Ailis in Hunterland

Patch 3.2 is looming on the horizon with the (final stages?) testing on the Coliseum underway on the PTR as I type this.  While the patch may not be dropping a ton in the way of new content, there are some very significant changes coming up that will require your guild, specifically your raid leaders and managers to do a little thinking.

The biggest one, of course, is the emblem changes.  In case you’ve been in a barn this whole time, after the patch, all instances that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism and Emblems of Valor will now drop Emblems of Conquest.  Yes, that means Heroic Violet Hold, Naxx 10, OS 25, Ulduar 10 and everything in between will now drop Emblems of Conquest.  Heroism and Valor can only be obtained by trading down at the vendor.

What does this mean for your guild?

Well, it means a lot of people are going to get geared up really fast in purchased Conquest gear.  This includes alts that are on the verge of raiding.  In a time where attendance is low and guilds are scrambling to fill key spots in raids, this could be hugely beneficial.  Someone have a healer alt that needs a few pieces from the Conquest Quartermaster?  Grind a few Heroics and maybe a quick Naxx10 and they’re set for Ulduar.

Be careful, though – this also means that there will be folks walking around in tier 8 gear who may not necessarily function well in a raid or be that experienced.  Vet all new raiders thoroughly if you don’t already.  Run with ones you don’t know before inviting them to your guild to make sure they’re an experienced raider and a valuable addition to your raid team and not a freshly minted 80 who spent a week straight grinding heroics.

Burnout is at an all time high right now, which is contributing to the attendance issues.  While guilds are trying to schedule 25 mans, they are more often than not coming up short and either having to cancel or fall back onto 10 mans.  If alliances aren’t a viable option for your guild during the slow season, falling back on 10 mans or even 5 mans won’t be as huge of a step backwards since the emblems will still garner you tier 8 loot and these instances will be an excellent source of shards and crystals for your enchanters.

Do what you can to make it fun, though.  Even at the prospect of top level emblems, some raiders may balk at returning to Naxx or heroics.  I myself am not really keen on dancing with Heigan for the umpteenth million time.  Make it an achievement night.  Go after Sarth with multiple drakes.  Form Heroic teams for the purpose of getting red proto-drakes.  Make up your own guild achievements.  A prize for the person who can run naked the furthest through the room after Heigan.  A prize for the top DPS on Patchwerk.  Something silly and fun.

The Coliseum will be bringing a whole new set of loot levels and a viable alternative for alts and new 80’s gearing up as the 5 man version will drop iLevel 200 gear.  Form teams for all levels of the Coliseum, go after achievements, do timed runs, make it a spectator sport, there are a million things you can do.

Finally, as a raid leader, briefly go over any and all class changes incoming and see what, if anything, will change in your current raid makeup.  Are the Death Knight changes going to affect your tanks?  Are the new druid forms so enticing that your Owlbear is now a Kitty?  Will a key member be upset he was nerfed so now he’s playing his alt?

Be as prepared as you can because, while there’s not a lot in terms of volume of changes and content, the ones that are coming down the pipe are very significant and could change the way your guild raids.

The PTR released a new build last night (10083 for those of you keeping score at home) and there are a couple of interesting Shaman changes on the horizon.

First, however, this is pretty damn cool:

“Tome of Cold Weather Flying: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.”

/approve

Onto the Shaman changes.

• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).
• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.
• Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.

At first, I was moderately upset at the initial appearance of a nerf.  No more interrupt?!

Then I remembered that Wind Shock (er…Shear) is an interrupt and realized this is a pretty nice little change.  I no longer have to jack up my shot priority to get my interrupts in at the right moment in a fight.  I can just keep on DPS’ing and, given how Wind Shock…Shear…is now on a separate cooldown, I can interrupt to my little heart’s content without breaking my rotation.

Still a minor bummer than our interrupts are reduced to one but, hey, we’ll make it work because Shamans are awesome.

The MW change is a “okay, cool” sort of a change.  I use Hex rarely in an instance.  More often than not, we have a Mage, a Lock, and/or a Druid to take care of any required CC.

So some quick little changes for you guys to chew on.  I’ll keep you updated as the builds are released.

I just realized I covered Totem Changes and JC changes but not my very own class changes.

/headdesk

It’s been a long week…

So, for you, dear readers, at 3.30am, I have your Shammy changes complete with a bit of commentary.

Shamans

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.  - Now with pictures!
• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.  - Being melee, this change really isn’t a huge deal, unless you use Frost Shock while out soloing or PvP’ing.  But Casters will like this one a lot.
• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.  - All I have to say is, it’s about damn time.
• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased to 10 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.  - Nice buff.  Maybe I’ll see my hps go up a little.
• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.  - Mainly done in relation to the mount changes, this is still fantastic for leveling.  With the new heirloom shoulders, you should hit 16 in no time flat and then zoom around as a translucent puppy dog.
• Talents
  • Enhancement
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman’s attack power, down from 30%.  -  Not a huge deal here.  With the changes to Imp. SS and Mana Totem, I rarely run out of mana unless it’s a particularly long, drawn-out fight.  But it is nice to know I can pop it more often should I need it.
  • Restoration
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.  - I’m all for combining things.  Can we just skip to the end where you give us the all-in-one totem?
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman’s Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman’s health.
    • Nature’s Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman’s maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    • Nature’s Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.

For the rest of the Resto changes, I would like to call upon the Resto shammies to comment on them.  Like?  Dislike?  Meh?

In reality, not a TON of changes and nothing earthshattering but some good buffs.  The totem interface is a lot of fun and definitely a welcomed (and long overdue) change.  Given these changes, I’m not seeing a need to reglyph or respec – life for Shamans will pretty much go on as normal.

Or will it…

So, Patch 3.2 has descended on the PTR and I finally found some time to take Ailis over there to check a few things out.  The new totem interface is pretty cool so I decided to take some pictures and tell you guys all about it.

Call of <insert element here>

First off, when you log in after you’re done patching, go visit your Shaman Trainer.  He/She will teach you the three “calls” that are your totem calls.  These new calls are found in your spellbook in the Elemental section.

Update: When Patch 3.2 was released, the Calls are named Call of the Ancestors, Call of the Elements, and Call of the Spirits.  Bartender’s Alpha build (found on WowAce.com works with this interface).

Using the default Blizzard toolbars, you will see a small toolbar containing four slots for each of the four elements and their related totems (called the Totem Bar), another button for the different Calls (first button) and the recall button at the end.  Each of these are flyout menus (opening upward) which saves a lot of space for those of you who don’t already use Autobar or any other totem management addon.

Forgive my janky PTR UI.

In order to set up your Totem Bar, it’s a simple two-step process.  First, select which Call (Fire, Water or Air) you want to set up.  Then click on the arrow above each totem element and select the totem you wish in that category.

When you are done, one click on Call of Fire/Water/Air will lay all four of your selected totems at once.  Call of Earth will recall all of them at once.

I tried to catch it in time, but if you tell, all four totems are on the same global cooldown (GCD) and, with my unit names turned on, you can see all four totem names appearing at once.

All in all, the new interface is pretty sweet.  As a veteran user of Autobar, I’m already used to the flyout totem menus and the partitioning into the four separate elements.  But the same GCD is definitely better as I can just click once and begin DPS/Healing.  By having 3 options for totem sets, you can set up different combinations depending on raid makeup and your spec at the time.  For instance, I have a dps set for with a Death Knight in the group, without one, and a resto set.

You can set individual totems if you need to do a quick swap or are in a fight where a specific totem is needed.  And, given the relative ease at which you can set up the Totem Bar, you can make an entire set for one specific fight then change it back afterwards.

Enjoy!