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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlessing of Wisdom and Mana Stream totem go exclusive
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 11th 2009 at 2:30PM
Eyonix has posted some bad news for Pallies and/or Shamans on the forums: the Shaman's Mana Spring totem, while still providing a raid-wide buff, won't play nice with the Paladin's Blessing of Wisdom spell. The two mana regen buffs will essentially be equivalent, but won't stack in the upcoming content patch.The reasoning? Eyonix says that Blizzard feels that Pallies and Shamans brought too many unique buffs to a group, and that this change was designed to pull in an either/or choice: either Pallies can hit up Blessing of Wisdom, and Shaman can go with Healing Stream (which isn't, apparently, being combined with the Mana Spring totem as we first heard) or do some cleansing with their Water totem slot, or Shaman can use the raid-wide Mana Spring, leaving Paladins open to use Blessing of Kings.
Which makes a strange kind of sense, even though lots of Pallies and Shammies will likely be disappointed to hear of one less unique buff they can bring to a raid. There is one hidden benefit here, however: since raids were previously recieving both benefits together (and now can only get one or the other), we can probably look forward to a buff for at least one (since the Totem suffers the weakness of not being portable, you'd expect it to have some extra ability) or both.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
apoxic Mar 11th 2009 9:50PM
@vazhkatsi - The Wrath Totem is not stacking with Heart of the Crusader or Master Poisoner, nor is the Spell Power stacking with Demonic Pact, Flametounge Totem or Improved Divine Spirit. Besides, it takes up a valuable DPS Totem slot for the Elemetnal
Shaman that uses it, so Demonic Pact (The other two being lower in Spell Damage) is actually better.
nitefrenzy Mar 11th 2009 2:55PM
i dont know if i like this or not.i guess its good since paladins BoK's are gonna be a normal spell in the new patch.but the whole resto shaman thing being built around mp5 sucks.that just means less mp5 for us and more of a nerf for shamans.
Leath Mar 11th 2009 3:04PM
Healing stream totem is raid wide?
Also, by the looks of it they might as well give another class Bloodlust/Heroism. =\
Bart Mar 11th 2009 3:12PM
Damn. This is NOT the same game I fell in love with.
They are taking away the uniqueness from classes.
I liked when buffs stacked.
Release Diablo III already and let me move on.
Eternauta Mar 11th 2009 3:52PM
QQ moar
VSUReaper Mar 11th 2009 5:41PM
No, I agree with Bart. This game isnt the same game that alot of us fell in love with. In some aspects, its better. Other aspects, its worse.
I love the changes they made to aoe tanking, and some of the changes made to healing (specifically with priests). Giving every class (think all the classes has one now) a viable aoe ability was also a move in the right direction.
But the way they are working buffs over now sucks. As a warrior, I bring nothing to the raid other than my shield. My shouts doesnt have the range to hit everyone in the raid when I refresh it, and thats assuming a paladin isnt in there with imp might or a warlocks imp is there with the inferior health but preferred range.
Giving so many classes replenishment was a double edged sword. Great! that they gave it to some other classes to make it easier to get in the raid, but it sucks at the same time by taking it away from spriests, now making them not all that unique.
Now the change with totems and wisdom? WHY? Why change something that isnt broken? A small amount of mana from both buffs isnt game breaking. Then there is the fact that on alot of servers, shamans are scarce.
I can understand that they dont want people to stack buffs to absurd amounts of ap/spell power and to bring the person, not the class (within reason) but the way they are going about it is stupid.
Make shouts and might/blood pact equal (in duration and strength)
If they only want wisdom or the totem to be active at one time, not together, then make it so that the shaman carries the totem effect with him and that the effect is raid wide and have the same effect as wisdom.
Make these buffs equal in strength and duration. Not this BS that is happening right now.
Pretty sad when some of the people making raids right now make the comments that we NEED 3 pallies or if we cant get them, this run is going to be rough b/c we dont have 3 paladins.
Bring the player my ass, its becoming bring the paladin and then the rest of the party.
caronome Mar 11th 2009 8:06PM
I think this is *GREAT* news; This is the tipping point to get me to finally order EVE. I should have after getting my lock to 80 in November; what a disappointment. Since I have a healing paladin and Shaman, this is twice as annoying. And since life is too short to do the annoying and buggy WoW vehicles, that means no EoE, Ulduar or AD tournament in my future. This change isn't a huge deal pre se, just the last straw of the Developer Whim of the Week. If they were still in touch with their customers, they would not be changing so much. YMMV, but if you enjoy this "make all classes the same but different than last week," might I suggest you up the dosage of your ADD meds?
mitch Mar 11th 2009 9:39PM
He's got a point. I have a few mates jumping shit for D3. I don't blame them either really.
Another nerf to regen. Jesus can't they tune the content around the class? Not tune the players around the content. It's a lot more bloody logical and an assload less effort.
If they make them more powerful to make up for that, yet not allow them to stack. then what's the point? It's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
Save Mar 11th 2009 3:13PM
Should we be expecting a change to Blessing of Might and Strength of Earth Totem now too?
Or are they considered too unique?
ace241 Mar 11th 2009 5:20PM
horn of winter
GnarlynarZ Mar 11th 2009 3:46PM
Strength or Earth tote? whats that? oooh i think you mean horn of winter.
CSJenova Mar 11th 2009 3:48PM
Strength of Earth totem and Blessing of Might are already not unique...but I guess you actually just wanted to bitch about it so nevermind.
Manatank Mar 11th 2009 5:31PM
Horn of winter=Strength of Earth
Battle Shout=Blessing of Might
niwaar Mar 11th 2009 6:47PM
Strength of Earth and Might already have their "equals". SoE = Horn of Winter and BoM = Battle Shout.
This particular change is just not an intelligent one. We are in essence getting a further nerf to overall regen in ANY raid situation.
The problem gets worse when you consider the sheer amount of movement that is being included in most raid encounters. This change will NOT make Kings used more often simply because of the limitations/range of totems during movement based encounters. Without real and true changes to the totem mechanic, this does nothing for 90% of 10 and 25 man raiders in the new content that is being pushed in Ulduar.
Glen Hays Mar 11th 2009 3:17PM
Blizzard, blessed with great wisdom, has truly shoved the Mana Spring Totem up its' collective asses.
Billy Pham Mar 11th 2009 3:20PM
Mike....
As of right now on Live, Mana Spring is not raid wide. It is, along with Poison Cleansing, Healing Stream and Mana Tide, in a class of totems informally called "pulsing totems" which only affect the group. However the situation on live is unbalanced, wisdom gives slightly more mana than mana spring per five seconds and in addition the Improved XXX talents are also unbalanced only 2 for paladin but 4 for shaman. There is no mention of correcting the deficiencies of totem versus buff. If they're gonna do this might as well change Mana Tide into a Replenishment mechanic.
Billy Pham Mar 11th 2009 3:34PM
To clarify the above - on Live, Blessing of Wisdom Rank 9 gives 91 mp5, with 2 talents points in Improved Blessing of Wisdom it would give 109.2 MP. For shaman Mana Spring gives 85 mp5 and with 5 talent points it gives 105 mp5. However the Mana Spring buff currently stacks, and has all the problems that totems have: buff goes away if the Shaman dies, raid must be in range, the totem lasts only 5 minutes. The Eyonix post doesn't mention if any of these short comings will be rectified.
Five of Twelve Mar 11th 2009 3:38PM
We are the Hybrids.
You will be balanced.
QQ is futile.
Rawtashk Mar 11th 2009 3:38PM
Strike 2 against pallies. More ways to nerf our mana regen. 1 more strike and I'm going to re-roll DK and stop playing this godforsaken class.
Michael Mar 11th 2009 3:49PM
LOL, these "practice" swings with bat are just for warm-up.
The DK is up next.