Elemental Shamans in 2v2/3v3: Futile.

I had a dream last night where I was looking at armory and a team was rated 2909, with 3030 games played that week and 0 losses. It had an elemental shaman on it as well as a warlock. Hahaha, you know you're addicted to something when you start having dreams about it. Too bad in reality, 2909 rating would not be justified by a 3030+ win streak, and a 3030 win streak would NOT be justified by a Ele. Shaman/Warlock combo.



I am frustrated with playing my Elemental Shaman in the lower brackets of arena. 2v2 and 3v3 just are not an option for me, unless I spec restoration. Resto Shamans are quite viable in the lower brackets, being a healer with mail, purge, earth shield, nature's guardian, mana tide, etc. A little bit more viable, but still aren't the best healers in the lower brackets. On top of all the perks of being a resto shaman in arena - they also bring chain heal to raids, which increases their effectiveness in the PvE area of the game. I feel that a shaman's usefulness scales with how many players he is playing with. Heroism affecting 4 extra targets (5v5) instead of just one (2v2) or two (3v3), is huge. As a damage dealer, an elemental shaman brings nothing to the table quite like a rogue, warrior, mage, warlock, hunter, and shadowpriest do. All the classes that were just mentioned can do a constant stream of damage (warlock, priest), bring in some CC to either accompany their damage or take a player out of the game for a few seconds (rogue, warlock, hunter, mage), or just be a huge influence overall (MS warrior). What does an Elemental Shaman bring? Besides an earthbind totem that can be dropped every 15 seconds, in which the effect goes away if the totem is destroyed - and the fact that we can frost shock someone and *try* to kite for a little, we bring nothing to the CC table. We also have an instant-crit, for usually 3000 damage+ chain lightning. Too bad the cooldown is every 3 minutes. Don't worry, it's all good... I'm glad we get to cast another spell for free after a crit with clearcast! Oh wait...



(Yes, this is a QQ Post).



In many other classes, blizzard designed it so that no matter what you specced - you could be a viable part of arena. Obviously, this doesn't play out for some classes. Notably, shamans are almost non-existent in 2s (1 in all top 20 US teams), and the shamans that are doing great in 3s, are restoration specced (I noticed a lot of healer/resto shaman/warrior teams). I believe that blizzard needs to re-work the elemental tree to make shamans a decent threat against opponents. Being a mail caster - we have some armor, and good gear always helps our viability - but you would be surprised how easy it is to take down an elemental shaman with just 1 rogue, or just one warrior.



Some changes that can be made:



First, we need some sort of CC besides earthbind and frostshock.



The classes currently:

Priest: Psychic Scream

Warrior: Intim Shout, Intercept Stun (more offensive)

Mage: Poly, Frost Nova, Pet Nova, Snaring effects

Hunter: Scatter, Frost Trap, Freezing Trap, Snake Trap

Warlock: Fear, Deathcoil, CoX

Rogue: Blind, Sap, Stuns

Druid: Cyclone, The ability to shift forms and drop debuffs

Paladin: Alright, well these guys don't have much CC, but they do get a divine shield, a hammer of justice, and some ridiculous healing gear to make sure that their flash of lights crit for a billion.



"Totem of Disable"

A talent you can spec into that lets you drop a totem, the closest opposing target to your totem becomes incapacitated for 3.25 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds, Mana Cost: 264. Element: Totem of Earth.



>>With double the mana cost of the earthbind totem, this isn't exactly mana efficient. The fact that it incapacitates the person that is closest to where you drop it can effect how shaman positioning has to be, and adds an element to the game where opposing players have to recognize their position with others. A two-fold type of CC, 1) Opponents don't want you near them, so if a shaman gets close - they stop whatever they are doing, and find better positioning elsewhere. This could mean that the opposing player isn't chain-casting frostbolts 2) Does the job of the CC at the same time. A cooldown of 10 seconds means it cannot be spammed like cyclone, however, it is still short enough to juggle with earthbind and tremor.



Second, many classes have an escape mechanism / way of absorbing or mitigating damage at crucial points in a fight. Shaman's need this.



Priest: Power Word: Shield

Druid: Shift forms to bear

Warlock: Deathcoil

Mage: Ice Barrier

Rogue: Vanish

Paladin: Bubble

Hunter: Feign Death / Scatter (The FD ...eh that's debatable I guess, but it can make the opposition de-target you for a second).

Warrior: You wars have plate, you don't need ****.

Restoration Shaman: Nature's Guardian



Hmm, what do I - as an elemental shaman have? Oh COOL BRO! I got a sweet sweet Insignia of the Alliance / Medallion of the Horde. 2 minute cooldown for one dispel .



"Fire Shield"

Another talent in the elemental tree. Tier 5 or later. Instant cast, absorbs 1000 magic damage, 1250 physical damage. Mana Cost: 486. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Cannot be cast on other players.



>>It may be a little "OP" if you will, but it's an elemental shaman's version of earth shield. It can still be purged off, and it costs 486 mana - basically more than 5% of an elemental shaman's mana pool. Absorbs both types of damage, so if a mage frostbolts you for 1000, you absorb it all, and still have a 1250 physical damage shield.



These are some of my own changes that I would make if I was a blizzard developer. I am welcome to suggestions and criticism! Thank you guys for reading shadow-gaming as usual. This will also be posted on Gameriot.com, under my blog - my account name is ReftSG.



In other news: I got a golf lesson, and my stance was altered quite a bit. My golf instructor's name is "Bammer Flippo" -- haha interesting right? He's a golf pro at the Stanford golf course. Pretty cool guy, except he charges $55 for 30 minutes of instruction. I think I am learning more and I hope to shoot lower soon, especially with the acquisition of my new epics - a TaylorMade R7 Iron set. I also went on a couple dates with this girl over the past month, and she decided to tell me last night that she was seeing someone - after a lunch, 2 dinners, and chatting quite a bit (yes, I did pay for all of it). I'm kind of, taken aback, I guess - since I thought I she liked me, and I definitely did not think she was already taken. She never mentioned it to me, over a month, and she obviously knew that we were going on some serious dates. Either way, I think it's lame. But there are other fish in the sea. And no, I'm not rerolling to homosexuality. Thank you.



Thanks for reading

Reft