308 FTW

Yes .. another WoW blogget (or would that be blogling - maybe I should just stick with "post"). Woe to those who care not for the subject and instead wait for it to roll off the front page. This one is on Shaman. No, players do not acquire the fabled car from the hit show Magnum PI. The 308 reference is actually to the next Build (or patch) level of the game, 3.0.8. With it some very exciting changes head the way of Elemental Shaman (my class of choice).

Until this point, Elemental Shamans (a ranged damage/support role in game) have had difficulty keeping up with the rest of the crowd in optimally fulfilling part of their duties (causing lots of damage, as you might expect). Their ability to support has really never been in dispute.

The upcoming changes (that I am very excited about) include the following:

• Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
• Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
• Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
• Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
• Mental Quickness: Reduced the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 23/46/70% of your agility.
• Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
• Tremor Totem's duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
• Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
• Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
• New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
• Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and its talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
• Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%

And in addition:

• Elemental Oath: In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
• Elemental Mastery: Redesigned. Now increases the Shaman’s critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains at 3 minutes.
• Mental Quickness and Static Shock have switched positions in the talent tree.
• Mental Quickness: The change from attack power to agility has been reverted. Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.

Although which changes in Mental Quickness will actually be applied I cannot say. Not that either should impact how I experience the game all that much. Most of the other stuff, particularly the bold entries interest me quite a bit. Anywhere between a 12-20% increase is what is forcasted.