EZ Server

Hunter:

Poor Moggok has a very boring game life.  He is so tired of running behind the crew casting Kraken in T5 and MGB's because that is the only thing he is good at with his current skill and tool set.

However!  he can return to the ranks of the useful and yet not approach the realm of the over-powered.  For instance, if the 'teats on a bull' effect of the Heyokah blessing were to be replaced with the Holy Knight strike effect then the shaman becomes a much more useful playable class.  The agro reduction is a nice effect and everything, but Shaman here do not slow the npcs and thus do not generate anywhere near the level of agro to need a reduction.

Spare the shaman of EZ from a life of RoA buffing and fighter polishing!  Let them heal!

Skeezy Ratty Troll

My vote is to bring back the Poison DoT that first had many player's attention.  The class could actually participate and was value added to the group (dps).  Not all classes benefit from the melee buff to boost dps.  My vote is to bring back the DoT and move the boosting buffs to the Bard class.  Thus killing two birds with one stone, both need improvements.

 

+9

I didn't play when that was in game so cannot comment on it beyond the obvious:  It was removed for some reason that would have to be changed before it could be put back in game.  Perhaps those conditions have already changed, /shrug.

I suggested the healing proc for the weapon as the class is a WIS caster whose role includes backup healer and because the change has (imo) the least chance of a negative impact on game play. 

Something that would give the toon some semi-serious dps would be a wicked pissah that would have Moggok dancing drunkenly in the bars of Shadowhaven while hitting on that drunken wizardess Whatzizhead!

Skeezy Ratty Troll

On live, the shaman was relied upon for buffs, and debuffs (slow, malo, etc) and did some dps with dots, and some patch healing.

Here, the buffs are not of much use, since we are all at stat caps early on.  Mobs generally can't be slowed, and the current dots and heals are not really effective.

Shaman do have a dot focus, and healing focus though.  If a fast cast heal, and a couple of dots with significant damage could be made available, shaman might be played for more than a HP buff and Kraken from outside the group.

The dot wasnt broken at all. Compared to how much dps even a warrior can put out with augs the shm still was meh at best.
Agree I would like to see it more useful.

I uc'd my shaman in hopes that he would atleast have longer buffs, but no. Kinda sad finding out that uc'ing a shaman is completly useless besides the added dmg from aug and the hps,  Would love to accually be happy i uc'd a shaman but as of now im thinking of retiring him to add something more usefull. Shamans haven a dot or a heal on epic would be king.

OMFG a UC'd shaman!

we got a few UCd shammies too its nothing new while we was waiting for T6

A UC'ed shammy should have longer lasting buffs.  Kraken should go for a LOT longer than 4 mins (which is currently equal to a shammy with a lvl 21 Guardian).  Epic clicky should also last longer.  Almost seems like a scaling issue with the charms and the UC on the shammy buffs.

Proposal:
UC'd Epic Click should last 5 hours
UC'd Kraken should last 20 mins


Final thoughts: with two pally's and a cleric in my core group, I am never going to use my shammy to heal.  The only exception would be if the shammy had a proc healing effect innate on their spear. 

Strix

Last time I bothered to check UC doesnt have guardian focus on it.
Disclaimer, I have not looked at the actual focus on the UC since I finished my first one long long ago.

You're right Bal, It doesn't.  Which is probably the heart of the issue.

I know that if my Shammy casts its clicky on a toon without a UC the toon gets about 34 mins out of the buff (as opposed to 54 mins for a toon with a UC).  I'm assuming this difference in time is based on some sort of worn (guardian like) focus effect.  That's nice - but then again it means that the only reason you would put a UC on any other class (other than a cleric) is for the HP increase.  Seems like the UC could be more worthwhile for more classes.

It would be nice if a UC meant longer buffs for all classes which probably means that the guardian effect needs to be more than just worn.

This is not the case with shaman buff duration... the duration increase comes directly from the AA "Spell Casting Reinforcement" under Archetype. There is currently NO FOCUS IN THE GAME that works to affect buff durations. The fact that sometimes the buff will only last for its normal unextended duration is purely a bug. I notice it most when everyone in my group gets a full duration buff and the shaman gets the unextended duration.

That's cool to know.  I have to say - that bug is one pain in the ass :)  Used to drive me nuts in those early days in T5 when you thought you had the buff timer down and it turned out you didn't.

This actually narrows it down.  Just add an extra line on the "Ultimate Focus Effect" that includes a focus to extend the duration of all beneficial buffs.

As I said earlier:

characters wearing guardian charm get extended buff duration i believe, right?

Something is clearly not functional here... and it looks like more than one non-functionality in play.

My shaman with full AA casts buffs with a Guardian 50 equipped and they last longer than when he casts them with it not equipped.  For all players except the shaman himself.  The Shaman always gets the base time.  Other players get the base or a longer period, depending on if the Guardian is equipped.

This implicates a problem with the shaman's buffing code.  This *may* implicate a problem with the Guardian charm code as well; however, if the buff duration changes with the charm equipped / not equipped, then we can know the Guardian code is indeed working, even if not up to specification.

Skeezy Ratty Troll

If I recall correctly, the buff duration  effect does work on guardians but a while back there was debate about how much duration focus would be allowed. This debate centered on extending warrior's stonewall to the point where they could keep it on full time. Since then things have changed, and since this is no longer an issue perhaps some retuning is in order.
I would love to bring my shammy back into the game. But buff duration alone will not do it. Perhaps a better heal spell, bringing back their DoT spell from t3-4 (this is way less dps than present toons are doing), and a significant attack debuff. The debuff should be one that no mobs are immune to that results in a reduction of the mob's DPS by perhaps 5-10%.
I think that would bring shamans back into play in all tiers.