[WoW] Enhance Sham = broken?

[Dammerung]

I see a lot of people on this forum talk about how the Enhancement tree is "broken" or "shitty". Is it? With the new talents and spells I consistently top the damage meters in my instance groups. Is it just a matter of not being able to get in there and melee against some of these mobs with high damage AE/cleave abilities? If so, wouldn't that be more of a general melee issue?

I realize that there isn't much potency for PvP, but in PvE, I think I do just fine. Against comparably-geared DPS I hold my own. So what's the issue? Am I just playing with really shitty DPSers?

[Ortega]

I don't know if enhancement is broken, but I will say it is utterly retarded that shamans are practically required for 5v5 arena due to the fact bloodlust is RIGGED.

[Clericnon2boxed]

Arena season started yet ? can't wait for the drama

[Immy]

Shaman enchanment issues dont come up unless you're in a raiding environment or you're in a heroic. It's so easy to pull aggro as a shaman it's a joke. Yeah, and pulling aggro in a heroic or raid usually means a stiff beatdown and then a run back from your local graveyard. When you play an enhancment shaman you need to think like a mage and really pace your DPS, or you'll have multiple 15g repair bills every time you group. Shaman cannot match rogue DPS in raids, period. The issue isn't how much damage you can dish out, it's the amount of aggro you have no ability to shed.

Oh, and you dont have the luxury of frost nova and hoping that somehow the warrior can save your ass before it breaks. By the time you realize you've pulled aggro, you're usually already dead.

[Ortega]

Originally Posted by Clericnon2boxed

Arena season started yet ? can't wait for the drama

Yep it started. It's actually pretty fun despite some glaring class balance issues. I really hope Blizzard puts heroism/bloodlust on a 15 minute cooldown or something, because it's stupid that your at such a big disadvantage from not bringing a shaman. Its like if they allowed recklessness and you didn't have a warrior, its that big of a deal!

[TheOkapi]

My 52 enhancement shaman pulled agro from a 70 warrior in Sunken Temple. No joke.

[Manticore]

Originally Posted by Ortega

I really hope Blizzard puts heroism/bloodlust on a 15 minute cooldown or something, because it's stupid that your at such a big disadvantage from not bringing a shaman. Its like if they allowed recklessness and you didn't have a warrior, its that big of a deal!

then they only should do such a long cooldown for arenas cause BL on that timer would hurt as hell in pve (HI2UGRUUL)

[Aulirophile]

Originally Posted by Dammerung

I see a lot of people on this forum talk about how the Enhancement tree is "broken" or "shitty". Is it? With the new talents and spells I consistently top the damage meters in my instance groups. Is it just a matter of not being able to get in there and melee against some of these mobs with high damage AE/cleave abilities? If so, wouldn't that be more of a general melee issue?

I realize that there isn't much potency for PvP, but in PvE, I think I do just fine. Against comparably-geared DPS I hold my own. So what's the issue? Am I just playing with really shitty DPSers?

Shaman have no innate threat reduction and the talented reduction is only 15%, so you're threat limited something like 14% lower then a rogue's top DPS in a PvE environment, not counting that they have feint/vanish. In the end, even if you can dish out more DPS, on any threat-limited fight you will inherently do less DPS then a Rogue/Cat/Warrior/Mage who all have superior threat reduction. Possibly Hunter and Warlock as well.

Gurg posted that one of his Enhance Shaman was consistently top 3 DPS in Kara and that he would like one (but only one) for every raid, so I don't think they're doing all that badly.

The advantage they have going for them is that with such a big increase in DPS for their party (through totems and +10% to attack power) the damage they're not doing because of this is made up for by the people they buff. So they're 14% behind a Rogue, but a good Rogue can do 12% more damage because the Shaman is in the group with him. Multiply by 4.

In PvP I have no idea, but I haven't heard anyone complaining.

[Qhue]

Shaman already got a big "fuck you" courtesy of the god damn arena bullshit with the cooldowns on the two Elementals so that they cant be used in the arena. Anymore time-crippling of the class to satisfy the PVP dickwaving would be a poor design decision.

[Ortega]

Originally Posted by Qhue

Shaman already got a big "fuck you" courtesy of the god damn arena bullshit with the cooldowns on the two Elementals so that they cant be used in the arena. Anymore time-crippling of the class to satisfy the PVP dickwaving would be a poor design decision.

Perhaps if you don't pvp that would be your feeling, but to anyone who is playing arena seriously they're going to want a shaman. I don't think theres a single person on this board dumb enough to not realize how powerful 30% attack speed and casting speed is. Ever try to pummel a 1.15 second heal, yea its hard... Ever see a warrior with windfury and 30% haste, yea its crazy. Whether or not they restrict the ability specifically or increase the cool down I don't care, but for a shaman to be bringing so much to the table by casting 1 buff is just stupid. On the note of elementals, I have no idea why they restricted those and not Heroism/bloodlust. Elementals are virtually fucking worthless and Bloodlust is god mode for 40 seconds unless your priest manages to get off a few mass dispels before he dies.

[Samflam]

I went into TBC with high hopes of being a legit dual wield shaman. Worked on the HWL axes, got my gear up to snuff and I was really excited about it.
It didn't take long for me to remember why I switched from a rogue to a priest; I couldn't deal with the DPS class woes again.
What really hurts enhancement shaman is that while they can definitely hold their own with their DPS and buffs they bring, they have no real crowd control. Most of the other DPS classes have a way to CC, so five mans normally would do much better with a mage/lock/rogue.
I am sure that in a raid environment one enhance shaman would help, with unleashed rage/bloodlust/enhanced totems, but even then you have to really watch your aggro at all times. I'm not good at that, I'm used to fade/shield when I play my priest and aggro, and I'm used to feint/vanish when I would play my rogue. I HATE having to just stop attacking and back off.

[Believe]

Apparently there are going to be some changes to Shaman and Warriors in the next content patch. I believe one of the Shaman problems they mentioned was threat.

Seriously all the need to do is make "Wind Shock" that reduces the Shaman's threat to the target.

[Samflam]

Interesting... would you happen to have a link or something? I'd love to read more about that.

[Cedric]

Shaman are sort of boned in the fact that they are lumped with rogues into the "fuck melee TBC is for ranged dps" and have less ways to avoid the damage, but when they get a chance to stick in there they are absolutely amazing. On the first boss of Gruul's our enhance shaman is consistently at the top of dps charts without pulling aggro basically doing rogue damage with a bunch of extra buffs. Of course a few fights will make the spec sub optimal but you get that with just about any spec for raiding. Not sure what you could really change without making them too good to not have.

edit: first gruuls durr i type guds

[Warrian]

Originally Posted by Samflam

Interesting... would you happen to have a link or something? I'd love to read more about that.

At the moment there's nothing more to read. There's been a few posts by Tseric mentioning that there's going to be some changes, but as to what is unknown. Here is just a few that I snagged.

Originally Posted by Tseric

And as a final note, the devs don't like nerfing, they like buffing. As it stands, they see legitimate issues of class balance for Warriors and Shaman in the current situation. Changes may occur to any and all other classes, as per usual, but those are points of concern for the devs. Try not to wrap those legitimate concerns in too much exaggeration. Don't tell me it can't happen; I've already seen it.

Originally Posted by Tseric

What the devs want to work towards is having a generally arms spec'ed warrior as something of a base-line tank. If you don't take that too literally, I will elaborate.

Figure Prot to be high tanking and Fury to be high DPS. Put varying Arms spec's in a middle-ground. That's a general way to look at things.