Malan

An ideal rotation is -
Flameshock (GCD) StormStrike .... 5 seconds pass .... Earth Shock ... 5 seconds pass ... Repeat

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

Pater

What do you guys know about totem action being attributed to us?

- Mobs consider some totems the exact same as if we were doing the action ourselves: healing stream, mana spring. If you body pull and let a mob beat on you, and do nothing other than drop healing stream, the mob will never switch to the totem; it will beat on you because the heals are attributed to you. (right?)

- Other totems may be different--magma, nova, searing. If you drop magma totem during an aoe pull, the mob will switch to the totem if not aggro'd by anything else. I'm not sure if the threat is attributed both to you and the totem, or just the totem.

- Unique totems. Stoneclaw and the elemental totems may act differently. When elementals are out, there are three objects that could possibly be generating threat: the elemental, the totem, and the shaman. I've never seen the totem get attacked and can't really imagine a way to test whether the totem gets aggro of its own separate from the elemental itself. But I don't believe the pet's damage/taunts get attributed to the shaman.

- Buffing totems. Some buffs generate threat, or at least used to (BS, at least). Is there any threat generated by buffing your group with GoA, SoE, Grounding Totem Effect, etc? Does any of that threat get assigned to the shaman?

- Combat log attribution - it would be great if our totems came in named "Patros's Searing Totem IV" and have our pets named "Patros's Greater Fire Elemental" for parsing.


It's not like I'm having major issues here, but I have been wondering about these things for a while.

 

Igniter

Leo in ssc loves to attack my searing totem after switching into human form.

 

mek

You broke all this down very well yourself.

Definitely the case.

Fire totems definitely generate all their threat onto themselves. Fire Nova "frontloads" its threat; halfway between the totem spawn and the actual nova, it pulses some aggro which will make mobs kill it before it goes off, if they aren't aggroed decently on something else.

Pets definitely generate their own threat, unrelated to the shaman, and the pet totems never generate any threat either.

Buffing totems definitely don't generate any threat at all. I drop these at the beginning of pulls all the time and the only ones that will ever give you problems are healing stream and mana spring, since they restore and therefore do cause threat.

As an aside, hp or mana gains only generate threat if the subject of the gain is already in combat with the mob. If a mob proximity aggros my mana spring totem, it will kill the totem before it comes after me, even though it's pulsing away, supposedly generating threat, because I'm not on the mob's aggro list. Strangely, the mob will go after me e once it's finished killing the totem; this is because I'm not pulled into combat until the mob strikes the totem.

 

Nite_Moogle

Pretty much all totems behave like pets- they are individual entities within the world that are flagged AE-immune. They have their own threat lists and are fair game for random targeting. Elemental pet totems are completely immune to everything, which is why they don't generate threat. Healing Stream and Mana Spring don't actually generate the threat for you (the shaman), they generate threat for everyone they hit, sort of like how Lifebloom attributes the heals to the person being healed. I would assume GoA such work the same way, but there's no threat values associated with those abilities.

 

mek

Hydross likes them too. -_-

 

drats

Yeah, I learned that one the hard way. I'm seriously considering using searing totem to make sure hydross doesn't run in the wrong direction if a transition goes wrong.

Oddly enough, I've seen enemies go for my WF and SoE totems after fears. Maybe the totem refreshing it's buff causes a small amount of threat?

 

Ardonomus

I noticed that at Magtheridon the Abyssals always go for the air or earth totem before the decide to hit me, or someone else (usually in my party affected by the totem that just got killed)

I'm considering respeccing my professions to Master axesmithing, instead of dragonscale leatherworking, just for the Wicked edge of the planes. Is that worth it, is this so far the best axe available to us as main hand weapon in game so far? I'm under the impression that blacksmithing in any form is rather expensive to level, so I'd love some input before I actually respec. My current axe is The Decapitator, and soon to be a Fel Edged Battleaxe as my offhand.

 

Ilmatar

One of the funniest things I've seen happen with totems was fighting the Satyr in Botanica...he sacrificed the Windfury totem. Teleported it and everything. It just sat there and kept right on pulsing. Next sacrifice, he sacrificed it again. That made the fight so much easier.

 

mek

A lot of the scripted encounters will pick totems when they shouldn't in TBC, though I can't say I've ever seen Illhoof sacrifice a totem.

My fire elemental got the Insidious Whisper debuff on Leotheras, complete with a demon attacking it and everything. Died fast. :P

 

Malan

Some of the buff totems are definetly registering at least 1 threat on mobs, I've had many occasions in KZ, Mag's Lair, and SSC where a trash mob has turned and whacked a WF totem or a SoE, and the trash in Mag's Lair seems to love to smack the Tremor totem.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

◊ Rob

Yeah, Illhoof's imps love attacking Windfury Totem.

 

Kalince

I am pretty sure that at least WF totem generates threat when it refreshes the buffs on everyone's weapons.

 

• Juice

So you're going to grind 0-375 blacksmithing for the T2 axe 1h when you already have The Decapitator, a weapon of equivalent dps? I'll go out on a limb here and say that's an inefficient use of your time and money. Moving BS from 360-375 is extremely expensive (200g a point).

 

Ardonomus

Wicked Edge of the Planes, is considered the T3 axe, isnt it? Anyway it's got 17 more min. damage, 31 more max damage, is 0.10 seconds slower, thus it's at 97.6 dps (5.5dps higher then The Decapitator, not counting the following stats), it also has 4 less crit rating, and 48 more AP then The Decapitator. Surely with nether vortexes dropping like candy during trash runs in SSC, it shouldnt be a problem to get that axe, the only problem is to actually be able to have the required skill and profession to make it.

Unless I'm overseeing something here?

Edit:
The main reason I'm asking is because if it's the absolute best available at the moment, I'd rather level axesmithing and have the best axe and do more damage, then have something thats _almost_ as good, and do less damage.

 

Necrologician

I often see my totems get taken out durring moroes by broken shackles, illhoof by imps, aran by who knows what, and netherspite durring banish phase.

 

Myul

Waiting only six days and check out the new gladiator weapons, they should have ~

Merciless Gladiator's Cleaver
Binds when picked up
One-Hand Axe
~ 200 - 310 Damage Speed 2.60
(~ 96 damage per second)
+25 Stamina
Equip: Improves hit rating by 14 (1.0%%).
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 21 (1.0%).
Equip: Improves your resilience rating by 15 (0.45%).
Equip: Increases attack power by 34.

You may need 10-15h hours (and 4-6 weeks with a worse pvp team) to achiev it, and can easily swap it to your offhand while getting something better. Or wear a pair of them

There are some other proffessions, maybe more worthy then only having a a new mainhand for a while (leatherworking eg provides some very nice bop recipes, also needing some vortexes and dropping in ssc).

 

Ardonomus

I have to say that looks nice and I will wait and check those out, however the Wicked Edge of the Planes is still the only axe in game with 340+ maxdamage? Unless the gladiator weapons will be better then this I think I'll go for axesmithing, and perhaps (depending on the gladiators vs Netherbane \ Rising Tide and our progress) one of those new gladiators in my offhand.

I'd need to start pvping though.. and we all know how valuable we are in a 5v5 team! Oh joy.

 

Viator

Out of curiosity why this instead of:

Stormstrike, Earth, wait, Flame, wait, Stormstrike, Earth, repeat?

Mages have a set time that they want you to ask for food, and that time is pull #4 of the night. You may notice them putting a little snack table down before the raid, that's them cooking the food for you to demand on pull 4. --Nork

 

• Juice

Not trying to argue you out of it.

Use a spreadsheet and determine how much net % improvement it will add to your bottomline DPS. Then figure if it's worth the hours and gold to grind to 375 BS. I'm sure there's a guide someplace that can assist.

I can't imagine it being worthwhile once you already have the decapitator, but YMMV

 

Ardonomus

Any chance you have one of those spreadsheets linked somewhere? I've asked around but most people dont know of any sheets for enhancement shaman. And myself I'm not very good at fancy maths, which is why I'm reading here trying to develop my understanding of our dps calculation..

 

Tordon

To allow to build threat slowly and so that FS has a better chance to have its dots tick out for trash mobs. That's my best guess. But I suppose it's essentially the same thing otherwise.

Edit: In response to Viator.

 

Nite_Moogle

It's basically impossible to predict shaman damage in the same way you can do for most dps classes, so no such sheet exists.

 

slant

But you can fit two shocks in between stormstrikes. Shocks are 6s and stormstrike is 10s. And those shocks should be earthshock for the nature damage bonus. Unless I'm missing something?

I guess if you figure that you have to take some time running up to the mob and situating yourself at its backside, so you can lead with flameshock to get the shock cooldown running and backload the initial damage a bit.

 

Nite_Moogle

Curse of Elements + Fire Vulnerability from Scorch gives Flame Shock surprisingly good DPS and damage per mana.