Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 3 of 4)
DCoW Mar 11th 2009 3:39PM
Oh so they are really trying to screw over druid healers here aren't they.
destroy mp5 OO5sR
Double mana cost of lifebloom
remove even more mp5 by preventing the stacking.
frankly I don't care now If i'm boomkin forever!
Isrephael Mar 11th 2009 3:44PM
My main is a Shaman, and I have to say that I'm very disappointed in this new trend of non-stacking buffs. Shaman as a class are a support/utility class designed to offer buffs. The less buffs stack, the less useful our class becomes.
Kadamon Mar 11th 2009 3:51PM
And to think, I was wondering what class to reroll next, be it Shaman or Pally.
I'm sick of my Mage, Priests are annoying to level and my Rogue is there for money making, not actually doing anything.
Any suggestions? Alliance btw, specifically Draenei.
Eternauta Mar 11th 2009 3:54PM
Mmm...
Depends on what you want to do...
For healing: Shamans
For dps: Shamans too, because ret is boring imo.
For tanking: you only have one choice here. Pally.
For pvp: Paladin, though I rarely pvp.
Kadamon Mar 11th 2009 4:36PM
Yeah, I think I'll probably be doing the healing thing at end-game, and it is on a PVP server. I'm pretty much starting over on a different server.
Blizzardarenazis Mar 11th 2009 4:11PM
Yet another reason why WoW will fall. Customer dissatisfaction.
Jenn Mar 11th 2009 4:05PM
Good to know I won't have to bother dropping my totems at all anymore in raid, aside from the occaisonal cleansing totem/mana tide as a resto shaman unless the enhance or elemental one dies.
GG Blizzard, I already was doing so little with them--why do we even have totems anymore?
Zul Mar 11th 2009 4:30PM
TBH I don't like this change. It's not too bad non the less. What really annoys me is the fact that the water totems are not being combined.
vazhkatsi Mar 11th 2009 4:44PM
with improved totems, strength of earth totem>horn of winter. i can't seem to find a imp horn of winter talent. if it exists, then i guess they are even.
Rawtashk Mar 11th 2009 4:47PM
Hero/Bloodlust is pretty unique offensive spel...when do my wings get affect the whole raid?
Rawtashk Mar 11th 2009 4:50PM
Hero/Bloodlust is a pretty unique offensive spell...when do my wings get to affect the whole raid?
(damn...I really need to read my post before I submit it...)
Phantomdrone Mar 11th 2009 4:52PM
My wife starts playing after years of refusing to likes her shammy is learning to play it correctly and they go and screw with it is gana make her not want to play damn guys think of us who are married and maken our wifes not wanna play stop messing with the classes and just let ppl play the game
Deadly. Off. Topic. Mar 11th 2009 4:58PM
This change seems ill-conceived and best left to rot somewhere else.
Ribo Mar 11th 2009 5:00PM
Well I guess I should just remove all my totems from my action bars and just put heroism into their slots.
GG Blizz
Jason Mar 11th 2009 5:03PM
What about Mana Tide?
apoxic Mar 11th 2009 9:54PM
This is my concern now. As the Improved Water Totems talent was lackluster even to begin with.. now its even more worthless, at least from a 25-man perspective, which is honestly the only place where it counts. (Not saying anyone not doing 25-mans are worth less, but I suppose this is a buff for the hard 10-mans..).
I hope they rework Mana Tide to be a permanent Water Totem, a bit stronger than the old Mana Spring Totem, if there's no other changes in this "promised revamp" (lol), this is a straight nerf specifically to Resto Shamans.
Columhcille Mar 11th 2009 5:25PM
people take this game waaay too seriously if happiness with the game relies on stacking buffs. rofl.
There's always the chance you could not take talented improved abilities and stack non-improved Wis or not-fully-skilled mana and stack the two that are not alike. even some totems from different levels of the same type stack.
mitch Mar 11th 2009 9:44PM
You're missing the point. It's not just this ONE change. It's the homogenisation and dumbing down over the last 12-18months. It's each and every change and fuck around we get each week that's gradually getting everyone more and more upset.
Classes have been so stuffed about and jerked around in the last year, especially in the last 6 months of Wrath, that what might seem like the slightest thing, receives massive QQ's.
apoxic Mar 11th 2009 9:58PM
Why comment when you are clueless? Then again, people like you are the only ones who will be playing this game soon.
Arthas is going to be PuG'd.
Hagu Mar 11th 2009 10:58PM
@mitch - I agree. The frustration is because all of these changes seem so pointless. They are certainly unwelcome. Researching the gear, rotations, glyphs every couple of weeks. Learning to ignore an internet article because it was written in January since so much has changed - my HoL glyph has changed 3 times since then, my TS Guardian SP changed, a couple of hot fixes, ... If Bliz must tinker they could have just multiplied a class or boss by 95% or 105% or whatever. My opinion is that WoW isn't a cartridge you play for 30 hours; If I am going to invest time in it, I expect some continuity.