How to Improve Shaman in PVP

The biggest problem enhancement Shaman have in PVP is not our ability to deal damage, it isn't even really the ability to take damage. Its a lack of escapability and therefore a lack of survivability.

All other classes have ways to escape encounters, some from a single target others from multiple targets.

Paladin - The mighty bubble
Priest - Shield and Fear
Mage - Iceblock, dropping some frost and blinking.
Rogue - too many to count, vanish, gouge-n-run, sprint, CoS.
Hunter - Traps, Feign death fake-out
Druid - form switch / travel form
Warrior - Fear, switch target - intercept escape
Lock - Fear for days
Shaman - Frost shock / Earthbind totem?

I didn't include sheep or cyclone intentionally. While they can help you get out of a situation I just look at them differently than a "Holy Sh!t! Run away!" ability. For the arguements sake you can lump them in there as well though.

So Shaman basically have Frostshock and Earthbind. Earthbind totem can be nuked by whoever's killing you and they can be back on you without blinking an eye. Frostshock is good, provided you can put distance between yourself and the person(s) killing you before you're worm food. From experience in fighting those with equal gear to me I lose that fight a whole lot.

So I have a couple of suggestions on how to fix this. I don't think Shaman should have CC. (at least before the expansion) I do think we need some escapability / survivabilty as soon as possible, especially enhancement shaman.

1 - Shamanistic rage (This has been suggested elsewhere) should be non-dispellable and remove various debuffs ala CoS or druid shapeshifting. At first glance it may seem overpowered but considering this buff is useless in PVP right now due to it being gone from one click by an opponent and the fact that other classes have similar abilities in addition to other forms of survivabilty it really isn't all that bad.

2 - Add a spell - Blast of Air - 150 - 250 damage. (Less even if need be). Between a 30 sec - 1 min cooldown. Instant cast. Hits any opponent in a 5 yard radius with a blast of air, knocking them back 10 yards and taking minimal damage. (A dazed or slowed effect would be nice here but I think it could be a bit much)

Pro's - gives A shaman the chance to put distance between himself and opponents and therefore gives time to either get a heal off, cast frostshock and run, or generally do more than get burned down instantly.

Cons - People might worry about the knockback in places like the AV bridge or in EoTS at the flag. However the same type of problem exists with Priest MC, as a target can be MC'd and forced to jump off of whatever precipice the priest chooses.


Personally I think those dangers only add to the game, it would make opponents have to think about how to deal with shaman differently. Fighting a shaman in the arena on the bridge in BEM might be tricky if you get blown off and are now out of LoS to either heal or be healed. In AV it would actually take some smart folks to focus fire the shaman on the bridge before running across.

The hilarity of running in to the turtle at IBGY and watching bodies flying in the air would be priceless.

Hopefully my 6 readers check this out, I'd love to get some thoughts on this. I may even consider posting this on the cesspool that are the WoW forums.

New Layout

My first attempt at a new header and such.

I don't know why I chose Shadowmoon Valley but now looking at it, its a little Warlocky for lack of a better word.

I'm still undecided if I'm going to keep it or change it around a bit more.

I also updated my sig information, both are unbuffed wearing my melee they my healing healing set. Nothing spectacular but not too shabby either.

To the 6 of you that read this, feel free to give feedback on if you like it or not.

Going back in to Kara tonight, Aran / Chess / Prince if all goes well. If it goes really well maybe we'll have time for Illhoof or Netherspite.

Things that make me happy...

Purple Rain...........of Blood!

Yeah on our fourth attempt of the night (we had a 3% attempt, and a 9%) Prince finally croaked.

I still hate the fight though. The attempt we succeeded on I was virtually worthless. I ran away during an enfeeble and before I could run back an infernal dropped between me and Prince. So I was relegated to gimp healing and gimp lighting bolt duty. Eventually the infernal despawned and I ran back in ready to finish him off. The he cast shadownova and bounced me in to an infernal. I died just as I got out of the AoE. I then went to hit my self rez but wasn't paying close enough attention and released, so I didn't actually get to see him fall.

Its just such a stupid fight, especially if you're melee.

I was able to run back and get my badges which was good. Next time around I'll just slap my healing suit on and help out there my DPS just wasn't worth it. Too much running away and all the other crap, leave it to the casters.

Will post the stats soon.

Trying To Take Down Prince Tonight..

Wish us luck.

I hope we get him down, equally as important I hope we start on time.

Will have WWS and update tomorrow....

Aran Dead, and Prince = Stupid

So we got off to a late start and had to PuG a bunch of people. It kept getting pushed back as once we'd fill the group out a Pugger would leave and the cycle would start all over.

We worked our way up to Curator with a few deaths and stoppages along the way. We then had 2 wipes, 1 because someone aggro'd Curator while we were killing the adds, and another when we started to pull and our tank DC'd. I choose not to count those.

So, when we finally got a real attempt off, we destroyed him. it wasn't even close. We were killing flares so fast that as a melee I would be standing around for a few seconds waiting for the flare to pop up. There wasn't enough time to run and start DPS'ing Curator but it was still more time than I was used to.

We then move on to Aran and one shotted him. This was my first Aran kill and it was ugly. It ended with Aran and a rogue dueling eachother to the bitter end. One more shot and the rogue would have been toast. To add to the amazingness of it all, the rogue used kick once. Once in the entire encounter he bothered to interrupt Aran, the rest of the time he just didn't feel the need I guess. I have the Web Stats to prove this, I noticed this while the fight was going on but needed to see the stats to be absolutely sure. It just makes the victory even more improbable .

From there we rolled to Chess where I picked up a new neck piece, I can't link it while at work. Maybe I'll edit this when I get home.

We were so close to prince that we decided to give it a go....

PRINCE IS THE DUMBEST DAMN ENCOUNTER EVER CONCOCTED!

Its been stated before by many others, but I'll say it again. An encounter that is relatively easy aside from the luck based element that can severely screw you is just poor design. Not to mention it looks horrific. Kara is a great looking instance with many interesting boss encounters. Then comes Prince, the infernals drop and just stand there and let out that fart cloud every few seconds and look so ridiculous it isn't even funny. I just don't see how from a purely visual standpoint the designers who always throw in peoples faces how much time, care, and pride they put in to everything when people question them not being able to put out x-pacs on a yearly basis managed to approve this. Even more frightening when the game makes close to a billion dollars a year in revenue. (Simply inexcusable in my book) It looks like crap, it looks like an afterthought and whats worse is that its the FINAL BOSS of the instance?!!! I really just don't understand.

Well due to crappy infernal placement we didn't down him. It was getting late and we called it. We're going to go back Monday and we hope to have his head on a platter.

I just hope now that people see Kara team 2 can go up to or farther than team 1, people will want to join up more.

If we could have started on time both nights Kara would be obliterated.