[Enhancement] 3.2 Changes

Rouncer · 06/19/09, 12:16 AM

Only carrying one rule forward from the old thread.

1. Anyone posting about Fast weapons without EnhSim or Simulationcraft or many hours of targeting dummy testing data explicitly proving their conclusions will be infracted. The game changed and Fast weapons are no longer on the table, if you want to say otherwise you better bring proof or you will get infracted.

Patch Notes that affect Enhancement Shaman

Races: General

* Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.

Classes: General

* All pets now receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.

Rogues

* After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.

Shaman

* A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman 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.
* All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.
* Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
* 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%.
* 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.
* Talents
o 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%.

User Interface

* Casting bars under a target's portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
* Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.

Bug Fixes

* Shaman
o Fixed a bug where Frostbrand Weapon (Rank 9) was not scaling properly with a shaman's spell power.

edited to add the line about Rogues and Axes to the patchnotes.

Conq[SUN] · 06/19/09, 3:24 AM

Think you forgot the main Enhancement change:

After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.

I read this as Blizzard will be bringing more axes fit for shamans into the world.

Photek · 06/19/09, 4:42 AM

I welcome the 1-minute SR with open arms, goodbye to SF and Imp SS, but I'm pretty much dissapointed with the rogue axe change ;( and the change to orc racial is fucking imba, time to reroll orc =/

Expertise and hit capped wolves will be really overpower. Ghost wolf on PvP from no use to little use, better than nothing and <3 the stomping macros dead. I really hope the health increase stop killing me on hard mode combos in Ulduar.

jaredh · 06/19/09, 5:18 AM

I am concerned about:

Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).

I find not having replenishment keeps me from Magma spamming in 10 mans, so any large hit to this regen I am afraid will be missed. The 1 minute Sham Rage should help here but I am wanting to try it out in practice to ensure it is going to make up for it (or make us even better than we were).

Fayler · 06/19/09, 6:02 AM

Eventhough the Orc Racial expertise now also covers fist weapons I'm a bit concerned about what weapon to actually chose for getting the bonus. Off the bat it seems that [Touch of Madness] would be the best off hand choice for the bonus, since it seems like there's not really alot slow off hand fist weapons around and setting pvp weapons aside and looking purely pve am I wrong to think that [The Stray] is getting hot again?

Photek · 06/19/09, 8:24 AM

Originally Posted by Fayler

Eventhough the Orc Racial expertise now also covers fist weapons I'm a bit concerned about what weapon to actually chose for getting the bonus. Off the bat it seems that [Touch of Madness] would be the best off hand choice for the bonus, since it seems like there's not really alot slow off hand fist weapons around and setting pvp weapons aside and looking purely pve am I wrong to think that [The Stray] is getting hot again?

Dont think about existing weapons, that new crappy instance will have loads of options for sure to cover the new changes on DW DK's and Axe Rogues.

Staticus · 06/19/09, 8:24 AM

The new instance will be nowhere near enough to keep us busy, so ulduar (particularly hardmode) weapons will still be on the table. Especially if the new weapons are 2.5/2.6 speed. (therefore could be inferior to 2.7 ulduar hardmode ones)

Originally Posted by Fayler

Eventhough the Orc Racial expertise now also covers fist weapons I'm a bit concerned about what weapon to actually chose for getting the bonus. Off the bat it seems that [Touch of Madness] would be the best off hand choice for the bonus, since it seems like there's not really alot slow off hand fist weapons around and setting pvp weapons aside and looking purely pve am I wrong to think that [The Stray] is getting hot again?

5 expertise = 41 rating, add it to the weapon's EP value and see if it competes. (probably not since we only need 140 rating now, and it's possible to achieve that through gear alone w/o gems etc.)

Originally Posted by jaredh

I find not having replenishment keeps me from Magma spamming in 10 mans, so any large hit to this regen I am afraid will be missed. The 1 minute Sham Rage should help here but I am wanting to try it out in practice to ensure it is going to make up for it (or make us even better than we were).

I have 2/2 imp SS and have no issues with magma spamming on 10's. It's worth a lot more dps than 2 points of ancestral knowledge IMO.

Kyro · 06/19/09, 8:40 AM

Originally Posted by Photek

but I'm pretty much dissapointed with the rogue axe change ;( and the change to orc racial is fucking imba, time to reroll orc =/

This might be slightly off-topic, but the 5% damage bonus to pets and the extra (free) 322AP trinket on a 2-minute cooldown were already enough reasons to reroll Orc. This is just icing on the cake, and seems to be a clear indication from Blizzard that Orcs really are the way to go for enhance shamans. At equal gear and skill levels, an orc will produce more DPS than a tauren or troll.

They may as well include that in their blue postings, next to statements such as "our goal is WF/FT MH/OH". Something along the lines of " if you're a horde enhance shaman and you didn't pick an orc, you should reroll".

Peterle · 06/19/09, 9:20 AM

Originally Posted by Kyro

This might be slightly off-topic, but the 5% damage bonus to pets and the extra (free) 322AP trinket on a 2-minute cooldown were already enough reasons to reroll Orc.

I did no testing but description of command racial on wow homepage reads as follows:

Command - passive
Damage dealt by Death Knight, Hunter and Warlock pets increased by 5%.

WoW -> Info -> Races -> Orcs
Shamans are not listed.

Photek · 06/19/09, 9:48 AM

Originally Posted by Peterle

I did no testing but description of command racial on wow homepage reads as follows:

WoW -> Info -> Races -> Orcs
Shamans are not listed.

AFAIK, Command affect Shaman wolves since patch 3.1

edit: yup they do "# Command (Orc Racial): Applies to shaman pets, and now correctly applies to death knight pets." source

Peterle · 06/19/09, 9:56 AM

You are right. 3.1 Patchnotes:

Command (Orc Racial): Applies to shaman pets, and now correctly applies to death knight pets.

Rouncer · 06/19/09, 10:02 AM

e, fb - That's what I get for actually looking for a real encounter to demonstrate the difference instead of just looking for the patchnotes. I can say that I raid with Malan and we are similarily geared. He is a Tauren and I am an Orc and my wolves consistently outdamage his, so anecdotally it would appear that the racial is indeed active on them.

As an aside, Malan and I are normally within a percentage point or two of each other so racials really do seem to matter a lot less then just good play in general. Min/Maxing based on racials seems silly to me considering they change all the time so play the race you like aesthetically and don't worry about those racials unless it is on the Tournament Realm. Being stuck in a avatar with an appearance you dislike just to get a small edge really isn't worth it.

Discussing the axe changes is certainly relevant since it has the potential to make Touch of Madness a contender for an Orc and discussing Command in regards to glyph selection is similar but otherwise leave the "racism" at the door.

Photek · 06/19/09, 10:05 AM

brb rerolling orc see ya in icecrown, beware of my last war stomp

OnosKT · 06/19/09, 10:16 AM

Well, from my point of view there is one small thing that will need clarification:

In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum

Since we are a melee class it should be melee hit chance, but I wonder what they will use - because if they set our maximum as the dual wield hit cap our wolves will most likely never be hit capped.

I find not having replenishment keeps me from Magma spamming in 10 mans, so any large hit to this regen I am afraid will be missed. The 1 minute Sham Rage should help here but I am wanting to try it out in practice to ensure it is going to make up for it (or make us even better than we were).

With 2/2 in imp SS I have 0 issues with keeping magma down right now on any fight (and that includes general hard mode). Actually not quite true - the only fight where this past week I had a 10s frame with SR down and oom was Kologarn, but that is due to the Magma + CL constant use.

As for PvE raiding as enhance, orcs seem to be by far best. As a tauren only the extra HP could be useful for hard modes. I should really sim what the difference in DPS is.

Rouncer · 06/19/09, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by OnosKT

As for PvE raiding as enhance, orcs seem to be by far best. As a tauren only the extra HP could be useful for hard modes. I should really sim what the difference in DPS is.

I wonder where trolls fit into that ranking and draenai as well since both of their racials are very strong as well. Tauren could definitely use a bit of love in the racial department for raiding but warstomp is a very powerful racial for PvP already.