Unaz

Weapon totems get on mob aggro lists because of the way the buffs are applied. Aran/Dorothee and other secondary target bosses would target my weapon totems for their bolts all the time. It didn't bother me too much, because every one ate a few thousand damage.

I believe it's due to the stat totems being more of an aura, and the weapon totems being an applied buff. The only other issue is I kow Healing Stream generates aggro (dropping it at the beginning of a boss pull when you aren't topped off makes for some interesting wipes), but don't think it gets on aggro lists in the same way as the weapon totems, as I never see it targetted in the middle of a fight.

I've also had bosses and other mobs just randomly turn around and smack a relatively freshly dropped WF totem in the middle of a fight. And I have no idea what's up with that other then people being briefly out of melee. I've gotten in the habit on some fights of dropping WF out of melee range due to that.

 

◊ Malan

This is the confusing case. On FLK I have watched Tedalvis turn and smack a WF totem that I just placed, and he'll do it repeatedly. You can't attribute that type of behavior to the buff refreshing. Besides, the windfury buff refreshing can't possibly generate so much aggro that the boss elects to use abilities on the totem when I'm stting at 99% of the tank's aggro.

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Tornhoof

Those cryptstalkers in Mt. Hyjal have totems on their prefered target list. According to GMs it is working as intended...

http://code.google.com/p/wowequipoptimizer/

 

drats

So if WF totem always gets taken down quickly, then it seems like the devs WANT us to totem twist.

My searing totems have saved quite a few lives when people get feared. I've seen almost every boss with a fear effect take my searing totem down before going to raid members.

 

Bai

I drop my Windfury Totem anywhere between 15-24 times on a Teron fight. /sigh
Death Blossom loves it. Loves it soooo much.

As noted above also; Crypt Fiends in Hyjal also love it ever so much. And yeah...
Blue posted, saying it's working as intended some time ago. Any totem that ticks gets
taken out. Resto Shaman's looks their Mana Tides, Healing Stream, etc.

 

Krom[Fenris]

Yeah, I think all crypt stalker mobs have a preference towards totems.

 

Desall

On the subject of blue's saying this behavior is intended.
I would not be surprised they are saying it is intended for NPC's to attack anything which appears on their threat list.

That does not have to mean that what we experience on Gorefiend or Hyjal trash must be intended.
Sure the mechanic might be working as intended but I have a hard time convincing myself the devs said to themselves that it would be cool to equip a boss with an ability that kills windfury totem within 10 seconds.

My guess is they wanted raid wide damage so Gorefiend bombards the raid with tiny shadow bolts.
Unfortunately this kills windfury totem as it appears on the threat list like every other raid member.

 

Hidden

[Darkmoon Card: Crusade] also increases your Spell Damage by 80 when shocking every time when cooldown is up, so it's slightly underrated.

 

Aurvandil

I'm not quite convinced about the whole crit > hit thing, actually let me elaborate.

+8 crit rating = +8 hit rating in item level points
+8 crit rating = ~.36% crit
+8 hit rating = ~.51% hit

using shamulator I recreated my character(along with his approximate attack power while buffed)


I then ran the simulator comparing hit to crit, with the stepping for crit equal to .36% crit, and the stepping for hit equal to .51% hit and using my current values as a base, that way I could compare each fairly and heres what I came up with:


lets take a look shall we:
1rst row, 4rth column(the effects of keeping my crit the same and adding 3 x +8 hit gems): 1168.7 dps

1rst column, 4rth row(the effects of keeping my hit the same and adding 3 x +8 crit gems): 1166.7 dps

that difference is so small I wouldn't notice either way.

Also notice I ran this with 5000 swings per cell(instead of the default 1000) so this should be accurate.

 

• Nite_Moogle

It's pretty simple if you think about it: increasing your hit value actually has a hidden penalty in that it will increase the number of hits that aren't eligible for a WF proc. It still improves damage, just not as much as you'd expect. Crit increases the damage that your hits do and also adds some small amount of haste through Flurry, so hit is a lot less useful for a Shaman than it is for any other class.

[Carebare]: I'd rather not fit through doorways than be a troll

 

• Disquette

Aurvandil, please review the source code of enshamulator to make sure that everything you think should be accounted for is indeed there.

Enshamulator has loads of promise in terms of ease of use, and useful data presentation. However, as I understand it, the author is still working on a few tweaks which may have some fairly significant impact on the results tab.

I'm not the author though, so I won't defend or criticize the application - I'm just saying you can make the most informed decisions after reviewing the code itself and judging whether or not it captures your combat style correctly.

----- sig ---------------
Discoepfeand - rogue / Disquette - shaman
A stormstrike / shocks /watershield timer-bar addon: http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/9729/
"Moogle has mentioned this in passing a few times but never elaborated on it. Perhaps we can entice him to respond." - Malan

 

• Igniter

Better totems than a raid member, since below 20% his aoe burst damage on the raid is nuts. I purposely drop every type when I'm spec'ed resto for that purpose alone.

 

Morelis

A couple things you should keep in mind. The shamulator doesn't model glancing blows, which will give an unrealistic bias towards hit rating. Also you'll notice that in some of the steps your dps actually went down, so unless you think increasing your crit will actually lower your dps the steps really are too small to have any value. instead of using 8hit/crit rating as a step try using something like 50 so the random variations will be less of a factor.

That said I know I'd love it if one of the other sim programmers had a look at the source to see if there are any glaring flaws in the design. It is a very nice tool, there's just some doubts about its accuracy at this point.

 

◊ Malan

Who is the author of that sim? Does he frequent EJ?

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Aurvandil

Theres no doubt 1% crit > 1% hit, but I just wish there was an accurate simulator to compare crit rating to hit rating(since it takes less hitrating to = 1% hit)

edit: maybe we should try contacting the author Shamulator: DPS Sim for Enhance Shammies

 

Ujin

Windfury totem just got nerfed again apparently.

WoW Forums -> 2.1 Windfury Is Still Bugged!

 

Ilmatar

Blue post from above is:

 

berg

and down goes raid dps across the globe...

 

Monkapotamis

the adds kill all the totems in hyjal, can reduce the chance by placing them max range

 

Wednesday

Wonder if this is in response to over-the-top rogue dps? Kind of like how they nerfed shadow-weaving to lower warlock damage.

 

◊ Malan

Looks like we might need to re-calc the WF vs GoA for rogues arguement =\

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Stigmata

Hmm thats a big nerf for rogues.

I can only think this is pvp related which will have a large impact on pve.

 

berg

This is the same nerf that was spoken of prior to giving horde pallies last August or September.

Unsurprisingly there was a massive outcry since alliance raids were already doing significantly more dps and it got pulled out of whatever patch it was destined for.

This change claims to be a hotfix though which is really shocking to me how this could all of the sudden be deemed important enough to lessen raidwide dps multiple percent.

WF must be coming to some kind of crossroads, this has to be a precursor to some other change.

 

slant

This is one truly major nerf. Windfury totem was a very large part of what made shamans worthwhile in raids. Sad.

 

• Shabadu

Teron's Deathblossom attack summons a little void ball that shoots RSTS shadowbolts. Windfury and Searing totem show up on a mob's aggro list for purposes of RSTS. WF gets its ass handed to it. Same thing with crypt fiend scarabs, those fuckers have had it out for totems since Nerub'enkan in Strat.