Patch Notes 19/03/2025

[Nelly74]

I have 9800 crests for my DD Shaman and I was so happy, waiting to buy 10k Ring....
But after patch, I am kinda lost. Don't want to play Shaman anymore

Why? The shaman is still an absolute war machine, and I don't think its gameplay has been revolutionized with this patch either.

[Farrul]

Trying the WP. Feedback.

General:
Purify is broken and doesn't remove anything. Fix asap pls.

Wrath:
Divine impact is not worth the skill point, too slow ( should be 1 sec cast) and the debuff is not enough to sacrifice a hotkey spot( which increased with 3-4 keys for no real performance benefit, just more to remember).

Wrath still lacks a gap closer, does not have knockdown. This limits it too much as a MDPS.

Suggestion: Make Divine Impact 1 sec cast and add KD effect( this will be worthy 9 point in the skill tree, the current one is useless imho ). Lower damage a bit if needed. Look at the SM crashing wave as reference. Crashing wave : 800 spirit damage, KD, instant cast.

AOE dps feels nerfed with the removal of Sigmars Wrath, the 50ft 20% ability dmg increase and 25% added armor penetration gave the WP a solid AOE ''bombing'' window.

40ft smite lower damage with the loss of sigmars wrath and no 25% armor pen increase does not have the same impact even if its spammable. Also must sacrifice a tactic slot.

[Neznan]

I have 9800 crests for my DD Shaman and I was so happy, waiting to buy 10k Ring....
But after patch, I am kinda lost. Don't want to play Shaman anymore

That's a huge issue with these kinds of massive overhauls in such a grindy game.

A short story to illustrate the point:
One of the guys in my guild is a father of three and keeps pretty busy with work. He started playing around three years ago and instantly fell in love. He hit 40 on his first character after about a year, but is still nowhere close to his 10k ring on that character. He's began to focus on his zealot over a year ago and really enjoys the class. He spent tons of his rare gametime farming to get gold for armor talismans. He's finally got his tri ring and has it basically bis after almost two years of work. If the proposed ritual changes had gone through, the class would have been completely gutted. He's not the kind of guy to complain about stuff, but I'm not sure he would have kept playing the game.

I hope the devs can take to heart that they're stewards of a great game and respect the responsibility of keeping it fun and accessible for everyone.

I am a father of 3 also ))))

[saupreusse]

I really enjoy the new AM mechanic, coming from a dps AM pov. Got to checkout grace wp next.

[MetaFR]

hi,

#1
While on AM cycle feel most likely as before, it is not on shaman. Somethin' clunky.
I cant get why , are all abilities correctly set in wich side they boost ? that's my first track.

#2 on AM/SHA, If i got it correctly, now to have same bonuses as before (eg old core mechanism) I must slot the new tactic ( that boost crit and crit heal after 5 used new core mechanism unit? )

SO overall, I feel weaker by a large margin on both , not much on the healin side, but rather in the dmg side. What If i had choose to heal from and with dmg instead? (eneryf of vaul/FODG)

Let me explain, before all you had to do is weave one side, to boost another. very predictable how it was. Now each abilities have it's own boost ( most share, but yet a lot dont , they have unique boost) This is where it get messy. While it give more control over how is buffed what, eg a brand new system where everything can be tuned up/down or even started from scratch again, I feel something not expected has happened.

let's take FODG , in right shaman tree. Now to have the same effect on its dmg/heal as before I need slot the new tactic and use it in the 5s after having used 5 force. But there is no way you can build 5 force within 5s to unleash it again in real condition.

So, only real benefit from new system is that it gets instant with striketrough if you weave to 5 force. that's a direct nerf to dmg/heal of this very unique skill if you account out cast time. obv, if you only divide dmg by time, it's a up, but in real condition it's not. I'd rather take a longer /slightly boosted casting time FODG, with nice spike of dmg (so of heals) as it was before!

That's why I think I feel overall it's a mess. Im far from understanding it all yet, but that's how i feel!
-

[stealthc98]

Has anyone found a working sdok build? The top skill in the shield tree seems useless as does speccing into the healing tree due to lack of willpower. There are some interesting new tactics but I still feel murderous intent and the life tap increases are still must haves. The life tap heals seem lacking at the moment. The new group heal is good, but at the cost of 80 SE it’s an expensive cast without fueled actions slotted. Has anyone done further testing and/or success with it at the moment?

[yoluigi]

Soo yeah tried it a bit.

Hammer of sigmar is useless. That stuff need to be 50% requirement or even 30% but at least crit each time (can even put 5 second cooldown)
Divine impact is extremely bad better off giving us somekind of gap closer or modify the ability to make it worth using.

Divine strike played as shield with the 2 tactic (25% dmg -20 less heals and 10%crit/parry -20% heal)
That's a 40% less heals to the baseheal and it can get anti heal. It's pretty bad if we keep this mecanic should at least make it divine strike heals everybody around like the old version (5,10 feet around the target) Not hit 3 target but atleast everybody around like that if your in a melee warband you can heal everybody around.

Right now there is no plus to be shield better off be book or hybrid shield heal maybe?.

[Sinisterror]

Soo yeah tried it a bit.

Hammer of sigmar is useless. That stuff need to be 50% requirement or even 30% but at least crit each time (can even put 5 second cooldown)
Divine impact is extremely bad better off giving us somekind of gap closer or modify the ability to make it worth using.

Divine strike played as shield with the 2 tactic (25% dmg -20 less heals and 10%crit/parry -20% heal)
That's a 40% less heals to the baseheal and it can get anti heal. It's pretty bad if we keep this mecanic should at least make it divine strike heals everybody around like the old version (5,10 feet around the target) Not hit 3 target but atleast everybody around like that if your in a melee warband you can heal everybody around.

Right now there is no plus to be shield better off be book or hybrid shield heal maybe?.

Divine Impact would work if it had 30ft range otherwise yeah its not good. Dok Doesnt feel good or smooth either, new mechanic gives 25% Crit dmg and SE 3s dot with Mini Wop dmg that cannot even crit? If crit dmg was the point then the new max dmg ability cant take advantake of that mechanic. Soulfire+dok Equivalent both bak to ap and giving resourse.

[Mandodlenn]

About Shield WP (and Shield DoK I guess), a spec leveraging the Base Heal part instead of the Lifesteal part is now doable. One has to ignore the staple 2x "-20% Heal" tactics of previous Shield spec, in favor of stuff like Exalted Defense and new Grace of Sigmar. Damage output goes down, but the Base Heal part is independent of actual damage done, only dependent on Damage Bonus.
In practice this gives around the same Heal output as damage/lifesteal spec, actually a little bit more. Still needed to hit something, so not as reliable as a Book/Chalice spec.

On another note, out-of-group healing went down the drain for Shield. Only 1 (strong) ST channeled Heal remains, too slow to give support to allies in pressure situation.

Benediction (13pts ability) is way too situational to be a reliable investment. It does low damage & low Heal, better off using Sigmar Radiance as base ability doing same damage, more Heal, more RF gain, and costing less AP.

[leubac]

Balance Changes

Flowing Accusations - Removed 0.5 second delay.

Neat !