Shaman Totems vs Paladin Blessings

[Rinnhart]

Yes.
With three shamans yes, two shamans no (all three are air totems).

Sorry, neglected to change it when I added GoA to the post.

Total them up and see... I'm not so sure, but maybe I haven't thought about it long enough. TA < BoS always,

Yeah, but only because it's a recent addition.

SoE + GoA + WF > BoK + BoM for melee DPS but not by a huge amount... or is it?

Melee; no clue. Does windfury effect ranged attacks? GoA > Kings for hunters.

Mana spring + mana tide < BoW + JoW.

True- BUT, if it were a raid group effect you could drop more totems while the previous ones were on cooldown. The mana regeneration of a manatide totem = nearly the same as a full duration five minute BoW (At least, that's how it worked out last time I looked at the numbers) in only a few seconds.

Couple that with the continuing mana cost, limited life span, and immobility and I still don't see it approaching what the paladin can do.

I believe the game code doesn't support it well. There are no friendly effects that are AoE based to my knowledge, they are all party-based (with a range). Seems a trivial thing to add but who knows how their code works.

Holy Nova. Given how many AE effects the game tosses around at any time, it seems very trivial. The limited duration would require some management, but really, raid totems would just become another aspect of raid positioning; which is already something any decent raid guild should have a clue about.

edit: Thought about it some more... with paladins you only get one per pally. With shamans with "raid totems" you could get 4 per shaman, one earth, one fire, one air, and one water. Even so... not sure it'd be overpowered.

THAT is my big issue with the idea. And a lone paladin in a small group can still only give one blessing. Shamans can dump totems until they turn blue, the paladin still has to pick a single buff. A raid group with a shortage of paladins loses out on alot, too.

Remove the one blessing limitation and give shamans raid effects. Everyone's happy (except the priests and shamans who have to mash purge once or twice more).

It is a class balance issue, and something does need to be given to paladins if shamans get a defining edge.

Overall, however, I see it as moot. There's the occasions where paladins would be great, and the occasions where a raid would kill for a shaman, but alliance and horde guilds are still competitive with eachother on servers with a fair population balance.