I am not in SoD Beta but had a look at

[Kumudil]

kumbaja so see what my chars may get soon:

Doing that, I noticed that DD-Spell casttimes may will be changed for my Druid andalso Mage, but don't look like the shaman ones will get it:

Shaman:
Vestax's Spear of Venom : casttime 4.2 sec -> 4.2 sec
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=15232

Tundra Crumble : casttime 5.5 sec -> 5.5 sec
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=15283

Druid:
Equinox Brand : casttime 6.25 -> 3.25
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=14418

Hoar Crystals : casttime 6.35 -> 3.25
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=14439


Mage:
Bolt of Molten Dross: casttime 7.0 -> 3.5
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=14672

Fickle Pyroclasm: casttime 6.35 -> 3.25
http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... p?id=14722


Don't expect replies, I do not want that anyone risks to break NDA.
But for those who made it to the Beta you may want to keep an eye on it.

If generally DDs are getting casttimes lowered, even for a risen recast, we may can benefit from this also.
Probably just an oversight as we are not primarly dps.
The Ice-nuke could made it to get memmed if the casttime would be lowered significantly.

Just pulling numbers out of kumbaja, maybe they are not correct, and only had a look to my 3 classes today.

[Unmei]

I'm just going to say that there are a number of interesting things that can be found by diligently looking at the spdata. Let the hunt begin.

[Funi]

I guess Shaman are already balanced and as such doesn't need improvement.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Funi]

Well, I disagree that Monk need the most help. Monks are pretty damn awesome and the only reason they might need help would be to get back to the top class in the game.

As far as the Shaman class I've been disappointed for a while now. My Shaman is not a twink or a box and frankly I'm tired of my biggest contribution being a buff I can cast and go back to sleep for a while. Now when I play my Shaman I try to stay very active with heals and nukes and slows and VP and all the things we can do but damn no one is inviting us to groups because we can do all those other things. We get invited to groups for our ability to enhance the game for others. I've honestly given up on speaking out cause I'm starting to think that the loudest voices out there for the Shaman community are twinks or boxes and to them the Shaman class is A-OK.

OK, now I'm letting my frustration show through so this is prolly a good place to stop. Shaman's won't improve till folks start complaining like Monks and other strong classes.

[Unmei]

Don't count your anti-chickens until the un-hatch, gentlemen.

Or, perhaps, stop being so preemptively bitter. If anyone is allowed to be bitter around here, it's me. ;P Enchanters do suffer severely from level caps though. But just because you had an enchanter who had no business being in the zone and couldn't come up with anything for him to do doesn't mean the class is fundamentally in need of help. I probably could've KS'd your whole group. Talented enchanters are monsters in FM (And, actually, most of SoF except, oddly, for Zeka.)

[Unmei]

Hm. Actually though, a curiousity check for me. Funi. What do you think shamans should be able to do that they can't, or that they should do better than they do now? And why?

[Brohg]

cross zone /hugs, because who doesn't like hugs?

[Whitman]

Based on the number of active toons of class X that I encounter in-game, I'd say chanters must need something because they are rarer than a respectable halfling (it's true! I actually DO know one respectable halfling!)

Beastlords and wizards are very scarce too, in my experience, whereas you could use rangers to block out the sun, it seems. But that's because we're the most fun class to play, obviously, so long as we don't think our bows are for actually, you know, shooting arrows.

[Unmei]

[Funi]

[Funi]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Funi]

Yea Bigcat, I apologize for that. Initially it was sarcasm and to be honest I really wished I had stayed my pen and remain out of the discussion myself.

[Unmei]

[Yesak]

I would personally like to see our heal to be faster in its casting. Our HoTs are good enough. I hate how we HAVE to have the right classes with us to get any decent dps. If the group has a pally and silk classes mostly (or a ranger who still uses arrows) and those silk classes dont have pet affinity, well, panther's line is rather limited in usefulness. BLs and SKs with pet affinity are *drool* with that line of DPS. I just think we are too reliant upon it to do meaningful DPS. On that line, I would like to have our DoT cast time reduced OR have the damage increased OR both. Shortening the cast time would give me the ability to land 2 or 3 DoTs to do some meaningful DPS. Dont know how feasible updating our DoT lines are, but that's what I would prefer.

[Tacobell]

How about giving us the advantage of the melee bonus on weapons finally?

[Tunkal]

a main advantage we have over all the other classes is basically not being able to run out of mana if you play right.. i do agree that our heals are slow and little amount but then again with the groups i get i can heal everyone so whats the point in a cleric class for anything other then the highest zone or raids... i think they should increase our pet dps to atleast keep us inline with some of the other classes... the weapons they get now are soo overpowered and getting even better while we dont get nothing to increase gear wise even other pets blew pass ours dps wise..

and monks need help?? LOL monks need a nerf before help.. they can tank usually just as good as anyone else with ATLEAST double the dps and fd, they always get the best weapons since the start of this game they will do fine ) they need to fix chanters tho maybe even make their pets more then useless

[Unmei]

[Zama]

Well, id like to see some kind of difference in balancing between group/raid abilities. At the moment, nearly everything is the same in group/raid enviroment as to our jobs, and the only real difference between a group/raid geared character is the 10% or so focus difference. Also shaman, as Funi pointed out, have the "we never run oom" thing going on, which is the same for a group geared shaman as well. It was nice when both sting of the queen/bite of the brownie werent linked on the recast, but it would be nice if we had something to do with our extra mana. Normally on raids i keep 4 dots, and chain sting mob, in addition to cougar/champ and healing, and never drop below 80mana. Something they could theorhetically do is change the ammount between rk1-3 spells especially on shaman making a bigger gap inbetween.

Another thing I would like to see is the use of weapons for shaman. In the past, we have had 2 class defining weapons, which are Time's Anthesis from potime in pop expansion, and epic 1.5/2.0 from oow. for many shaman, they used TA from pop all the way under tss/tbs, due to swapping out 2.0 and ta for clicks can be a hastle, and epic can be clicked from inventory. It was changed a bit from sof, with our aa slow can help replace the TA, but it was nice having a weapon that was so class defining. All of the weapons from don/DoD on have just been hp/mana upgrades and dont really bring any more advancement then another piece of gear, where as all melee classes get something major out of their weapons, a dps boost, a aggro/hate modifier. Would be nice to have something like a chooseable 2.5 page where it gives a decent spell modificiation depending on what kind of shaman you want to be(5-10% poison mod or something like that) or a 5-10% heal mod, that can go in an item with an extra aug slot, say make a class 3(weapon) aug for each class, have some raid unlock it like they used in rk3 spells for tbs/sof. would be a decent add for all caster classes not just shaman.

[Brohg]

[Veril]

I don't know how you can stay at 80 mana doing that.

I run OOm or low mana all the time on raids. I canni pretty much as often as I can, I have BL+chanter+druid buffs for mana, knowledge of the past, a mana pool clicky, mod rods, bard song (if they are singing)

Champ on 1-2 groups, cougar on 1-2 groups, sting when I can, heal my group, heal the MA. rebuff dead with focus, I don't dot at all on raids. Most boss mob fights I end up under 20 mana at the end. Last MMM clear I ran exactly OOm as both tinkerson and proto died.

[Funi]

I'd like a spear for our weapon again and not a single weapon which all the priest class fight over. For the last few expansion there is a single item for the primary slot for at least 3 classes or more to upgrade to. For this expansion the high end Shaman raider got either this item below or did not upgrade.

Ancient Sigil-Runed Censer Weapon_1HB ID: 102656
Magic Lore No Trade
Slot: Primary
DMG: 49 Delay: 25
Proc Effect: Hand of Holy Vengeance V Rate: +0%
» Decrease Hitpoints by 200 to 275 (random); (Single)
AC: 42 HP: 715 + 3/tick MANA: 730 + 4/tick ATK: 30
STA: 46 STR: 7 WIS: 30 INT: 26 DEX: 23 AGI: 23 CHA: 27
SV FIRE: 32 SV COLD: 37 SV MAGIC: 44 SV POISON: 48 SV DISEASE: 69
Spell Shielding: 1%
DoT Shielding: 3%
Stun Resist: 6%
Avoidance: 7
Combat Effects: 3
Slot 1, type 8: empty
Required level of 80.
Class: CLR, DRU, SHM
Ice 1: Ice Constructs in Crystallos

[Unmei]

Weapon Itemization has pretty much been poo for everyone since...uh... a long time now. =(

[Zama]

[Brohg]

Tribute mana regen is worn regen afaik, will not go over the cap of 15+AAs

[Veril]

ohshit. that's what 1-900-MixALot up. Bene Mana Pres looks like I got my upgrade order wrong and have left myself without it.
I completly missed that fact, thanks for point it out.

[Unmei]

[Zama]

also looks as if your missing det mana pres, its on shoulders from sof and looks like your using tss still, went over all ur gear so unless i missed, theres anothing something.

[Veril]

I'm keeping TSS ones because of the Spec Alteration on there. An effect I consider to be irreplacable. I use a faycite aug to give me detri mana pres on arms

I need to do the commonlands ldon raid to get the anomolus rock of alterations before I can upgrade the shoulders.

[Brohg]

is the same 20% detri pres as your ~of the Champion aug, and includes bene pres.

Back on topic, though, I go oom as well, with mana pres, spec alter, every AA in the world, Cognizance/Ironwood/SE/Chorus of Restoration all rk 3, click Knowledge of the Past, Familiar Icy Gelidran, mod rods, AA & spell cannis. There's always something else you can be casting. If I run out of stuff for my own group, druids appreciate a HoT on the groups they're healing, Knights & Warriors love Cougar. I'm not always dry at the end of encounters, but I try my best.