Well, I have an experiment I would like to throw out there for late game content(25 man stuff). My big problem is we don't have enough elemental shamans in our guild atm to make it work.
I would like to assemble a single 5 man group of all elemental shamans. Why? Because elemental shamans have an advantage that I would love to exploit- totem stacking.
Experimenting with other elemental shamans (And we are few and far between) I've gotten a rough list of which totems stack effectively and which don't.
The "Do Stack Well" list:
Air: Grounding totem
Fire: Totem of Wrath
Earth: Tremor Totem
Water totem: Disease cleansing, poison cleansing, healing stream.
As an example of what could be done- this can be fluid but totem sequences would need to be set up for all the shammies in the group- setting up a five shaman group would consist of something like this:
Shaman #1: Drops Tranquil Air Totem, Stoneskin, Mana Spring Totem
Shaman #2: Drops Wrath of Air Totem, Strength of Earth, Healing Stream Totem
Shaman #3: Drops Windwall Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem
Shaman #4: Drops Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem
Shaman #5: Drops Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem
All Shamans: Fire Totem: Totem of Wrath
Let's assume that each shaman in the above group has a base 15.00% chance to crit with spells. With the right talents, for Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning this is increased by 10%. With 5 Totems of Wrath, this increases by yet another 15%- meaning that in the above example there is a 40% chance to crit with Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning. This can have a VERY good effect on any shaman in the group who is carrying a Lightning Capacittor Trinket (Drops off of Ilhoof in Kara and currently the best dps trinket I've had yet). With a 40% crit chance that capacitor can boost dps by about 100-150, depending on double cast procs etc. A shaman with 800+ unbuffed spell damage can hit a chain lightning for 1600-1700, and crit for around 3300-3500. Lightning bolt rank 12 will likewise hit for around 1450-1550, and crit for something like 2900-3200. With a 40% crit chance that means that every 2 seconds 2 of those shamans will get a crit on average, so with just spamming lightning bolt you will have 3 at about 1500 damage and 2 getting a 3000 point whammy, total damage around 10500 every 2 seconds, without significantly trying, meaning the 5 of them will get about 1050 dps each. Before trinkets, buffs, spell procs, cooldowns, or doublecasts.
Wait, wait, wait. Why Strength of Earth? Two reasons. First, we don't need 4 Tremor totems- 3 tremor totems is averaging one pulse per second, usually enough to dispel fear/charm/sleep before they can cause serious damage. Second, strength of earth also boosts shield block values for any shamans in the group carrying a shield, which can be the difference between a one shot and a 100 health shammy howling for a heal- who might even get it ^_~
And if all else fails, think of the time saving factor in having 5 reincarnations.
I'd like to set this up at least for a test run because this could be a valuable tool for us to gain an advantage over the other casual guilds and possibly even the pro guilds. Especially if the rumors are true and WotLK makes totems Raid-wide.
Healing stream Totem at highest rank currently heals about 61-62 when you have 976 healing after Wrath of Air- as I currently do. This is without any totems boosts or healing boosts from talents, meaning the above setup would heal the elem shaman group for 240-250 every 2 seconds. This would reduce the strain on the healers from raid wide effects in later instances, possibly improving survivability. And the mana spring totem is simply a must in a group of 5 mana users.
Alright, well, I covered the basics of my idea- there's lots of other permutations I could play around with but this post is WAY longer than I meant it to be. Any coments/suggestions/feedback?
Subject: Elemental Shaman Experiment 
Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:06 pm
