Thoughts on Shaman issues

[jenizerk]

Issues/Concerns from my perspective:

1) No Fortitude Line Upgrade in TSS. It was cut out, as were a bunch of other spells, pre launch (cleric AC only buff was cut too)
2) Changes to focus effects. Most focus fx on the high end are just fine, but theres just too few Poison enhancing focii out there. Plenty of cold, (even tier 2 arms have a newer cold focus), theres a disease one (which is fine and dandy, but theres more disease focii on items it seems, and, indeed, it affects the fewest spells (our dot....few necro dots, bout it)
3) No real upgrade to pet....pet classes (beast, mage, necro) received pet only rune type spells to help mitigate rampage or other AEs, our boobers are completely expendable, and their defensive capabilities havent been enhanced, and they received negligible upgrade post TSS. A minor, but easy to institute fix would be have a pet only proc added for shammies pets that adds a defensive boost (similar to ancestral guard or the cleric vie series of spells) Barring that, reduce the initial casting time on boober (you should be able to summon a pet immediately instead of waiting, like you do now)

All in all alot of progress has been made regarding many issues in the game, but these 3 to me still need fixing. The out of combat regen threw everyone for a loop, but I think its worked better to everyones benefit (some more than others)

[Dakota]

[Tugela]

[Galelor]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Ungkor]

[Fenier]

[Brohg]

[Ughbash]

[Tugela]

[jdthomas]

[Galelor]

[Tugela]

Well, with 23 slots I allways have space. Can't imagine what you might have that fills up that many spots, unless its something useless like a DS, lol.

[Jaraman]

[Dakota]

While the Regen line may have it's uses, the initial point of my post was saying that the upgrade from the OOW regen could have been better used to go into one of the discontinued spell lines. Ask yourself, if you had to choose which spell line stayed and which got the axe, which would you have chosen? Regen, or Stamina? Regen, or Cripple/PD? Regen, or Champion?

[Jaraman]

[Jaraman]

[Ungkor]

[Kamion]

[XeroOmega]

[Kamion]

[Ungkor]

[XeroOmega]

[Ughbash]

[Jaraman]

The "real" pet classes get goodies to enhance the usefulness of their pet -- pet hastes with stat buffs, proc buffs, the Calliav series to block melee/spell hits, pet focus items, LOH and pet-only heals. I guess because shaman can already heal, haste, stat buff, proc buff, and HP/defensive buff, the Devs figure we're just fine, especially since we're not a "real" pet class. The only pet-specific spells we get are tiny companion (at 19), summon companion (at 52), and the obsolete Spirit Quickening (at 50).

In beta the other pet classes requested greater pet survivability against raid AEs. What they got are mostly continuations of their Calliav spell & melee block lines, with BSTs getting a mitigating version at 75 instead of a pure block version like earlier.

for Beastlords
for Necros and Mages

As for our own pup survivability, there's not too much we can do during certain raids. If "real" pet classes like necros and BSTs sometimes don't use or re-summon their pets because it is just too much hassle or a bad use of time/resources, I think it's too much for shaman to ask that we get a specific pet raid survival tool. In the heat of frantic raid healing, curing, and rebuffing, puppy is more like a familiar than anything else.

For group play, pet survivability is a different scenario. In most cases, good pet skills can keep the pet alive. Just as beginning wizards learn not to nuke too early, the beginning pet classes learn when and when not to pull their pet back off of enraging mobs. I would bet that most shaman who have pet survival problems have not fully learned to utilize pup. The typical shaman likely treats pup as a "fire and forget" familiar, or as a long-term DOT. I treat pup as a real pet, and visit other sites to get some clues and tips for pup that I wouldn't get otherwise having only a shaman main as my only pet class. Being aware of where to set your /pet guard point, having the pup attack the mob from behind (admittedly mostly a MT's MOB-positioning duty), getting the pet affinity AA for group HOTs/cures/buffs, getting the pet /hold AA, having a /pet hold pet /back off hotkey, and pulling pup back before mob enrages are all things the good pet owner can do to maximize pup. Personally, I step up to the mob and gank aggro when my pup is at low health and enraging -- pulling him back when he is enraging exposes his back and cancels the 100% riposte effect of enrage, and means certain death for pup. After the mob is dead, that's a good time to suspend pup and un-suspend him to reset his enrage.

Finally, if you really want a LOH for pup, you already have the capability. Simply make a hotkey auto-targetting and instant healing pup with Union of Spirits:

Puppy ghetto LOH
/pet target
/pause 1 (for lag, optional)
/alt activate 662 (Union of Spirits)

A lesser known "feature" is that you can use some abilities on pup and they won't reset certain timers. For example, one time while solo meleeing and using DS, I accidentally targetted puppy and cast my Ro's Breath potion (targettable DS potion from Dargon in Halas that stacks with the shammy-made DS line). I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the DS potion didn't lose a charge from the cast on the pup, but did when I cast it on myself. Imagine my surprise just now writing this post and testing out the Puppy ghetto LOH hotkey that not only did the hotkey work, but after resetting the key's contents back to its original self-Union state, the instant heal portion of the AA healed me (and critted for 3220!), even though for the HOT portion it didn't work and I got the "can use again in XX minutes" spam. It doesn't work the other way around, tho; if you heal yourself first, trying then to use it on pup before timer resets won't work. It's a one-way feature. In other words, if you so choose to burn Union on pup as a LOH instead of saving it for a group-mate or yourself first, at least the AA's instant heal portion is still available before the timer resets. But for most, I'd imagine giving up a 1500 per tic HOT to save pup instead of a PC is too high price for some. Pup is much more expendable than PCs are.

[Ughbash]

[Giac]

[jdthomas]

[Jaraman]

[Glauri]

[brell.illitian]

[Glauri]

[Jaraman]

The Devs have stated they do not like the idea of an endurance regen spell. It would become melee crack like the clarity line is caster crack. Boo for unneeded dependencies.

Tell your guild's folks that they should be ecstatic that out of combat regen works on endurance.

[XeroOmega]

[Ungkor]

[Ughbash]

[Unmei]

[Ughbash]

[Unmei]