The Daily Quest: Totems, totems, totems
by Anne Stickney 
Feb 7th 2011 at 6:00PM
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
Way back in vanilla, before the days of blood elves and draenei, someone on the Scarlet Crusade realm had a brilliant idea: Let's take a raid of 40 paladins, pit them against a raid of 40 shaman, and see what happens. The whole ordeal took place in Mulgore, and the video above was filmed. You'll notice it's a bit laggy -- that's because the server was a bit laggy. In fact, though the fight was an attempt to prove which was better, Alliance or Horde, it quickly became apparent as 40 Consecrations went off and 160 totems were laid down that the server was the ultimate victor, as it spontaneously shut down shortly after.
Speaking of shaman, we've got a few posts about the totem-wielding elemental lovers today:
- Oh My, Kurenai! has an extremely helpful guide as to which buffs overwrite which shaman totems.
- Totem Forest talks about three design choices that aren't quite as much help to the 4.0.6 shaman.
- Life in Group 5 goes over the history of the shaman class and how it's progressed to date.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Qot Feb 7th 2011 6:16PM
The server didn't go down because of the consecrations and totems.
It went down because there was one troll, standing in the middle of the battle, regenerating 5 HP per second.
William Feb 7th 2011 6:22PM
there was nothing anyone could do about it
Anne Stickney Feb 7th 2011 6:23PM
And there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Nipah Feb 7th 2011 7:46PM
Yeah... that may or may not have been my Troll Shaman...
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/scarlet-crusade/nipah/simple
Sorry guys.
lesicor.caerlon Feb 7th 2011 6:37PM
Now that is pretty epic. Seems to me like those days are long gone *sigh*
Grokmar Feb 7th 2011 6:41PM
The first article was somewhat meh for me, but the other two were very good reads. Hopefully some changes will be incoming, but since I've been playing a shaman since Vanilla, I know better than to hold my breath.
Outdatedkero Feb 7th 2011 6:45PM
You stand on holy ground! Be cleansed by the might of the gods! (Sever gods that is!)
BenMS Feb 7th 2011 7:00PM
SO MANY BANANA SHOULDERS AUGH
jealouspirate Feb 7th 2011 7:07PM
All of those posts were pretty depressing.
I know every class rides the buff and nerf waves, but with Shaman it's more than that. It's like our class is still designed for Vanilla or BC and everyone else has moved on. Blizzard decided to spread utility, the Shaman's main strength, and give it to everyone else. We, however, we left with all the same weaknesses we had before while the other classes got buffs better versions of all our buffs.
There's a reason Vixsin's post is entitled "The Last Vestiges of a Utility Class". Here's a quote from the one Kurenai's post on which totems to drop:
"After the Tremor Totem redesign, a lot of the time your best earth totem option is going to be not dropping one at all. Conserve your mana, don’t overwrite buffs."
/sigh
There are lots of other issues with all the specs regarding damage, healing output, mobility, etc... all very valid and pressing concerns. But more than this I feel like Blizzard has lost sight of what they want Shamans to be.
jealouspirate Feb 7th 2011 7:14PM
Basically, the point of that rambling QQ fest was:
Buff consolidation has passively nerfed totems. A lot. Not only are totems not unique, they're always the WORST version of a buff because of totems 1) have range, 2) can be killed, and 3) get destroyed upon the Shaman's death.
Most of the time Shamans don't even need to drop anything but healing stream and a searing totem. That is NOT okay. This is our *core mechanic*. Blizzard always talks about totems being the defining aspect of the Shaman class, but they've been awful for a long time now and are only getting worse (continuing tomorrow with 4.0.6!).
RetPallyJil Feb 7th 2011 9:33PM
That's not actually that laggy for the time period lol I would have prayed for latency like that at that time.
Sky Feb 7th 2011 9:49PM
Here's a solution, if Blizzard wants to make totems the shaman's "core" mechanic then totems should either give buffs that no other class can give or give similar but stronger buffs than what the other classes give. Before Cata, shamans were in demand because of heroism but now that mages can give that buff as well coupled with the fact that both enhance/elemental is middle of the pack in dps and resto is dead last in effective healing there really is no reason to take a shaman over another similarly geared class. Not only that its just not fun any more.
After playing a shaman healer as my main throughout TBC and Wrath, it saddens me to say that he has been shelfed for now in favor of a Paladin. We're already the least played class in the game and now people have even less incentive to play a shaman. Please Blizzard, I am begging you to please fix the mess that is the shaman class.
/end rant
zweitblom Feb 8th 2011 1:02AM
"We're already the least played class in the game"
Shamans are not and never were the least played class in the game: http://armorydatamining.appspot.com/general?t=PopBigPicture
Sky Feb 8th 2011 3:37PM
The link only counts capped (lvl 80 at the time of posting) players. Shamans are actually the least played class statistically if you look at the whole population (at least in Wrath)
psycho.knight Feb 7th 2011 10:17PM
I
Corath Feb 7th 2011 11:34PM
Latest on Corath's Blog (http://corath.wordpress.com)...
Newest post is called "Situational Changes Only, Please". All about the changes that are made for the PvP or PvE reason, and why it shouldn't change for both. PvP changes should stay in the PvP environment, and so on.
http://corath.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/situational-changes-only-please/
Enjoy!
Roidrage Feb 8th 2011 3:37AM
The overlap on totems is ridiculous. Shaman are supposed to me a hybrid class so don’t excel in any one roll. Their saving grace used to be that they brought some good exclusive buffs and abilities to a raid. Now there is so much overlap that there’s real reason to bring a shaman or any other hybrid class. Just stack your DPS with mages rogues, hunters and locks. I just cant understand why Bliz making hybrids redundant in raids.
DLX Feb 8th 2011 9:51AM
unBEAR posts Two months of the Cataclysm: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
(http://unbear.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/two-months-of-cataclysm-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/)
Angrycelt Feb 8th 2011 12:27PM
Call me crazy, but at the very end of the film, it sure looked like a lot more paladins up and running around than shamans.
Not taking sides in this one. I love my pally and my shammy. My druid just gets all the play time. Hybrids are kind of my bag, it seems.
Asil Feb 8th 2011 2:53PM
New Asilventures post up! This week I talk about how terrible most daily quests are and why Blizzard doesn't want them to be fun!
http://asilventures.blogspot.com/2011/02/daily-boredom.html