I think it's more of a "I feel like I'm helping" talent. Which is okay, but really is not going to get the boss dead. Would another Healing Way point save the raid? I suppose it's possible, but not likely. I use it too, initially for interrupts of KT.

Icy Talons gives a DK +20% Haste when a mob's swing speed has been reduced.
Imp. Icy talons expands this benefit to the entire raid and gives the DK a permanent 5% swing speed increase.

Windfury Totem wipes out the Icy Talons buff...but it should not wipe out the extra 5%. That's constant.

Thus, I am not aware of any benefit, either to the DK or to the raid, of IT or IIT over WFT. It sounds like the guy is confused and is assuming that the buff falling off is robbing him of 5%, or worse that IT and the IIT effect were multiplicative (which is what that post on mmo-champ was alleging).

However -- IT costs a global cooldown every 20 seconds and provides no benefit if the mob isn't slowed. WFT lasts 5 minutes on a single drop. If there's a shaman with talented WFT, it's less to manage if he drops it.

As for who should respec...you spend 2 talent points to get a raid wide 20% haste buff. The DK spends 6 talent points to get the same buff, plus an extra 5% haste.

Also: WFT is not a 20% total buff to dps. If you went from 4k to 5k, you just did a better job. On highly mobile fights like the ones 3.1 has given us, learning when to move and how far is a huge factor in how much DPS you will do; it's the reason everyone should have a runspeed enchant on their boots.

Since this is the Simple Q/A thread i figure i can come here without looking like a complete idiot.

First of all I had a couple questions that I have been having a hard time finding defined / simple answers to.

1)Is it better to stay with Flame tongue on the offhand or spec into the frozen power because it buffs not just LL but LB and Shocks as well?

2) There are 2 weapons that im looking at out of Ulduar: [Golden Saronite Dragon] and [Vulmir, the Northern Tempest]

While the Fist has a higher DPS, the mace does have a greater top end damage (but lower low end damage than fist) Would it be best to go Fist/Mace or Mace/Mace and then again as with question 1) WF/FT or WF/FB




PS the most simple help is greatly appreciated. I know a lot of you pride yourselves on running those cool dps sims, but im a simpleton and want to know how I can max my dps/ability to help my raid succeed.

Frozen Power doesn't work on bosses; even if it did, Flametongue is widely regarded as the superior offhand buff.

"Top end damage" is of no use to any class in PvE, since over time you'll have as many hits on the low end as the high (it's of dubious importance in PvP, as well). Shamans care most about weapon speed, followed by stats and weapon damage. These two are so similar (wdps difference is 1.3, which is < 8 AP) you'll want to sim them, considering the benefit of peeling off exp/hit gems if applicable.

Personally, I'd take whichever one dropped first.

Thanks for the help both of you and explaining it in laymen terms. Jessamy I will be looking in rawr and thanks for the tip on that.

Do either of you have a suggestion on my first question? Flame tongue or Frozen Power/Frost band.

Also if I go flame tongue i have a lot of glyphs to choose from.

These are the glyph combo's I was looking into.

With Frostband OH
WF/SS/LB
WF/SS/SHCK

With Flametongue
WF/SS/LB
WF/SS/SHCK
SS/SCHK/LL
WF/SS/LL
or a myriad combination of these.

Again any help is appreciated, maybe once i get rawr though I can start answering my own questions.

I picked up a new totem off XT last night: [Thunderfall Totem] I was wondering if anyone has done the math on how it compares to: [Totem of Hex] Thanks

Hex is still better right now. This could change though.

Hex adds approx 105 DPS, Thunderfall adds about 61


http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/binken...hs_totems.html

That's because there isn't a definite answer. Both are good damage spells. CL has a faster cast time, making it useful for an Elemental-spec shaman to fill dead time in a LB rotation between fire spells. With a 5-stack of Maelstrom, both spells are instant cast, so that doesn't matter. I use LB so I don't run into issues with the CL cooldown if I get a hot streak of Maelstrom procs.

The main thing is : CL sucks up so much more mana, which i wouldn't want to waste for equal or even less dps. I also don't want to get 2/2 imp SS to keep up with that. The other enhance-shaman in the guild does exactly that and he complains about mana issues, when i don't even have to use Scham.Rage in some fights.
But if there realy is no definit answer then i can only run some more tests on my own i guess. Using the sim LB came out with 200dps more even if instant LBs where used when CL had cooldown.
At least we can rest asured knowing that CL will always rock with multiple targets :O

Uh, yes there is. Chain lightning is a shorter cast time, and that means it has a smaller spellpower coefficient as well. Enhancers can (and should) use it on trash, but it's not good against a single target except at VERY low levels of spell power.

You might want to point your elemental shaman friend over here to read up on elemental mechanics. CL can still be useful on cooldown for elemental to help clean up rotations and/or to increase damage. This depends on various factors related to haste, gear level, etc., and your friend can find out how to determine the correct answer in the various elemental specific threads here.

For enhancement, the reason why LB > CL for single target DPS at all but extremely low spellpower levels is that enhancement doesn't care about cast time (and hence the lower coefficient on CL is the determining factor.) Elemental has to take into account CL's quicker cast time when determining if and when it is useful to fit into a rotation.