Heyo,

I debated between the Shaman forum or this one since it has 'improvements', so if the Shaman forum is more appropriate feel free to move it.

I wanted to take some time to talk about Shaman talents. To start, I think Shamans are an extremely powerful class, and while their killing speed might not be the best, they have amazing tools to use at all points of the game and I don't think they need much in the way of help. I actually regard them as being one of the top five classes in the game. But I would like to see some of the talents get some love as the left side of the tree is virtually useless.

Firstly, I'd like to mention a bug or at least a text issue with one of the talents. Call of the Ancients 20 point bonus states it gives 42% Attack Haste, when it actually gives 35 Rating, or 32% Haste from 0 Rating.

So, now I'd like to type probably more than I should about all the skills/talents. Granted this is all my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. I need to work on my formatting, sorry.

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Frost Strike:
This talent and skill is okay early on but it's really just a filler move. Late game the damage drops off far too much so it only helps when something is poison and physical resistant. The talent points here aren't worth it and the 20 point bonus isn't enough to help.

Maybe have the 20 point talent change it into a 'wind' that deal periodic damage to everything on the field multiple times, while giving it a mana cost? I assume giving it a CD as well. This would probably be a detriment to single target damage for a melee build because of the bloodlust effect, but I think it would be good for a DoT build.


Scourge:
Very good early game, when talented you can pretty much just poison, auto attack a few times, then switch off and wait for it to die. Mid-late game though this skill drastically drops off and is only really useful for the secondary effect or when an enemy is physical resistant. Because of this, the talents become worthless mid-late game. This is okay though because it's so powerful early on. As far as the 20 Point bonus goes, it's good early on when you need help with Fear (but I wish it prevented the fear from landing), late game in the correct armor fear is not much more than an interrupt so it's not worth the investment.

I think it's fine as it is. Though I wish the damage wasn't quite so bad at end game.


Greater Healing:
Nothing wrong with this skill anymore since the buff to skill caps. It's perfect the way it is.


Call of the Ancients:
Pretty good, and the 20 Point Bonus just leads into assisting with the supreme melee end game talents.


Guardian Spirit:
I think this skill is where half of my tankyness comes from, just the ability for him to take hits, spells, CC's is amazing. The 20 Point Bonus is pretty nice; really random stun with a bleed effect I've seen tick for 10k+ crits before, though it doesn't make up for his horrible auto attack damage.

I don't think there's too much wrong with this guy other than maybe his auto attack being too weak. EDIT: As I've been playing I've been trying to pay a lot more attention to the bleed effect, the damage seems extremely random. Sometimes it ticks so hard that it chunks a champions health, and sometimes it just tickles them. Overall I still think it's good, I guess it's just really inconsistent. EDIT2: Does this deal damage based on the current enemy health percent? Like static field from D2? That would explain why it feels like it does a lot sometimes and so little others... if this is the case which I'm 99% sure it is... One of the most OP things in the game hands down at end game.


Togor's Insects:
Extremely nice when you happen to have a frenzy enemy going crazy and you can't freeze them. The talent for this skill though is downright worthless and the 20 point bonus is okay but is too much of an investment. It might only be worth getting when you have four other things maxed out, but I think the CD of the skill really makes it better to just be saved for specific champions or bosses.

Maybe change the DoT effect to reduce CD and leave the 20 point as it is?


Cannibalize:
This is pretty much infinite mana, there's nothing wrong with this skill.


Poison Nova:
I basically just use this to clear out pets without having to target them. Since it does a tiny bit more damage than Frost Strike I do try to keep it on CD between my auto attacks, but it's just not that great. The 20 point bonus from the talent is virtually useless at high levels as well. At low levels it can be a bit taxing on mana, so it's probably best around the early-mid to mid game.

Might just need the dot damage increased for the 20 point bonus.


Spirit of the Wolf:
When I first got this skill I thought it was basically worthless, until I got to mid game when my dots started to fall off and I switched my build to get the talent for it. The talent for this skill is the highest damage you can get as a Shaman, it's absolutely insane. I don't even care that the 20 point bonus is worthless. EDIT: Or does this increase the chance of your pet triggering maul? In that case, second best skill. lol


Affliction:
Pretty much the same as Scourge, though I think the 20 point bonus isn't really that useful here. You can double dot and pull the next enemy early on in the game.

As far as the 20 point goes, maybe cause it to weaken the enemies spells instead of hitting 3 targets?


Reclaim Blood:
With the changes to skill caps the heal got a lot of help. I think untalented this skill is pretty bad. Talented however it's potent and the 20 Point Bonus is amazing, 60% melee damage and 60% casting haste.


Glacial Impact:
I kind of forget this does damage. I mainly use it just to buff my damage and/or to stun the enemy. The 20 Point Bonus might be OK, but generally I get bad enemy positions and they're all split up so my chances of hitting three enemies is low.

I don't really know how to improve the 20 point bonus off the top of my head. Maybe it's fine the way it is.


Talisman of Altuna:
Boring, but fine. Nothing really going on here.


Devouring Plague:
I really want to like this skill but I just don't. I typically just throw it at a boss or a champion mob to give a tiny bit more DPS. By the time you can drop 20 points into this talent, the dots have fallen off and melee starts to over take them. The 20 point bonus also comes so late that cannibalize can sustain you.

I'd have to think for a while on how to improve it to do this skill justice.


Instill:
I've only clicked this by pure accident. I never use it, the talent is horrible as well.

Oh god, please get rid of this skill with something else. Anything. Even something that you just click for silly noises.

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I'm hoping this sparks more conversation about the state of some of the other classes...

Ideally I'd like the poison talents to compete with the melee ones so we have a choice of which one we'd like to go instead of being forced to melee at end game because it's so powerful. There's more options early game, but poisons really out shine everything else then I feel.

EDIT: I think in regards to the above, the dot damage shouldn't be buffed flat across the board, the talents should improve them more, that way you have two viable builds and you're not just buffing the melee's builds secondary damage.

Thanks for reading!

Here's a standard small pull for me:



My weapon is also dated at this point. Act 3 hell with an exceptional two handed mace. Gotta get my hands on that Venova set weapon. I think it has something like 70 damage.

Edit:
Got a weapon upgrade, so here's an updated battle result of a bigger pull:

I should probably finish leveling my shaman.. I do have Venova but he's got some other thing I figure will be better.

Instill is good because it makes the enemy attack your pet. Very easy to keep an enemy rooted and heal up I guess. Unfortunately since all your damage comes from melee damage you can't actually root and dps.

Shaman has always been a much better than average class.