Patch 3.2.2 changes for Shamans
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 5:00PM
No, technically they didn't just go ahead and let you race change your draenei shaman into a dwarf in patch 3.2.2. I guess Blizzard didn't get my letter. It's a shame, because I used glitter and star stickers and I drew a picture of a pink pony Frost Shocking a Rogue. Perhaps the graphic illustration on page 2 of the Rogue stun locking the pony to death wasn't to their taste. Ah well.
Let's assume that the next letter with the pony ankhing and hitting him in the back with a Flame Shock will be well received. For pony! What are the changes to Shamans in patch 3.2.2 to discuss? Let us look, cannot we? (Space Mutiny voice off.) For the changes follow us behind the jump please.
Let's assume that the next letter with the pony ankhing and hitting him in the back with a Flame Shock will be well received. For pony! What are the changes to Shamans in patch 3.2.2 to discuss? Let us look, cannot we? (Space Mutiny voice off.) For the changes follow us behind the jump please.
Shamans
- Cleansing Totem: No longer pulses instantly when dropped.
- Flame Shock: The duration of all ranks has been increased by 6 seconds.
- Lava Burst: This ability no longer ever consumes a Flame Shock debuff off of the target.
- Talents
- Elemental Combat
- Shamanism: Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells gain an additional 3/6/9/12/15% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
- Enhancement
- Earthen Power: No longer causes Earthbind to pulse a persistent snare immunity aura. It does still remove snares from allies as an instant pulse, but there is no lingering immunity. Earthen Power now also brings Earth Shock's melee attack speed reduction up to -15%/-20% (with 1 or 2 points in it, respectively).
- Grounding Totem will now properly protect against the Death Grip spell.
- Lava Burst can no longer deal critical damage to targets who are immune to critical strikes (due to, e.g. Roar of Sacrifice, Blessed Resilience).
- Lightning Shield: This spell will no longer set off some trinkets when it is cast.
- Stoneclaw Totem's pulses will no longer break stealth on nearby hostile units.
- Thunderstorm and Shamanistic Rage can no longer be used while Frozen, Cycloned, Sapped, or Incapacitated.
If you think I'm unfairly harshing on Rogues here, it's true that this change also leaves us helpless before Druids, Mages, and Paladins, as well as possibly against those Warriors charging here and there. But I hate Rogues more than all of them put together so that's who I complain about. It's petty and small of me, but I'm a wicked, wicked man.
The other changes are a mixed bag. Don't like the change to Cleansing Totem clearly (to me anyway) aimed at keeping us from chain dropping it to clear DK diseases in PvP. I like folding the old Flame Shock glyph into the spell. I like the new Flame Shock glyph. Lava Burst getting more juice from Shamanism? This is good. Shamanism effecting Chain Lightning as well as Lightning Bolt ad doing more for LB? This is good. Grounding Totem grounding Death Grip? Also good. The changes to Lava Burst and Lightning Shield as well as Stoneclaw not breaking stealth were expected.
Overall, this wasn't a huge nerf to Shamans(in some ways it was a pretty nice little buff), but if you PvP (and especially if you PvP as Elemental) it wasn't a sunshine and pixies magical parade to the land of wonderment either.
Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Precision Sep 23rd 2009 5:12PM
Lava burst no longer consumes flame shock? =O
So..... now ele shammies can spam 7k+ lava bursts? deng
Snuggles Sep 23rd 2009 5:16PM
No Lava Burst still has a cooldown.
But we can still spam 7k Lightning Bolt crits while we're waiting on the cd.
Iano Sep 23rd 2009 5:19PM
Precision, I believe you may have forgotten that Lava Burst is on a cooldown.
vincecooper Sep 23rd 2009 5:19PM
lava burst has an 8 second cooldown...if you consider that "spamming"
Nellius Sep 23rd 2009 7:12PM
Hardly a newsflash. The glyph of flame shock had those effects before now. Now the effects of the glyph have been made baseline, and the glyph is changed to make flame shock's DoT able to crit.
Aureliusz Sep 24th 2009 1:21AM
Lava Burst had a coold... Oh wait.
belkinte Sep 24th 2009 11:16AM
Moar lighting bolt!
jbruder Sep 23rd 2009 5:28PM
While it's true that you can't storm while sapped, it works just fine while cheap-shotted or under the effects of any other stun. Basically, if they can hurt you while they do it, you can still storm. I don't see this as a huge deal.
Not chain-dropping cleansing totem: meh. This is pretty reasonable; you can't insta-cast a ton of mass dispels, either.
The big thing I saw was a HUGE buff to my dps in battlegrounds. I've been leveling in AV until the nerf, and after the changes I was putting out a lot more; even against those pve mobs that are still lvl 80.
Goodk4t Sep 24th 2009 9:59AM
I am a rogue, if I know the shaman will pop Lightning Storm to toss me away, I Cloak of Shadows just after I Cheap Shot and you wasted your skill. Even IF you can Lightning Storm me, I will tap Sprint and run back to Kidney Shot you before the Stun wears off. In a 1vs1 situation, you will just defenselessy die. Now, if you let the rogue Saps you, wait 2 or 3 seconds to Lightning Storm when he gets close to Cheap Shot you, he will not only lose an openner, but pretty much be forced to waste Vanish.
But hey Matthew, what are you complaining about? With the complete removal of Fan Of Knives interrupt, at least you CAN cast another skill after you Lightning Storm a rogue and won't have your whole team being beaten by Adrenaline Rush + Blade Flurry + FoK spam combo.
Shifts Sep 23rd 2009 5:16PM
Oh well! We will make due with what we get as Shamans always do! We are either OP or nerfed so bad that we can't get into a raid. The past few patches have been particularly kind to us, so I will take a small balancing nerf!
Para Sep 25th 2009 5:49AM
Nerfed so shamans cant make it into a raid? lol wtf? since when have shamans been turned down from raids......
Tinykong Sep 23rd 2009 5:27PM
Lava bursts value from Shamanism is unchanged, lightning bolt got an extra 5% and chain lightning was added to it.
More shaman Pvp nerfs, keep them coming, eventually we can all roll something else, and then thats once less class to balance around.
thebitterfig Sep 24th 2009 2:03AM
The changes to Shamanism and Flame Shock amount to a clear buff to PvE damage for Elemental Shaman. They still suffer from the major problems they've always suffered (very poor scaling with raid buffs, as well as Totem of Wrath's limitations - both that it sucks up a fire totem slot {not in bliz's stated immediate plans for correction} and that it does not always compare well to the spellpower buff provided by Demonology Warlocks {which bliz has stated that they intend to correct for 3.3 and icecrown raiding}), but a buff is a buff.
Interestingly, the standard Elemental rotation and spec changed, and now includes Chain Lightning even on single targets (it does more damage in its 1.5 second cast time than Lightning Bolt with its 2 second cast time). Whether it is used on-cooldown or directly after Lava Blasting (for the clearcasting mana reduction) is a matter of both choice the sustainability of the rotation. The standard spec for elementals no longer includes Elemental Warding for the reduced damage taken, but will include full Combustion for lower Chain Lightning mana costs.
Flame Shock changes mean the standard Glyphs for Elemental will be:
before 2t8: Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Totem of Wrath
with 2t8: Lightning Bolt, Totem of Wrath, Lava
post 2t8: Flame Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lava (under the assumption that shaman who replace all their t8 gear will have enough spellpower so that the improved scaling from Lava is greater than the flat bonus to spellpower from Glyph of ToWrath).
DY357LX Sep 23rd 2009 5:18PM
Anyone else log in to find their totem bars missing?
My macro's had vanished too so maybe they'll return after the downtime.
jason9144 Sep 23rd 2009 5:21PM
So they are going to give us a new trinket so we can fight back right?....didn't think so. Personally I think this patch for shamans is just another kick in the junk and proving that we get no love (at least in PvP). Not being able to use Thunderstorm while I am getting man-handled by a rogue is really going to cramp my style of living for 30 seconds while he "tears my kidneys out". Oh well, I guess I will have to spec Enhance and run around in wolf form hoping that I don't get smacked.
jbruder Sep 23rd 2009 5:30PM
A rogue can only hit you ONCE before you can storm. Sap is not cheap shot. It's an incapacitation effect and breaks on damage.
thrashnak Sep 24th 2009 12:30AM
How stupid are you people? Especially the writer of the article. Sap is a CC, if the rogue attacks you, it breaks Sap. The Rogue can't chew you apart while sapped you moron. Frozen refers to Freezing Trap, another CC. If you are frozen, it breaks as soon as the player attacks. Cyclone, you can't take damage at ALL while cycloned.
Maybe the reason you do so poorly against other classes in PvP is because you have no F'ing clue what their abilities are or do.
averwho Sep 24th 2009 9:07AM
Its about the Opener, if you get sapped by a rogue you know to hit thunderstorm fast because chances are the rogue is close enough to you to get hit, therefore bringing the rogue out of stealth and not getting an opener (which is huge), maybe YOU should learn how to pvp because calling someone out on it buddy
Grumblecakes Sep 23rd 2009 5:21PM
I've noticed a bit of a DPS increase as a PvE elemental shaman since the patch. The buff to Shamanism as well as freeing up a glyph spot (since I still have t8) adds up pretty nicely.
Kaeona Sep 23rd 2009 5:23PM
See, your problem is that you need to learn to use your PVP trinket to break out of that rogue stunlock — that let's the second rogue stunlock you so that they can both stab you to death. Togetherness, it's a beautiful thing.
I mean, after all, at least you can see them coming. It's not like they can be totally invisible behind you. Just waiting to stun you so they can wipe their tongue over their keyboards repeatedly and kill you.
Learn to play, imo.