how many totems?

[Mac]

Yaay, my girls got to lvl 12 last night! The addition of the searing fire totem has filled my actionbar1 which replaced another item I had there. This prompted me start dealing with a couple of questions I have been wondering about. Particularly how to use so many spells when you only have so many available visable actionbar slots.

1. How many totems most people actually use?
2. If your using a lot of different kinds of totems, how do you set that up?

I was thinking of putting my totems on my second action bar. But I'm not sure how to make that work. I have a few of the usual macros on actionbar1 plus the spells I'm using all the time. In order to use actionbar2, I have to press shift+2, then press the key for the macro lets say key 1, then press shift+1 to get back to actionbar1 again.

Is there a way to use items on actionbar2,3,4 etc. without having to switch to actionbar2? Sorry I'm such a noob at this macro/keybinding stuff, i'm trying to "get it".

TIA

[bryanc]

In the keybindings you can bind keys directly for buttons on any action bar.

Alternatively you could use a bar AddOn that has "paging" so that when you are holding, for example, the shift key it switches to a different action bar, and then switches back when you release it. I believe both Bartender and Bongos have that functionality.

Another option is to bind keys directly to the spells themselves, skipping putting them on any action bar at all. Either BindPad or SpellBinder are AddOns that will do that.

[Hotnutz]

Another option would be to consolidate ur totems into 1-2 buttons by using a cast sequence for example button 9 could have the macro ....

on toon 1

/castsequence Tremor Totem, Totem of Wrath, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem

on toon 2

/castsequence Grace of Air Totem, Tremor Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Totem of Wrath


NOTE: these are just examples. each time u hit the button it goes to the next one on the list. Theres a way to have it reset as well but you would have to search thru the macro forums for it.

Hope this helps minimize your mess

[Chorizotarian]

Here's the opener (n52 button 1) I've started using with my 1 pally / 4 shaman team at level 14:

Pally
/startattack
/castsequence reset=30/target/combat/ctrl Seal of the Crusader, Judgement

Shaman 1
/stopmacro [modifier:ctrl]
/castsequence reset=60/combat Searing Totem, Stoneskin Totem,,,,,,

Shaman 2
/stopmacro [modifier:ctrl]
/castsequence reset=60/combat Searing Totem, Strength of Earth Totem,,,,,,

Shaman 3
/stopmacro [modifier:ctrl]
/castsequence reset=60/combat Searing Totem, Earthbind Totem,,,,,,

Shaman 4
/stopmacro [modifier:ctrl]
/castsequence reset=60/combat Searing Totem,,,,,,,,,,

The press of button 1 casts SoR on the pally and all shamans drop a Searing Totem. If I press button 1 a 2nd time the pally judges SoR and the shamans drop various earth totems. If I get multiple mobs in a pull the empty conditions at the end of the shaman macros let me re-seal/judge on the pally without casting extra, unnecessary totems.

I'm still tweaking this, so ymmv.

[maqz]

There are totem addons that handle totems well. You have only four buttons, and these will cast the totem you used last (for that element). Right click to switch to a new totem. You can add key bindings to them as well. The one I use is called numen, available from wowace, but there are several others.

[Mac]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I might add, I never had a Shaman, nor have I played alongside them too much, so I'm learning the class as I go, sorry if this is common knowledge to a lot of you, but I figured multi-boxers might do it a little different, and thats the perspective that I wanted to get here. Like they might not use all the totems available like a single player might use.

My crew is lvl 14 now, and so far, I have found a use for:

Earthbind, Stoneclaw: If I'm running through an area, and just trying to get from point a to point b and don't want to bother with mobs, if I agro, I'll drop a stoneclaw using round robin on Keyclone, then drop a Earthbind also on round robin , the stoneclaw distracts, and the earthbind slows them allowing me to get enough range to drop out of combat, note: don't stop until your out of combat or you will have to deal with all of them. These two are also helpful for when you pull too many mobs.

Searing: This just ads dps as far as I can tell. I haven't seen a need to drop a totem that just blows up yet, anyone use Fire Nova ?

I haven't observed that: Stoneskin, Strength of Earth, or Fire Nova are not that helpful at this point. At least, I haven't found a use for them yet.

As for macros, keybinds, addons, thanks for the input, I will investigate them. I like your macro ideas Chorizotarian and Magz. I wish I was better at this macro/keybind stuff, its like reading greek to me, but I'm trying to learn, :S I think I see what your doing here to have one key that makes the pali do his thing and the shaman do their thing at the same time allowing for the timing component of judgment.

[Djarid]

If you are not running with a tank then SOE probably isn't going to get used much but remember + strength = +AP = +damage = + threat and +str = +block
at 70 SOE adds 86 str = 172 AP = 12.3 DPS + 3 block

[geoffdavison]

I haven't run a shammy since 2005 but there used to be a UI mod called totem stomper that you could set up with key bindings to throw different combinations of totems.

[Mac]

If you are not running with a tank then SOE probably isn't going to get used much but remember + strength = +AP = +damage = + threat and +str = +block
at 70 SOE adds 86 str = 172 AP = 12.3 DPS + 3 block

Ah ha! Got your point. I am running a pali tank + the 4 shaman, maybe I just don't see the benefit yet at these low levels, I'll have to have another look.

[maqz]

I haven't seen a need to drop a totem that just blows up yet, anyone use Fire Nova ?

Fire nova and magma totems aren't very impressive compared to arcane explosion and the like, but it's the only AoE you have (well, and chain lightning maybe). Sometimes in instances, you will be attacked by a very large group of weak mobs. Drop a stoneclaw totem to distract them (or they will destroy the fire nova). Then as many fire novas as you can... Boom!

It's just a shame you don't get loot/xp from totem kills (unless you tag them all, one by one).