I have thought that one of the AoE totems could provide gentle healing much like the musketeer orb, the shield totem could be a good choice. Maybe you can find a healing totem in the over world much like spell pillers. If it’s a separate totem the spawn rate could be the same as the lava totem.
Nah, would be too OP. There’s a point where the meta becomes running a raid with 9 shamans and making everyone invincible. Shield totems avoid this issue because it can’t stack, and multiple shamans won’t cause invincibility, but running a full party of shaman’s and no healer would just be strictly more powerful than a party composition with a healer.
Shaman isn’t a healing class. Most of the time, a renew is all that’s needed to keep a tank alive anyways, and giving a 60k DPS class consistsant healing isn’t something that should ever be implemented.
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I don’t really see the need for it. Shaman is in a mostly fine spot and this change wouldn’t address any of the problems with the class or the reason why shield totem is bad.
shamans identity is supposed to be a class that is good at aoe and minion groups but struggles with single target dps and fighting from a distance.
For the most part this is true but they don’t feel as secure in this role as I think they should which is where fixing could be done. There are 2 reasons for this:
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The totems don’t spawn orbs fast enough on initial drop for them to participate in clearing trash in dungeons if enemies are being cleared quickly. This is their one job so the fact that they aren’t good at it sometimes is a problem. The fix for this is just making their totems immediately spawn orbs on drop with some balancing done to make sure it doesn’t affect their sustained dps.
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They don’t do enough aoe. This ones a lot more subjective but I think the splash from their lightning could be a little higher possibly in exchange for reducing their single target damagr if needed. Shamans do a fine job of add management in raids but they mostly just perform similarly to the other classes rather than feeling like they are meant for that role.
Also shield totem is bad because shaman shield, musket shield, bard shield, and warrior shield all override eachother. Even if it applied a renew it still wouldn’t be used if it still just actively nullified one of muskets orbs. The renew would likely conflict with musket renew because that’s just how buffs usually work in the game, which would actually be a nerf to the totem.
Overall this change probably wouldn’t do much besides making shaman marginally closer to being viable in pvp but it would further detract from shamans identity as a DPS and definitely would not be worth the effort of coding.
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i’ll say it quick. shaman isn’t a healer. it pulls too low dps to give a lot of that up to do a healer’s job.
So I am all +5 w/ my +6 weapon and have a decent tile set that procs almost every throw. But I keep hearing about shaman doing 60k and the highest I’ve hit in a boss fight was mid 40’s, usually less if there is any running around involved since unlike every other class we can’t move and shoot w/ down time for totems. Any info on rotation/tiles that puts us up to 60k?
I agree, I have no interest in a healing totem. Actually the shield totem can actually be pretty useful. I’ve thrown my shield totem behind a tank and when it breaks musky shields to take some pressure off a musky at keeping tank alive. I sacrificed some DPS, but overall worked better than wiping because tank died. We also used to do this in raids with two shamans rotating shield totems with pretty decent success.
I agree the biggest need we have is as you mentioned, initial spawn time for totems. As far as number 2, I’m mixed. 1st boss citadel, I’ve come out number 1 in dps a few times mainly because I can throw out totems to do damage between jumping in/out of circles and only doing lightening when I’m safe. But entire time doing non-stop damage. of course I would love to do more aoe, but also for me, that would be moot if totems respawned at a decent rate for trash mobs. And wouldn’t really make a difference on single mobs other than when we have to run around for a boss that moves a lot would simply make us more viable.
Get as close to the enemy as possible, get the World Boss rings infused into each other, stack crit as much as possible. Refresh your totems as soon as they spawn back, and try to time it so you’re putting them down right after you’ve thrown orbs for minimal downtime.
Also, absolutely a bug, but Hex Totem applies a shield just like Shield Totem, but lasts longer. Just throwing that out there 
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I’m gonna be honest, I’m not a shaman. I know very little about the class aside from what I see people parse at. Regarding tiles, it could be an interference issue? Aside from that, weapon / armor affixes could cause the dps difference.
I do a very consistent 60k on Shaman on single target (potted) - but always remember groups of mobs are where Shamans shine, so single target damage is the lowest possible damage we do. In real dungeon play it’s much more than that except on boss fights.
There’s a huuuuuge difference from +5 to +6 (weapons). I’d disagree with Mishka on getting as close as possible. I prefer a more mid-range approach, but yes, always re-drop your totems as soon as they respawn. If you get good at keeping the order of your orbs consistent, you can optimize your tiles for that to get higher numbers (see: tBuzz), but you also lose a lot if your order gets messed up. So for general play, it’s good to have tiles to cover variations.
I still want to do a runesight potion on Shaman and see if I can fully optimize, but haven’t got a chance to do that yet. My tiles proc pretty much nonstop though, so that would just be tweaking. Damage should bump up a bit more once I get perfect stats all round.
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thanks, im gonna parse at my current tile set then make a set to parse on yours and see how much it changes. I don’t have +6 armor yet, and who knows how long until I do. Most of my tiles are the same, except for the chest just on different pieces.
Correction, the 1 piece of +6 i have is scoundrel 
Still working on trying to find my place as a shaman in citadel
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Cool. Mind the affixes too. Those make a difference.
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Armor doesn’t actually increase your DPS aside from tiles and affixes, but those don’t change with the + level of it. Honestly, armor for DPS classes rarely matters.
I disagree somewhat specifically for shaman. Getting Crit chance and crit damage means a lot more for them than most other classes because crits give them lightnings and they probably crit at least half their orbs
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I mean, sure, but going from +5 to +6 doesn’t change your CC or CD. Having better armor doesn’t actually do anything, +1 purple gear gives the same amount of DPS as +6.
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Ah, I was referring to weapon. I must have misread. That’s what I get for foruming before I’m fully awake.
Affixes do matter though!
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