TalonBot
05-22-2009, 03:12 PM
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2009/05/squishedshammy01.jpgYes, that's Thoralius the Wise (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=23975) from the Howling Fjord starting quests. When I saw him get up and start zoning out to his smoke brazier, the look on his face just meshed too well with today's subject matter, which is the health of shamans in melee. We talked about shaman health in PvP a while back (http://www.wow.com/2009/02/04/is-shaman-health-too-low-in-pvp/), now it's PvE's turn.
I don't play my shaman in a melee role in raids right now, because I basically don't have the gear for it. My resto set's a lot better so that's what I go as, but that only means I often notice how difficult it is to keep enhancement shamans on their feet. There are several possible culprits for the disparity, although in most cases I believe the killer to be aoe damage, so wearing mail really isn't the issue: rogues aren't nearly as hard to keep up as shamans, for instance, because rogues have cooldowns and abilities that allow them to avoid or escape damage. (If you've ever seen a rogue go sprinting through several mines on a Mimiron (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33350) kill you'll know what I mean.) No, excepting those giant whirlwinding maniacs in Razorscale and Thorim, what's generally killing shamans in melee is AoE damage, and the problem here is twofold in my experience.
Most enhancement shamans who are not in Tier gear are wearing hunter mail, which is not tuned to higher stamina values. Even shaman tier gear lacks in stamina, however.
In order to take talents that would reduce incoming damage, shamans are asked to not take talents that would allow them to produce meaningful DPS.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Is Enhancement too squishy? (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/)
Filed under: Shaman (http://www.wow.com/category/shaman/), Items (http://www.wow.com/category/items/), Analysis / Opinion (http://www.wow.com/category/analysis-opinion/), Odds and ends (http://www.wow.com/category/odds-and-ends/), News items (http://www.wow.com/category/news-items/), Instances (http://www.wow.com/category/instances/), Raiding (http://www.wow.com/category/raiding/), (Shaman) Totem Talk (http://www.wow.com/category/totem-talk/)
Totem Talk: Is Enhancement too squishy? (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/) originally appeared on WoW.com (http://www.wow.com) on Fri, 22 May 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
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I don't play my shaman in a melee role in raids right now, because I basically don't have the gear for it. My resto set's a lot better so that's what I go as, but that only means I often notice how difficult it is to keep enhancement shamans on their feet. There are several possible culprits for the disparity, although in most cases I believe the killer to be aoe damage, so wearing mail really isn't the issue: rogues aren't nearly as hard to keep up as shamans, for instance, because rogues have cooldowns and abilities that allow them to avoid or escape damage. (If you've ever seen a rogue go sprinting through several mines on a Mimiron (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=33350) kill you'll know what I mean.) No, excepting those giant whirlwinding maniacs in Razorscale and Thorim, what's generally killing shamans in melee is AoE damage, and the problem here is twofold in my experience.
Most enhancement shamans who are not in Tier gear are wearing hunter mail, which is not tuned to higher stamina values. Even shaman tier gear lacks in stamina, however.
In order to take talents that would reduce incoming damage, shamans are asked to not take talents that would allow them to produce meaningful DPS.
Continue reading Totem Talk: Is Enhancement too squishy? (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/)
Filed under: Shaman (http://www.wow.com/category/shaman/), Items (http://www.wow.com/category/items/), Analysis / Opinion (http://www.wow.com/category/analysis-opinion/), Odds and ends (http://www.wow.com/category/odds-and-ends/), News items (http://www.wow.com/category/news-items/), Instances (http://www.wow.com/category/instances/), Raiding (http://www.wow.com/category/raiding/), (Shaman) Totem Talk (http://www.wow.com/category/totem-talk/)
Totem Talk: Is Enhancement too squishy? (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/) originally appeared on WoW.com (http://www.wow.com) on Fri, 22 May 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/) | Email this (http://www.wow.com/forward/1554071/) | Comments (http://www.wow.com/2009/05/22/totem-talk-is-enhancement-too-squishy/#comments)
More... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WowInsider/~3/uEgPlKYzfbc/)