How to fix Spirit Idol

[Unmei]

[Chukara]

[Unmei]

[Beafly]

Sounds like you really enjoyeed WoW Spiritblood. Did ya win?

I think most of the active posters here enjoy Everquest and especially enjoy playing a shaman. We do have issues with some recent poor spell design and implementation but as a whole we're a viable, desirable, effective class. Do we have the exact same problems as when you played? Hell no. But if you are still lurking on the Crucible you probably wouldn't know that.

But hey! Now that you're back lurking on the premier shaman forum with all that valuable Worlds of Warcraft experience, Do ya think you can help us get some things straightened out with SOE. You can refer to our latest top ten list . That should give you plenty to work on for awhile.

[Chukara]

Perhaps not at large, but I know that any melee that I've spent time grouping with would be falling-over-themselves happy if anyone (be it a shaman or another class) could offer an increased endurance regen. My point here is not that it's a once-and-for-all fix of the endurance issue, but an addition to the game where nothing currently exists.

Personally, if I were starving and given the choice between a loaf of bread now and a vague promise of a banquet in the future, I'd take what I could get and be happy.

[Jaraman]

[Unmei]

[jdthomas]

[Brohg]

Opening the door to [ability points] regen with one spell (ahem, clarity) has been historically proven to be the top of a classic "slippery slope", and lead to a horrible class dependence situation.

[Brohg]

Being the single source would suck for the source, too. Ever notice that enchanters are rarely un-anon in PoK?

[Unmei]

[fiendfists]

[Maccuul]

[Ungkor]

[Unmei]

[Scowls]

[Sarthor]

I also agree with this. The spell is meant to be a trap. It makes absolutely no sense for it to generate any aggro whatsoever. If this were the case then it wouldn't matter about using it around non-aggro mobs.

The issue about it being targetted is something that I think everyone agree's on.

I am one of the best gearred shammies in the game and think nothing of intentionally drawing aggro from anguish/demi trash that are beating another caster down because I can survive for long enough for one of the tanks to snag if off me. I will not be useing this spell though, until the aggro issue is fixed. My spell slots are already at a premium and I have far better things to mem than something that will turn me into a lightning rod.

I can cast malos on an incoming mob without any worries at all. Yes I will gain aggro if the puller only proximity aggroed it but I have far more control. With the idol up, anything being pulled will run right past the tanks and straight at me. Heck, a tank just has to sneeze in the direction of a mob to gain more aggro than malos generates. Not so with the idol. I hear the rogues are having even more problems with their trap.

[Unmei]

[sharringan]

[Tharkis]

[Brohg]

[Sharok]

[Zaviax]

[Unmei]

[Chukara]

Unmei, I respect the fact that you're a correspondant and, as such, are probably all over the boards. I have to wonder, though, why you're posting up here so persistently trying to take apart all of the objections we shamans have to our own spell. Doesn't it seem counterproductive?

I'm all about free speech, I just don't understand why you're spending so much time worrying about a spell belonging to another class.

[Sharok]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Chukara]

[Veril]

[Unmei]

[Brohg]

Those two guests are not even comparable, Mr. Nine Post Guy. Unmei's contribution should be of real use to the shaman complaining here in refining their opinions. She's entirely correct that the mana cost is a complete non-issue. It'd merely be a debatable point, and not a real problem, at four times its current cost. The other two points are, respectively, in agreement with the consensus and very germane to the discussion of usefulness. As a completely new form of ability, traps very likely need play style adjustment on the part of the caster before reallizing their full potential. Shaman each make these adjustments as they level, when gaining Root, Canni, dogdog, HoTs, Maw spells, dots without DDs, and group heals (and TA, but not talking about that here ). There's every reason to expect that gaining the trap-debuff power would require adjusting play to go with it.

[Unmei]

[Tharkis]

[Brohg]

[Tharkis]

[Brohg]

The whole idea of unattributed detrimental effects is innately too overpowered to contemplate, the scale of the effect is irrelevant. So given that monsters need to know who set any trap for game play not to be broken as hell, how do you suggest not getting agro when you knowingly set your trap right where a mob steps out of his den in the morning (ahem, his spawn point)? I've got one idea: if you want to have the trap up since you'll be busy, but need tanks to get agro first, set the trap up off to the side or in the back, and let the hunter drag his quarry into your clever snare. See? Adjust game play to take advantage of new tools.

[Brohg]

I'll be honest, I never really saw Idol as a raiding tool anyhow. It functions too independently for me to be comfortable with it. These complaints about how Idol isn't working in circumstances it's not suited for strike me as just an odd version of the joke about the man complaining to his doctor about his ear hurting when he pokes his finger in it. The punchline? The doctor answers, "so don't poke your finger in it."

[Zaviax]

I don't notice any excess aggro from the Idol. It seems to draw the same aggro as malo which is pretty much the least ammount of aggro one can get. It can be a death trap if used on the incoming with multiple mobs where the tank can't aggro them all right away. But otherwise it's not going to get you killed if you use it the second mobs enter the camp or shortly before hand.

Now some may argue that they believe it should be up before the incoming since it's a trap spell. But no where have we seen this labeled as a trap. Some classes got traps, but we got the idol which in itself is unique for better or worse varying on your own opinion.

So it's not a trap therefore we can't use that argument because any dev is going to ignore it outright.

So on aggro issue, what are we asking? That it has 0 aggro? Think about that momment. It means on every situation, raid, solo, group we have this idol up and it guarantees every mob that enters our camp is automatically debuffed by 40 on resists within 1-6 seconds.

As cool as that'd be, there's just no way in hell I see them doing that for us. If some how by a chance of a miracle we did get it it'd likely lose any chance of getting the malos boosted to 55 or so. Which is something personally I'd really like to see happen. And again if they did it they'd likely just boost up resists on every new mob that enters the game from that point on to compensate on the theory that Shaman will automatically debuff them with our idols with no risk.

Concentrate on fixing the targetting, (add in also shrink it by 50% or so) line of sight so it doesn't go through walls and boost the effect to equal malos and we're golden. We'll still have to be careful with it and not be able to use it in every setting but in the settings where it can be used relatively safetly it becomes a very nice spell to have in our arsenal.

[Tharkis]

[Zaviax]