Chikt
02-05-2009, 02:00 PM
We've heard about the class changes in the air at the moment (http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=15406), but what could possibly be changed to Elemental and Enhancement Shaman to increase "PvP Utility"?
First I think we need to look at what exactly is considered "PvP Utility". Obviously Restoration is considered by Blizzard to have PvP utility, so what does it have that the other talent trees do not?
Resto has talents like Healing Grace (reduces chance of an effective dispel by 30%), Focused Mind (reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effects by 30%), Natures Guardian (whenever damage is taken that reduces the Shaman below 30% health, they have a 50% chance of restoring 10% of their health), Healing Focus (reduces pushback suffered on healing abilities by 70%) and those make up the core of the Resto trees PvP utility. Many other talents in the Resto tree could be considered both PvP and Raiding utility (Ancestral Awakening, Ancestral Healing, etc).
Compare this to, say, the Elemental tree. The Elemental tree's PvP utility is Elemental Warding (Reduces all damage by 6%), Eye of the Storm (Reduces spell pushback by 70%), Astral Shift (reduces damage by 30% for the duration of a stun), and Imp. Fire Nova Totem (adds a two second stun to the totem). Now, many of these are fairly niche abilities (Imp. Fire Nova and Elemental Warding are not so spectacular that they are must-haves for a good PvP spec for an Elemental Shaman, unlike most of the Resto Shaman's utility).
So what exactly do we think we can expect? I don't believe there will be much of a shuffle of talents in the Elemental or Enhancement trees (Elemental in particular since it was so heavily revamped in the last patch). I would not be surprised if pre-existing abilities were given PvP utility, not unlike the patch that added dispel resistance to Healing Wave for Resto Shaman.
I won't be surprised if Elemental sees an addition not unlike Focussed Mind. The biggest issue with Elemental right now is lockouts, I find. Mages, Rogues, Warriors - any class that can interrupt or silence can lock a Shaman out of the nature (or fire) trees and dramatically reduce any damage output the Shaman can do. Lava Burst was originally intended to offset this issue, but I don't think it's done quite enough since it's on an 8 second cooldown by itself - if you get interrupted on a heal or lightning bolt after casting Lava Burst, you're left with only totems or Frost Shock as being able to be cast immediately. That's a massive issue. Softening the blow with a reduced time to interrupts and silences - even 30% - would make a huge difference.
Enhancement needs something better than Earthen Power (adds a 100% chance that Earthbind will remove snare effects when it pulses) in order to prevent kiting. Earthbind totem has a 10 yard range. If you are out of range of those 10 yards, you need to recast the totem and nothing has been prevented or quickly removed - though this is arguably more a flaw with totems than the ability itself, as that's really the case with ALL Shaman totems.
Survivability on both Elemental and Enhancement is extremely low, and while talents like Astral Shift go towards improving survivability pretty dramatically, they only cover a small part of the multiple things that can lock an Elemental or Enhancement shaman down. While a Resto shaman can get stunned and picked apart during that stun, they survive through it because of numerous talents designed to keep them up in ANY situation - something that Elemental and Enhancement needs fairly badly. What exactly that could be, I do not know - longevity is not something Elemental and Enhancement really have.
So what are peoples thoughts on what kind of changes might be expected for Enhancement and Elemental?
First I think we need to look at what exactly is considered "PvP Utility". Obviously Restoration is considered by Blizzard to have PvP utility, so what does it have that the other talent trees do not?
Resto has talents like Healing Grace (reduces chance of an effective dispel by 30%), Focused Mind (reduces the duration of any silence or interrupt effects by 30%), Natures Guardian (whenever damage is taken that reduces the Shaman below 30% health, they have a 50% chance of restoring 10% of their health), Healing Focus (reduces pushback suffered on healing abilities by 70%) and those make up the core of the Resto trees PvP utility. Many other talents in the Resto tree could be considered both PvP and Raiding utility (Ancestral Awakening, Ancestral Healing, etc).
Compare this to, say, the Elemental tree. The Elemental tree's PvP utility is Elemental Warding (Reduces all damage by 6%), Eye of the Storm (Reduces spell pushback by 70%), Astral Shift (reduces damage by 30% for the duration of a stun), and Imp. Fire Nova Totem (adds a two second stun to the totem). Now, many of these are fairly niche abilities (Imp. Fire Nova and Elemental Warding are not so spectacular that they are must-haves for a good PvP spec for an Elemental Shaman, unlike most of the Resto Shaman's utility).
So what exactly do we think we can expect? I don't believe there will be much of a shuffle of talents in the Elemental or Enhancement trees (Elemental in particular since it was so heavily revamped in the last patch). I would not be surprised if pre-existing abilities were given PvP utility, not unlike the patch that added dispel resistance to Healing Wave for Resto Shaman.
I won't be surprised if Elemental sees an addition not unlike Focussed Mind. The biggest issue with Elemental right now is lockouts, I find. Mages, Rogues, Warriors - any class that can interrupt or silence can lock a Shaman out of the nature (or fire) trees and dramatically reduce any damage output the Shaman can do. Lava Burst was originally intended to offset this issue, but I don't think it's done quite enough since it's on an 8 second cooldown by itself - if you get interrupted on a heal or lightning bolt after casting Lava Burst, you're left with only totems or Frost Shock as being able to be cast immediately. That's a massive issue. Softening the blow with a reduced time to interrupts and silences - even 30% - would make a huge difference.
Enhancement needs something better than Earthen Power (adds a 100% chance that Earthbind will remove snare effects when it pulses) in order to prevent kiting. Earthbind totem has a 10 yard range. If you are out of range of those 10 yards, you need to recast the totem and nothing has been prevented or quickly removed - though this is arguably more a flaw with totems than the ability itself, as that's really the case with ALL Shaman totems.
Survivability on both Elemental and Enhancement is extremely low, and while talents like Astral Shift go towards improving survivability pretty dramatically, they only cover a small part of the multiple things that can lock an Elemental or Enhancement shaman down. While a Resto shaman can get stunned and picked apart during that stun, they survive through it because of numerous talents designed to keep them up in ANY situation - something that Elemental and Enhancement needs fairly badly. What exactly that could be, I do not know - longevity is not something Elemental and Enhancement really have.
So what are peoples thoughts on what kind of changes might be expected for Enhancement and Elemental?