Beta 6 Shaman Constructive Criticism

I feel that the Shaman is a great class; however, I also feel that the design of the Shaman is technically flawed given the overall game mechanics of OrbusVR. As an example I’ll use the big sewer boss that you dump the buckets of water on. The mechanics of the fight involve the following skills:

  • Kiting the boss around a large room to position him under the buckets
  • Avoiding the single target seeking ball created by the boss
  • Avoiding the random ground spawn aoe attack from the boss
  • Avoiding direct damage from the boss
  • Killing the boss’s minions when they spawn

In short, you must be moving frequently, watching for additional mob spawns and watching for attacks from the boss. As a Warrior or a Paladin, you have your weapon in you hand and can move in and out of danger doing damage immediately upon return to attack range. As a Runemage, Ranger, or Scoundrel, you have your weapon in your hand and can be doing damage while moving to avoid attacks or close distance on the boss. As a Bard or a Musketeer, again your weapon is out and you can be debuffing and damaging the boss, or buffing and healing your group all while moving with the action. In all these classes there is no down time while placing your weapon, looking for where you did place your weapon, teleporting to you weapon, looking to see that you are grabbing in the correct location to grab your orb and then looking around to figure out where the boss has moved to and whether or not you are now standing in an aoe attack from the boss.

The point that I’m trying to illustrate is that I feel the place bound mechanics of the Shaman don’t fit in well with the overall reactive mechanics of the game battle system. Now don’t despair, I said this was constructive criticism and I am prepared to provide what I believe is a potential way of resolving the conflict for the Shaman and making it a truly useful raiding DPS class. First, I think the aoe totems can stay just as they are. These are great tools for use on groups of trash mobs and add extra dps while bosses are moving through them. Now for the 800 pound guerrilla in the room, the orb totems. I won’t say this will be an easy fix because I have no clue on the programing side of things but here is my suggestion. Keep the totems icons on the belt just as they are; however, instead of grabbing the totem and dropping it to the ground just have the totem convert to the appropriate orb when you grab it off your belt. You are now ready to throw it, run closer to the mob or avoid those pesky aoe puddles. From the class balancing side, you can then control the time it takes for the totems to respawn on the belt and how much damage each orb does to adjust the dps for the Shaman. I believe this would give the Shaman the same freedom of movement the other classes enjoy while maintaining the true challenge of the class which is throwing an orb at a target in VR and hitting it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and as always thank you for all the time you have put into creating a very enjoyable VR world.

4 Likes

I’m currently leveling the shaman to 30 and have thought about these issues. I’m holding my final thoughts on the class until I’m 30 and have tried things to understand what the strengths/ weakness are and if it can be overcome.

So, I’m curious what level are you currently and what talents have you taken? Because personally I was at the point of breaking between lvl 12 to 16 ish but from 20+ its felt a lot better with more understanding and talents. (I’m currently level 25)

I’ve been thinking the same thing. It feels constraining to be stuck without being able to move around lest you miss out on your orbs. Personally I’d have the orb totems float at your side.

For this class it is going to come down to where you position yourself in a fight. If you know the path that the boss is going to take, you should position yourself in the best spot possible that will allow you to constantly attack while moving very little.