previews, keep in mind that any of these decisions could change when we’re in beta.

[pinotnoir]

I cant wait until all enhance and elemental shamans fill up the wow forums because they are completely shut down in pvp by trivial to apply rogue poison. Making dispelling only available as part of the healing tree is very stupid. They better make it the first tier or there is going to be some class revolts when it comes to pvp.

[Fat Tire]

We know there are a lot of additional questions and we'll do our best to answer what we can. Keep in mind, this is merely a preview of things to come.

Q: Will Maelstrom Weapon include Lava Burst?
A: That’s the plan currently.

Q: How can Elemental Overload proc Lava Burst when Lava Burst already hits so hard in PvP?
A: We’re going to change almost every number in Cataclysm to adjust for everything from single ranks of spells to larger health pools to new combat ratings. With much higher health pools, hopefully burst damage will go back to being a tool and not the only way to win matches.

Q: What happens to the Lightning Overload talent?
A: It provides a bonus to Elemental Overload.

Q: Elemental doesn’t want to drop Searing Totem at range. We want to drop Magma Totem.
A: Searing Totem needs to so more single-target damage than Magma. That said, if we’re happy with the ability to occasionally place totems at range there is no reason it couldn’t apply to any totem. Imagine, “After using this spell, the next totem you drop will appear at the feet of your target.”

Q: Will Elemental have to spend talent points just to get the Spirit to hit conversion?
A: It will be bundled with another attractive talent, such as Elemental Precision.

Q: Will Unleash Weapon work with Frostbrand?
A: Yes. We just provided some examples.

Q: Is Healing Rain channeled?
A: No, it's not a channeled spell.

Q: Is Earthquake channeled?
A: Probably, but we’ll see.

Q: Will Unleashed Weapon consume your enchants?
A: No.

Q: Does the 10% spell power buff from Elemental scale with the shaman or the target’s spell power?
A: It will scale with the target the same as Demonic Pact and other buffs that bring the same benefit.

Q: Are you supporting two-handed weapons for Enhancement?
A: Once you start to get into the dual-wield talents, then Enhancement is a dual-wield tree.

Q: You didn’t address Enhancement survivability or mobility or X and Y!
A: This was just a preview and is not a comprehensive list of every change. Much more will be revealed in beta and much will change during beta.

Q: You didn’t answer the most important shaman question! What about Sentry Totem?
A: The Cataclysm is a time of great upheaval. Deathwing’s return to Azeroth tore a hole in the fabric of the universe that tragically resulted in the ultimate and irrevocable destruction of all Sentry Totems. Level designers are contemplating a shrine for the Sentry Totem near that of Uther the Lightbringer. We know shaman players will greet this news with grief, but as with all class changes we’ll have to get into beta before anything is final.

[Danos]

I cant wait until all enhance and elemental shamans fill up the wow forums because they are completely shut down in pvp by trivial to apply rogue poison. Making dispelling only available as part of the healing tree is very stupid. They better make it the first tier or there is going to be some class revolts when it comes to pvp.

I can't find where I read it but I'm sure they said rogues would have to apply poisions more actively, rather than it be a passive on attack application - certainly hope this is going to be the case! The blues on the dispelling do state there won't be such a need for dispels, but doesn't specifically state PvP.