My experience with shaman on the PTR.

[Toned]

Coordinated burst hitting at the same time is > the little bit of extra sustained dps getting 1 or 2 shamans to get off an extra lavaburst, because now your lava burst cooldowns are out of sync and you're fucked. Most teams dispell flame shock quick anyways.

[Boylston]

Goofed around a little bit on the PTR, mostly with a solo shaman.

I have to say, I am impressed with the burst capability of the new talent tree and some of the new skills. Fulmination looks great, and will probably be a great tool for us, even if it is toned down some. While I haven't tested healing rain, it appears to be an excellent defensive tool. Also didn't test the new Elemental ability (can't recall name), but I can imagine how an additional +Fire buff will play out with Lava Burst.

In short, it looks like the defensive abilities of the class got stronger, all aspects of our offense got better as well. As much as I wanted to switch over to 4-5xBoomkins for Cata launch, it just doesn't seem like it's going to be the better team.

I have to agree with mosg2 completely here. The only real randomness added to the class is going to be easy for us boxers to deal with (or not deal with). Fulmination charges build up quickly enough that you'll probably have 7-9 on most characters when you want to use it, and the Lava Burst mechanic will be either terribly easy to include into rotations for more DPS, or something you'll be fine ignoring.

I also like that the Resto talents I'd most likely pick up will augment the team's healing ability. I think that we'll be able to drop tremors/groundings, a set of Healing Rains, and be able to chain heal through a crapload of damage, even with the non-Resto penalties. We'll continue to have tools that punish meleers who want to infiltrate the group, and the ranged damage (including burst potential) is only getting better.

I think I will run with a 4xShaman team as I have in the past, focusing on BGs. Maybe will pick a druid to add in the 5th slot so that I can have a tank or boomkin to add to the team. I've always preferred quadboxing BGs since it allows just a little more flexibility with teammates when you're on a small map, anyhow.

I'd love to be proven wrong about the druids, but I just don't think boomkins are going to be the way to go for Cataclysm. Not unless some of their damage abilities get a significant step up...

[Mosg2]

I think 4x Boomkin are going to be insane. Now their Root abilities are AE--They affect everyone within 8 yards. That plus SOLAR BEAM is going to be insane. Absolutely insane.

[Boylston]

I think 4x Boomkin are going to be insane. Now their Root abilities are AE--They affect everyone within 8 yards. That plus SOLAR BEAM is going to be insane. Absolutely insane.

I stopped leveling my Druids and went back to my Shaman after seeing some of the beta videos and reading some beta personal accounts. I think Shaman are going to be, without question, the best boxing setup in Cata.

The only "random" thing added to their DPS is that Lava Burst can randomly reset. Compared to many of the other classes' catches that were added to randomize their DPS rotations a bit this is cake to deal with.

Mosg2-- You sound like me. I have hourly debates on whether I am going to play my 5xBoomkins or 4xShamans...
Or maybe 1xBoomkin+4xShamans. Root them and then nuke them!

Which comp do you think you'll play at release?

[Kalros]

So any luck with any new macros now that they killed the ",,,,,,," party of /click? Or are we stuck going back to /castsequence?

[F9thRet]

I've been trying to figure that out myself, What with Flameshock, unleash weapon Lava Burst and then the Fulmination Earth shock.

I believe the poster Ebony here was working on something though.

Stephen

[Mosg2]

@Boylston:
Definitely going to level the Shaman first. I love me my Druids but Shaman are just plain going to be better offensively and defensively IMO. Being able to root someone in your beam of silence while damaging them is going to be insane, as is chain knocking people down in it too. There's going to be a lot of tricks I think that're just going to be crazy--They still do great damage and come with a lot of utility as you said.

That having been said...

The Shaman beat them defensively. Totems plus being able to heal while maintaining their survivability is just plain better than... Typhoon? Druids don't get a lot of defensive tools like the Shaman do. The Shaman will plain take less damage, *especially* from casters. Also, they're better equipped to heal the damage they do take--Mid-combat they can pop out some Chain Heals.

The Shaman also beat them offensively. All of the tools that Druids get to do damage are great, don't get me wrong. Typhoon is absolutely amazing on a 20s cooldown. Chained together and with facing macros it totally roflstomps melee on you. It's 10x better than Thunderstorm. Their sustained damage is just fine but their burst is NOWHERE near what a Shaman can do. Fulmination? Lava Burst? Boom. You're dead. You never got the chance to heal.

So what do the Druids have over the Shaman in my opinion? A few things: They're much more mobile with travel form and being able to shift to get rid of snares and roots. That's a big deal in BG's. They also have stealth, which to me is a huge asset. It means you can *much* better defend nodes and attack them. Cyclone is 10x better than Hex is. Solar Beam is, to me, the best boxing spell in the game. It will absolutely dominate people. You will kill *tons* of people without them ever even getting the chance to cast back. Same deal with the ranged knockdown.

But you know what? The best part about the Druids is that they feel new and fresh. People have been doing Shaman since boxing became more mainstream. I love being unique--But after *much* thought on this it comes down to pure efficiency for me--Whenever I consider just running the Druids as my caster team for Cata I ask myself a few questions and then I come back down to earth:

Which one is better offensively?
Which one is better defensively?
Are they both capable of completing PvE content?

Once you answer those questions and realize that basically, you like Druids because they're new and fun and unexplored even though they're not as good as the Shaman... It gets easy for me to decide

AAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of that having been said...

Yes, it's still a hard decision for me to make. I love insta-cast flight form. I love the stealth. I love all the dots they get. I love that they can do ANY role in the game. All of that, however, doesn't make up for where they do have shortcomings.

Now, the real problem for me decision wise is if I'm going to finish leveling my 4x DK team to 80 or bank on the DK+Rets being the best melee team in Cata That's a hard one!

[Kalros]

I know this is more of a PvP thread, but I'd rather not start a new one.

Copied a shaman to the PTR today, put in new talents, trained, etc. Made a simple macro:

/cast elemental mastery
/castsequence reset=combat/target flame shock, lava burst, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt

I originally tried with 3 LB, but it would get hung up on the Lava Burst. Pulled around 3700 DPS on a Heroic dummy, about the same throughout a Heroic instance just using my macro. Then I tried doing my spells manually and pulled around 4500 DPS. So I'm looking at a considerable loss of DPS so far, but i'll start getting a bit more complex soon. Also need to find a way to work in Earth Shock.

[Shodokan]

I know this is more of a PvP thread, but I'd rather not start a new one.

Copied a shaman to the PTR today, put in new talents, trained, etc. Made a simple macro:

/cast elemental mastery
/castsequence reset=combat/target flame shock, lava burst, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt

I originally tried with 3 LB, but it would get hung up on the Lava Burst. Pulled around 3700 DPS on a Heroic dummy, about the same throughout a Heroic instance just using my macro. Then I tried doing my spells manually and pulled around 4500 DPS. So I'm looking at a considerable loss of DPS so far, but i'll start getting a bit more complex soon. Also need to find a way to work in Earth Shock.

Earthshock as a secondary button is fine.

[Boylston]

I think playing with some of the PTR stuff has me convinced that I'll need to stick with Shamans. I have 4 of them, from the Healer+Quad Shammy arena domination days, so I will likely drag along a druid on my level-up quest to 80. (Or a DK, or Pally, or Warlock... they're all on the fifth account!)

I think I may be done with multiboxing instances all by myself. There doesn't seem to be any major gear reason to do so anymore, and I can always pick up a tank with my 4xShaman pack and run stuff. (I have several great friends who are tanks and always liked doing instances with someone else tanking.)

mosg2-- You've nailed it for me with the druids. I think I will get them to 85 eventually, but I think I'm going to focus on the shaman first. Doesn't hurt that my guild is pretty overloaded with druids-- I'm less likely to cause raid-night problems by being a shaman main...

I'm sure this will all change in 24-48 hours. =P