Shaman and it's Irrelevance in the Raid

So for awhile I’ve been saying that shaman is broken, especially in late game content. To be effective, you need to be in close proximity to danger and it’s squishiness makes that a recipe for disaster.

I know the old adage is, “But it’s great for clearing trash!” Which it is! That is, when there aren’t pools constantly spawning, forcing you away from your totems. Or a random projectile that one shots you because there’s no time to react when you’re standing so close, and you just threw down totems.

Now that the raids are out, and quick trash clears don’t matter as much, let’s focus on bosses. A class doesn’t feel good if it’s only use is on trash, no matter how good it is at clearing it. In my opinion, Shaman is completely useless in bosses and raids. Outside of maybe boss 1, none of the other bosses can be done effectively with Shaman due to the limiting design.

So here are my fixes:

  1. Increase the distance we can Iron Man throw orbs, so we are not destroying our arms like a pitcher that plays 9 innings

  2. Add a utility based shoulder slot totem, like the Ranger trap or Musketeer turret. My idea for this is to have 2 to pick from:

    A- Aspect of Stone: When this AoE totem is out, you gain increased armor for you and party members in it. Maybe a slight damage increase to just the shaman.

    B- Aspect of Wind: When this AoE totem is out, it increases the crit chance for any party members in it and increases the projectile speed for all orbs the shaman launches.

  3. I love dogs, but please kill the ult with fire. New ult would be Aspect of the Elements: just spawn orbs like crazy all around you, and go nuts. Also, the dog can be a detriment to other DPS by getting in the way.

I know these changes seem bonkers, but c’mon shaman is not great and it needs this level of love.

With these 3 changes we can still keep the elemental feel of the class, bring utility, and depending on if you want to play up by the tank, or back by the DPS: You have a viable option for both. More importantly, it makes it playable.

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Well none if this solves the Shaman problem. It only makes throwing easier. The Shaman dps is all dependent on the travel time of the orbs. If you stand further away you get punished because your orbs respawn timer only starts when you hit a target. That is the only REAL Shaman feature problem. Remove that and Shaman is viable in theory for most fights. (Except for the few fights where you need to move a big distance every 8- seconds and can not walk back instantly) Everything else is just annoying throw practice.

2 Likes

This is exactly the problem. This makes your fps go up the closer you are to the boss.
I did prefers the beta version where it was on a fixed timer, even if that randomly stole orbs from my hands or the air…

Suggested fix: allow each totems to charge up multiple orbs that can be used in quick succession, and only lock-linking the final charge to the one in your hand. This would allow for some more movement, and lower the dps loss based on disstance.

I think the respawn timer should just start from when you released the orb of your hand :man_shrugging:

6 Likes

This. But I’m just happy it’s mostly working now.

I know man that’s why I wanted to make those two utility totems. The aspect of wind one was designed to increase your orb travel speed to make up for the distance as well as give a party wide buff. Aspect of Stone was designed for playing safer up close and give extra support to yourself and the tank. In theory you could also use aspect of wind up close as well to make orbs go even faster but then you wouldn’t be buffing back line dps

I tried the shaman in the raid and it’s actually useless on trash, because the distance people can run from the smashy-guys is wider than it is in dungeons, normally. I found the group of players+tank running constantly towards the boss or kiting them back and forth without getting in one (passive) tick. To increase moveability, apart from already given suggestions, likely a faster respawn time of passive totems on the belt would be needed or an automatic respawn (without of course killing the already placed until you re-place) once you ran x meters away.

Though it won’t help if there’s continuous movement of either trash or bosses over wide distances. Likely a greater range of orbs - actually much greater, so it allows to hit bosses like the sewer one, finally (I mean, no class should be locked out by default of some fights, just because of mechanics…) - is the only remedy for this.

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we have a shaman that can successfully shaman all the fights

What’s successfully? Are they living through every fight and also contributing good dps throughout? Would be curious to see their dps numbers. I can’t imagine their able to help during boss 3’s phase where you need ranged attacks.

Welllll I can say from today experience that boss 3 Shaman is very possible. And funny aiming at those balls. You are only useless for adds running towards the boss. :sweat_smile:

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Staying alive and consistently doing good dps

Whats your definition of good?

ill ask for a log. my definition of good is pretty good

i dont actually have log because of different issues, but he was doing more than everything but high teir mages

What’s his name?

SenpaiDaddy

The dmg was impressing, sure, and yet you stayed only a meter away from bosses, which makes this area crowded if there’s 2 tanks already and it could pose a problem once there’s more than one shaman in the group. Basically if this range is needed to optimize dps it raises all the problems already brought up with having more melee classes. And there was lots of deaths, too :wink: - despite it being the ideal position to get tank-heals and shields from muskys -, but yea,

I will definitly try the close-up tactics soon, because dmg was really not bad (40-50k dps on knight/clockwork hunter; 20k on pot tank), however, on some bosses where people had to move (like boss one where we switched) it was also due to not-being-occupied with other tasks. Again hard to pull-off if there’s 2 or 3 shamans who all have to stay in the middle, not available for adds, blue orbs not sure if it really makes sense to try etc.

[And most in this raid had no +4 weapons plus I fear some didn’t take enh. pots, which makes comparison not easy… would be interesting to see dmg with a mostly-equal group.]

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True. Ya a single Shaman works great for a lot of fights. But when you get multiple Shamans you will be in trouble for not having any utility to help with the other mechanics of some fights. Or when a boss or player has to move it becomes very problematic for damage too.

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