Dual Gladiator Weapons

I've managed to get my second Gladiator Weapon, Shammy looks coll with both, Ill update Pics when I get home, with Druid and Shammy. Yesterday I did a Hallaa raid and that was awesome fun, have never done one before asides beating on the random alliance around when i see them.

I got myself 47 Tokens from one raid which is fairly huge, so I am working on getting a +10 Resilience gem for my efforts.

I joined a 5v5 and 3v3 arena team on Saturday, the 5v5 was a bit of a flop, we had to many variations of everything, Resto Shammy, Enhancement Shammy, Rogue, Mage, Paladin.

We aren't very geared though. We won 3/7 games. We have a rating of 1443 or something, now I'm no expert in arean groups, but I think groups that complement each other are more succesful, enhancement shammy, warrior and paladin, druid, rogue or hunter would work better I think.

All 3 DPS complement eaach other, shammy boosts warrior or rogue, hunter boost shammy warrior, pali & druid boost both.

In the 3v3 group we had more luck, resto druid, a really good one, and 2 enhancement shammys, it was a laugh seeing all the windfury procs, we won 8 and lost 2, but we went to 1576 and its not bd seeing my and the other enhancement shammy dont have bugger all resilience. Druid does the CC, Entagle Roots for melee, Cyclone for healers. And we beat down clothies fast.

Can heal, 2 sets of Bloodlust, 2 Shaministic Rage, 30% less damage when we are being ganged up on. Its pretty damn good. Oviosuly the more games & points we play the more gear we can get helps us win more. But as I was talking about before, the group complements each other, we are both melee DPS, so any clothies die quick, we have 2 sets of everything and Unleashed Rage is up all of the time.

Level 20 Druid

I managed to level my Druid to 20 last night, I now have Cat Form and Bear Form, I still need to complete my quest to get Seal Form.

I have one Half of my pendant required to complete the quest, the other half is on the other side of the world so I am working on getting a Deadmines group to get over there , get the pendant, get some XP and hopefully so loot.

I have been leveling with all my talent points in Balance at the moment, the idea of this druid is to be Moonkin, so I started this approach but think its probably best to level as Feral and swap later. However it will cost me 5g to respec and since this is my only character on the server that isn't going to happen for a while.

I'm enjoying the Druid, but leveling without the assistance of movement speed (Feral) and gold and Bags is very difficult.

Enhancement and Druid

I have changed my shaman to enhancement now, and have done a few raids and lots of PVP with it. I started with Dual Wield and have recently changed over to a 2h enhancement spec, my build is 0/37/24.

This is the most DPS I can get with that amount of points spent in restoration, I have been trying to increase my survivability in PVP.

Using Shamulator, I have come to the conclusion about DW vs 2h that DW is more sustainable DPS, and scales better, but costs more talent points to do so.

2H advantage is its amazing burst potential. Using the talent points available and the stats changed from DW to 2h this is the calculations I came up with.

Dual Wield
Low DPS 438-991 High DPS
Avg DPS 627 Weapon Mastery 0
Avg DPS 686 Weapon Mastery 5
Avg DPS 741 Full Spec
(More stable DPS, scales better.)
(Less burst damage.)

2 Hander
Low DPS 399-1162 High DPS
Avg DPS 638 Weapon Mastery 5
Avg DPS 694 Full Spec
(Unstable DPS.)
(Great burst potential. Less talent points req.)

So the main difference is that when I spec 2h only I have 5 points into Weapon Mastery, and you can see the difference in the avg that makes. And the major difference in burst.

This is one of things i like best about my shaman, I can change from Melee, to Caster to Healer at the drop of a button. And because of this I have rolled a Druid on Jubi'thos, I have a few work mates that created Alliance characters over there and since i have been Horde my entire WOW time I decided to give it a go, and am currently level 16 working on a Moonkin Druid, I figure I was Elemental Shaman I want to see the comparison between the 2 classes that are most closely matched. If I don't like it I can change to Feral I guess......Hybrids ftw :P

Hybrid FTW

Since the changes of server and new equipment, this is what Happy now looks like.



With Wrath of Air down, Strength of Earth down, and Superior Wizard Oil on both weapons I can stand back and throw some really decent lighting bolts at people.



I have sacrificed, Lighting Overload, 5% Healing & Lighting Crit and Natures Swiftness, to gain nearly 150 damage with my totems down. I figure if I get some really decent PVP gear with more + dmg on it, my PVP mace as main hand, which isn't far off, and my off hand enchanted I could be hitting +1300 nature damage. I cast .1 second slower then before and get no Overload procs, but this is ripping pretty hard in Battle Grounds.

Official Patch 2.4 Update : Class Changes

Source : http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Druids

* Empowered Rejuvenation: This talent now properly affects the final heal from Lifebloom.
* Gift of Nature: This talent now properly affects the healing from Tranquility.
* Insect Swarm: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
* Lifebloom healing coefficient has been reduced.
* Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0.
* Many shapeshift form tooltips have been updated to be consistent with each other.
* Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent and reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
* Nurturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% of your Attack Power while in Cat form.
* When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.

Hunter

* Equipping a thrown weapon while in the middle of an Auto-Shot will no longer cause animation issues.
* Casting Flare while in any way not visible, will no longer cause your flare to be invisible to other players.
* Hunter's Mark: Hunters with Improved Hunter's Mark will now properly overwrite Hunter's Mark cast by Hunters without the talent.
* Improved Mend Pet now has a 50/100% chance to remove one Curse, Disease, Magic, or Poison effect, up from 15/50%.
* The stamina tooltip for hunter pets will now display the proper health increase.
* Hunters will no longer spin around if they cast Aimed Shot or Steady Shot while facing away from their target.


Mages

* Arcane Explosion: The damage cap for area of effect damage on this spell has been increased by approximately 50%.
* Arcane Fortitude now increases your armor by an amount equal to 100% of your Intellect, up from 50%.
* Blink, Slow, and Spellsteal have all had their mana cost reduced.
* Using low ranks of Fire Ward and Frost Ward spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Frostbite: When a frost spell is reflected back at a Mage, it is now possible for the Mage to suffer from the Frostbite effect.
* Ice Barrier: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Icy Veins no longer stacks with Bloodlust/Heroism.
* Improved FireWard has become Molten Shields.
* New Talent: Molten Shields will cause your Fire Ward to have a 10/20% chance to reflect Fire spells while active. In addition, your Molten Armor has a 50/100% chance to affect ranged and spell attacks.
* Permafrost: This talent will now correctly increase the movement slowing effect of frost Armor instead of the attack speed slow.
* Spellsteal will no longer overwrite a longer duration buff.


Paladins

* Avenger's Shield, Holy Shield and Holy Shock: Casting lower ranks of these spells is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
* Divine Illumination: The mana energize from this talent no longer has a chance to set off other triggered effects.
* Holy Shock: The healing, damage, and mana cost of this spell have all been increased.
* udgment of the Crusader: It is no longer possible to have icons for two different ranks of Judgment of the Crusader appear at the same time when judged by multiple Paladins.
* Judgment of Wisdom: Some abilities (such as Frostbolt) were not triggering the mana energize effect from this spell. This has now been fixed.
* Resistance Auras: It is no longer possible for two Paladins in the same party to make it appear that players have two of the same resistance aura active.
* Righteous Defense: This spell will now always be castable on friendly npcs.
* Seal of Blood: This ability will no longer cause spell pushback for the Paladin with this seal active.
* Turn Undead(Rank 3):This spell has been reworked and has been renamed to Turn Evil. It will now work on Demons in addition to Undead. Turn Evil is subject to diminishing returns, and lasts 10 seconds in PvP.

Priests

* Chastise no longer disorients the target, but now is instant cast and roots the target for 2 seconds.
* Fear Ward is now usable while in Shadow form.
* Focused Will now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
* Inner Focus: Chastise now benefits from Inner Focus. In addition, Starshards no longer consumes Inner Focus.
* Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% for 15 seconds.
* Power Word: Shield: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
* Prayer of Mending: This spell will now fade from players who leave or enter an instance, change continents, or exit the game.
* Reflective Shield: The reactive damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control affects which break on taking damage.
* Shadowguard: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.
* Silent Resolve:This talent now affects Surge of Light, Power Infusion, Inspiration, Spirit Tap, Blackout, Levitate, Shackle Undead, Touch of Weakness, Hex of Weakness, and Symbol of Hope.
* Touch of Weakness: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.It will also function properly even when the Priest with Touch of Weakness on is silenced or stunned.
* Vampiric Touch: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.


Rogues

* Abilities that can be used while stealthed, without breaking stealth, can now be cast without breaking Vanish when used at the same time.
* Cheat Death: A combat log message will now show when this ability activates and now has an animation.
* Improved Backstab is now called Puncturing Wounds.
* Puncturing Wounds increases your critical strike chance with Backstab by 10/20/30%, and the critical strike chance with your Mutilate ability by 5/10/15%.
* Improved Sprint: This ability will now always remove Entangling Roots.
* Sap mechanic changed from Incapacitate to Sap. This will allow more humanoids that were previously immune to Sap to be vulnerable to Sap, but still immune to Gouge. Note that anything that removed Sap previously will still remove Sap after the change.
* Vanish: This ability will no longer sometimes cause the UI to display Shadowmeld as active when it has been cancelled.

Shaman

* Call of Thunder: (Rank 5) now gives 5% critical strike chance.
* Earth Shield: Mana cost reduced roughly in half, and charges reduced from 10 to 6.
* Elemental Focus: This buff will no longer be removed when Shamanistic Focus is triggered.
* Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
* Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
* Nature's Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown.
* Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
* Stormstrike has a new icon.
* Totem timer icons will now show up under your player portrait when you cast totem spells. Right-clicking a totem timer icon will destroy that totem.
* Tremor Totem now pulses every 3 seconds, down from 4.
* The Shaman spell Fire Nova Totem will no longer sometimes detonate without doing any damage.


Warlocks

* Blood Pact now has a tooltip.
* Demonic Knowledge: This buff will no longer remain on enslaved demons when Enslave Demon is removed. It will now increase your spell damage by an amount equal to 4/8/12%, down from 5/10/15%.
* Demonic Sacrifice: Now works properly in sanctuary regions (such as Shattrath City and the Stair of Destiny).
* Nether Protection: The buff from this talent will no longer interrupt capturing PvP flags and bases.
* Pyroclasm: This talent now works correctly again with Rain of Fire.
* Ritual of Summoning can be used to summon players into instances if they meet the instance requirements.
* Shadow Ward: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.


Warriors

* Endless Rage will now give the correct amount of rage as intended from damage dealt by a Warrior.
* Stances: It is no longer possible to accidentally change into a stance you are already in via macros (resulting in a global cooldown and loss of rage).
* Whirlwind: Critical strikes with the off-hand weapon from this ability can now trigger Flurry and Rampage.
* Flurry will properly refresh if a crit occurs with 1 charge left.
* Improved Hamstring (Arms) effect is now subject to diminishing returns when used in PvP.

Elemental Problems

From Nerf my Shaman*

So well, if this is true, it is the most, well, Elemental Shamans are messed up. There was debate on the blogosphere about how OP were Elemental Shamans with PI (Power Infusion: Spell damage and healing done increased by 20%.) in 5vs5 Arena. Specially after Inactive release some CLC videos where he has taken insane burst.

Having played Ele only during my Leveling, I don't know how much this nerf will impact for them in arena. But it's definitely a sad day for them.

Couldn't agree with him more, I leveled to 70 as Elemental, played through the PVE raids as Elemental, I took some hardcore convincing from the guild to even let me take a mages spot, after I was fairly geared, and they saw the potential damage I raised in the 5 man group I was in, and the DPS I was dishing out myself I got allot of spots.

But there is only ever one Ele sham per guild most of the time, why would you ever need more. The spec is one of the least played according to wow census, and since the changes in 2.3 I thought they had got us to a fairly balanced state.

Now 2.4 comes, we loose crit, burst,and gain nothing in return. If the reason for these nerfs are due to movies being made about huge crits from elemental shamans, that's a bad move.

For those that haven't seen the CLC Video here it is.

Hybrid Totem

So, I haven't played for a while, I enabled my account to test out a few features I read about in 2.4. Though I haven't been able to get the PTR to work.

I have renamed the site to Hybrid Totem, because once again I have respec'd now predominantly during TBC I have been Elemental, but I have bounced between all 3 specs, this latest one has come about because of a video I watched on the Shaman Forums.

I have spec'd 29/32/0, I have had fun in the past with this spec but with the new up coming changes in 2.4 I think the Ghost Wolf changes mainly will make this really enjoyable.

Also 2.4 no EM + NS, which hits elemental pretty hard, so with this new spec, no cooldowns. Tones of +dmg, quick lighting bolts. Stand back and cast, doing 1600-3200 lighting bolts. When the enemy gets close Fire Nova and Stormstrike.

I have prevented all healing until Eye of the Storm procs. And so far its been pretty good. Yesterday I got 26/3 in Warsong Gulch, and had a blast, the players didn't know weather to keep there distance or come up close to me.

I've also updated a Column with other shaman blogs, I enjoy reading about what other Shamans are doing through the game, and there ideas and thoughts about it. When I get home Ill link the video of the Shaman that inspired this hybrid change, and I figure if I spec either Melee, Resto, or Elemental, Shamans are still considered Hybrids so the name shouldn't have to change any more.

Difference beetween PVP and PVE elemental build

I use 2 builds with my shaman, one for PVE, which is 41/0/20

PVE Build

and one for PVP, which is 40/0/21

PVP Build

This is all the difference beetween the two builds, yet it makes a huge difference in PVP....

4% less expensive spells - PVE
.8 second quicker shocks - PVE
10% less threat - PVE
9% more chance to hit - PVE
totem of wrath - PVE
15% less expensive totems - PVE
10 more yard range on totems - PVE

100% chance gain focus casting after being hit by melee or ranged crit - PVP
6% less chance to be crit by melee and ranged weapon - PVP
70% chance to avoid interupt while healing - PVP
25% more amour on critcal heals - PVP
.5 seconds quicker Healing Wave - PVP
natures swiftness - PVP

Basically, in PVP I use more mana, but gain survivability, in PVE I use less mana, loose survivability, and gain more group support functionality.

There isn't a huge difference beetween the two builds, yet a few simple features, like 70% chance to avoid interupt while healing, makes a massive difference in the way an opponent has to tackle your class.....

I like that the game can be so versitile from such a few small changes, it adds depth to the game, and keeps it interesting. What ever build you choose for your class adds a different perspective to the game, another class and build have to take into account.

2.3 is Big, Bigger and Better

2.3 is a great patch, by far one of the best they have ever done, it was looking like dreafully horrible patch to us elemenental shamans, but it has turned out fantastic.

Guild banks are quite cool, I'm a 375 LW, so I have been taking leather scraps and knothide leather, and turning it into Heavy Knothide leather for the guild. I will donate some gold toward it tommorow as well, I can really see that guild bank working out great in everyone's favour, it allows players within a guild to trasnfer gold quickly to one and other, or items and not even have to be in the same main city.

The new 48 hour auction house is fantasic, no more logging in once a day to check things, you can afford to sit back a while and collect money it is a fantastic idea.

Zul'Aman is a great instance, looks fantastic, plays well, and the boss fights seem to be more fun the Kara.

The new amoury, is alot faster, and alot easier to use, with guild bank instituted in to it it seems to be very very good.

The new WOW interface changes are very good, my wow seems to run 9x faster then before, even with out of date mods, and the incoorperated idea from some of the custom mod people consitently get is great.

I have recently respec'd to PVP shammy, to give it a whirl, and I'm enjoying PVP as elemental, I can't imagine a fully deck'd S2 elemental shaman atm, with 70% spell push back I can imagine they are quite unstoppable, which is good. They have pretty much bandaided the situation at the moment, allowing us to be on top at this point of the game, and even out in Black Temple, Hyjal, Sunwell Plateu, and WotLK with other casters.

Seeing I am at the stage of SSC/TK I feel quite strong at the moment, I have updated my wishlist with the new items I am wanting, I would love some of the new ZA gear, fantastic stuff, but I am trying to honor grind my way to the S1 mace when it becomes avalible, its another 78 dmg to my destructive powers, currently I stand at 759 nature dmg, and a consitent 80 with my trinket and 121 with totem down in PVE sitatutions. I suspect with my wishlist fullfilled I will be sitting on roughly ~1250 raid ready dmg.

Organising Raids

So, our guilds version of organising raids is to have an Absent forum, in which players give a reason if they can not make a raid.....

Then in the game the post a time people are meant to arrive, at an unknown location, to fight an unknown boss....

This is due to the fact that the guild doesn't know what encounter we can complete successfully, based on what players we have online at the given raid time....

Which I fully understand, without a pali tank we can't do x, with a druid tank we can do x, with no mage we can't do x, it makes sence, but its not very efficent...

In an attempt to rectify the situation I have started making threads on the forums we have so that people can /sign saying they will attend the raid tonight....I was hoping this would allow the Officers to say, we can do Gruul, Mag, Lurker what ever tonight because we know we have x,x & x....

Its still not a very good way of keeping track of the players though, if one can't get to the internet before the game, we won't know till raid time any way....

So I ask you, what does your guild do to keep track of what the next enemy you will conquor be, and how do you keep track of who will be attending prior to the raid actually starting???