New Shammy Changes

[Jaycub]

>Do I really have to have a pocket healer now in order to exist? That's the situation.

Yes the game is not being balanced around bad (comp wise skill wise whatever) or solo play, and as far as I know there is virtually no group comps that only run one healer.

Your heals also have 100-150ft range, pretty much chalk up shaman getting caught out as a L2p/positional issue. In a proper group a rogue DPS or WH in your backline catching you off guard won't kill you because you have another healer in your party and that person just turns into a free kill for your team when they peel for you.

[Azarael]

The 50% reduction on heals for self (Group Heal, Bigger Better, Gork Fix) is EXTREMELY painful and needs to be removed or greatly adjusted. The 20% heal reduction on insta cast (Eye quit bleeding, Do Sumthing useful) is painfail and needs to be looked at it.

Here is whats happening in the real world now: A Shammy is usually picked first to be brought down by opponents if in range because its squishy. Since our self heal has been HUGELY nerfed after using any damage, we are just dead. I am finding that when I am focused my survivability is considerably less than the old method. Do I really have to have a pocket healer now in order to exist? That's the situation.

While its nice at times to work the heck out of Waagh to get a 25% damage bonus, the 50% self heal debuff overrides the benefit. If these heal debuffs remain in, Order is gonna realize VERY fast that Shamans are easier kills than before.

Have you read the notes? The heal reduction is to compensate for the faster cast when applied to self, for the same HPS as with the old mechanic. If it were not present, your self healing when using the mechanic would be 66% better than before and way better than any other healer to boot, and DPS AM/Shaman would be OP as hell.

2s cast for 100% = 50% per second = 100% efficiency
1.2s cast for 50% = 41% per second = 82% efficiency

If the 20% needs to go then fine, but giving you 1.2s casts for 100% would result in 164% healing efficiency against self, a 64% rise from the previous mechanic. It also has to be considered that the heals begin to apply their effect sooner with a 1.2s cast than with a 2s cast.

[Qwack]

Of course I have read the notes and I am not basing my forum feedback on a paper reality. I am testing over and over and over in real world situations. I really am trying to provide useful feedback.

Where a Shammy dies is when it gets trapped. Its going to get trapped in SCs or ORvR no matter how much running around because of ranged knockdowns, because of champ challenge, because of Stagger/Punt. When this happens, a Shamman is barely alive when it gets un CC'd or unSilenced and can not afford a half self heal in order to live. Under the old method, a DPS Shammy would have a 5 stack heal Waagh ready and could self insta heal with BB, now there is a cast time at half power. I am not living near as much in those CC focus down situations now. Its those crucial fractions of a second that make a difference tween living or not when all focus comes down hard on a Shammy in order for it to take off running again.

Of course all is well under the new method, and good for the group, as long as the Shamman is free-casting. Order just doesn't seem to want to cooperate with that laboratory perfection.

[Qwack]

>Do I really have to have a pocket healer now in order to exist? That's the situation.

Yes the game is not being balanced around bad (comp wise skill wise whatever) or solo play, and as far as I know there is virtually no group comps that only run one healer.

Your heals also have 100-150ft range, pretty much chalk up shaman getting caught out as a L2p/positional issue. In a proper group a rogue DPS or WH in your backline catching you off guard won't kill you because you have another healer in your party and that person just turns into a free kill for your team when they peel for you.

In most SCs I am the only healer in a group (often as DPS spec, whew). Not everyone has the luxury of participating in a perfectly balanced 6 man at all hours of the day. The Shammy as the lone healer in a group suffers greatly because it is going to get heavily focused and even moreso now if you dare do damage because your self heals are literally half. The cast time bonus doesn't make up for it, especially since Insta Heals are self-nerfed too.

[Azarael]

First, let me say that regardless of how I come off in my posts, I am grateful for your continued testing and feedback on these changes.

Just a point on the rest - it states within the notes of the balance forum (which we are not in, I know, but you get the picture) that changes shouldn't be discussed from a PUG viewpoint. A situation in which you as a DPS specced Shaman are the lone healer within a 6 or 12 man team is a PUG situation.

[Qwack]

First, let me say that regardless of how I come off in my posts, I am grateful for your continued testing and feedback on these changes.

Just a point on the rest - it states within the notes of the balance forum (which we are not in, I know, but you get the picture) that changes shouldn't be discussed from a PUG viewpoint. A situation in which you as a DPS specced Shaman are the lone healer within a 6 or 12 man team is a PUG situation.

Looking at it from a 6-12 man organized group with comms (so a Shammy can scream for helpz), then yes its a viable setup. It will just mean other healers will have to be even more "Johnny on the spot" in keeping a Shammy alive at those critical moments.

[Miszczu5647]

Today I had another round with my shaman (~700 willpower, 15% heal crit, ~2.2k armor, ~5.4k HP) spaced in Da Green (for Fury of the Green and Waaagh! Frenzy) and Mork (10points).

I played scenarios (solo). Never had situation that I am only healer.

Feedback:
Last changes for shaman are very good. Fury of the Green as aoe heal works great. I saw numbers from 1.2k to 2k heal on my defensive target. And I can move. Really good skill now. Building a heal stack is easy in this build so you will always have your lifetaps ( Fury and ITT) ready to go. Average cast time of Fury was 1.2 s.
If there is a time to build offensive stack you have very fast and still quite potent aoe heal from Gather Around (~1.5k average).
It is maybe a paradox but my heal was better when we fought 12vs12 than is small groups. That's the construction of Fury. If I had only one or two targets (it's happened sometimes when group was splited) my heal was considerably lower.
There is one thing shaman need - fast way to change stack or at least to drop them to zero.

[roadkillrobin]

An abillity to swap stacks with a reasonble cooldown like proposed by Az, and im really happy with the changes. Now im just curios what "reasonble cooldown" would be. I personally think 60-180secs is reasonble for this

[Qwack]

An abillity to swap stacks with a reasonble cooldown like proposed by Az, and im really happy with the changes. Now im just curios what "reasonble cooldown" would be. I personally think 60-180secs is reasonble for this

If its an ability that simply "Zero's" a stack then 30 seconds sounds about right. If its an ability that swaps stacks then 60 seconds sounds reasonable.

[roadkillrobin]

An abillity to swap stacks with a reasonble cooldown like proposed by Az, and im really happy with the changes. Now im just curios what "reasonble cooldown" would be. I personally think 60-180secs is reasonble for this

If its an ability that simply "Zero's" a stack then 30 seconds sounds about right. If its an ability that swaps stacks then 60 seconds sounds reasonable.

I'd rather have a swap stacks. I don't really see the logic with having a build up mechanic were you want to nullify it coz it work aganst your class. Thats just bad mechanic design imo. Thats like you need to dump all your combo points on a WE coz you need to fire of a skill that requirees you to have 0 combo points to be effective, when your class is designed to buid combo points. A complete stack swap would solve all these issues imo. But yeah it's just borkenly powerfull if it's on to short cooldown. 1-3min CD seems reasonble.