Small shaman tweak ideas

[Akos1896]

Hey!

What's not my goal:
* Making shamans stronger or weaker.
* Suggest big, complex changes.

Just wanna push some things and maybe water down some others.

* Please consider some scaling to stoneskin totem. In theory it can have a slight niche on large+weak packs but it really needs scaling to stay interesting.
* Remove windwall totem. No one ever uses it but it gives to the narrative that shamans have too much utility. Helps fighting the narrative without affecting shaman gameplay in any way.
* Improved WF weapon should have reduced threat for the added attacks. Would prevent the random threat spikes.
* Add some CD to purge. I know, priests can do the same thing but shamans can interrupt+lock out from spell school every 5/6 sec, purge and use grounding. These three as a combination is a bit too much imo.

+1: Not necessarily easy or relevant but: If possible, please allow the players to ignore totems during targeting if they choose so. Hiding in a forest of totems while killing enemies is fun but not too fair.

[boxcar221]

Priests can also shield, fear, mind control and BLOW YOUR F*KIN HEAD OFF CHASTISING.
No purge nerf.

[Voodoochile]

- I don't think Stoneskin having scaling is healthy for it because of its post-mitigation calculation. The higher your %dmg mitigation is, the more valuable flat dmg reduction becomes because the final dmg number is smaller and the flat number makes up a bigger portion of that dmg, and because dmg reduction from armor has diminishing returns.

By giving it scaling, you are essentially removing the balancing feature of diminishing returns. If it got a buff, it needs to be flat. Maybe something simple like an +rank book in Kara.

- I don't feel any kinda way about windwall totem honestly, but I think removing it is a bit much. I'd say either combine it into any wind totem like Agi or NR, or nerf its dmg reduction and make it effect all missiles and not just ranged attacks.

- You're fucking up major if you cant play around the WF threat with all the handholding on this server. If you can't keep it in your pants for 5 seconds on pull, then use flametongue until there is a threat lead.

[Akos1896]

For Stoneskin:
A Kara drop also works. My idea is not a percentual mitigation, just added scaling. F.ex. currently max level mitigates 30. Under scaling I mean something like 30+n% of your stamina or armor, ending in a flat number for the whole party.

For Windwall:
It's minor. my reasoning. People, rightfully criticize shamans for having a tool for everything. Removing one which is virtually never used doesn't hurt anyone but makes the narrative slightly weaker.

For the WF:
It's mostly community feedback. But the problem is that the spike is totally random. You have a 20% with every hit that you go in with 2 extra hits with WF weapon, adding a bunch of threat. Can ruin you anytime, even mid-fight. Let's say you wanna stay below the tank but dish out decent DPS. Suddenly you hit 3x, mob turns to you and you're dead.

[Voodoochile]

For the WF:
It's mostly community feedback. But the problem is that the spike is totally random. You have a 20% with every hit that you go in with 2 extra hits with WF weapon, adding a bunch of threat. Can ruin you anytime, even mid-fight. Let's say you wanna stay below the tank but dish out decent DPS. Suddenly you hit 3x, mob turns to you and you're dead.

Again, I have no sympathy for this complaint. Shaman have other imbues they can swap to if they are literally 1 wf proc from taking threat. And aside from that, on Twow they have added 15% passive threat reduction in talents for everything shaman does in melee IN ADDITION to cross faction giving Shaman access to 25% passive threat reduction from Salv, totaling 40% threat reduction on all of your melee attacks and weapon imbue procs.

Threat is a mechanic in the game. There are items IN THE VANILLA that are specifically designed to reduce your threat. There are also Limited Invulnerability Potions and BoP's (again, cross faction making threat baby easy mode). Tank, DPS, and Healers ALL interact with it.

Again, If you can't handle using the tools within your own kit, with all of these hand holding, lobotmized gameplay mechanics, then there is a major issue with the person attached to the keyboard.

[Akos1896]

Again, the problem is a passive 20% chance of a spike. It's random and you can only 'plan around' by seriously withholding your DPS by passive waiting/imbue swapping. My problem is not that shamans have challenging threat. My problem is that the trigger for it is a lottery and 'workaround' is gimping your DPS.

I'm not against challenges for a build and I agree on the handholding on the server.
But if the 'challenge' is a random proc, it just becomes unfun. Sure, crit is similar to a degree but you can build up crit to the level you want via gearing + here each hits can additionally crit.

Crit is usually 150% damage and threat if we discounts talents, salvation etc.
WF weapon proc is baseline 300% and each hit can crit individually -> 300-450%.
We are talking about a 20% proc chance for something which does 2-3x more threat than a crit.

[Voodoochile]

Again, the problem is a passive 20% chance of a spike. It's random and you can only 'plan around' by seriously withholding your DPS by passive waiting/imbue swapping. My problem is not that shamans have challenging threat. My problem is that the trigger for it is a lottery and 'workaround' is gimping your DPS.

I'm not against challenges for a build and I agree on the handholding on the server.
But if the 'challenge' is a random proc, it just becomes unfun. Sure, crit is similar to a degree but you can build up crit to the level you want via gearing + here each hits can additionally crit.

Crit is usually 150% damage and threat if we discounts talents, salvation etc.
WF weapon proc is baseline 300% and each hit can crit individually -> 300-450%.
We are talking about a 20% proc chance for something which does 2-3x more threat than a crit.

Threat meters exist. And you should know how much you CAN burst for. And again, there are bop and lips. Also:





I repeat: I. have. no. sympathy. at all.

[Akos1896]

These are items usable by any class.
What I mean: it is bad design that an rng 20% can create 300-450% normal threat and the workarounds mean suboptimal gameplay.
I don't care about your sympathy, fortunately not you are responsible for the decisions.

[Voodoochile]

These are items usable by any class.
What I mean: it is bad design that an rng 20% can create 300-450% normal threat and the workarounds mean suboptimal gameplay.
I don't care about your sympathy, fortunately not you are responsible for the decisions.

It is, quite literally, not suboptimal if it is required to perform at your highest dps. If your dps is hard capped by threat, reducing your threat increases your dps cap. It is LITERALLY optimal to work around it.

AS A MATTER OF FACT. SHAMAN HAD A WAY TO INCREASE THEIR TANK'S THREAT WHEN THEY WERE THREAT CAPPED. IT WAS CALLED TOTEM TWISTING. ITS A SHAME THAT DOESNT EXIST ANYMORE

[Akarui]

Hey!

What's not my goal:
* Making shamans stronger or weaker.
* Suggest big, complex changes.

Just wanna push some things and maybe water down some others.

* Please consider some scaling to stoneskin totem. In theory it can have a slight niche on large+weak packs but it really needs scaling to stay interesting.
* Remove windwall totem. No one ever uses it but it gives to the narrative that shamans have too much utility. Helps fighting the narrative without affecting shaman gameplay in any way.
* Improved WF weapon should have reduced threat for the added attacks. Would prevent the random threat spikes.
* Add some CD to purge. I know, priests can do the same thing but shamans can interrupt+lock out from spell school every 5/6 sec, purge and use grounding. These three as a combination is a bit too much imo.

+1: Not necessarily easy or relevant but: If possible, please allow the players to ignore totems during targeting if they choose so. Hiding in a forest of totems while killing enemies is fun but not too fair.

Smart idea about threat. instead most disbalanced trash "if one of the bonus attack doens land. attack speed +30%" nonsense