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General Shaman Understanding
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Post by
Skategodindy
So I've been a Shaman player for as long as I can remember. It was the first class I ever picked, first class to level 60, level 70, and level 80. I've been mainly Enhancement for most of that time, however, I've really come into my own as Resto in WoTLK. In World of Warcraft, when I'm not playing my tanking class (whichever that happens to be, Paladin TBC/Warrior WoTLK), I'll be playing my Shaman.
One thing I've noticed time and time again, throughout my entire play history as a Shaman main, the general World of Warcraft population doesn't have a clue about them. Hell, I'd say about 20-30% of the players playing them at any given time don't have a clue about them either. It's a strange phenomenon. I've never seen any other class as misunderstood as the Shaman class, in my entire time playing, and I played a Paladin Tank in TBC using a spell casting weapon.
The only spells people really recognize are Reincarnation, Chain Heal, Lightning Bolt, Earth Shield, Bloodlust and the wolves. There seems to be a ton of confusion about the totems we put out, the stats we use, and how we play our class.
Is it just because I've played Shaman for so long and I'm biased towards noticing every misconception players have about them, or is it that we just have a low player base, which makes us more uncommon, thus less understood?
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454091
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242691
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Post by
erdos1913
To be honest, I didn't understand the Shaman class for the longest time. So I rolled one up and I'm currently level 63. ;-) I'm still learning. Just read on these forums the other day how the Stoneclaw Totem can actually be useful. I'm still desperately looking for the justification for Sentry Totem, but all things in good time.
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378029
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Post by
Tenshigure
I'm still desperately looking for the justification for Sentry Totem, but all things in good time.
The only time I've ever used it was in BGs to be quite honest. Having it in one tower while defending another does help out to see just how many people you could potentially be going to take out. Wish it would be a little less obvious (invisa-Totem maybe?), but it's more or less useless everywhere else...even for the purpose I used it for above.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
I'm still desperately looking for the justification for Sentry Totem, but all things in good time.
The only time I've ever used it was in BGs to be quite honest. Having it in one tower while defending another does help out to see just how many people you could potentially be going to take out. Wish it would be a little less obvious (invisa-Totem maybe?), but it's more or less useless everywhere else...even for the purpose I used it for above.
I've found 1 use for it ever. When running lowbies through DM, I tend to forget about the pats that come after boss kills (This was when I was a much lower level, so it wasn't like the run took 5 minutes). So I'd drop sentry totem, and that way when they attacked it I'd know and they wouldn't rape the lowbies behind me.
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367590
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Post by
cosmicguen
Anytime a group is feared, there is always someone that says that I should've dropped tremor. I tell them that it was down, but it doesn't make you immune to fear, and they are always confused.
I have two very special macros for Very Speshul People.
1) "Tremor totem is down. It does not make you immune to fear. It removes fear/sleep/charm effects from you. It pulses every 3 sec"
2) "Cleansing totem is down. It does not make you immune to disease/poison. It removes disease/poison effects from you. It pulses every 3 sec"
(Note, I'm not sure about the 3 sec pulse on Tremor, but the utter morons who deserve this macro can't count that high anyway, so they believe me :P)
I'm still desperately looking for the justification for Sentry Totem, but all things in good time.
It's an IQ test. If you use it, you fail ;)
No seriously, aside from the obvious (but fairly pointless) BG uses, I only ever used it to half decent effect once. Doing the quest in Grizzly Hills to scare all the horses on the east side of the zone. I used it to keep an eye out for those wandering elite tree giants.
I'm fairly lucky in that I loathe pugging, so I rarely have to deal with people who aren't used to shaman. I do still get the "we need a cleansing totem here" every now and then, which is where my third macro comes in... 3) "Cleansing. Totem. Pulses. Every. 3. Sec". But mostly people just let me get on with what it and trust me to get the right totems down for whatever we're doing.
But yes - a totem for every occasion, plus a multitude of non-totem buffs across the three specs, plus a relatively small player base...makes sure we stay misunderstood :(
Post by
120504
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Post by
alpha5099
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing Enh shaman who still run around with fast OH. You play the class, come on! It's been obsolete for two major content patches, how do they not know this?
I've had the same problem with Might that soccergenius had; I was in a pug once with a resto shaman, and the pally gave us both Kings. When I asked for Might instead, he for some reason used Greater Blessing, throwing it on both of us. I dropped the subject and just accepted Kings because the pally apparently couldn't be bothered to buff us separately.
I also had someone get mad at me the other night for coordinating with another shaman on what totems we would drop. To be fair, he was probably right about me overthinking a H-UK pug, but it seems pretty reasonable for me to make sure as many buffs are getting out there without any overlap.
On the whole though, I don't think I've had to deal with too many people ignorant of my class (except for those damn fast OH shamans).
Post by
66520
I've found 1 use for it ever.
The intended use is accidentally dropping it and forcing yourself to stand in fire during Firefighter.
Post by
346400
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Post by
Haxzor
wait, what do totems do?
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