Patch 4.0.6 PTR: Shaman patch notes
by Joe Perez 
Jan 11th 2011 at 2:30PM
I'm sure many of you thought that shaman were not getting much attention in patch 4.0.6 -- I know I was among those who thought we dodged a bullet. The absence of any shaman notes on the first official patch notes list would have seemed to reinforce this. Late last night, however, community manager Zarhym posted a list of shaman changes that are making their way into the latest PTR build by this evening.
Since this is still the PTR, these changes may or may not actually make it to the live game. Still, it is interesting to note exactly the type of things that Blizzard is looking at and the steps it is taking to try and balance the game. Cataclysm really did reshape the world -- not just the aesthetics but the mechanics for pretty much everyone and almost everything. With that big of an upheaval, it is expected that there is going to be a period of balancing relatively early in the expansion's cycle, and at just barely a month in, we're already starting to see some significant changes.
Those changes were only announced in the context of warlock changes. I recognize though that the first draft of patch notes did not yet have shaman changes listed. In light of that -- and to hopefully dissuade you all from invading the warlock forum about the changes I listed there -- below you'll find the tentative shaman notes. The patch notes will likely be updated to include these changes tomorrow evening.
Talent Specializations
Elemental Combat
- Shaman Chain Heal's effectiveness has been increased by approximately 10%.
- Hex now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds. Purge now dispels a single effect instead of two.
- Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown.
Talent Specializations
Elemental Combat
- Earthquake damage has been increased by approximately 10%.
- Flametongue Weapon damage now scales from attack power instead of spell power (for Enhancement shaman only). Purge no longer has its mana cost reduced by Mental Quickness.
- Cleansing Waters no longer fires its heal effect twice when a shaman removes a Magic and a Curse debuff with a single cast.
- Deep Healing (Mastery) has been increased to 3% per point, up from 2.5%.
- Greater Healing Wave mana cost has been increased by 10%; healing done has been increased by 20%.
- Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive to short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped.
Some fairly significant changes there, especially for restoration shaman. There have been recent concerns over shaman healing numbers and whether or not they are too low. It would seem that the developers are indeed looking at that and have responded by increasing the effectiveness of Chain Heal by 10%. This gives Chain Heal a little loving early on, and it was honestly needed. While it will remain a situational spell, the buff will be a welcome one.
Cleansing Waters' having a chance to proc off of each effect it removed allowed for multiple free heals; I can see why this would be something the developers wanted to curb for both PvE and PvP. This is more of a fix than a change.
Hex getting a shorter duration in PvP makes a lot of sense and seems to be in line with all the other PvP changes. Tremor Totem being altered to be used during a fear, charm or sleep effect is a good thing for us. Even with a 1-minute cooldown, this will be useful in those moments in both PvP and PvE when you need to break the CC and get out of Dodge.
The change to Deep Healing is an interesting one. Moving from 2.5% to 3% seems like a small jump, but as your mastery grows, that .5% for each point will really add up.
Greater Healing Wave is getting some much-needed attention here. This was supposed to be our big, expensive heal used for those situations in which a target was about to receive (or already did receive) a large chunk of damage. The idea was that this would be perfect for tank healing on fights like Magmaw, when the tank will have a large health deficit to cover in a short period of time. The problem was that Greater Healing Wave was healing for only a bit more than Healing Surge, and at that point, the faster heal was a better choice for the mana cost. The increased cost of 10% is not that bad, but the 20% buff is very good.
The change to Mana Tide Totem is something that had to honestly be expected. As it stands right now, a restoration shaman in a group of healers with on-use spirit trinkets like Core of Ripeness could effectively remove the mana accountability aspects of healing. It's a tactic people have been employing since they could get their hands on the trinket, and I'm surprised it took this long to look at balancing. The change makes the percentage a flat value based on your pure spirit without acknowledging any temporary buffs you have at the time. This means that not only will trinkets like the core and Tear of Blood be ignored by Mana Tide, the weapon enchant Heartsong will not impact it, either. While an additional 50% spirit is nice, only time and use of the spell will see if it's enough to keep our mana regeneration at competitive levels. While I agree that we shouldn't be breaking the mana consumption model, I'm hoping that the change doesn't kill our mana regen too much.
Elemental shaman also got some attention, as Earthquake is having its damage increased by around 10%. I've been playing around with elemental a lot, and I can see this being very nice in certain fights in which an area of effect is necessary.
Enhancement got a couple changes as well this time around. Flametongue Weapon damage now scales with attack power for our melee-minded shaman, which is considerably better than scaling with spellpower. Also, Mental Quickness will no longer have an effect on Purge.
That's it for this round of shaman changes on the PTR. Whether these are all good or bad remains to be seen until we can get our hands on it and take a look at their practical effect. It also remains to be seen if these changes will make it to live or be altered further before implementation. Right now, any effect this has on us is pure speculation, and only time will tell. Check back at WoW Insider often, as we will be keeping you up to date on all upcoming changes as we get them.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.Filed under: Shaman, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
THAT'S A LOW PRICE Jan 11th 2011 2:40PM
Everyone still needs a resto Shaman in their raid :)
*dodged another bullet*
MikeLive Jan 11th 2011 2:58PM
The Flametongue change, I bet, is to kill Enhancement wearing caster weapons.
Kunikenwad! Jan 11th 2011 3:58PM
There is much truth in your statement.
squig_masta Jan 11th 2011 4:27PM
Kinda like how they changed it so that FT procs do more damage with slower weapons in early wrath because of all the enhance shamen running around with Torch of Holy Fire off KT. I imagine no matter what they do there will always be the few geniuses out there who think 'der, i cast spells, so i needs spellpower!'
Nipah Jan 11th 2011 7:46PM
Yeah, thats exactly what I was thinking.
And to be honest, I like the change. I'd rather not have to worry about whether I can use that spellpower weapon MH/OH/WE for a damage boost over my AGI weapons... I'd rather just worry about which big ass fist weapon I want to equip to hit things in the face.
That being said, just like there will always be Shaman who go "OOOH, Spell power is good for me!" as squig_masta said, the same is true for many other classes... If I run across one more Hunter (while playing my own Hunter) wearing God-awful gear, I will probably snap. "+SPI? Check. +mana regen? Why not?"
Saeadame Jan 11th 2011 3:02PM
Well, there's the death of the spellpower offhand everyone was anticipating =P.
caylor Jan 11th 2011 3:07PM
Seriously, wtf?! Shamans need help not more nerfs. Christ! I still die in 10 seconds just like wrath.
BTW, tremor is for those asshole warlocks who sit and chain fear/cc you. I dont care about being able to to break one cc, i want to stop them from chain cc'ing me. Or atleast let me chain Hex them, OH WAIT IT LASTS 6 SECS NOW! Wonderful, now an almost useless spell (it was an interrupt at best, a free movement increase for your enemy at worst)
Abhoth Jan 11th 2011 3:45PM
Now I'm not quite as heated at this guy, but I, too, am slightly confused at this change to Tremor Totem. I know it's purely a pvp change but I think it might have too drastic an effect in pve, especially when doing some of the heroic achievements from the viewpoint of the tank. My two interrupts as a warrior are already spread thin on a few fights and tremor totem helps cover the gaps when my Shield Bash or Gag Ordered Heroic Throw are on CD.
Powatodapeople Jan 11th 2011 4:04PM
to quote a certain Frostheim you may be familiar with (and Fox who also borrowed this quote for his Vampiric Embrace article):
"I came up with pseudo-scientific system for measuring brokenness. Basically you rate on a scale of 1-10 the duration of the ability, length of cooldown, and overall power level. Then multiply them together."
Let's examine this for a second.
The totem itself is a 5 minute, set-it-and-forget-it buff that lasts pretty much as long as you'll need it, so I'll give it a 9. It can, however, be killed by the littlest bit of damage, and any skilled shaman PVPer can recognize when a good support totem is missing. Which brings me to part 2...
The spell has NO COOLDOWN. This makes it incredibly easy to keep up, no matter where you are moving and who is attacking it. similar racials and spells like WotF and Fear Ward have 2 or 3 minute cooldowns and suffer that "spamming fear" warlock you were talking about. I will give this spell a 10 in terms of cooldown.
Finally, the effectiveness is AMAZING. what other spell out there has the ability to remove fears/charms/sleeps off of any number of people within 30 yards? The other abilities I've mentioned either remove or prevent fear one time and one time only. this spell's effectiveness is a 9 AT THE LEAST in my opinion.
As you can see, we have both come on this journey to the conclusion that this was an overpowered spell. while I might miss being the one who saved us all from being feared into each other when the blood queen went up in the air, or the one who saw a warlocks hopes and dreams crumble when their fears were continually removed along with curses and dots (by means of glyphed shamanistic rage), I recognize that this is a necessary change and that it is still a powerful ability in our already large arsenal.
TL;DR
Don't QQ, it was overpowered, we still have a lot of utility.
Fingal Jan 11th 2011 4:21PM
@Powatodapeople
You're forgetting that it only actually works on a pulse, and you have no control over when that pulse happens. I believe that takes it down from a 9/10 down to the 5 range which is right where it should be.
Spellotape Jan 12th 2011 7:18AM
@Powatodapeople
"Tremor Totem has been redesigned. The totem is now usable under Fear, Charm, or Sleep effects, and pulses much more rapidly, but lasts 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown."
It has a cooldown now?
Xot Jan 11th 2011 3:13PM
I spend 90% of my time in Resto spec, so I dont claim to know much about elemental spec, but quest in Elemental and used Flametougue for my weapon buff.
So what will I use now (while in elemental)?
thelopes Jan 11th 2011 3:15PM
Flametongue has only changed for shaman speccing in Enhancement.
jaelre Jan 12th 2011 3:42AM
It still gives you SP, it's just the additional damage that was changed
talkingmike Jan 11th 2011 3:15PM
OK, help me out here. I typically come down to using 2 spells: Riptide and Greater Healing Wave. Riptide applies the HoT, but more importantly I get the Haste buff to my next 2 heals, which are usually GHWs. Sometimes, if the tank is doing OK, I'll throw a Healing Wave to other players. I almost never use Healing Surge, Chain Heal, or Chocolate Rain, really only because they seem to be very inefficient with mana and the fast heal from Surge isn't usually necessary.
Am I doing it wrong? Should I be using more things like Healing Surge? Will that make it easier on my admittedly meager mana pool?
Thomas Jan 11th 2011 3:33PM
Use regular Healing Wave more often. It is designed to be your go-to spell. I had the same mistake as well and would go OOM very fast. I only use GHW when a tank takes huge damage (like right before Stay Of Execution in H SFK) and then usually when i have the Tidal Waves buff. If i don't have the buff, then i use Healing Surge.
Lynkfox Jan 11th 2011 3:44PM
Yes. Your not using the trigger concept. You should be reptide and healing wave for most situations. Unleash elements should be used when up but usually after riptide. Ghw is for when they are low in health but you have time before the next big hit - usually I use it on dps when the tank is not in danger to bring them back to 75%. Surge is for when they are low (under 40%) and taking damage fast. I use this strategy and never oom in ok but not great groups for heroic with an 334average level
Shadowwind Jan 11th 2011 4:03PM
O.O As a resto shaman, I would like to know exactly one thing. HOW THE HECK ARE YOU CHAIN-CASTING GWH AND NOT GOING OOM?! If I tried that, my mana pool would be GONE before the boss even got to the interesting stuff!
Like the people above said, Healing Wave may not seem like it heals much, but it does a better job than it appears. AND, if you glyph Healing Wave, then whenever you heal someone else, you get a totally free heal on yourself! Greater Healing Wave is usually saved for the tank. Btw, you didn't mention that you were having any issues with it, but I'll still pass along a tip that helped me out early in the expansion. "The dps rarely need to be above 50% health." Healing Wave them if they dip below that, Riptide->Healing Surge them {for the Water Shield proc} if they need fast healing, completely ignore them if they persist in standing in fire. (Trust me, you're going to need that mana for the more intelligent members of your group.)
Schadenfreude Jan 11th 2011 5:25PM
I wait for people to take damage, then riptide and toss out a couple GHWs, then tick back up/telluric currents before repeating that. I'm sorry, I don't know how people are using HW-- it simply *does nothing*, and has too long a cast to make a dent in anyone's health bars, and I can't sit there and chain cast it because of encounter effects. I also use Circle of Mysterious Blue Fluid if everyone's grouped up. I chain heal out of habit more than any kind of real effectiveness.
Pao Jan 11th 2011 5:27PM
I would just like to ask: have you ever tried the 7/2/32 spec that Paragon's raid-healing shamans are using? I recently switched to it an I'm never going back. It's a bit awkward to play at first because you need to spam lightning bolt whenever you're not casting a heal, but last night on Atramedes I had near 100% Healing Rain uptime (during the ground phase that is, its useless when he's in the air), never ran out of mana, and never ONCE hit Healing Wave. Not a single person died in our successful kill and every single person was topped off for the majority of the fight.