Totems - from flat numbers to percentages

[Akos1896]

Hey!
I think that giving some totems a percentual value instead of an exact number would help a lot because of scaling.
An example:
Earthbind totem currently decreases the melee damage taken by x. As people progress and melee damage gets really high, this totem becomes a joke because it doesn't scale with the damage difference between Scholo and Naxx.
A version which decreases x% of the melee damage taken could be a good utility throughout the game because it scales.
Would advise the same logic for health totem, the mana totems, maybe strenghth and agility ones (these 2 are good even now though). Maybe even to windwall and flametongue.

PS: Windfury works in a percentual way and it is a success (maybe even too opressive at the moment). Sure, you get a flat number as added damage to WF hit but the main idea is the 20% of you hitting twice. The better gear you have, the bigger it hits, it scales this way.

[Neltharion]

How would the AQ20 books work for STR and AGY totem work tho?

[Jc473]

PS: Windfury works in a percentual way and it is a success (maybe even too opressive at the moment).

Maybe too oppressive?

I think Windfury totem blows all other options out of the water!

Re your main point, I agree. But I think the same treatment could also be done to everything else too though. For example, there's plenty of buffs which add fixed values and become progressively weaker as people work their way through the vertical gear progression.

[Gladeshadow]

You've hit upon a definite conundrum. If I may though, it seems too narrow to think of *only* shaman minions - because that's what totems are. The minions of hunters and warlocks also suffer because they don't scale at all with gear at 60.

Of course, why would it end just at minions though? Many skills don't scale. Priests' power word shield, mages' ice barrier, warriors' revenge, etc. These could all be redone to scale with attack power, spell power, etc.

What I'm building is to saying that a lot of stuff in the game doesn't scale while some does. To me, it looks like a lot of the design was done in a vacuum of considering only leveling without looking at end game utility. For example, learning new skills is great while leveling and adds to a sense of progression, but it's meaningless at level 60.

I agree that it should be looked at -ALL looked at - and redone. It would be a big project but certainly a worthwhile one if looking to improve the game. Not sure it's a big priority at the moment.

[Grizb37]

Maybe add more spell books, but make them BOP so you had to do those raids to unlock the more powerful totems so they'd scale in a way with your gear profession.

[Ninjerk]

Perfect idea for new talents to replace some of the underwhelming ones