Post by Razel on Jul 11, 2006 8:34:21 GMT -5
Overview
The Shaman class is only available to three of the Horde races: Tauren, Orcs, and Trolls. They are the counterpart of the Paladin of the Alliance in the sense that they are not available to the opposing faction.
In parties, Shamans make the quintessential fifth member, supplementing the other members with off-healing and totem buffs while adding some nice magic and melee. Shamans have the ability to resurrect themselves once per hour using their Reincarnation ability. Combined with their ability to resurrect other players, this becomes a primary source of wipe control. Parties with Druid healers also benefit from the Shaman resurrection powers, as they can only resurrect other players once per 30 minutes.
Melee-specialist Shamans are sometimes employed as off-tanks, capable of holding aggro on a same-level elite monster while healing themselves. In this role, they lack the survivability of Warriors or Paladins, but their high-threat spells do allow consistent aggro management.
Talent trees
The talent system in World of Warcraft allows Shamans extreme diversity in play style, ranging from melee fighting specialization to healing specialization.
Elemental
The Elemental tree focuses on the Shaman's spellcasting ability, in the form of offensive totems, spells, and 'shocks' (instant-cast spells of various elements). The major effect of this tree is to decrease the mana cost and casting time of offensive spells and totems while increasing their damage. The end-tree ability is Elemental Mastery, a spell usable every three minutes that guarantees a mana-free critical hit on the Shaman's next offensive spell. Elemental greatly improves the damage output of a shaman's magical offense, but its high mana cost (combined with the shaman's mana inefficiency) makes it inviable as a source of group/raiding PvE DPS.
Enhancement
The Enhancement tree focuses on the Shaman's ability to cast timed enchants on their own weapons, and expands on their melee ability in general as well. This is a very appealing tree to lower-level shamans because of the 5% mana increase, reduced cast time on their travel spell (Ghost Wolf, level 20, increases run speed by 40%), and the ability to wield two-handed weapons. At later levels, Enhancement specified Shamans can deal large amounts of melee damage, sometimes nearly approaching that of a rogue, however this may only occur during short periods of time, over time an equally geared Rogue will do more damage than a shaman. The end-tree ability is Stormstrike, which grants an extra attack and increases the damage of the next two Nature spells on the target by 20%. Combined with other abilities to gain extra strikes, particularly Windfury Weapon, Stormstrike can be used to great effect. Enhancement greatly increases PvP survivability, while also offering PvE improvements for the shaman's primary melee buff totems.
Restoration
The Restoration tree focuses on the Shaman's healing capability, reducing the casting time and mana cost of healing spells and totems, while increasing their effectiveness. Shamans specced in Restoration are highly sought after in end-game parties, where they are quite useful as effective healers, buffers, and backup casters. The end-tree talent in the Restoration tree is the Mana Tide totem, which restores 140 mana every 3 seconds to party members within 20 yards. However, unlike the other two top level talents, higher ranked Mana Tide totem spells can be bought at a trainer at higher levels. Restoration greatly enhances shaman contribution to group/raid PvE content, but severely limits a shaman's damage output, and is undesirable for PvP activity.
Equipment
Shaman wear leather armor up until level 40, at which time they gain the ability to wear mail armor. Because of this, many shamans take up the leatherworking profession, which can make certain mail armor around the time they get the ability to wear it. Additionally, the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialization can make several mail armor items with stat bonuses that are very beneficial to the shaman class.
Shaman can use one-handed maces with shields and staves by default, and can train daggers, fist weapons, and one-handed axes at a weapon master. In addition, by spending talents in the Enhancement tree, shamans can learn to wield two-handed axes and maces.
The Shaman's endgame sets are The Elements (Dungeon 1) and The Five Thunders (Dungeon 2) and the class-specific epic sets are The Earthfury (Tier 1), The Ten Storms (Tier 2), Stormcaller (Tier 2.5), and Earthshatter (Tier 3). The 20-man raid sets are Zandalar Augur's Regalia (Zul'Gurub) and The Gift of the Gathering Storm (Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj). Currently these sets only benefit Shaman casters, as yet there are no dedicated Enhancement sets which directly benefit melee Shamans. As a result of this many Shamans use non-class-bound mail items which give melee critical strike bonuses, as well as attack power and agility bonuses.
Aesthetics
As mentioned before, Shamans can equip both leather and (at higher levels) mail armor. Although many consider the ability to use these armor types a major plus for the Shaman class, the aesthetic qualities of the majority of leather and mail items are not in synch with is normally considered "shamanistic." At lower levels, Shamans wear leather armor almost exclusively and therefore tend to look like rogues and hunters, for whom that armor is visually designed for. At higher levels, with the ability to wear mail, Shamans stray even farther from their "at one with nature" look by donning metal armor. Only the endgame sets (designed specifically for Shamans) sport robes and other accessories typically associated with the "medicine man" look. It is apparent, however, that Blizzard will not remedy this due to the massively disproportional scale of overhauling an entire armor group just to benefit one class.
Shaman in PVP
A shaman's behavior in Player versus Player combat depends largely upon their talent build; an Elemental shaman would perform similar to a mage, warlock, or other caster class, while an Enhancement shaman would perform similar to a warrior, paladin, or other melee class. Due to the shaman's hybrid nature, two differently-built shamans viewed side-by-side in a battleground setting could appear to be different classes altogether. Shamans possess two "snare" (slowing affect) abilites: Frost Shock (which affects a single target) and the Earthbind Totem (a totem which slows enemies within its radius). While not as effective as other class' snare abilities, many shamans regardless of talent build employ "kiting" (attacking while keeping distance between one's opponent and oneself) strategies in Player versus Player combat.
Like the druid and hunter classes, shamans have a means of increasing their movement speed for extended periods of time. This ability, wherein the shaman takes on the form and speed of a wolf, makes them capable carriers in the capture the flag based Warsong Gulch battleground.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Future changes and Implementations
The Shaman class received a review to its abilities and talents in patch 1.11, effective June 20, 2006. Most changes focused on adjusting the mana cost of the Shaman's basic abilities. [2]. The other major change is to the Windfury weapon buff, which had its attack power bonus reduced by more than half. Combined with other changes, overall damage per second of an enhancement specialized shaman is now very slightly higher; however it is far more consistent. This has the effect of greatly reducing the effectiveness of melee-specialist shamans in PVP, formerly one of their strengths.
Hopefuly this info helps on when you create your next guy ;D
The Shaman class is only available to three of the Horde races: Tauren, Orcs, and Trolls. They are the counterpart of the Paladin of the Alliance in the sense that they are not available to the opposing faction.
In parties, Shamans make the quintessential fifth member, supplementing the other members with off-healing and totem buffs while adding some nice magic and melee. Shamans have the ability to resurrect themselves once per hour using their Reincarnation ability. Combined with their ability to resurrect other players, this becomes a primary source of wipe control. Parties with Druid healers also benefit from the Shaman resurrection powers, as they can only resurrect other players once per 30 minutes.
Melee-specialist Shamans are sometimes employed as off-tanks, capable of holding aggro on a same-level elite monster while healing themselves. In this role, they lack the survivability of Warriors or Paladins, but their high-threat spells do allow consistent aggro management.
Talent trees
The talent system in World of Warcraft allows Shamans extreme diversity in play style, ranging from melee fighting specialization to healing specialization.
Elemental
The Elemental tree focuses on the Shaman's spellcasting ability, in the form of offensive totems, spells, and 'shocks' (instant-cast spells of various elements). The major effect of this tree is to decrease the mana cost and casting time of offensive spells and totems while increasing their damage. The end-tree ability is Elemental Mastery, a spell usable every three minutes that guarantees a mana-free critical hit on the Shaman's next offensive spell. Elemental greatly improves the damage output of a shaman's magical offense, but its high mana cost (combined with the shaman's mana inefficiency) makes it inviable as a source of group/raiding PvE DPS.
Enhancement
The Enhancement tree focuses on the Shaman's ability to cast timed enchants on their own weapons, and expands on their melee ability in general as well. This is a very appealing tree to lower-level shamans because of the 5% mana increase, reduced cast time on their travel spell (Ghost Wolf, level 20, increases run speed by 40%), and the ability to wield two-handed weapons. At later levels, Enhancement specified Shamans can deal large amounts of melee damage, sometimes nearly approaching that of a rogue, however this may only occur during short periods of time, over time an equally geared Rogue will do more damage than a shaman. The end-tree ability is Stormstrike, which grants an extra attack and increases the damage of the next two Nature spells on the target by 20%. Combined with other abilities to gain extra strikes, particularly Windfury Weapon, Stormstrike can be used to great effect. Enhancement greatly increases PvP survivability, while also offering PvE improvements for the shaman's primary melee buff totems.
Restoration
The Restoration tree focuses on the Shaman's healing capability, reducing the casting time and mana cost of healing spells and totems, while increasing their effectiveness. Shamans specced in Restoration are highly sought after in end-game parties, where they are quite useful as effective healers, buffers, and backup casters. The end-tree talent in the Restoration tree is the Mana Tide totem, which restores 140 mana every 3 seconds to party members within 20 yards. However, unlike the other two top level talents, higher ranked Mana Tide totem spells can be bought at a trainer at higher levels. Restoration greatly enhances shaman contribution to group/raid PvE content, but severely limits a shaman's damage output, and is undesirable for PvP activity.
Equipment
Shaman wear leather armor up until level 40, at which time they gain the ability to wear mail armor. Because of this, many shamans take up the leatherworking profession, which can make certain mail armor around the time they get the ability to wear it. Additionally, the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialization can make several mail armor items with stat bonuses that are very beneficial to the shaman class.
Shaman can use one-handed maces with shields and staves by default, and can train daggers, fist weapons, and one-handed axes at a weapon master. In addition, by spending talents in the Enhancement tree, shamans can learn to wield two-handed axes and maces.
The Shaman's endgame sets are The Elements (Dungeon 1) and The Five Thunders (Dungeon 2) and the class-specific epic sets are The Earthfury (Tier 1), The Ten Storms (Tier 2), Stormcaller (Tier 2.5), and Earthshatter (Tier 3). The 20-man raid sets are Zandalar Augur's Regalia (Zul'Gurub) and The Gift of the Gathering Storm (Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj). Currently these sets only benefit Shaman casters, as yet there are no dedicated Enhancement sets which directly benefit melee Shamans. As a result of this many Shamans use non-class-bound mail items which give melee critical strike bonuses, as well as attack power and agility bonuses.
Aesthetics
As mentioned before, Shamans can equip both leather and (at higher levels) mail armor. Although many consider the ability to use these armor types a major plus for the Shaman class, the aesthetic qualities of the majority of leather and mail items are not in synch with is normally considered "shamanistic." At lower levels, Shamans wear leather armor almost exclusively and therefore tend to look like rogues and hunters, for whom that armor is visually designed for. At higher levels, with the ability to wear mail, Shamans stray even farther from their "at one with nature" look by donning metal armor. Only the endgame sets (designed specifically for Shamans) sport robes and other accessories typically associated with the "medicine man" look. It is apparent, however, that Blizzard will not remedy this due to the massively disproportional scale of overhauling an entire armor group just to benefit one class.
Shaman in PVP
A shaman's behavior in Player versus Player combat depends largely upon their talent build; an Elemental shaman would perform similar to a mage, warlock, or other caster class, while an Enhancement shaman would perform similar to a warrior, paladin, or other melee class. Due to the shaman's hybrid nature, two differently-built shamans viewed side-by-side in a battleground setting could appear to be different classes altogether. Shamans possess two "snare" (slowing affect) abilites: Frost Shock (which affects a single target) and the Earthbind Totem (a totem which slows enemies within its radius). While not as effective as other class' snare abilities, many shamans regardless of talent build employ "kiting" (attacking while keeping distance between one's opponent and oneself) strategies in Player versus Player combat.
Like the druid and hunter classes, shamans have a means of increasing their movement speed for extended periods of time. This ability, wherein the shaman takes on the form and speed of a wolf, makes them capable carriers in the capture the flag based Warsong Gulch battleground.
Strengths
- Shaman, while not as effective as a druid or priest at healing a group, is quite capable of healing themselves. Efficient use of healing spells will enable a well played shaman to only need to rest occationaly to refill their mana pool. This keeps downtime to a minimum, and allows for fairly efficient grinding. A shamans ability to wear mail after level forty also makes them a little more survivable than the other two healing classes.
- An Enhancement shaman in PvP is quite deadly. The weapon buff Windfury, allows for two additional instant melee attacks at an increased attack power. For example, if the enchantment procs, this means that one hit for five hundred damage, could turn into an attack that totals over one thousand-five hundred damage. The unpredictability of this allows a shaman to potentially kill an opponent before they realize that they are in danger, and can be healed. With the appropriate equipment, it is possible, however unlikely, to kill a cloth wearing class in one hit.
- Elemental shamans are most similar to mages, but with much less damage potential and much greater armor. Most of the shamans offensive damage comes from shocks. These are instant cast spells which will either add a slowing effect (Frostshock), interrupt spells (Earthshock), or add a damage over time effect (Flameshock). Their two other offensive spells, Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, can be cast fairly quickly, and when the Restoration Tree talent Natures Swiftness (The next Nature spell with a casting time under ten seconds is an instant cast) is added, an elemental shaman can deal quite a bit of damage in a very short time. Most encounters of this kind may go something like this: Chain Lightning, Natures Swiftness, Chain Lightning, and then a follow up of one of the three shocks.
- For the two reasons above, some believe the shaman to be the best PvP class in the game.
Weaknesses
- Shaman-specific endgame itemization is focused almost exclusively on Restoration-specialized characters, with some newly-introduced gear aimed at Elemental-spec Shamans. Shamans in end-game PVE raids often find themselves there exclusively for their Restoration abilities (specifically Mana Tide Totem). Other non-restoration shamans sometimes have trouble finding their place in end-game raids. Additionally, the shaman's signature, class-defining ability (totems) suffer from many limitations in very large scale battles, such as 40-man raids, or in battles where the enemy being fought is highly mobile. Some of the weaknesses of totems include their limited range, their immobility (totems dropped to help a main tank are useless as soon as the mob moves the tank out of range of the totems), their insignificant amount of health (all but a few totems can be destroyed by one hit from even the weakest enemies in the game, regardless of the totem's level), and very poor scaling in endgame content (for example, totems which attempt to heal friendly players are considered to be useless in endgame content - a warrior with 7,000 hit points will not benefit from gaining 23 health every two seconds, especially when one considers that they may be taking thousands of damage from each hit from a mob.) On top of that, totems that grant bonuses to party members only work within the shaman's own group, not affecting the rest of the raid at all.
- Additionally, Shaman do not generally have a large number of hit points. While usually having more hit points than a Mage, Shaman do not have nearly the hit points of a Rogue or Warrior. Enhancement Shaman generally get agility gear to increase their percent of crits, and elemental Shaman attempt to improve intelligence in order to maximize casting damage. A Shaman could attempt to maximize hit points, but it would be at the expense of their other attributes.
- In PVP, Shamans are quite powerful, but they have two critical weaknesses. First, their PVP trinket does not dispel two of the most popular crowd-control mechanisms: fear and polymorph. Shamans also have no effective method of PvP crowd control. Shamans have no abilities which stun opponents, no fear abilities, and no polymorphing spells. On top of their weaknesses in PVE, when a Shaman pulls additional, unwanted mobs, his only option is the Stoneclaw totem, which holds a monster's aggro for about 5 seconds at best before being destroyed. Naturally this totem has no effect on enemy players, who will simply ignore the totem. On top of that, shamans have no method of shedding aggro other than slowing the mob and outrunning it, which can be impossible in instances or highly populated regions.
- Most dangerous of all is the mana inefficiency of the class. Improperly used, a shaman can expend their entire mana pool on a single enemy, leaving them vulnerable to later attacks. Only a handful of the spells are instant cast, and the rest are easily slowed or interrupted. If a healing shaman draws aggro, they cannot escape it and their heals can be effectively stopped due to damage.
Future changes and Implementations
The Shaman class received a review to its abilities and talents in patch 1.11, effective June 20, 2006. Most changes focused on adjusting the mana cost of the Shaman's basic abilities. [2]. The other major change is to the Windfury weapon buff, which had its attack power bonus reduced by more than half. Combined with other changes, overall damage per second of an enhancement specialized shaman is now very slightly higher; however it is far more consistent. This has the effect of greatly reducing the effectiveness of melee-specialist shamans in PVP, formerly one of their strengths.
Hopefuly this info helps on when you create your next guy ;D