Posts with tag Shamans

The beta has been under way now for some time, as have the feedback posts on the official forums. Shaman have had a few major changes to their repertoire, as well as a few more minor ones, but the general feeling from reading the posts made in the forums is that these changes don't go far enough. Shaman, it appears, don't feel like they're getting what they need to be viable, let alone competitive, and the unique nature of a lot of their abilities seems to continue to be as much a hindrance as it is a help.

But arriving like the white knight in medieval-styled dramas, just as the situation feels dire and unsalvageable, is Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street. The shaman feedback post has finally had the equivalent of a Blizzard seal of approval, in the form of a blue post from the bluest of blues.

So what did the big GC address in his post, and what still remains outstanding for beta shaman?

One big complaint that many shaman brought up was glyphs. I recently tweeted fellow WoW Insider writer Joe Perez about this very matter, namely, that shaman glyphs were a mess. They felt either very lackluster or very penalty-heavy. A few patches ago, before the recent changes, I was playing my shaman with two empty glyph slots, because none of the glyphs felt worth using. This is a Bad Thing. A recent patch went some way to repairing this, but with it, a host of new problems appeared, some of which GC addresses after the break.

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.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus), shows you how.

The last few weeks, we've gone over healing a couple of the dungeons in both normal and heroic, as well as the various gear that you can look forward to from the various encounters. We also went back and looked at the entirety of the year of 2010 for restoration shaman. This week, I thought we would take a break from that and instead address some concerns that have been brought up about restoration shaman.

For the last few weeks, I've been rolling through the official shaman and healing forums, Plus Heal and TotemSpot as well as various emails and comments from you the readers. There has recently been concern over our healing numbers in comparison to other classes', difficulty in healing certain fights, mana management problems, concerns over haste and questions about our raid viability as well as spell choices. Today I'd like to address some of those questions and concerns.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast

To quote The Smashing Pumpkins, "Today is the greatest day I've ever known." Tuesday, Dec. 7 marks the release of the third World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. Over the last several months, we've been talking about all the changes leading up to this expansion. We've covered new spells, changes to old spells, and everything in between.

If you remember, not too long ago, we did our series of everything you needed to know about each class. Restoration 101 was my first post here for Totem Talk. Today, we're going to round up all of the changes to restoration shaman that Cataclysm brings. The changes have already been implemented before Cataclysm was released, we have already had an opportunity to become familiar with them. We're also going to talk about what it is to be a restoration shaman and what you have to look forward to as you explore the world of Azeroth. Note that this is not a guide for the endgame content and is meant for beginners new to the game or just starting as restoration.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and host of the BDTU: Lore edition podcast.

With Cataclysm fast approaching and a ton of questions to be answered, last week we held a bit of a question and answer. Reader questions came in about anything and everything, and for those I couldn't answer in the post, I tried to make sure they received an email. One question I kept receiving through email since last week is in regards to our professions -- specifically, what alchemical consumables we will be using at level 85.

I thought this week we could talk a little bit about the potions and elixirs from alchemy that I've been finding useful in Cataclysm. There are always a ton of choices whenever a profession gets an upgrade, so what concoctions do we get to toss down the hatch while the world splinters apart?

Last week, we talked about the first impressions of healing with Spiritwalker's Grace and how it fits in with our spells and or ability to heal. After that, we had some breaking news for beta build 12942 and then build 12984. The first patches where we really started to see some changes to the restoration shaman spells and abilities beyond the first set of talent swaps.

With all the news about the various changes coming in Cataclysm, it is easy to overlook the PTR and the ever-imminent Patch 4.0.1. Truth is, this is a point of concern for quite a large number of people. Like previous pre-expansion patches, it is an exciting yet terrifying time for most players. Some remain optimistic that the changes to our classes will make us stronger and pack even more fun. Others believe that in the case of the upcoming patch, the sky is falling and that we are all doomed. The official forums and the various sites out there are filled with both sides of the debate, and often you can find a very heated discussion about these changes.

So what changes are in store for restoration shaman once this patch goes live? Let's take a look.

Last night, a new beta build was revealed, build 12984.The builds are coming quicker, it seems, as it was only last week that we received Cataclysm build 12942. Until the last patch, restoration shaman were left largely untouched except for some minor tweaks here and there and a little pruning in our talent trees. Last week's patch saw the removal of even more passive critical strike rating, the renaming of a spell that has become an old and trusted friend (the new Healing Surge), and some boosts to some of our spells' cast times with a tweak to Purification and healing output of our Healing Rain and Healing Stream Totem through Soothing Rains. Overall, it was a very good patch for us.

This week's change sees us once again with a multitude of changes. We get a few more tweaks and what are potentially a couple of nerfs. Shaman have been referred to as the healing model for Cataclysm, and we've been enjoying this kind of protected bubble in a sea of changes.

Cataclysm is the word on everyone's lips right now, and with good reason. On June 30, Blizzard announced officially that the closed beta was starting. The excitement can be seen almost everywhere as new information becomes available. There has been a deluge of information since then with everything from the official patch notes on the current build, new spells, talents and skills, new maps for the zones we will be seeing, to new emotes for each of the new races and everything in between.

We have discussed the talent tree changes a little bit already, back when they were leaked from the alpha client and again with the official preview. At both of those times, however, we saw only a fleeting mention of the new shaman spells and abilities to coincide with these talents. Much of what we saw was left to mere speculation as we had yet to see it first hand through a beta.

Among all of the information filtering in from the beta, there has been information about the new restoration shaman talents and spells, as well as updates to some old favorites of ours. Some of these changes are undeniably good, others are interesting and some downright confusing.

Check after the break for more information.

Two days ago, we were treated to news of upcoming changes to how dispel works for the various classes in Warcraft. A day later, this was cleared up a bit for us and explained in a little more detail. Restoration shaman felt the sting of losing the ability to remove both poisons and diseases but gaining the ability to remove magic buffs and debuffs. No matter your stance on the change, it will have a profound effect on the class as a whole.

Hot on the heels of these changes, the Cataclysm class preview news has just been released and there is a lot of information here for any shaman player to sift through. For the full list of proposed changes, be sure to check out our earlier post. If you thought the dispel changes were big, looking at the preview shows they have so much more in store for us.

So with all the changes happening, I am certain you are as eager as I am to take a look at the potential changes to restoration shaman.