Shaman improvements from Blizzcon
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 5th 2007 at 4:20PM
A few interesting tidbits have dropped on how the Shaman class is going to be changed. Enhancement improvements have been promised for a long time, and it looks like some of them are (hopefully) imminent.- Shamanistic Rage will reduce damage taken by 30% when it's on, as well as its previous mana-regenerating effect.
- New talent: Shamanistic Focus. Seems to occupy the place of the previous Two-Handed Axes and Maces talent. (Does this mean 2h will be baseline now?!) Reads as follows: Rank 1/1: After landing a melee critical strike, you enter a Focused state. The focused state reduces the mana cost of your next shock spell by 60%.
- Mental Quickness increases spell damage and healing [thanks, csulok] by 30% of your AP (for 3/3 talent points) as well as its previous instant-cast cost reduction effect.
[via World of Raids]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cluckyx Aug 5th 2007 4:32PM
Just what WoW needs. EVEN MORE powerful Shamans
Baluki Aug 5th 2007 4:37PM
Giving shamans trainable 2H axes and maces is nice, but all it's really doing is giving Enhancement and Hybrid specs an extra talent point. Elementals and Restos will stick with 1H/shield or 2H staff as always.
But I'm not complaining. Those fixes are very nice.
Shamanistic Focus looks pretty sweet, but it'll probably be nerfed a bit. A dual-wielding shaman is going to be critting so often that they'll never have to spend the full mana cost for a shock.
I was hoping to see some Elemental improvements, but they did mention that they'll be significantly increasing the effects of several totems, including Mana Spring, so that'll make me happy.
Thijz Aug 5th 2007 4:41PM
Yagshemash! Nice! High five!
csulok Aug 5th 2007 4:58PM
the mental quickness gives healing AND spell damage too, 30% of the attack power is correct. so with an averaga 1500 ap, +450spelldamage on shocks and totems and stuff.
Nathan Aug 5th 2007 4:48PM
As a restoration shaman who can't justify spending even one point to gain a 2H weapon talent that I'll use 0.05% of the time... trainable 2H's still sounds f-ing sweet! That'll cut down the time it takes for me solo mobs by at least TEN minutes!!
Zuty Aug 5th 2007 5:28PM
I'm glad they are fixing Enhance and I like the changes so far to it. As Baluki said, I really am pushing for more Elemental buffs. Ever since the change to clear cast and some of the Resto changes we have been less and less used. I'd rather go into Arena as a PewPewing shaman with Elemental/Resto spec then a full Resto spec
~Zuty
chris poloncic Aug 5th 2007 4:51PM
@2 You do realize that a lot of enchancement shamans have pathetic mana pools right? It's not like they run around with 11k mana.
balserath Aug 5th 2007 4:56PM
These fixes make a lot of sense. Resto is fine, Elemental is mostly fine. Enhancement is gimped right now. This means 1) Enhancement Shaman can spot heal effectively in DPS gear, 2) can actually use their shocks for DPS (now prohibited by their tiny mana pools)and 3) actually surive the initial burst in PVP. I hope.
Lilei Aug 5th 2007 5:00PM
This will fix some of mana issues that enhancement shamans have, sure. But like someone before me posted, I was hoping for some fixes to the elemental tree.
psdavies Aug 5th 2007 5:01PM
omigosh... gonna have to finish collecting an enhancement set! resto's great and all but--
Rob Aug 5th 2007 5:32PM
ZOMGFR!
uptempo Aug 5th 2007 5:54PM
Elemental Focus also had their next TWO spells for 40% less mana cost.
Bobby Hansen Aug 5th 2007 5:58PM
Woot! Great fixes, I'm very pleased!
Now I'd like to see a few fixes for enhancement, and a class-wide CC method. That's all, then I'm happy and ready to go to Northrend!
Baluki Aug 5th 2007 5:58PM
@5: Of course. But I also know that Blizzard hates to give us anything that'll let us do what we want to do without any sacrifices. I think that once they realize that they've just given Enhance shamans what is effectively a 60% reduction in shock cost, they'll put some restrictions on it, or just nerf it down.
Also, notice that this article doesn't say anything about threat reduction. Enhance shamans have been having threat issues for a long time now, and if they get to use their high-threat shocks much more often...
tython25 Aug 5th 2007 9:26PM
Too little, too late.
Angus Aug 5th 2007 11:58PM
1: About damn time. My 41pt talent vs 31 pt moonkin. Same mana regen. They also get boosted damage for spells, 400% armor and a cool dance. I get a huge amount of aggro generation.
2: 2-handers baseline puts them more in line with every freaking class in the game. Bout time. It also allows resto to actually farm, something that takes ages right now.
3: 60% mana reduction is somehow overpowered? Those damn spells suck mana up at an insane rate. They are one of the least efficient spells in the game and all this does is make it so that Elemental and Enhance will want to use them more often now. Before you would stormstrike and let the elemental shaman use the charges, now you can actually pop one in there and not have to scream at your mana bar become almost non-existant if you used them fairly often in the rotation.
4: Mental quickness was nice before, now it actually is worth it. I believe this should actually be a baseline ability, much like Paladins getting mana for heals. And it should go the other way and allow Shaman to get AP based on spell damage. Even only 30% is nice enough to allow a resto or elemental to get into a fight and still survive. Either way, this will make this awesome.
I will agree with someone else. Aggro needs to get fixed for Enhance.
Also, CC and anti-CC concerns are a major issue.
We are passed over for CC in smaller groups and have no anti-CC worth mentioning in PVP.
Taldren_DR Aug 6th 2007 1:21AM
40% Melee Mitigation + 30% less damage = 58% mitigation every 2 minutes for 30 seconds.
25% Melee Mitigation + 65% less damage = 73% mitigation every 3 minutes for 8 seconds.
Why is this better then priests 41st point disc talent?
ShadeofChaoS Aug 6th 2007 3:16AM
After 9 MONTHS of nerf mode they will fix us omfg, cant believe it, their joke has been done, 70% shamans have just rerolled by so increasing their farm time on wow. Now they fix us, it was so easy and dam fast to be done, but they took 9 MONTHS cmon i say..9 MONTHS to fix a fucking class.
I left the game, ill see what happens, but if you read the wow forum i said months ago, right after TBC came out, that shaman were gonna be nerfed and we would have to wait months just for blizzard fucking retarded by business developers.
Shaterrer Aug 24th 2007 12:50PM
hella good news to my ears.
Playing 3 Shamans to lvl 50 Troll , 51 Orc(taking to 70, possibly 80) and a 70 Draenei..
I have been waiting for Blizz to properly put some nice things in the Enhancement tree.
This means.. more nuke for less, more die for all you anti-shaman wankers that bitch about us pwning you over and over again.
Taking down 3 people at once is no easy task when you have no AoE and all skill.
blacksack Aug 6th 2007 1:22PM
I was VERY please to see these, but to be honest, seeing no deaggro component makes me wonder if I can switch back from resto. What these fixes seem to show me is that if I did switch back, I'd be more sustainable in PVP with the damage reduction and some healing improvements. For PVE, I'll still have to throttle my dps like mad to not draw aggro. What these changes might mean for me in reality is that I can stay 61-point resto and weild 2-handers, meaning that I didn't craft Thunder in vain, as it now sits in my bank collecting dust.