Project Lore

Patch 3.3 has been in the limelight the past couple days. With the Frozen Halls preview, patch notes, and PTR released in such a short period of time, there is an information overload! First and foremost in my mind is the introduction of two new named weapons - Quel'Delar and Shadowmourne. Quel'delar seems to be a one-handed sword that is part of a long, epic quest chain involving Rhonin, Vereesa Windrunner, the Sunwell, and Icecrown Citadel. Shadowmourne is a legendary two-handed axe that drops from Arthas in place of Frostmourne, as Frostmourne has a "unique fate". Models for both of these weapons were data-mined by World of Raids: Another change that has yet to be reflected in the Patch Notes are the addition of race-specific totem models for Shaman. The current models in patch 3.2 are the Horde model that seems to be Tauren-themed and the Alliance model which is Draenei-themed. In patch 3.3, all races that are capable of being Shaman get their own totem model. Tauren and Draeni seem to keep the current models, while Trolls, Orcs, and Dwarves (in preparation for Cataclysm) get their own models:

	The lack of Dwarf keg totems is saddening. Other new models include Terenas Menethil II (Arthas' deceased father) and the ghost of Mr. Bigglesworth (Naxxramas was only a setback):

	There are also a series of loading screens for the 5-mans and Icecrown Citadel available. Hop over to World of Raids to check them out. In-game maps for the 5-mans are also in the game. Looks like there is a lot of development going into the art for this patch. Hopefully this patch will be a content-packed conclusion to Wrath of the Lich King!

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I am a shaman, like William Shatner, so totems are a big part of my in-game identity. Blizzard understands that totems are a class defining feature, but their current implementation is a little... lacking to say the least. Ghostcrawler, class designer and prolific blue poster on the official forums, recently posted a thread soliciting feedback from shamans on how totems should be revamped. To me, there are really two aspects of totems. Firstly, there is PvE, where they have great utility. It takes a minimum of four seconds every five minutes to cast them. Sometimes they can be set it and forget it, but this doesn't take into account fights where being mobile is very important, or where different totems need to be dropped in different phases of the fight. Also, my totems seem to get destroyed in fights quite often, so I have to keep tabs on my totem timer bar even if we aren't moving. In PvP, dropping all four totems is not a common occurance for me, unless I am defending some type of flag or node. While I am on some sort of offensive rush, using four seconds in a fight against a ret pally or death knight just to drop totems that will either be outranged very quickly or disappear when I die seems pointless. Exceptions to this are when I drop tremor, earthbind, grounding, maybe a stoneclaw to get treants off of me, or a magma totem to flush out rogues (which never seems to work). On to the actual totems themselves. Some of them have unique, very useful features. Two of my favorite totems in the game are tremor totem and grounding totem. Dispelling fear and absorbing spells, these totems can save fights singlehandedly. Unfortunately, there are also some totems that are not as useful. Sentry totem is the first one that comes to mind. Even things like Strength of Earth and Windfury, while great buffs for melee classes, are immobile and destructible versions of different Death Knight abilities. The original design of totems, as I understand it, was to provide stronger buffs than other classes due to the ease of removing them. With the consolidation of raid buffs and simplification of raid composition, this aspect was removed. I know it's difficult to balance against too many powerful buffs that come from a single class, so I can understand that some of the buffs need to have other sources. Unfortunately, the downside of totems remained while the benefit was reduced. While I know that totems aren't perfect, I am not a very good class designer. I leave it to those smarter than myself to solve the problems with totems, and it seems like GC and the class designers at Blizzard have come to a point where they need to know how the shaman community views totems. If you are a shaman (or even if you're not), let the developers know your opinions by posting in the thread. Shaman love is always appreciated here on Project Lore.

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I'm currently specced enhancement, which is my spec of choice for the time being. It's also the one I tend to recommend to shaman who are leveling up. Of course, both Elemental and Restoration have come a long way in their viability as leveling specs, but an enhancment shaman is able to solo with very, very little downtime, PvP decently, bring utility along with great DPS in groups, take on elites without breaking a sweat, heck I even tanked the ranged horsemen in 10 Man Naxx. Knowing the abilities that are at your disposal will help you make fights go much smoother. One of the key abilities available to enhancement shaman is Feral Spirit, the 51-point enhancement talent introduced in the Echoes of Doom patch. I said I would address my love for this tandem of wolves and you might have wondered what they do besides look cool and make lots of noise. I'll tell you right now - they are a versatile little cooldown that I've used in a myriad of situations. While leveling through Northrend, I used my wolves to solo most of the group quests that I encountered. My basic strategy when approaching an Elite was to start out with totems that would increase my damage output. That means Strength of Earth, Windfury, Flametongue, and Mana Spring. If I knew the enemy was a caster, I'd drop a Grounding Totem and wait for the cooldown to be up before heading in. Once set, I'd run in, let the dogs out, take some damage, heal with a 5 stack of Maelstrom Weapon when I got low on health, use my wolves' Twin Howl when I got too low on health to let them soak up a little damage, grab aggro again, and repeat. Usually by the time my wolves despawned, I was able to kill the enemy. If things got too dire, I'd use Shamanistic Rage or even Heroism, but most of the time I wouldn't need to go to those lengths. Now, while the additional DPS from the twins doesn't hurt, the real key to these guys is one of their abilities: Spirit Hunt. Spirit Hunt heals the wolves along with the Shaman, for 150% of the damage they cause, which ends up being a very nice HoT on both me and the wolves. This means that when I'm ping-ponging aggro on an elite by using their taunt, I generally don't need to heal myself during the time that they are being targeted and they don't need healing unless they're taking a severe beating. It also gives your healers a break during heavy raid damage and can give you a nice buffer in PvP so long as your wolves can stay on an enemy. Another useful ability that the Spirit Wolves have available is Bash, which is a stun. This is the only true stun that shaman have access to. It's amazing for PvE since it can give you an extra breath between damage, and in PvP, well, you can't do that while stunned. If you're a Shaman who's done any real PvPing, you know how much it sucks to be stunned, so start using it against all of those rogues and pallies. Unfortunately, the wolves will cast this as soon as they start attacking something, and although autocast can be turned off manually once the pets are out, it will turn back on the next time they are summoned. I've looked and tried hunter macros that turn off autocast, but they are not effective on the spirit wolves. Blizzard is aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed soon. Spirit Walk is the last of the wolves' abilities that I'll cover. It is a Sprint-like ability that increases your run speed and your wolves' run speed by 60%. It also clears any root effects on all three of you. Incoming AoE spell? Stuck in a Frost Nova? Getting kited? Running a flag? Trying to catch a flag carrier? For an enhancement shaman, if you aren't in melee range, you're missing out on a lot of your potential damage. Sure you can Lava Burst for a decent crit on top of a Flame Shock, but that's not how you get your damage done. Movement is critical especially in PvP. Spirit Walk will get you there faster than Ghost Wolf, frees you from roots, and even works indoors! (Insert Plea for Ghost Wolf Indoors, maybe a glyph? Please!). If used early enough in the wolves' 45 second duration, it can be used twice per summon. I often use it while running back in an instance if I know it is going to be a long one. Now, if only they were permanent and not just 45 seconds every 3 minutes...

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