AOE

Well, Blizzard's verdict on Shaman AOE is in, and the news is pretty good, though I was kinda hoping for a new spell. What they're actually doing is removing threat from Fire Nova and Magma Totems. Which is great, because I'm tired of losing them when I try to use them against something I haven't damaged yet. Also, they're boosting the damage done by Magma Totem, which is quite welcome.

Some players have complained that we still have to run up to a target to do damage. That's an issue (though we still have Chain Lightning) but it's not that big of a deal. After all, Mages and Warlocks need to get up close for Arcane Explosion and Hellfire. If you're trying to AOE something you can't get close to (like a boss), you're probably doing something wrong. That's why we have Flametongue Totem and Totem of Wrath, or you could also use Searing Totem.

I still think we need to get our damage-dealing totems off the same element as our buffing totems though. It sounds like Blizz is still trying to improve totems, so maybe we'll see something in the future.

Talent Changes

Here's the stuff that makes me squeal with glee. Well, not really. I don't actually squeal, and I doubt I'm capable of feeling glee. But anyway...

Unrelenting Storm will only cost 3 points (down from 5) and its effect goes up to 12% (from 10%). Sweet.

Elemental Warding and Elemental Shields are being combined, so the talent just reduces ALL damage taken by 6%. That makes it a much better talent, and puts it on par with the mage version. I'm still not going to get it, but it's now a matter of preference, not lack of quality.

Storm, Earth, & Fire will only cost 3 points (down from 5) for the same effect. Well, not exactly. They're BUFFING it so it increases Flame Shock by 60% now (from 50%). And it's being moved to where Elemental Shields used to be.

NEW TALENT! "Shamanism". Pretty non-specific name, isn't it? A 5-pointer in Tier 8, which will give Lightning Bolt an extra 10% of our spell power (finally making up for the coefficient nerf from back when they changed LB's base casting time) and Lava Burst an extra 20%. (Numbers subject to change.)

All in all, this is a great patch for Elemental shamans. Which is a first.

UPDATES! Dec. 15, 2008

Whoa, Blizzard isn't done buffing us, apparently.

Elemental Oath will now cause Clearcasting (aka Elemental Focus) to boost our damage by 5/10% while active. If you've got enough crit (33% or so, I'd say) you're going to see a DPS increase of about 10%. Nice! (Note: that's only OUR damage, not the group's.)

Elemental Mastery has been changed, and it's about time! Now, it'll increase crit chance by 20% for 30 seconds (cooldown is still 3 minutes). I'll miss the old version somewhat (I have it macroed into Thunderstorm so it does a ton of damage when I use it, which is probably why they changed it) but this new version is definitely a buff. Makes Glyph of Elemental Mastery much more appealing too.

Glyph of Lightning Bolt will increase LB damage by 4% instead of decreasing its mana by 10%. Sounds good to me, since I was thinking about getting rid of the LB glyph anyway. Mana hasn't been much of an issue for me, but damage has.

Glyph of Fire Nova Totem reduces FNT's cooldown by 3 seconds, instead of increasing its radius. I'm not sure what to think about that. If it's decreasing the "detonation" cooldown (like Imp. FNT used to), it's awesome. If it's decreasing the 15-second cooldown between uses, it's kinda lame. I think it's probably the second one.

Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem will now reduce the totem's cooldown by 10 minutes, up from 4. That's...huge. Does that mean it'll be usable in Arenas?

There are some other non-elemental Shaman updates, but they're not nearly as interesting. In general, you should just keep MMO Champion on your news reader at all times.

Ancestral Knowledge is finally useful, since it'll increase our Intellect by 10%, instead of our mana by 5%. The old AK sucked a whole lot, and this change helps us not only with mana, but with spell crit too. And, of course, that extra Int is going to make Unrelenting Storm more powerful.

Thundering Strikes affects spell crit now too. So instead of going 20 points into Resto to get Tidal Mastery, we can just go 10 points into Enhance. Sweet.

They moved Elemental Weapons up to Tier 3, so we Elementals can grab it for that 30% increase to Flametongue's spell damage buff.

Shamanistic Focus now just reduces the mana cost of all Shocks by 45%. For one talent point. Holy crap, this is great for Elemental shamans (especially now that we're going to be using Flame Shock more often, and Wind Shock in dungeons), but probably lackluster for Enhance shamans.

Totems will now last for 5 minutes instead of just 2. I don't think they're increasing their mana cost either (it's hard to tell now that most spells cost a percentage of your base mana instead of a set amount). This is a great change, but it does make Totemic Focus MUCH less attractive. Who cares about 25% off totem cost when they last for 5 minutes?

I've pretty much decided that I'll be foregoing putting anything into Restoration, and will put at least 14 points into Enhance.

Lava Flows has been back in for a while (replacing Paralysis, which I'll miss) and it looks pretty good. Increasing the range on Flame Shock is basically essential now, since we'll be using it in our casting rotations to make sure that Lava Burst crits every time it's cast. And the fact that this talent also increases Burst's crit damage by 24% means that Blizz pretty much expects you not to cast Burst without Flame Shock up on your target. Which also means that Lava Burst is probably going to be pretty weak and/or expensive when it doesn't crit.

Lava Lash is a new Enhancement talent. Looks pretty cool, and I think it'll finally put an end to putting Windfury on both weapons in favor of WF/FT. It's really weird that Flametongue will be so useful to both Elemental and Enhance shamans now. I wouldn't be surprised if they broke it into 2 separate spells, especially since Blizz has said that they don't want Enhance to be as focused on +spell dmg as they are in the beta right now. So, does this basically mean that Enhance shamans will be looking for slow weapons in the off-hand slot? Maybe they already do. Lava Lash will also work well with the changed Stormstrike (see "The Meh" below).

We finally have a "Wind Shock" spell. It's just an Earth Shock that doesn't cause any damage, and costs less mana. This was added as a replacement for Rank 1 Earth Shock, which many shamans (myself included) have been using for interrupting casting in dungeons, and in fights when we run low on mana. Wind Shock costs less mana, but not less than Rank 1 ES does now. Oh, and it also reduces threat. We finally have an active threat-reducer!

Earthen Power causes Earthbind Totem to remove all snares from any friendly player in its range when it pulses. That's pretty cool. Kinda like an old idea I had a while back, where certain talents could give certain totems the ability to cause opposite buffs/debuffs to friends/enemies.

The Bad

I really don't like what they've done with group buffing mechanics. Sure they're all raid-wide now, but they've made them all much more lame. In their effort to ensure that some classes aren't favored over others because of the group buffs they provide, Blizzard has made all group buffs much more generic. Just look at our poor Elemental Oath. I thought it was pretty cool when EO caused a 6% mana-cost-reduction buff as well as a 6% spell crit chance increase, but now it's just 5% spell crit chance without the mana reduction. Booooring. Not only that, but it doesn't stack with the Moonkin aura.

Generalized group buffs do help to prevent certain classes from being favored over other classes, but Blizzard could've solved that problem without having to make things more generic. Definitely a big disappointment in an otherwise awesome expansion.

The Meh

Storm, Earth, and Fire was changed again. Instead of providing a needed bonus to our primary nuke, it now reduces the cooldown on Chain Lightning. Personally, I'd rather have the LB bonus, but I'm sure a lot of PvPers would prefer the CL bonus.

Spirit Link has been replaced by Riptide. I really liked seeing Spirit Link added to the game, since it's a classic WC3 spell (the Spirit Walkers had it) but it may have been a victim of the aforementioned group buff normalization - if Blizz can't give this buff to more than one class, nobody can have it. Pfft. Riptide does seem like it'll be pretty cool once the kinks are worked out. It's nice that they're giving Resto a HoT finally (besides the one that procs with Earthliving Weapon).

Stormstrike will only affect attacks made by the shaman who cast it. This is good, because it means that Rogue poisons won't eat up the charges anymore. But it's bad, because Elemental Shaman and Balance Druid nukes won't eat up the charges anymore. Also, Stormstrike affects Fire and Frost spells in addition to Nature now, which is cool.

Thunderstorm is an awesome PvP talent. But, that knockback can cause a lot of problems in dungeons. I think it'd be nice if it were split into two spells: one with the damage and knockback, and the other with the damage and mana-restoration. Or maybe a new spell could be added that would freeze enemies in place so they're not knocked back when Thunderstorm is used. I wonder, does a Mage's Frost Nova prevent enemies from being knocked back?

Stoneclaw Totem will protect your totems from being destroyed, which is cool. However, having it out prevents you from having any other Earth totems out, of course. It's a trade-off. Not something I'll use all the time, but a good option to have.

Things that still need to be addressed

Elemental looks kinda boring next to Enhancement now. Enhance shamans will be attacking, shocking, stormstriking, lava lashing, lightning shielding, casting instant nukes, and summoning wolves. Elemental in dungeons, however, will just be nuking and shocking, but with 2 nukes now instead of one (which is definitely needed, don't get me wrong). It'd be nice to see a new spell or something in the Elemental tree to make things more interesting. Elemental in PvP will be a bit better thanks to Thunderstorm, but that spell is very problematic everywhere else. Hell, I'm seriously considering going Enhance in WOTLK.

From what I understand, Elemental DPS is pretty low in Beta right now. But Blizz has said they're working on that, so I'm not too worried.

I'm a bit concerned about our Fire totems. We Elementals pack a lot of damage with our Searing, Fire Nova, Magma, and Fire Elemental totems, but in dungeons we use them a lot less, so we can use Flametongue and Totem of Wrath. This has been true since the beginning, but it still bothers me. I'd like to see those two totems changed to a different totem category, with Fire reserved exclusively for damage-dealing totems. However, the existing 3 totem categories are pretty crowded already. Maybe it's time to add a 5th totem category, like the theoretical Spirit totem that has been alluded to a few times in the past. Now that totems last 5 minutes, it won't be as much of a hassle to keep 5 going at once.

Here's a crazy idea. When all 5 totems are down, the shaman gains "Elemental Form". The shaman levitates and is covered in a blue aura with lightning bolts coming off it. Think Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen (see image at the top of this post). As a result, we get a damage buff or something. It should only work if you're within 40 yards of your totems, and should probably last for about 15 seconds if one of your totems is destroyed (so you're not constantly jumping in and out of Elemental Form each time a totem is destroyed).

Yes, I know that Captain Planet is also blue, and also levitates, and this would inevitably be labelled "Captain Planet Form", but I don't care. It's Dr. Manhattan Form, dammit!

Totem Changes

First, in case you didn't already know, Totems are no longer considered spells, so you can cast them when silenced. Just wanted to get that out of the way first. Good change.

Oh, and also in case you didn't already know, Totems will now affect the entire raid. FINALLY!

Strength of Earth Totem increases both Strength AND Agility. This is the same as having SoE and GoA out at once. Very nice.

Grace of Air Totem is gone. See Strength of Earth.

Stoneskin Totem now gives a flat Armor bonus instead of a damage-reducer. Not bad, but kinda boring. After all, Paladins, Druids, and Resto Shams already have armor-increasing buffs.

Windwall Totem is gone. Since Stoneskin now affects all physical damage, it makes sense to trash it. And really, who's going to miss it?

Flametongue Totem now does what Wrath of Air Totem does (increases spell damage). This certainly puts it in conflict with Totem of Wrath, not to mention all the other offensive fire totems.

Wrath of Air Totem now increases spell casting speed by 10%. Sweet.

Windfury Totem completely changed. Now increases melee attack speed by 16%. Um, why does melee get 6% more? This also means that Windfury Totem actually does something for US too! I kinda wish they'd change the name though, since it doesn't do the same thing as Windfury Weapon anymore.

Tranquil Air Totem is gone. Good riddance.

Elemental Talent Changes

Elemental Focus now affects healing spells. That's a pretty handy change.

Improved Fire Nova Totem will reduce the movement speed of all affected targets by 75% for 4 seconds, instead of stunning them for 2 seconds. Overall, a pretty good change.

Elemental Shields now reduces all physical damage taken by 6%, instead of reducing your chance to be physically crit by 6%. Interesting change, and it probably adds up to about the same thing in PvP, but now it's useful in PvE too. Nice to have, but still optional in my opinion. Not that every talent NEEDS to be an essential talent.

Elemental Oath has been completely changed, and definitely for the better. Your spell crits cause a 2% reduction in spell mana cost and a 2% increase in spell crit damage for party members for 15 seconds, AND it stacks 3 times. This is proof that Blizzard loves me. This is the Elemental Unleashed Rage I've always hoped for.

Astral Shift now decreases incoming damage by 30% when you're stunned, feared, or silenced. Very cool, and useful in both PvP and PvE (though less so in PvE). Previously, it decreased incoming damage for a few seconds after you've been crit twice in a row, which kinda sucked.

New talent called Paralysis. I'm just going to cut-and paste this.

Paralysis (3/3)
Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells gains an additional 10% of your bonus spell damage effects, and your Lightning Bolt has a 15% chance to Paralyze the target, reducing their movement, attack and casting speed by 75%. The target regains 15% of their movement, attack and casting speed each second. Lasts 5 sec.

No, THAT is proof that Blizzard loves me. Sniff...it's so beautiful.

Unfortunately, they got rid of Lava Flow, which Increases the amount of spell damage gained while having Flametongue Weapon equipped by 5/10/15%, and increases the damage done by your Flame Shock and Lava Burst by 4/8/12%. That's too bad, because I really liked that talent. Hopefully they'll axe Totem of Wrath and put Lava Flow back in.

Overall some amazing changes, with one exception. However, we're still missing +3% to hit, now that Elemental Oath has been changed and Elemental Precision modified. I'm guessing that we'll just have to get used to it.

UPDATE 8/1/08: They're getting rid of Paralysis too. Sigh. I really like that one.

Enhancement Talent Changes

Enhancing Totems now affects Flametongue Totem too, which is cool. But, it's up to 3 points (it's currently at 2) which is understandable. Remember, Grace of Air is being folded into Strength of Earth, which is why it isn't listed anymore. I'll definitely be grabbing this for my Elemental spec.

Shield Spec is gone! Finally!

Improved Weapon Totems is now just Improved Windfury Totem, which should come as no surprise. It increases the attack speed bonus by 4%, bring WFT up to +20% attack speed.

Improved Shamanistic Rage is gone. And in its place is...

Spectral Transformation
You have a 50/100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when you transform into a Ghost Wolf, and your Spirit Wolves to have a 50/100% chance to be immune to all stun, snare and movement Impairing effects when summoned.

Not bad. I can definitely see it getting changed though. We still have no idea what these wolves do.

Here's another new one. This replaces a confusing and mostly uninteresting talent that I can't even remember the name of.

Maelstrom Weapon
When you critically hit with a melee weapon, you reduce the cast time of your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Lava Burst spell by 4/8/12/16/20%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 15 seconds.

So, insta-cast nukes from Enhance shammies? Interesting idea.

Restoration Talent Changes

Totemic Focus is now a Tier 1 talent, swapping places with Tidal Focus. THANK YOU BLIZZARD! Any interest in making Tidal Mastery a Tier 1 talent? How about Nature's Swiftness?

Ooooh, Nature's Guidance is gone. Interesting. Now we're down by 6% spell hit and 3% melee hit.

Improved Water Shield is new. Activates a water globe every time you crit with LHW or HW. Cool, but this should really grant more charges too, since it's going to be a hassle recasting it all the time.

Spirit Link is now percentage-based, and won't break after a certain amount of damage is distributed.

You link the friendly target with up to two nearby friendly targets, causing 50% of any damage taken to be distributed to the linked targets. If any target takes a blow greater than 30% of their health, or shared damage would reduce a target's health below 20%, the link is broken. You can only have one link active at a time.

It's a bit confusing, but as far as I can tell, that means you won't have to keep recasting it, which is cool. Although, it seems like that 30% limit would make it worthless for a lot of boss fights. Maybe I'm wrong.

Suggestions

I had ideas for this section, but I've either forgotten them or I've figured out that they're actually pretty bad suggestions. So, my only one:

Lava Flow talent
Put it back in! Please!

All in all, some amazing changes. I can't wait to play it.