Ailis in Hunterland

Gah, finally.  Why are shamans the last ones to see their new tier set?

Well, the wait is over, somewhat.  Here’s the T10 version as worn by a male human.  I hope the race sets will be out shortly.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/november/huge-sh.jpg

I can get behind this design.  I’m amused by the spectral goats floating out of the shoulders – would make more sense to be wolves, don’t you think?  But nothing looks ostentatious or sticks out weird.  The colors are muted, which I’m actually in favor of.  The whole set just speaks to the Icecrown zone itself.  With the Fall/Winter months setting in here in my city, the set just seems to go with everything else going on as well.

I don’t know about you guys, but it’s nice to be somewhat excited about a tier set again.  T9 fell flat on its face in my opinion.  I have two pieces and that’s probably all I’ll get.  I only really have two purchased badge items, too.  The rest of my gear is a mash of ToC, crafted and U25 gear and I’m fine with that.

Given this look and the set bonuses, however, I think I may just try for all the pieces and see what I can get my little hands on.  Here’s to hoping the rest of the loot from Icecrown and the Emblem of Frost vendor is fun and appealing as well.

3.3 is coming.

I would venture pretty soon based on the amount of information we already have and the speed with which new information is being released.

My guess?  Before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, let’s talk changes, shall we?

Classes: General

• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.

Races: General

• Orc and troll shamans now have their own unique totem art.
• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.

Shamans

• Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
• Talents
  • Elemental Combat
    • Improved Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Improved Fire Nova. This talent now provides an additional 10/20% damage to the spell and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 seconds.

Items

• Glyphs
  • Shamans
    • Glyph of Fire Nova Totem: Renamed Glyph of Fire Nova. This glyph now reduces the cooldown of Fire Nova by 3 seconds.

And just released (so therefore subject to many, many changes…):

• Item – Shaman T10 Restoration 2P Bonus – Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast.
• Item – Shaman T10 Restoration 4P Bonus – Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount over until cancelled.
• Item – Shaman T10 Elemental 2P Bonus – Your Lightning Bolt spell reduces the remaining cooldown on your Elemental Mastery talent by 1 sec.
• Item – Shaman T10 Elemental 4P Bonus – The cooldown on your Lava Burst ability is reduced by 15 sec.
• Item – Shaman T10 Enhancement 2P Bonus – When you activate your Shamanistic Rage ability you also deal 12% additional damage for 15 sec.
• Item – Shaman T10 Enhancement 4P Bonus – Each time the beneficial effect of your Maelstrom Weapon talent reaches 5 charges, you have a 15% chance to gain 20% attack power for 10 sec.

Breakdown

Well, that certainly is a lot going on.  Add to that the new Icecrown Heroics and Raid instance plus all emblems are being upgraded again (All emblems of Conquest drops are now Triumph drops and the new instance drops Emblems of Frost) and you have a solid packed patch that will, hopefully, keep us busy enough until Cataclysm releases.

The large majority of the general changes are next in a long line of changes designed to make leveling faster and easier.  With Cataclysm being released next year and the introduction of Worgens and Goblins plus the re-mapping of Azeroth, you’re going to have a lot of people re-rolling in starting zones.  So, Blizzard is making it easier for those of us with multiple max-level characters to start from 1 again.

Totem art. It’s about damn time.  Granted, I play Alliance, so my totems have always been unique but I’ve never ceased to find it odd that all Horde totems look the same.  Now, each race will have totems unique to their race.  Currently available pictures are Dwarf, Troll and Orc.  Goblin totems still unavailable (and probably for quite some time, honestly).

Fire Nova Totem. Shamans: “We don’t have AoE!”  Blizzard: “You do now.”  I haven’t been on the PTR to test this out but it sounds ridiculously fun and I wonder what the effect is with pairing it with Magma Totem.  Something tells me this is no comparison to a Mage’s Blizzard or a Druid’s Hurricane, but it adds another level of DPS to any Shaman tree.  This can be an “oh shit” button for Resto Shamans and a way to help with mobs (whelps anyone?) for both Elemental and Enhancement Shamans.

Set Bonuses. Okay, an Enhancement set bonus I can get behind.  I still cringe a little when I look at the current Tier 9 bonus especially compared to the awesome that is the Tier 8 bonus.  Tier 10 seems to make up for Tier 9 in that both bonuses focus on one of our most important stats – Attack Power.  With the reduction in CD on Shamanistic Rage in the last patch from 2 minutes to 1 minute, with the T10 2P bonus, you will have an extra 12% damage every 60 seconds.  Add to that the constant MW procs now potentially giving you 20% more AP, Enhancement Shamans are going to see higher instances of burst damage in a full T10 set.

Let’s just hope the design is something I can get behind as well.

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.

So the Tier 9 set bonuses have been released for all the classes.  Some models/artwork are being datamined and discovered from the PTR, but I wanted to discuss the Shaman set bonuses briefly.

Out of the Argent Coliseum, there are 3 new iLevels of gear – 232, 245 and 258, depending on which level of the 5, 10 or 25 man raid instance you do.  Yes, complicated.  And homogenous.  Oxymoronic, yes?

All of that aside, here are our new set bonuses:

Shaman T9 Enhancement 2P Bonus - Adds an additional 3% chance to trigger your Static Shock talent.
Shaman T9 Enhancement 4P Bonus - Increases the damage done by your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells by 25%.
Shaman T9 Elemental 2P Bonus – Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 9.0 sec.
Shaman T9 Elemental 4P Bonus – Increases the damage done by your Lava Burst spell by 20%.
Shaman T9 Restoration 2P Bonus – Increases the healing done by your Riptide spell by 20%.
Shaman T9 Restoration 4P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of your Chain Heal spell by 5%.

Before we discuss, here are the current Tier 8 bonuses:

Enhancement 2Piece Bonus – Increases the damage done by Lava Lash and Stormstrike by 20%.
Enhancement 4Piece Bonus – Increases the frequency of Maelstrom Weapon being triggered by your melee weapon attacks by 20%.
Restoration 2Piece Bonus – Reduces the cooldown on Riptide by 1 sec.
Restoration 4Piece Bonus – Reduces the cast time of Chain Heal by 0.2 sec.
Elemental 2Piece Bonus - The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
Elemental 4Piece Bonus – Your critical Strikes from Lightning Bolt cause the target to take nature damage equal to 8% of the Lightning Bolt’s damage over until cancelled sec.

As always, I invite Resto and Elemental Shamans to discuss the changes as I know very little about Elemental and am still in the noob/learning phase of Resto.

For the Enhancement, however.

Is anyone else a little disappointed by the set bonus?  Static Shock is a great talent to have.  That coupled with Improved Shields and you have a great extra boost to damage.  But upping the chance to 9%, while nice, doesn’t seem like the best reward after all the work that will go into getting said Tier pieces.  When you compare it to the current T8 2 Piece bonus, it falls a little flat.  I’ll take a flat 20% damage increase on my two most often used skills over an extra 3% chance to do extra damage.

The four piece bonus, while better than the two piece bonus, still falls a little short of the current four piece bonus.  For me, my Maelstrom Weapon stacks very quickly so I fire off Lightning Bolts every 10th swing or so (I haven’t counted), but, with the current four piece bonus, the stacks go faster, which means more overall damage from Lightning Bolt, which scales way more efficiently than Chain Lightning and has no cooldown.

Don’t get me wrong, I like flat damage percentage increases but, until they put the Shocks on separate cooldowns instead of one GCD, it isn’t a huge incentive to go for the Tier 9.

I want to know your thoughts on it, though.  It’s still early on the PTR so these may change while Blizz is still balancing, but initial impressions?