More updates.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)


Elemental
•Shamanism is now a primary skill.
•Elemental Mastery no longer shares a cooldown with Nature's Swiftness and now also increases your Fire, Frost, and Nature damage by 15% for the duration of the spell.

Enhancement
•Shamanistic Rage reduces the mana cost of your skills, totems, and offensive spells by 90 for 15 sec.
•Ancestral Swiftness is back as a Tier 2 talent

As I edited my previous post to indicate, Ancestal swiftness is not being eliminated. Woot!

I'm a bit confused by the SR change. I'm hoping this is in addition to the normal mana regen rather than as replacement. But if so then its pretty useless, well at least in PvE, as the regen more than fills my bar.  I can see the being helpful in PvP though.  But to tell you the truth I'm kinda of tired of the developers shoving to many things into SR. First it was just used for regaining mana, then it added Damage Reduction, Then there is the T10 set bonus  of 12% additional damage, now its mana cost reduction.  Its gotten pretty cluttered in there.

Guild updates. 
Fire and Blood is still sitting at 11/12 HM in ICC. Heroic Sindragosa is giving us issues. Mainly with healers. We seem to need 8 of them in order to do the fight, and it seems like we cant ever get that many on when we get to her. So we end up having to kill her on normal which means no chance to work on Heroic LK.

We spent last night working on Heroic Halion.  We need a lot more work. We got to the point were we were getting to P2 but our positioning was bad, and we'd end up getting cleaved as soon as we ported down.

We have gone back and cleared some old content we never got to before.  I'd missed the time we went back for Algalon, so I picked up Astral Walker a couple of months ago. That title is a lot rarer than Kingslayer on QD, so I decided to wear that.  We also FINALLY got Heroic Anub down. Eight months late, but he's down. And FnB is the only guild on server with that kill. I guess no one else is sadistic enough to make their raiders  go back there. That fight nearly broke us back in the day. It probably cost us 10 people quitting or transferring.

Oh and our 10 man team got Heroic LK. I don't have time for 10 mans along with 25's so grats to them. Hopefully we'll get him on 25 soon.

New Beta Build

There is a new beta build out there and I'm not to pleased.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)



Elemental
•Elemental Devastation is now an Enhancement talent.
•Ancestral Knowledge is now an Elemental talent.
•Improved Lava Lash is now a 2 Ranks talent (Down from 3). Increases the damage of your Lava Lash ability by 15/30%, and by an additional 10/20% for each of your applications of Searing Flames on the target, consuming those applications in the process.
Enhancement
•Improved Shields is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
•Ancestral Swiftness is gone.
•Frozen Power *New* - Increases the damage done by your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Lash and Shock spells by 5/10% on targets afflicted by your Frostbrand Attack effect, and your Frost Shock has a 50/100% chance to root the target in ice for 5 sec. when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
Restoration
•Earth Shield is now trained at level 10. (Down from 50)

Lets start at the beginning.
Elemental Devastation and Ancestral Knowledge swapping trees makes a ton of sense, on the surface at least. AK is of very little use to Enhancement, and was only a filler talents. Elemental Devastation on the other hand was something we all took, and I doubt many Elementals took.

But the issue know is that instead of spending your valuable talent points on something useful in T1 so you can access T2, you are forced to waste 2 points on  either Convection or AK .

Improved Lava Lash is still Enhance,  Costing  1 less point is nice. Although I don't recall if its for the same  bonus as before.

Imp shields is still to costly. Same bonus as the old 3 point talents, with half the points available. Should either be reduced to 2 points or the effect needs to be boosted.

Frozen Power is a nice PvP talent. Nothing I've seen indicates we'd use frostbrand in PvE, and while having a root would be nice on some fights, the 15 yard range really limits its use in PvE.

But I can live with all those changes. The change I'm most disappointed in is the removal of Ancestral Swiftness. No 15% movement bonus, and no instant GW. BOOOO! 

I was looking forward to a lot of things in Cataclysm. Path of the Titans, Guild Talents, Masteries from Talents, getting a 21 point talent in an offspec, Ancestral Swiftness, Indoor Ghost Wolf. Well at least we still have that last one... for now.


ETA:  From Ghostcrawler
Ancestral Swiftness was not removed. Sorry for any confusion. It is still in the second tier of Enhancement, available to all.

Well that's a relief.

Developer Chat

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)


Q. Do you consider Primal Wisdom or Shamanistic Rage "required" so Enhancement shaman won't run out of mana? Is running out of mana intended to be a danger?


A. Yes, once high-level Enhancement shaman have all their abilities and are using them in sequence, Primal Wisdom will be required to sustain a rotation. We’d like to let shaman use Shamanistic Rage for survival or emergency situations, rather than assuming rotational use for mana.

Q. With the new implemented Lava Surge, will Chain Lightning become useful for multiple mobs only?

A. It always has had, and will continue to have, some niche use as a gap-filler against single targets when Lava Burst has around a second left on its cooldown. Lava Surge won’t always proc, but it’s likely to be more of a multi-target ability, yes.


Q. Will Spirit Link make a return after all? Ghostcrawler mentioned he'd like to bring it back, but no sighting of it yet.

A. Anything’s possible, but at this point it isn’t looking good for our beloved talent…. If we changed it to be an absorb or a different sort of mechanic, then it wouldn’t be the iconic Spirit Link that we all remember from Warcraft III. But that core damage-sharing mechanic poses major design and balance challenges (e.g. does a rogue really want to start taking damage suddenly because the shaman in his group decided to link him to the tank?).

Q. With Elemental Fury becoming a passive for Elemental shaman, will Enhancement be seeing more physical based damage?


A. Spells like Lava Burst and shocks will always be a big part of Enhancement’s damage, but yes, we’d like weapon attacks like Stormstrike and Lava Lash to be a larger part of Enhancement Shamans’ damage in Cataclysm. N.B.: Mental Quickness is getting a boost to help compensate for the loss of Elemental Fury.


Q. Are there any plans of making totems utility only (e.g. Earthbind, Grounding) and turning buff totems into auras or cast buffs?

A. Not at this time. We’re aware of the concerns regarding the use of buff totems among some shaman, but the positional aspect is something that we consider inherent to the nature of totems. By increasing totem durations, consolidating some buff totems, and introducing the multi-drop totem spells in Wrath of the Lich King, we’ve attempted to mitigate as much of the inconvenience as possible, while preserving the core gameplay of paying attention to where totems are being dropped.

Q. How does Deep Healing work? Will it heal severely less at high health that it is difficult to keep a target at a safe level of health?

A. No, view it as a perk that boosts your heals when that extra healing is most needed. It’s a class-specific bonus, so healing overall won’t be balanced around the expectation that Deep Healing applies.

New Talent Calculator is up.

So they are solving our mana issues with Primal Wisdom, a new  4th Tier Talent.
Combing Improved Ghost Wolf with Ancestral Swiftness is a winner as well.

BUT the only way to get that talent is to Forego Improved Fire Nova.


Edited: Adding in the level 10 abilties.
Shaman - Enhancement

A totemic warrior who strikes foes with weapons imbued with elemental power.
•Dual Wield
•Mental Quickness
•Dual Wield Specialization
•Lava Lash


also for those who care the lesser trees.
Shaman - Elemental

A spellcaster who harnesses the destructive forces of nature and the elements.
•Eye of the Storm
•Thunderstorm
•Elemental Fury
Shaman - Restoration
A healer who calls upon ancestral spirits and the cleansing power of water to mend allies? wounds.
•Earth Shield
•Purification (+healing)
•Healing Focus
•Meditation