Old Issue No. 7: Give us a consolidation Slow

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Ughbash]

[Beafly]

[Dakota]

[Idracab]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't want to see this happen.

In a group situation, as mentioned, you really don't need it. In a raid situation, just put 1 shaman on quick slow and another on re-slow.

I think this request is just a bit too ... greedy? We already have a low resist, fast cast slow. Shamans are the king of slowing, without a doubt. Hell, we can have two low resist, fast cast slows ready, and you can pretty much guarantee any mob is slowed immediately. And if we need a mob slowed longer then 90 seconds, we can do that as well.

I like the way slows are set up right now - a fast cast, low resist, low duration version, and a longer casting, regular resist, long duration version.

If anything, I'd like to see a slow upgrade that has no recast time. No resist mod, 3 second cast, 0 recast timer. That would be a decent upgrade.

[Tarnnok]

[Brohg]

[Jaraman]

[Maccuul]

[Brohg]

[Aruman]

[brell.illitian]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Dakota]

[Brohg]

[brell.illitian]

[Ungkor]

[Brohg]

[Kianor]

[gaesekki]

[Tekno]

[Veril]

A "simple" consolidated Slow -60 resist, 6.5 mins duration is not as good as using Malis+TA. I would not bother memming such a spell. It's simply not good enough to waste a spell slot on.

This is a non issue unless we are offered a proper upgrade. As in genuinly better all of the time. Here's what I would want to see:
It is an AA. (no spell slot cost, but it costs me time to get it)
It is at least 75% slow. (which my spells are already)
It is at least -69 resist modifier (Malis2 is this)
It lasts 6.5 mins + detrimental extension (at least - my existing spells do this).
Cast+Recast of 3 seconds (my existing setup does this)

Malis + TA is far and away the best slowing combination out there. These days I no longer bother memming Balance at all, it's a useless line of spells. I would rather mem a nuke or a DoT in that spot. (Heal, <Buff slot>, Canni, HoT, Champ, Panther, Malis, Sting, Nuke/DoT)

TA = 0 mana cost
TA = No Spell Slot cost (this is a massive benefit)
TA = no recast delay
TA = no Fizzle

TA is the single most powerful and class defining item in the game today as it has been since the first one was gained in the Plane of Time. I truly pity any shaman who does not have a TA, they are missing out on the best item they could have.

Malis means that everything else you or anyone else does works way better, way more reliably.
So I lose a couple of hundred HP, and some ac/resists in equipping TA over Epic2, whoop de whoo, those 200hp buy me a spell slot.
Question: How many shaman out there would pay 200hp for a spell slot?
Answer: All of them.
I would pay 500hp for a 10th spell gem in a heartbeat. Spell Gems are that powerful and game defining.

[Dakota]

You're correct in that the consolidated slow wouldn't be quite as good as using Malis + TA.
As for 'wasting' a spell slot, the point of it is, for shamans without a TA, it would free up a spell slot, since they wouldn't need to have two slows memmed. For those of us with a TA, it would just replace Balance in our spell lineup and not make the TA quite as necessary.

[Tharkis]

[Ungkor]

[Skalor]

Make a new lvl 75 slow spell, 75% slow 6.5min duration with three lvls -10, -20, -40 resists, and same cast, recast and mana as Turgur's.
Then make Turgur's degrade 10%/lvl past lvl 70. Leave BoD and BoN as they are. I would stop using a TA in this case and switch to the new spell.

[Tharkis]

So you advocate nerfing our class directly to force people to use a spell that would be unacceptable on it's own, Skalor? Sorry but your 'solution' solves nothing, and would just open a whole new can of worms by having not only focus effects for casters, but spells too, degrade with level.

What we need is VERY simple. 1.5 cast, -60 resist adjustment, 6.5 minute duration, 2.25 (aka zero) recast, 75% slow. Lets not make it more complicated than it has to be.

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Skalor]

I just posted what would make me replace my TA.
I would not replace it with a spell, probably ever. The spell would have to be 0.75 cast time and 0 mana to equal a TA, and I don't think that will happen. The other option is an AA, but again it would have to be reusable as often as a TA which again I don't see happening.
I personally have no issues with slowing, but I do think that is because of having a TA.

[Tordail]

[Tarnnok]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Galelor]

[Skalor]

I just recently got my TA, within the last 3 months, and I really didn't have an issue with slowing before. The TA has just made it much easier and I agree a new consolidated spell would be easier, also.
But I think of a consolidated slow like a new group movement spell, it would be nice to have but I don't really need it.
I can't really come up with a huge issue for shaman at the present time. I think it is a good time to be a shaman in pretty much all aspects of the class.
edit- sorry I did think of one problem I have and that is the recast issue on spells.

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Tugela]

The only way a TA is becoming obsolete for those who depend on it is
(a) resists evolving to a point where an unmodded slow isnt going to land on anything (pretty unlikely - would be a bitch to balance)
(b) tying the probability of landing a spell on a mob of a particular level to spell level so that old spells become obsolete naturally (don't know why they havent done this allready)

The sad thing is that even if this happened there would still be some people chain clicking their TAs.

Another thing they could do I guess is to tie spell effectiveness to the difference between mob and spell level. So, for example, a 50 spell landing on a level 80 mob would be subject to a 75% intrinsic mitigation of the effect, or something like that. That would allow spell sets to evolve naturally against content.

That said, you all allready know my opinion of the likelyhood of a combined spell line, so I won't repeat it.

I find the suggestion that this would wean people off their TAs amusing though

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Tugela]

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Tugela]

The flip side of that is that you can fill up the top ten issues list with a set of wishful thinking requests that you know probably arent going to happen, instead of more realistic things that might or could happen.

Then we could look at other classes which are doing the second approach and say "Hey! look at all the attention they are getting! Why aren't we getting any?!". And so it goes