Cataclysm Talent Preview: Enhancement shaman
by Rich Maloy 
Jun 10th 2010 at 9:00PM
What are we enhancers looking at with the talent changes in Cataclysm? Other than some rearranging of the clothes in the closet there are some notable new talents:
- Focused Strikes
- Ancestral Swiftness
- Searing Flames
- Totemic Vigor
- Improved Lava Lash
GhostcrawlerEnhancing Totems will be changing to provide an additional shaman-only buff when the buff totems are down. Technically that implementation is tricky so we just haven't finished it yet. In general you are correct that there should not be "buff my buff" talents. There are a few exceptions where a buff is elevated from a minor bonus to a more serious bonus (Elemental's spell power for instance).
Mental Quickness is something Enhancement and Retribution need in order to be a mana-using spec without mana on gear. In general you won't see stat conversion talents, though warriors and DKs might keep their armor conversions. We'll see.
We may need additional mana restore mechanics than we have now for Enhancement, but that will take some more testing.
We're not sure what we'll do with Ancestral Swiftness. We made that talent before you could wolf indoors, so it may be less attractive now.
The Searing Totem mechanic is obviously something new and will take some iteration.
Someone mentioned Imp Windfury Totem. I think you're looking at an old talent tree.
Enhance is intended as a dual-wield tree. We aren't going to support a competitive 2H spec. We aren't going to prohibit it, but it won't be competitive.
There are going to be some hard choices in all the trees. It's not our design intent that you scoop up every single talent in your tree."Enhancing Totems in the current tree doesn't mention the self buff, but maybe we'll see that in the future.
Mental Quickness is something Enhancement and Retribution need in order to be a mana-using spec without mana on gear. In general you won't see stat conversion talents, though warriors and DKs might keep their armor conversions. We'll see.
We may need additional mana restore mechanics than we have now for Enhancement, but that will take some more testing.
We're not sure what we'll do with Ancestral Swiftness. We made that talent before you could wolf indoors, so it may be less attractive now.
The Searing Totem mechanic is obviously something new and will take some iteration.
Someone mentioned Imp Windfury Totem. I think you're looking at an old talent tree.
Enhance is intended as a dual-wield tree. We aren't going to support a competitive 2H spec. We aren't going to prohibit it, but it won't be competitive.
There are going to be some hard choices in all the trees. It's not our design intent that you scoop up every single talent in your tree."Enhancing Totems in the current tree doesn't mention the self buff, but maybe we'll see that in the future.
Be sure to pop over there to contribute to the discussion. But while I've got you here I'll share my analysis of the forthcoming talent changes.
Focused Strikes
First of all Focused Strikes will be awesome for leveling as enhancement, especially in low levels. No more baby hits and little dribbles of white damage while we pretend to be melee but really we're just casting Lightning Bolt and hoping no one notices mobs are dying from spell damage alone. No more I say! Primal Strikes will be the lowbie version of Stormstrike so having a talent that enhances it (pun intended) is key. Plus an additional 40% damage on top of SS at max level will keep that ability as a primary damage dealing component in our rotation.
Ancestral Swiftness
Ancestral Swiftness will be an interesting component. There has been much discussion in the past weighing the trade-off between Cat's Swiftness or Tuskarr's Vitality versus Greater Assault. How much does run speed increase overall output? The questions has always been, how much running time makes up for the slight buff loss? I look at it from a different angle: if raid encounters in Cataclysm are anything like those in Wrath then run speed will give enhancement shamans an edge on staying alive.
What do I mean? All the running around melee has to do for target switches and damage avoidance. Lightning Overload, everything on Freya, Mimiron & Yogg-Saron, getting to safety on Anub, run from ghosts on LDW, everything on Blood Princes, chasing volatile experiments on Professor Putricide, getting between ice blocks on Sindragosa, and of course everyone's favorite: Defiles on Lichie Poo. Convinced run speed will help keep you alive? I am. Convinced it's worth 3 talent points? We'll see.
Totemic Vigor
Before I saw the new fiery stuff, Totemic Vigor had me scratching my head. Increasing the health of totems helps us how? Stoneclaw Totem's shield is not based on totem health, it's a fixed amount and boosted by the glyph. There are no other talents, spells, or abilities that benefit from increased totem health. But I was scratching my head because I'm mainly a PvE'er and this is a PvP talent. Gone will be the days of drive-by totem murders. Filthy rogues and the like will have to make a concerted effort to kill totems most likely spending more than a GCD.
Fiery stuff
Now let's take a look at Searing Flames & Improved Lava Lash. I'm pleased to see Searing Totem get a buff for us on single-target fights; not managing a Magma Totem means one less cooldown we will have to monitor. However, it adds in a new boss debuff to monitor: stacks of searing flames on the target. Rakhman over at Flameshock already did the research and the math for us on Searing Totem: with Searing Totem casting every 2.6 seconds it's 13 seconds from planting the totem to the 5th stack, or as he puts it 10.4 seconds from the application of first stack to the fifth. If we hold off on applying Lava Lash until the 5th stack of searing is up we'll only be using LL every 13-15 seconds or every 9 to 10 GCDs.
The 130% damage increase to Lava Lash (30% + 20% per stack of Searing x 5) is quite a nice boost, but I suspect we may not want to wait every 10 GCDs. Just some quick back-of-the-napkin math leads me to believe that striking with Lava Lash on a 3- or 4-stack will yield more damage on any fight over 26 seconds. In other words, on any boss fight it may be better to cast a Searing-enhanced LL more often rather than wait for a full 5 stacks. We'll see how it plays out, and I look forward to all the theorycrafting that will come of this combo.
What's Missing
Improved Windfury Totem is missing and I can only assume this will be rolled into the totem itself keeping it on par with Improved Icy Touch, which itself is a so-called passive talent. So will we see the melee haste buff go down to 16% or will the native spells get buffed to 20%?
Mental Dexterity is of course going away because our gear won't have intellect on it and we'll be getting and regenerating mana in new ways. It seems Blizzard is already seeing the need for additional mana regen, as noted above in the blue post. What do you think they'll give us? Change up Mental Quickness? A new talent entirely?
What do you think of the new talents and GC's comments?
May all your hits be crits!
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rhaijinn Jun 10th 2010 11:08PM
I Think enhancement should get some kind of charge attack.
JAREDO Jun 10th 2010 11:24PM
We already do in a way: 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon and you've got an instant Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, a heal, or Hex.
Having to keep an eye on another build-up based attack would make an already demanding playstyle somewhat chaotic.
Rhaijinn Jun 10th 2010 11:29PM
Yea but everytime a hunter uses disengage i cry a little because i have to chase them down and die trying.
Giz Jun 10th 2010 11:36PM
That's why we have Frost Shock on a 6 second CD paired with Frozen Power. Even without FP, it slows them enough to try and catch up a little bit.
Genoce Jun 11th 2010 2:13AM
Jaredo: Rhaijinn meant a Charge-like ability, not an ability with charges. (The warrior's Charge, you know).
I don't do that much enha pvp, but as much as I have done it, I haven't really seen a real need for it. Frozen Power, instant GW, talented earthbind etc usually does the job.
Draykin Jun 10th 2010 11:14PM
"We're not sure what we'll do with Ancestral Swiftness. We made that talent before you could wolf indoors, so it may be less attractive now. "
What? Wolf indoors? That's something I didn't know about.
Edge Jun 11th 2010 12:42AM
I was thinking the same thing. Please say yes. Warsong Gulch here I come!
Angus Jun 11th 2010 12:30PM
I was really surprised Stoney didn't notice this. This is huge. It basically means IGW is now mandatory. And awesome!!!
I think going wolf in combat will be awesome.
Bludstorm Jun 10th 2010 11:49PM
I always figured they would change Shamanistic Focus to regen mana similar to how shamanistic rage works only using meelee haste to regen mana. This would make haste work the same way as it works for other meelee classes as in cata meelee haste is supposed to increase resource regen(rage, energy and RP) rather that make you autoattack faster.
alpha5099 Jun 11th 2010 12:51AM
Indoor Ghost Wolf! Hell yes. Why did GC keep that morsel to himself until that blue post? He was so casual about it, like we'd know about it already; did that get announced somewhere else?
Those two point in Imp GW are going to be a much better investment now. I spec into them now, even though it's a minor DPS loss, just because I love insta-wolf so much. Maybe Blizzard will throw us a bone and just make GW instant cast baseline.
I'm very curious to see what the status of Spirit Weapons will be. It's no longer a pre-req for anything, and parry doesn't give us much. The threat reduction is pretty huge, and that'd likely make the point well spent, but it'd be nice to see something a little more interesting throw into the talent to make it a little more enticing.
I'm also very interested to see what happens to Ele and Resto specs now that DW is so low in the Enh tree. I dunno about Ele specs, but I've been toying around with my Resto spec and I pretty much have to go out of my way to spend extra points to not have enough to get down to DW (unless Focused Insight ends up being solid for PvE). I really like using spell shields, but some extra gearing options would be nice. I'm assuming spell weapons will remain MH only, but I'm pretty sure a nice dagger with haste, crit, or mastery, enchanted with SP and rocking Earthliving will probably be at least competitive if not better than a shield.
archbaotho Jun 11th 2010 4:39PM
Wow it hadn't even crossed my mind. But this spec is possible with the current iteration of talent points
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#hZVhfs0uZx0ezIeoVzRfuio
There's no way Blizz will allow that to stay.... is there?
thebitterfig Jun 11th 2010 7:03PM
there are almost no weapons which can be used in the offhand which are practical for spellcasters... a few aren't bad, but nothing really great... it'll depend on how good shields are, relative to the weapon-enhancement spells, enchants, and loss of main-tree talents.
Genoce Jun 11th 2010 2:07AM
It seems that everyone has missed one nice change there: Static Shock now says "...you have a 6% chance to deal damage equal to a Lightning Shield orb without consuming a charge."
That's (almost) one less button to spam in our overbloated rotation, which is good news.
Tjermnon Jun 11th 2010 2:10AM
Taken from the Shaman class preview back in April:
"We want to free up Enhancement global cooldowns to make the spec more dynamic to play. We're considering, for example, increasing the cooldown of Lava Lash so shaman have time to work other interesting abilities into their rotation."
Back then I wondered why they would choose Lava Lash for a higher cooldown but it starts to make sense with the Searing Flames talent. So I guess you will have 5 stacks once LL is off cooldown.
staffan.johansson Jun 11th 2010 2:26AM
Indoor Ghost Wolf (and travel form for druids) would be a cool way of compensating for how the ability has become rather pointless nowadays, at least for PvE. It used to be that the ability was a cool intermediate step before you could get a mount, but now the abilities are only four levels apart so you'll hardly have time to use it for that. But if they make the abilities usable indoors, that would be a valid reason to keep them around. Plus, it makes sense that a wolf or a cheetah wouldn't stop running faster just because there's a roof over their heads.
Deadstar Jun 11th 2010 2:45AM
Say goodbye to spirit weapons in addition to everything else said above.
I'd like to point out that Stormstrike says it does "133% weapon damage". On live, it's just "strike with both weapons".
Boobah Jun 11th 2010 9:45AM
All part of Blizzard's insidious plot to move damage away from white to yellow, especially once you add in Focused Strikes.
panderox Jun 11th 2010 8:26AM
There is something nobody has seemed to notice yet. Look at STATIC SHOCK. Read it and then read it again!!!!!
Once less thing we have get carpal over! (unless it's an AoE fight)
Jormund Fenris Jun 11th 2010 8:58AM
I always hoped we would get some for of charge, but ghost wolf that can be cast indoors sounds good enough, especially if it would become baseline.
albanesp Jun 11th 2010 9:52AM
Mental Dex going away is a big hit to AP. I *think* I remember reading that AP will again go up by +2 per agility point. If this is the case, I'm fine with the extra point to spend else where.
Ancestral Swiftness looks like it could be a win for PvE given we need to be in melee range and getting to the mobs faster is a good thing. I wounder if it will buff ghost wolf speed as well.
In door Ghost Wolf? Awesome. It made absolutely no sense for it to be an outside only ability, so this is a welcome change. Now we can keep up with the cats.