Totem Talk: Shaman Itemization resists a clever title
by Matthew Rossi 
Nov 28th 2009 at 6:00PM
The thing is this: I hate doing gear lists.
My editors (I like to imagine them as an old Marvel Comics cosmic entity like The Living Tribunal) quite rightly point out to me from time to time that with Patch 3.3 so close, we're effectively at the end of Wrath of the Lich King and therefore all sorts of new loot will be entering the game. Loot from the new five mans at Ulduar 10/25 quality! Loot from the new raid exceeding all previous iLevels! We'll be awash in the best gear we'll ever see until Cataclysm drops and we start it all over again. And of course they're right. It helps me to accept this if I imagine that cosmic entity spinning a giant head around with different faces on it like Reliquary of Souls. (No, sorry, we didn't call it Reliquary of Souls all those weeks just to be corrected by Blizzard. Heck, you guys even brought it back in Icecrown.)
The next couple of weeks, however, I'm going to look not at gear but at itemization itself and how it interacts with shamans. I was inspired by the change to Elemental Mastery, the talent in the elemental combat tree that currently grants 15% crit when activated as well as making your next spell instant cast. On the surface, this doesn't look like a bad talent all told, so why would we even want to change it? Because of the way shaman talents and spells interact, an extra 15% chance to crit is somewhat useless to an elemental shaman. Specifically, we're talking about Flame Shock and Lava Burst.
Because of these two spells and their interaction, elemental shamans can basically crit every eight seconds or so. They can guarantee an Elemental Focus clearcasting state to reduce mana cost by 40%. Stacking crit doesn't really do anything for them: they're going to crit anyway. Most of the elemental tree has synergy with spell haste in comparison, with abilities like Lightning Mastery and Storm, Earth and Fire already reducing cast time on various spells.
So why does this talent change mean we should discuss itemization for shamans? Well, quite frankly, a great majority of the spell power mail in the game at present has crit and MP5 on it. Crit and MP5 are great for restoration shamans (speaking as a resto shaman, I enjoy both) but we just discussed how elemental can basically enter clearcasting at will (and with talents like Unrelenting Storm, can basically regen mana even while casting, making it even less useful for them): what we end up with is a situation where, within one class we have two specs who use caster mail, but those two specs share almost no gear preferences at all. Haste is good for both, hit is good for elemental (although there are talents like Elemental Precision as well if you're very shy on hit) and useless for resto, crit and MP5 are both vastly superior for resto and inferior for elemental.
This wouldn't be an issue if not for gear consolidation. While it's certainly true that there's only really two classes that can even make use of caster mail, and only one class for which it is the highest armor choice, it's also true that the two specs within the class that most utilizes caster mail are so different from one another that they almost might as well be entirely separate classes. Your elemental and restoration sets will only share gear if you absolutely cannot help it or those pieces of gear are so much better than your alternatives that you can't possibly imagine doing without them.
Meanwhile, enhancement doesn't really have it as bad. It shares gear with hunters primarily, and most of the stats (Agility, Int, Attack Power, Hit) share fairly well between the two. Enhancement shamans of course require expertise (a stat hunters make absolutely no use of) so they usually have to make that up on Tier pieces or rings, necks and trinkets which can be annoying, but thankfully expertise was added to Unleashed Rage a while back to help compensate. (This of course leads us back to the original spark of this discussion, the change to Elemental Mastery adding a desirable stat to a spec's talent... we're seeing as shamans progress that gear shortages are constantly made up for by talent changes.)
The real issues in enhancement shaman itemization are haste (more is good as haste scales with Maelstrom Weapon) and Armor Penetration. Back in Burning Crusade, when double windfury ruled the day and physical damage was the overwhelming majority of enhancement DPS, Armor Pen was a decent stat for us. (I will admit I don't remember any shamans really going bonkers stacking it.) But with the advent of Windfury/Flametongue and Maelstrom Weapon, a much greater portion of enhancement shaman DPS comes from instant spell casts as well as shocks. The result is that anything that helps get Maelstrom stacked to five faster is good, and anything that doesn't affect our Maelstrom Weapon enhanced spell damage is bad. A Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning cast simply doesn't care about how much Armor Penetration you have stacked.
Now, the problem is twofold here. One, Armor Pen does increase your white DPS. It's not a good stat for an enhancement shaman, oh my no. But if you had to choose between two sets of bracers, with identical stats except bracer B also has armor pen on it, bracer B would grant more DPS than bracer A. When you end up with the avalanche of ArP on mail after Ulduar came out, it becomes quite the effort to avoid the stuff to the point where you're better off simply accepting that there's going to be some armor pen on your gear. The second problem is, since we share our gear with a ranged DPS class, we'll always be forced to seek out those stats that benefit us as caster/melee hybrids on gear for ranged physical DPS.
Cataclysm will make this gear sharing conundrum even more interesting for us shamans. While patch 3.3 promises a mountain of new gear, it will be gear built around the same design philosophy we've seen up to now. But Cataclysm promises to upend a lot of current sacred cows with the removal of mana from hunters and the alteration of how stats like armor pen and defense work as well as the inclusion of mastery.
Next week we'll discuss the caster shaman divide more in depth unless 3.3 drops, in which case, They Who Edit In Shadow will probably want to see some gear lists.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Shaman, The Burning Crusade, (Shaman) Totem Talk, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Conrose Nov 28th 2009 6:31PM
If I've read the planned Cataclysm Talent Tree changes, Talent Masteries and Talent Mastery Ratings, as well as the Armor Penetration Rating changes that were all discussed in recent conventions, Armor Penetration Rating would be removed as a gear stat and instead be gained through Mastery Ratings for those who are specced into class/talent combinations that would find appropriate benefit from them... such as Blood Spec DK's or BM/MM Hunters or Fury Warriors.
While other class/specs would get something more appropriate from their Mastery Ratings, such as how Paladins were shown to recieve Cooldown Reductions from Mastery and Subtlety Rogues were shown to recieve Energy Regen bonus of some sort (I hear energy cost reductions as well), I'd imagine to help promote the use of Backstab as a combo point builder while simultaneously reducing the minimum energy you want to have before popping a combo point builder to prevent losing any more than one HAT procced combo point because you couldn't dump combo points on a finisher due to too low energy.
Aureliusz Nov 28th 2009 9:28PM
My brain hurts from trying to read your paragraph-sentences.
:(
Conrose Nov 29th 2009 12:00AM
Basically, Armor Penetration Rating is supposed to be removed, replaced by Mastery Rating. Class/Builds that currently see the greatest benefit from Armor Penetration could very likely get Armor Penetration from their Mastery Rating... while other Class/Spec Combinations will recieve a different benefit from the same Rating that is more appropriate for their build.
For a theoritical example, lets say current Physical DPS Mail came with 30 Armor Penetration Rating and whatever amounts of Int/Stam/Agility/AP, whatever. That 30 Armor Penetration Rating is alot greater benefit to the Hunter than it is for the EnSham. Anyways, come Cataclysm, AP becomes converted into Agility while the int could get split amongst stam and agility... whatever, while the Armor Penetration Rating gets converted into Mastery Rating.
Let's say Marksman Hunters get Armor Penetration as their Mastery Rating Bonus to be roughly equivalent to their current gain from ArPen Rating right now, and EnSham gain say... an increased % chance for their MH Windfury Procs from their Mastery Rating fine tuned to be roughly equivalent in DPS gains point for point to what the hunter gets from their Armor Penetration Mastery Bonus. This would make the same piece of gear of great benefit for both classes instead of heavily favoring just the hunter as the current Armor Penetration Ratings currently do.
Corvana Nov 29th 2009 3:00AM
@Aureliusz:
Try Ritalin.
Byrun Nov 28th 2009 6:34PM
Hey Matt, the thing is I hate reading gear lists. I have Atlasloot too, and can figure out if something is an upgrade for me or not.
Please don't write gear lists, because i will skip over them very fast and miss all those tiny little jokes you put in the middle of them.
Thanks
A reader who likes insight into their class.
thebitterfig Nov 28th 2009 6:44PM
There are a fair number of problems due to hunter/enhancement gear sharing which are only briefly touched on here.
First, you do talk about how ArPen, a good stat for hunters by and large, is pretty mediocre for shamans. The flip side is that Haste, great for shamans, is usually pretty mediocre for hunters (autoshot is their best shot, but a large part of their damage comes from other shots and pet, but haste is of little benefit to those).
Next, you do a great job talking about the expertise problem. A needed stat for enhancement, but 100% worthless for hunters. However, that is paired with the hit problem. Hunters need 8% hit before talents, while Shamans need 17% before debuffs (or racial aura). As a result, Shaman have to struggle to get expertise capped (there are only two badge-bought mail pieces (213 tier shoulders, 232 tier gloves) with expertise, two leather belts, and a ring. good luck getting expertise capped without raid gear or excessive leather), while Hunters have to struggle to keep their hit rating low.
Niaintze Nov 29th 2009 8:47AM
Which spec requires expertise? If you are spec'ed Enh, you should be behind your target (since it is facing the tank) and expertise reduces dodge and parry - which don't come into play unless you are facing.
grendelstein Nov 29th 2009 10:57AM
Enhance requires expertise - you can be behind all you want, but bosses still dodge from behind (they do not block or parry). Soft cap on expertise to remove this is 26 expertise - for almost any gear set, getting expertise and hit to the appropriate values (hit depending on your raid makeup) is the highest priority and your biggest way to increase DPS.
thebitterfig Nov 29th 2009 10:58AM
Niaintze, dodges are still possible from behind, and there will always be times when the nature of a fight demands that you attack from the front rather than the back, such as AoE, movement, and so on (you don't gear for these exceptions, but expertise does help). Raid bosses dodge 6.5% of attacks, which translates to just about ANY melee dps needing 26 expertise (arms warriors can fudge it a little due to overpower; expertise rating still gives a dps increase for them but just smaller than almost any other stat).
expertise is so important that for a raiding enhancement shaman, you go for expertise cap and spell hit before you even think about any other stats. spell hit is 17% (but on a different scale than the 8% melee hit most melee toons need), and enhancement shaman get 9 of their 26 expertise for free.
tonedeff Nov 29th 2009 5:30PM
@ thebitterfig: "The flip side is that Haste, great for shamans, is usually pretty mediocre for hunters"
There is a point where haste moves down the list of stats you want to aim for. Played around with removing haste for other stats once the point has been reached and it makes a big difference,
Terethall Nov 28th 2009 7:32PM
I would really love to see some spreadsheet comparisons of dps per rating, point-for-point for an ele shaman.
That is, SP scales at 1.37, Haste at 1.01, Crit at 0.7 etc.
But I'm having a really hard time finding resources on Elemental shaman at places like Elitist Jerks. Anyone have any pointers.
Conrose Nov 28th 2009 7:52PM
If memory serves, Haste is typically pretty strong for builds quite dependant on spells with casting/channelling times with minimal reliance on insta-casts or "Don't reapply unless previous application has worn off" while caster builds with a heavy dependance on Instant Casts and "Don't reapply until" type rotations see minimal.
Phys DPS is a different sorta situation since Haste also benefits auto-attacks. At which point, the value of haste is often dependant on how much of the player's damage is dependant on white attacks and how much of the yellow damage can benefit from auto-attacking more (Combat Potency in particular comes to mind in this regard). Remember the early discussions from Wrath about Unholy Presence Haste vs Blood Presence Flat Damage Bonus? Most notably during discussions about the Dual-Wielding Tri-Spec or dealing with Blood's very tightly timed ability rotations?
CiM Nov 28th 2009 8:48PM
http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t80396-elemental_zap_spreadsheet/
Zach Nov 29th 2009 4:33AM
The problem with EP (equivalency point) values, Terethall, is that they vary based on how much of each you have. And honestly, Elemental is not complicated enough a spec to warrant them. SP > Haste > Crit (as I'm sure you already realized). Here's another rule of thumb: an SP+haste+mp5 piece is better than the normal SP+haste+crit piece if it's a tier better, as the extra SP and haste offsets the loss of crit. That's pretty much all there is to Elemental gearing (once you reach the hit cap). If you REALLY want some EP values, consult a spreadsheet like CiM linked.
Also, I'd like to call shenanigans on part of Mr. Rossi's article.
"Your elemental and restoration sets will only share gear if you absolutely cannot help it or those pieces of gear are so much better than your alternatives that you can't possibly imagine doing without them."
For Elemental pieces with hit on them, this is obviously true, but the fact is that other ideal Elemental pieces (the SP+haste+crit kind) are just as good for Resto. Hell, 2 pieces of my Resto set are my Elemental tier. Once you have enough mp5 to ensure you won't go oom while healing, more of it becomes just as useless as it is for Elemental. I can't remember the last time I oomed in current content while healing. I'd take a same-level SP+haste+crit piece over something with mp5 on it any day for both specs.
dylmans Nov 28th 2009 7:58PM
i started using a macro for elemental mastery that activates it if it's up then uses lava burst. the macro is:
#showtooltip Lava Burst
/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Lava Burst
while elemental mastery may be somewhat useless, its a nice way to start off dps in a raid setting (:
also, it's probably a good idea to get in the habit of using it before 3.3 drops
joe Nov 28th 2009 9:35PM
Using EM on a LvB is a waste as it is your lowest cast-time spell. You want to macro EM to Lightning Bolt because the cast time is longer. Cutting down the longer cast time to zero results in more DPS over the course of a fight.
dylmans Nov 29th 2009 12:51AM
i'll change up the macro and try it out in ulduar right now
alpha5099 Nov 28th 2009 8:35PM
Man, I cannot wait to hear more about Cataclysm changes to hunters, not because I care all that much about the class (although the alt I'm currently playing is a hunter), but because I want to see what Blizzard does to Enh shamans. Unless we get some crazy talent that also gives us Focus (which obviously isn't going to happen), we'll need something to keep our mana up. Buff Shamanistic Rage? Make the mana returns from Improved Stormstrike more substantial? Maybe change Mental Quickness to give us Intellect based on our Agility, so it'll more or less work as it is now but also prop up our mana pool? Will 5/5 Ancestral Knowledge become necessary?
thebitterfig Nov 29th 2009 3:05PM
another easy possibility for enh shaman in addition to major buffs to mana regen are substantial decreases to spell cost. this could be done a number of ways, from mastery, from extra talents (an extra 30% off shock spell cost would be easy to tack onto a deep talent), or my personal favorite: maelstrom weapon could reduce cast time by 20% per charge and mana cost by 15% per charge. this means that the instant cast spells enhancement shaman are meant to cast become affordable, but you can't just sit back and sling spells otherwise, which is probably fair.
CiM Nov 28th 2009 8:40PM
Ideal elemental gear has (in order of preference) Spellpower, Haste and Crit. Ideal resto gear has Haste*, Spellpower, and Crit. Elemental needs some bits here and there with hit rating and resto some bits with MP5. But basically they do want the same stats - haste and SP as priorities, with crit as a the favoured third stat. The fact that Blizzard keeps putting crit and MP5 on everything does not reflect them itemising for resto so much as it reflects them refusing to pander to either spec's fetishes.
*Those restos who spam LHW would prefer crit over haste once past the 50% threshold. Still, most restos value haste as their best stat and do not need more mana regen.
Also, crit is not exactly useless for Elementals, it's just not as good point-for-point as spellpower or haste. It's still a very valuable tertiary stat.