Shamans see some changes in today's Beta build. Nothing world-shaking, a few small buffs and a small nerf and a change that I honestly can't tell which category to place it in.
- Stoneclaw Totem also protects your other totems, causing them to absorb damage.
Well, this certainly isn't a bad change. It does mean that wand macros will be changed to target the Stoneclaw totem first, I suppose, giving your other totems a few seconds more of life. (Since Stoneclaw has a decent amount of health, it will actually take a couple of hits to die.) Not a magnificent buff, but not bad either.
- Riptide sees its base healing increased on each rank.
Each rank of this spell will now heal for more, giving it more oomph as an HoT spell. Again, nothing bad to say about that, right?
Seems like a change between patches here. I'm pretty sure mana spring works along these same lines on live (mana every 2 seconds) but I could be wrong, I don't stare at my mana spring's return all that often.
MMO Champion indicates that Mana Spring was returning 90 mana every 5 seconds, which would make this a slight nerf between beta builds.
- Storm, Earth and Fire now reduces Chain Lightning's cooldown by up to 2.5 seconds instead of increasing the effect of spell power on lightning spells.
Okay, I guess. Not sure why they changed this.
Overall, the changes are minor, with no real outright nerfs and a couple of small buffs to speak of.
Tags: Beta-Build-8982, patch-3.0, patch-3.0.2, Shamans, wrath-beta, wrath-of-the-lich-king
Filed under: Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Sep 24th 2008 at 7:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Boondoggle Sep 24th 2008 7:07PM
ummm, Stoneclaw can multiple moonfires let alone a couple of wand hits. It is unclear from your post how much damage other totems will absorb, but this has the potential to be a huge buff, for all three specs, but especially for protecting mana tide.
Matthew Rossi Sep 24th 2008 7:11PM
The reason it's unclear is because I don't know. Does the Stoneclaw totem absorb any damage to the totems for its full health? That can be a signifcant amount of damage, as you indicate. Until I get the beta DL and can test, this is as much as I know.
soccerstriker23 Sep 24th 2008 7:53PM
that ain't no huge buff, it's the smallest buff there is, the totem that needs protecting the most is tremor totem
amasen Sep 24th 2008 8:27PM
This will quite possibly completely change shaman in arena depending on how this implemented. If it protects all totems until it's absorbed it's full amount of health, it will take a DPS class to take it down or a healer a large amount of mana or time (wanding). If it also stuns anyone hitting any totem while it's up, then this spell will be INCREDIBLE.
With constant fear breaks, Spell absorption from CC and Snare removal (Enhance) while this totem is up it has the potential to be a very big threat in arena.
The 30second cooldown makes this situational instead of a constant problem, but forcing players to find this totem, kill it before handling others totems can and will be a big deal when used at certain crucial moments.
Interesting change.
Heilig Sep 25th 2008 12:35AM
The poster after Matt has it right. The single most targeted totem is tremor, and if you have tremor down you can't use this "buff".
Maybe it will protect mana tide and WF, but they are targeted WAY less than tremor.
amasen Sep 25th 2008 3:26PM
Haha. Damn in my excitement I forgot to think about totem schools. /bummer
victor Sep 24th 2008 7:12PM
Just wanted to read "Riptide has been replaced with Spirit Link, which now works properly" :(
But yeah, sad.
Slugburn Sep 24th 2008 7:21PM
I wonder if this will protect Fire Nova totem, making it easier to use when soloing?
Mike Sep 24th 2008 7:40PM
The stoneclaw buff still doesn't address the issue of most of the significant enhancement totems being part of the same element. So basically use stoneclaw and sacrifice your dps or character control. But hey, at least your totems will take 3 whacks by a level 1 character to kill instead of 1! (Please note that 3 is an exaggeration for effect, it may only be 2 by the time this is released to live servers.)
Xioxide Sep 25th 2008 6:18PM
Yes, because 1.6k instant damage is easily attainable by low level characters...
Scott Sep 24th 2008 7:43PM
The real problem with Storm Earth and Fire is that is is a SCALING nerf to elemental Shamans. Every other class ahs a +10% from spellpower talent. This means that as spellpower goes higher, shammies (already on the low end fro raid DPS) will fall further and further behind.
Some theorycrrafters are raising the spectre of being out DPSed by a prot warrior.
Zep Sep 24th 2008 7:41PM
Ahh... I see... does stoneclaw take damage that other totems would have taken, a la spirit link/soul link, or does it cause other totems to be invulnerable till it dies?
Jeff Sep 24th 2008 9:02PM
my elemental shaman friend is cutting himself now.....wtf? i don't wanna lose my friend to a barrage of nerf bats. he owes me gold! according to him, his lvl 80 elemental shaman is doing just as much damage as his current lvl 70 shaman. there is nothing right about that. "hmmm....shamans aren't doing much damage....lets nerf them!!! and give all their buffs to DKs!!!! yay!".
Taedirk Sep 24th 2008 7:59PM
Congratulations Shaman on losing your ability to drop any other Earth totems except for Stoneclaw now.
Verit Sep 25th 2008 3:14AM
Its only a pvp thing - in a raid totems are pretty much immune or untouched by bosses and npc's.
Akutsito Sep 24th 2008 8:08PM
Elemental: The change couldnt be more irrelevant really, elemental needs a lot of work atm...
Resto: Riptide... oh riptide, unless the coefficient is buffed, it still sucks, the hot value is kinda useless (or was), only time i used it, is when i need instant big heal to the tank and to heal adyacent targets urgently, in which case ill riptide, and throw in some Chain heals.., other than that, is pretty pointless...
Totems: Totems atm need a total rework, what do i care if Earthbind is Buffed if i have to now throw, Stoneclaw to protect my totems, Ebind to remove movement impairing effect and/or slow and Tremor to prevent Fear effects, thats 3 Earth totems that needs to be thrown, you cant protect Tremor which is probably the most useful totem for us Shamans, with Enh Spec you cant protect EBind to remove movement impairing effects...
Problem is there are too many totems of one type, Water totems are 90% useless, you throw what? Mana Spring? Poison Cleansing? thats it, Mana Spring in 5man is useless (speeds up a bit the run, but nothing groundbreaking), Poison Cleansing is used in 10% of all the encounters (if much), and there are no other Useful Water Totems (lets leave alone Tide here), combine that in a 25man Raid, 2 Shamans and you're starting to overlap totems or throwing useless ones..., they need to rework a lot of the totems and have the Types a bit more spread...
uruman Sep 24th 2008 8:18PM
Honestly, I don't think they know what the hell they are doing. The Dev's work off of damage spreadsheets, and really there must be a glaring error in there somewhere because they continually nerf elemental raid DPS over and over and over ...
And for enhancement they have left a bug in Windfury weapon for months that nerfs its damage, so no one knows if they are scaling either.
slight buff to resto though right? ohhhhh 50% rule, thou has reared its ugly head again. Minor nerf to mana regen.
Grental Sep 24th 2008 9:31PM
Ya know, the Stoneclaw thing is lame as hell though. Let's look at the totems an ehancement shaman is gonna need to be any good at PVP.
1. Stoneclaw to protect other totems.
2. Earthbind to slow targets and to remove snares.
3. Strength of Earth for damage and crit buff.
4. Earth Elemental for help with flag guarding etc.
Granted, #4 isn't a TRUE choice, but the rest of them will get used often. Why in the name of all that is holy are they forcing us to pick between 4 or 5 different earth totems to use? Stoneclaw buff is a bandaid at best, FIX TOTEMS!
Grental Sep 24th 2008 9:36PM
Oh, and I forgot Tremor totem for Fears and Seductions! *face palm*
Berend Sep 25th 2008 2:14AM
y does it have a hunter pic for shammy build....or at least it looks like a hunter