Maybe this is mentioned in the threat, I haven't read all the pages. But why are raids not taking any elemental shamans? I know his dmg is not so great as with other classes, but similarly to demo warlock he brings unique buffs. The 3% crit from Totem of Wrath (although I think it does not stack with crit from retri pala) + 280 spell dmg are not good enough? What am I missing?
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Edited: September 13, 2024
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Well, Elemental Shaman does not really provide "unique" buffs cause all of them are covered by other classes. Starting with Totem of Wrath, Demonic Pact of Demonology Warlock provides more spell power and both does not stack. In fact, Demonic Pact will over-ride the totem because of this. Then the 3% crit Totem of Wrath provides is covered by Retribution Paladin and/or Assassination Rogue. Finally 5% spell crit by Elemental Oath is covered by Boomkin.
However as always and in any game, people like to follow some meta which Elemental Shaman is not part from in tier 10. That being said, according to my experience for all this years, there are 2 ways to get spot with Elemental Shaman - you should join some more casual guild where people usually does not have high standards and just prefer good players over better classes, or in opposite end - you are long time member of a really good guild where the leadership does not mind to take you as Elemental Shaman for regular raids as long as you ask them nicely :).
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Didn't know that demo lock pet buff stacks with the Totem of Wrath buff, that sucks.
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I suppose this raid tradition began a long time ago by the Paragon guild, during the patch 3.2 Call of the Crusade when the heroic raids were introduced and this enforced the “min/max” concept. BTW the Paragon was the first guild which began the alt raids and its grinding of instances. Afterwards it was continued in Cata expansion when they used the specific Specs (mainly 5-7 Feral druids) to easily encounter some nasty boss abilities (aka this is some kind of soft cheating) and this enforced the “cherry picking” concept. I’d say it turned a WoW character into a tool and the game into a job. But, to be more accurate, this idea was introduced by one Chinese guild to cheat on the Yogg-Saron’s final phase abilities with five Affliction warlock Drain Soul spells. They got World First - Alone in the Darkness achievement by using this trick. Paragon just popularized it even more. This and the social media influence evolved all of this to some sort of “cancel culture in WoW” and this is orchestrated by seasoned players like “this patch we don’t like Elemental shamans”, “next expansion we don’t like Fury warriors” e.t.c.
The “soft cheating” concept is used, or it makes sense to use, only if your raid is going for World First competition and your raid hasn't good enough items or knowledge to do things right. Who cares? Otherwise it makes sense to play as you like.
A raid composition isn’t managed by buffs, because you can get a random raid and you’ll have all required buffs :) The dps is important but it also isn’t the main factor, because your character can be in the top 5 - 10 dps from 20 dps characters and you’ll sit on a “football bench”. In addition to what’s said above, the effect of timezone and regional subculture also has a big influence on this.
Just try a mediocre or leveling guild. This path will be longer for LoD, but that achievement can be done with any “PVE Spec”. In the end you’ll just play the game and will not do the “Begging Online” or “World of Begging”. IDK why so many players think that LK is a hard boss. I’ll suggest just to avoid any bad guilds with a lot of drama, raid roll drama bull**** and cheating.
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Wow, the thread hit 1,000,000 views! A massive thank you to everyone who engaged, shared, and contributed to the discussion. This milestone wouldn't have been possible without our incredible community. Your insights, questions, and feedback have made this thread a valuable resource for many. I found some miniscule changes in the game mechanics fixes implemented recently which aren’t in the guide. I hope it will not confuse you and this thread will guide you in the right direction :)
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Can you tell me why glyph of flametongue weapon isn't good? Because 84 spellpower seems less than 2% crit, as it takes almost 92 crit rating to get 2% crit chance.
Edited: September 18, 2024
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Flametongue glyph is good. It's just the 3rd glyph slot which is contested and swapped on whatever fight you are doing
ToW and LB are the non-swappable glyph. Then for the 3rd you'd have Flametongue/LvB/Fire nova or Fire elem totem depending.
During classic every top elem was playing flametongue on "classic" (non aoe, short timer) bosses. But on a serv with no reset cd, maybe FET is more valuable if you want to have it every boss (cause it's our big button as ele anyway).
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Attribute priority list:
* Hit (no hit no damage);
* Spell damage % (permanent exponential scale);
* Spell power (permanent linear scale based on the spell power coefficients);
* Spell crit damage % (limited exponential scale from time to time; a vague option);
* Spell haste and Spell crit (these two don’t benefit ES via talents, spell abilities and tier gear as much as other casters benefit from them. They define the behavior of spell power not its power. I put them on the same level based on your GS level).
* MP5.
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