Scowls, I agree, we're recruits for groups for healing purposes. That's expected and in that role, I don't think I'm going to be much of a DPS addition to the group. My main problems are on raids, when there are multiple shaman, roles tend to be debuffer, slower, rez buffer, etc. . . But, when a call for max DPS is made, we bounce DoTs (and in most cases the mob is dead pretty quick, so our DoTs aren't doing a whole bunch in the situation anyways) or bounce nukes. When our nukes do land, it's not for an appreciable amount of damage, even compared to clerics or druids not in the heal chain. THAT is my concern.
I consider our brothers and sisters in the priest archtype, in most ways, we should be rather balanced there.
We're balanced for slow, I get that, we have the worst heals from that era of full slows. The upgrades they made helped bring us more in line, but perhaps could use a bit more work. For healing, clerics have the quickest 'quick' heal at 1.75, shamans and druids are limited to 3.75. For the 'quick' 3.75 heals, clerics are at 100%, druids are at 74.55% and we are at 65.45%. For the 'CH' heals, clerics are at 100%, druids are at 62.4% and we are at a dismal 26% (we never got an upgrade to Kragg's Mending, druids did). We should get an upgrade to this spell, Kragg's Spear of Wilslik (heh), healing 4109 damage for 600 mana (using the same mana cost as the upgraded druid CH, all originial CH's were at 400 mana, thus, there is precedence for the mana cost), using a 10 CH timer, healing a maximum of 75% (heh, this wouldn't even be close to it, but . . .). The next series of 'CH's thrown out would probably have to be near something like clerics 9k, druids 6710 and us 5891 (Blood of the Kragg, heh) for like 800 mana due to the rising HP values.
Our DoTs may or may not be addressed in the future (Nectar of Pain is a good place to start with, if they continue down that path), however, we are the strongest (WHEN they do land) in that category. Clerics are at 44.82% of us (though they do have a defensive proc that would be used instead of DoTs IMHO) and druids are at 80.82% of us on DoTs. The thing that really surprises me is that both clerics and druids have resist adjusts on their spells. For clerics, it is a bit understandable, since they cannot debuff resistances at all (our malosinia [-70] and -30 resist adjust on Nectar of Pain = their -100 resist adjust on all of their undead dots). Druids, however, are able to debuff a DoT line (Fire) for DoTs that already have resist adjusts on them. Hopefully, our DoT lines will continue to get resist adjusts on them (at the bare minimum, poison almost requires it, since I would have to say 95% of the mobs out there have a much larger PR than FR or MR, in general, it normally goes DR=PR>MR>FR). The fact that most groups will have SOMEONE able to debuff most/all resist lines and all raids DO, the resist adjusts already on other classes (all other classes besides us) benefits them more - see other threads all over the Crucible about this topic. Not counting the Clerics defensive proc, their undead DoTs should be brought up by 20.63% to keep the healing ratios (how we are balanced against each other). Druids are over theirs by 6.27%. I would never suggest nerfing anyone's current abilities, thus I would propose ours and clerics spells be brought up to maintain the 100%~~74.55%~~65.45% ratios.
Our nukes on the other hand, are the worst again of all the priests. We have no modifiers on them and they are a large percentage worse off than the other 2 classes. We're at 77.34% of the cleric damage and 57.84% of the druid damage on DD nukes. These numbers look a lot like the heal percentages from long ago (with cleric and druid reversed). Our AE nuke (if you can really call it that) is bad enough to qualify as non-existant for AE purposes (though, it is nice to use on single mobs for more efficient DPS). I'm not sure how we are considered balanced on the nuke aspect. Using the same descriptions as above, Druids are at 100%, clerics are at 74.78% and we are at 57.84%. IMHO, the clerics are at virtually the healing level a druid is compared to them, and we are 7.61% lower than we should be (if we use the healing as the guide for spell balances between us). Our best nuke should be at 1370 (for 445 mana to keep the 3.08 dam/mana ratio). Should this be considered for upgrading now, prior to the expansion?
On the buffing aspect, we all have equally valuable buffs (even though a few of ours could use condensing into 1-2 buffs).
For 'utility', I would have to rank druids and shamans as pretty equal. We have different, but useful abilitys to bring to a group/raid. Clerics have some, but they are underpowered in this aspect compared to us. If cleric DoT's are brought up to maintain the ratios, I would say they would be equal (their defensive proc would then be considered utility instead of DoT damage).
FYI, the DoT's I considered were the 4 highest damage DoTs in the classes (unfocused at all, base duration, run for full course):
Note: Please look these over, I'm in no way a master of clerics or druids.
Shaman - 10464 damage total
- 4424 damage total (7 ticks - poison)
- 3150 damage total (7 ticks - poison, -30 resist adjust)
- 2890 damage total (5 ticks - magic)
- 2190 damage total (5 ticks - magic)
Druid - 8457 damage total
- 2601 damage total (9 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust)
- 2060 damage total (5 ticks - fire, -30 resist adjust)
- 2016 damage total (9 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust)
- 1780 damage total (10 ticks - fire, -50 resist adjust, also lowers AC by 36 and FR by 40)
Cleric - 4690 damage - note: Clerics also have a line of defensive procs against undead (Ward of xxx) ranging from 207/hit () to 550/hit (). These last for 2 minutes, have a procmodrate of 400 (like their hammers), are magic resist, and have a -50 resist adjust (so, not as reliable of landing as Panther).
- 1880 damage total (5 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust, undead only)
- 1525 damage total (5 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust, undead only)
- 810 damage total (5 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust)
- 475 damage total (5 ticks - magic, -100 resist adjust)
FYI on heals (no focuses):
Ours 'quick heal' is - 2716 healed for 723 mana at 3.75 casting time.
Our 'not a CH heal' is - 1950 healed for 400 mana at 10 casting time (75% max healed). This spell was an embarassment at the time and is even more so now.
Druids 'quick heal' is - 3094 healed for 723 mana at 3.75 casting time.
Druids 'CH' is - 4680 healed for 600 mana at 10 casting time (75% max healed).
Clerics 'quickest heal' is - 1990 healed for 495 mana at 1.75 casting time.
Clerics normal 'quick heal' is - 4150 healed for 775 mana at 3.75 casting time.
Clerics 'CH' is - 7500 healed for 400 mana at 10 casting time (no max % healed limit).