03-14-2008, 12:51 PM
The problems with resto Shamans in small-scale PvP become apparent rapidly. Like Paladins, they have to stand still to heal. Their armor, shield, and low-cost heals help to give them survivability greater than Priests, but they're too easy to shut down. Stick a Rogue on them and their effectiveness drops to around 20-30%, whereas a Priest can still operate at about 50-70% with a Rogue on them.
As GG said, you can't have a Shaman as a lone healer on a 5v5 and be effective. 4 DPS teams pretty much need a Paladin due to the Bubble letting them get some heals off for a short period - hopefully long enough for his teammates to obliterate someone. Shamans are fantastic in 5v5 because heroism/bloodlust is so insane, but they need backup for healing.
In 2v2, a Warrior/Shaman combo can be nice, but Warrior/Druid is of course completely superior. I have a lot of 3v3 experience with Warrior/Shaman/Priest, and in this combo the Shaman becomes more of an offensive player if the Priest is getting focused. Letting a Warrior/Shaman wail on someone unfettered is often a bad plan, even if the Shaman is resto. Once the target hits 50%, heroism + windfury + mortal strike + lightning bolt + earth shock can take people by surprise. I just have to live long enough, abusing LOS, Pain Suppression, fears, etc.
The instant cast ghost wolf is an attempt to give Shamans mobility, but I don't envision it as being all that effective. Maybe that's just my Priest perspective; being able to dispel it off means that the Shaman trying to run away is using a losing tactic. They can't heal while running away like a Druid can. If a team is slow to dispel, or has no offensive dispelling, the ghost wolf change will make focusing a resto Shaman less desirable, though.
Druids are so grossly overrepresented in 2v2 and 3v3 arena (I recall Kalgan's post about Druids having a 450%+ overrepresentation in 2v2) that I'm surprised that the only major nerf I've seen so far is the Cyclone range nerf. At least thanks to that, if a Druid wants to Cyclone me he's going to have to eat a mana burn to do it. As if mana burns bother Druids. :)
The new Arena Tournament realm will *really* showcase balance issues. Now there is no barrier to entry for getting a new class on your team; you can instantly create a new character and deck them out with gear to try out new combos. The results will undoubtedly be fascinating. The raw numbers from the successful teams in the Arena Tournament realm will give stark, black-and-white balance numbers unencumbered by the social and time issues of team compositions in normal realms. I can't wait to see how it pans out.
-Bolty
As GG said, you can't have a Shaman as a lone healer on a 5v5 and be effective. 4 DPS teams pretty much need a Paladin due to the Bubble letting them get some heals off for a short period - hopefully long enough for his teammates to obliterate someone. Shamans are fantastic in 5v5 because heroism/bloodlust is so insane, but they need backup for healing.
In 2v2, a Warrior/Shaman combo can be nice, but Warrior/Druid is of course completely superior. I have a lot of 3v3 experience with Warrior/Shaman/Priest, and in this combo the Shaman becomes more of an offensive player if the Priest is getting focused. Letting a Warrior/Shaman wail on someone unfettered is often a bad plan, even if the Shaman is resto. Once the target hits 50%, heroism + windfury + mortal strike + lightning bolt + earth shock can take people by surprise. I just have to live long enough, abusing LOS, Pain Suppression, fears, etc.
The instant cast ghost wolf is an attempt to give Shamans mobility, but I don't envision it as being all that effective. Maybe that's just my Priest perspective; being able to dispel it off means that the Shaman trying to run away is using a losing tactic. They can't heal while running away like a Druid can. If a team is slow to dispel, or has no offensive dispelling, the ghost wolf change will make focusing a resto Shaman less desirable, though.
Druids are so grossly overrepresented in 2v2 and 3v3 arena (I recall Kalgan's post about Druids having a 450%+ overrepresentation in 2v2) that I'm surprised that the only major nerf I've seen so far is the Cyclone range nerf. At least thanks to that, if a Druid wants to Cyclone me he's going to have to eat a mana burn to do it. As if mana burns bother Druids. :)
The new Arena Tournament realm will *really* showcase balance issues. Now there is no barrier to entry for getting a new class on your team; you can instantly create a new character and deck them out with gear to try out new combos. The results will undoubtedly be fascinating. The raw numbers from the successful teams in the Arena Tournament realm will give stark, black-and-white balance numbers unencumbered by the social and time issues of team compositions in normal realms. I can't wait to see how it pans out.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.