Shaman surprise
by Zach Yonzon 
Nov 14th 2007 at 10:00PM
A lot of surprises came with the awesome Patch 2.3. Shamans, in particular, have been getting a lot of unintended love. The recent three-hour server maintenance found a lot of Shamans on the WoW forums talking about getting free re-specs, after a bug in the recent patch gave some Shamans an additional Talent Point to spend in creatively undesirable ways. Reports have trickled in that some players' Shamans got their Talents wiped clean while others, such as WoW Insider's Mike Schramm, did not. The irony is that a lot of Shamans had already paid their hard-earned Gold to re-spec thanks to the buff-flavored goodness of 2.3 only to find that they had their Talent Points refunded a day later.What about you guys who play Shamans? Did you get your Talent Points refunded? If yes, did you use the free re-spec to choose a new build or take the same Talents you've known and loved? Were you among the over-eager mobs who spent for a re-spec as soon as the servers came back on last Tuesday?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
icer Nov 14th 2007 10:18PM
can any shammy confirm the free T6 (screen shot) and some had free re-spec well i guess we know what the developers r playing :S
jay Nov 14th 2007 10:28PM
Goddamn I'm happy I didn't re-spec when the patch hit, but yeah this took me buy surprise... especially as the first thing I did when I logged on for the first time today was enter WSG to do my daily only to find earth shield was missing lol.
All good though, because I was planning to re-spec enhancement anyway, I just feel for those guys[and girls] that shelled out hard earned gold to re-spec when the patch hit on the 13th... blizz should refund those poor souls.
CJ Nov 14th 2007 10:57PM
I logged in after 2.3 and found my one point where two-handed weapon specialization had been was refunded. I placed it in shamanistic focus. Just now I logged and all my points had been unplaced.
Baluki Nov 14th 2007 11:04PM
I spent the cash yesterday to shift a few points around. I took 2 points out of Unrelenting Storm to get 5/5 LO and NS, since mana regen is less of an issue now.
However, when I logged in today I didn't realize that my talents had been reset until I'd been killed by Kaliri twice in a row. I thought my lightning bolts were a little off, but I didn't realize what had happened until I went to give myself a nice big insta-heal with NS and died instead.
Next time Blizz, please do this a day sooner. Oh, and you owe me 15g and the cost of 2 repairs. :)
Bobby Hansen Nov 14th 2007 11:34PM
I didn't get bit... I respecced yesterday but my talents were all there when I logged on. Thank the gods.
Dylan Nov 15th 2007 12:41AM
I actually screwed myself. I got (unwanted) all my talent points back, and I was just going to spec back to my old build.
But, of course, I messed it up and added a point where I didn't want it.
So I payed 15G to redo my spec (again). :\
Jay Reed Nov 15th 2007 1:40AM
Yeah......I wasted 45g on a re-spec >.
Andreas Nov 15th 2007 2:08AM
I respecced a couple of days ago... But I wasnt really happy with that build so i was glad to learn I could do it again for free.
Thijz Nov 15th 2007 2:12AM
When I came online yesterday (i'm in EU, so we got it on wednesday) all my points were reset (probably because of Shamanistic Focus). Didn't really matter though, I took the exact same talents again (but Shamanistic Focus instead of 2handers)
Super_Duck Nov 15th 2007 3:20AM
my level 26 shaman got a free respec, and i took the exact same talents (in enhancement again) as i did before. Just with the new talent instead of the old which was in its place before. Its a nice buff for keeping mana up and still using shocks as far as i can see
robama Nov 15th 2007 6:56AM
I used the free repec to adjust my resto talents a bit. I was planning on doing this, so this was a nice surprise.
hamiltonerics Nov 15th 2007 8:05AM
My shaman DID get his talent points back for free. It's pretty lucky too, because the first day, I was too lazy to go back and resepc (mostly to pick up shamanistic focus, level 52 enhancement), and then when I was flying towards my intended respec, I see that all my talents are gone! It was a pretty neat surprise.
I'm gonna be going for a spec with Shamanistic Focus, Mental Quickness and then all my extra points into Elemental. I think with all of those points that Earth Shock could be a serious part of my DPS, I don't know... The new mental quickness and shamanistic focus are sweet though! And I got them for free =D
Watcherzero Nov 15th 2007 9:17AM
I used my free respec to drop improved sheild block which I was using till I got 2 handers and put it in improved mana, never got round to switching since their both crap.
Im feeling rewally imba now, the 60% mana reduction on shocks after crit is amazing since its almost permanently up, allows for some major frost shock spammage in a enhance build without int/mana regen. Its also taking some time to get used to having a 30 second sheild wall on a 2 minute timer, but its saved me from some large overpulls already.
MicrowaveSafe Nov 15th 2007 9:46AM
I had already spent the gold to respect Tuesday night, only to have my tree wiped clear again Wednesday. I think it is probably related only to the enhancement specced shamans because on patch night they had refunded only the two-hander talent point which allowed you to have the full enhancement tree with one point short if you had wanted to. But I wanted some mental quickness goodness so I respecced.
ahoke Nov 15th 2007 9:47AM
spent 15 gold respeccing....and then get it for free the next day....bleh
Angus Nov 15th 2007 10:18AM
I found out the talent points after noticing I didn't have Stormstrike in AV.
Ouch. Luckily I had plenty of time to do it waiting for a rez.
Gangstaboo Nov 15th 2007 10:53AM
Yeah...I got my point back from the 2-handed weapon talent and was planning on respecting this week...Blizzard saved me the gold.
JediGadget Nov 15th 2007 11:30AM
I was a little frustrated with Blizzard anyway about not giving free respecs to begin with. I understand they didnt MOVE anything in the talent tree, but we did receive two BRAND NEW abilites instead of what we had before. I think that by NOT giving Shaman free respecs, Blizzard ASSUMED that we want the new talents, which is a bit.....rude.
I logged in yesterday and my Talents were indeed reset, along with all the other shaman in my guild. I was a bit consternated because I had just spent 25G yesterday to respecc and now I got to do it again.
So Blizzard, you owe me 25G KTHNXBYE :)
Scoottie Nov 15th 2007 1:02PM
I was actually in ZA about to start the gauntlet run to the bird boss before i noticed that i didn't have earth shield and i had my talent points refunded for free. i had no plans to respec since i was full restro
nocterror Nov 17th 2007 4:21PM
Sadly i was one to respec. I had the floating point in two hander that messed up the tree if you went any further down so i went and respeced making a resto elemental build.
next day i log on get told to get over to karazan and start healing. i get summoned. go to click earthshield only to find it missing. i had to reassign my points on the fly a real pain because now due to the situation im left respecing again as i deviated from my original plan with a miss click in the enhancement tree.