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Poll: 10 questions for those with a shaman

Post by WoWPerson1

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Elemental/Enhance

3. Why did you pick your spec?
<3 nuking, plus I just like the play style.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
No, Warlock was.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
Bored, eventually made her my main.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
Lava Burst

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
Very

8. What spec did you level with?
Enhance 1-70, Ele 70-80

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Yes, very

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
Not sure, tbh.

Post by wintercoat

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Enh

3. Why did you pick your spec?
I wanted to go melee, since the only other class I had previously played was a hunter.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
My hunter.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
I wanted a Draenei with a melee class, didn't want a warrior at the time, and pally's don't interest me.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
My pups will always be my favorite.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
Some of the things I'm looking forward to, others...not so much.

8. What spec did you level with?
Enh

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Love it.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
Whether they're underpowered or over really doesn't matter to me. All I know is that I have fun playing a shaman and that's all that matters.

Post by Shiverlynn

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Restoration

3. Why did you pick your spec?
Healing was my only goal while leveling.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
No; before I was playing a... I don't want to tell lol. Then a frost mage, and finally my current main, protection warrior.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
There weren't many shaman healers in the Alliance in the beginning of TBC. Also they have the same healing spell animations as Druids, and I love them.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
I like what Healing Rain is promising to be, I hope it's going to have an awesome animation. Yes we don't have it yet, but no spell we have right now is exactly my favourite, they're all okay but nothing spectacular. However If I had to choose the spell I hate the most I'd say Heroism without hesitation. Something about the stupid spell makes me always forget to cast it and I end up being yelled at. Can't wait for mages to get their version so I can take the damned thing out of my action bars.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
I like what we get for healing, but I'm upset with all the damage-enhancing talents in our tree. I don't want to dps. I loathe DPSing on my shaman. Now I'm kinda forced to, and I will DPS when there's nothing to heal, but I'm going to hate it.

8. What spec did you level with?
Enhancement to 70, then Restoration to 80.

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Resto playstyle is perfect. I know nothing about the other trees though.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
I don't know, I don't tend to compare to others.

Post by Pachuca

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
MS = Enhancement, OS = Resto

3. Why did you pick your spec?
I heard enhancement was best for leveling, and I had other spellcaster characters at the time, so I wanted to do something different. Little did I know at the time that hacking and punching things could be so enjoyable!

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
When I first bought WoW, I created a shaman just to see the game, and I got him to about level 14 before creating a priest and getting him to about level 7. Then one of my friends bought the game and we started new characters on a new realm. That's when I created my actual first character; one that I would play for more than just one day. It was a Warlock, and is what I truly consider to be my first character and was my main from the Scourge Invasion patch through until Tier 5, when I switched to my Priest.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
I had helped one of my friends in TBC with his enhancement shaman by researching specs, stats, DPS rotation, etc., so when my wife created her account, I rolled a shaman so we could benefit from the R-A-F bonuses. I also really wanted a melee class and I had already tried a rogue but didn't really like it.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
Stormstrike! I think the character animation for it looks really funny (at least on my Troll, it does). My wife and I like to joke around and have spontaneous (low-impact) sparring matches around the house and Stormstrike each other. She always wins.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
I'm looking forward to trying the Unleash Elements ability, and Spiritwalker's Grace sounds pretty great especially for Resto

8. What spec did you level with?
Enhancement

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Enhancement can be pretty hectic to play. We have so many different buttons to push and so little room in our GCDs that I constantly find myself with 3 things I need to refresh but only enough time for 1 more ability in my rotation. It's fun though. :)

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
I think Enhancement is right where it should be, in terms of raid benefits and personal DPS satisfaction. I haven't raided much as Resto but I'm liking where we are. I've never really tried Elemental.

Post by vykas

1. What level is your shaman?
Level 80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Resto/Enhancement

3. Why did you pick your spec?
Resto for quick queues and to be helpful in guild raids; Enhance because I've never had a melee character and it looked fun.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
My very first character (and first 80) was my Warlock followed by my Priest. My Shaman is my 3rd and quickly becoming my favorite.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
Because Chain Heal looks awesome in raids :D

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
Resto: Chain Heal; Enhance: Wolves!

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
I'll be excited when they finalize it all.

8. What spec did you level with?
Resto/Ele.

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Very much so.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
I haven't played enough to tell where they're "supposed" to be in the DPS hierarchy but I am satisfied with where I am at the moment. And watching all the fun shapes Chain Heal makes is just too fun for it to be underpowered!

Post by Santillan

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Elemental

3. Why did you pick your spec?
Back when WoW came out, I just loved Chain Lightning. It looked really cool.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
Yep. I made a Druid right after, but at that time they were even worse than Shammies, and decided for the Shaman.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
See 3.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
Grounding Totem. I love my utility totems a lot, and I hate my buff totems to death.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
Nope. I see the Elemental tree and only Lava Surge seems to help Elemental in any way. We are still Flame Shocking, tossing LV and LB with the occasional Unleash. All the other casters seem to be much more interactive now (Shadow is the only spec with passive talents like Elemental, but it has a more interesting rotation in itself.)

8. What spec did you level with?
Enhancement to 60. When TBC came out, I was already Elemental.

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Nope. PVE is too dull. PVP is more interesting, but I always feel there are some pretty obvious changes that should be done yet never take place... for example, the "Shield Totem" that Stoneclaw provides with a glyph could be a great addition as a baseline spell, maybe Water based.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
Their power is alright, their mechanics are not.

Post by Sabni

1. What level is your shaman?
2. What spec is your shaman?
3. Why did you pick your spec?
4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
8. What spec did you level with?
9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?

1. 80
2. Elemental
3. I enjoy casters
4. No, a priest was my first character
5. I previously played a shaman during Burning Crusade, and immensely enjoyed the class.
6. Chain Lightning
7. Yes
8. Enhance until ~60, then Elemental
9. Yes
10. I haven't played Enhance at 80, but I feel Elemental and Resto are basically just right in both pvp and pve.

Post by Nipah

1. What level is your shaman?
2. What spec is your shaman?
3. Why did you pick your spec?
4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
8. What spec did you level with?
9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?

1. 2 of them, both 80.
2. Enhancement/Resto and Resto/Elemental.
3. I like to punch things in the face... and I wanted to try my hand at healing again.
4. Nope, it was my 4th. Warlock > Hunter > Warrior > Shaman.
5. Unbreakable.
6. Ghost Wolf + /dance
7. Yeah, it looks to mix it up nicely.
8. Enhancement for both.
9. I've been satisfied with Shaman through all the ups and downs, and now is no exception.
10. Just right. Though I'm not sure about PvP... I stopped after the ladder rankings went away.

Post by Onimushua

1. What level is your shaman?
2. What spec is your shaman?
3. Why did you pick your spec?
4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
8. What spec did you level with?
9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?

1. 63
2. Restoration
3. To Heal
4. No, Warlock.
5. They seemed cool =)
6. Wolves or Thunderstorm
7. They are meh
8. A mix of all three: Enh,Ele,Enh,Ele,Resto,Enh,Ele,Enh,Ele,Resto (I re-specced that many times)
9. Healing can get a bit boring, Enh was fun, but boring after while, Ele has seemed my fav. spec so far. The playstlye is not that bad.
10. Underpowered. The fact, I stood at the edge of Lumber Mill hill, Thunder Storming people off to get easy kills shows how under-powered I feel we are

Post by dreadneck

1. What level is your shaman?
80
2. What spec is your shaman?
Resto/elem
3. Why did you pick your spec?
Healers used to be short supply. And elem offspec because I could use some of my resto gear.
4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
Sure was.
5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
Random honestly.
6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
this is a HARD one. But, lava burst for elem, and Earthshield for resto. (there's something awesome about casting a 650mana shield that heals passively for about 8 lesser healing waves)
7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
new spell I'm SUPER excited about, talents I'm still iffy on.
8. What spec did you level with?
resto until Outlands. elem from there.
9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Resto: I wouldn't have it any other way. Healing as a shaman is highly entertaining and rewarding. Elem: a little bit too much spaming LB. But, Lava surge might fix that.
10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
Resto: Shamans are just right. (if I might say so myself:) if played correctly, resto shamans might even be a bit on the OP side. Elem: Underpowered. A elem shaman can do everything right, and never compete with a mage/warlock/ and even shadow priests.

Post by brrobid

1. What level is your shaman? 80

2. What spec is your shaman? Elemental

3. Why did you pick your spec? Used to raid Ulduar in a 10 man guild. Had 5 mages (including me), and no shaman. As a mage I would have killed for an Elemental in the group (Totem of Wrath and Bloodlust *drool*) .. so I decided I'd be the Elemental.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was? Nope, Rogue. I used to MUD as a Rogue. The play style didn't translate though .. reach out and touch someone, that's more fun for me.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman? See #3

6. What is your favorite shaman spell? Chain Lightning! The ranged cleave .. plus the effect is cool too.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes? Yep!

8. What spec did you level with? Elemental, with full heirloom gear, and access to high level enchants and gems. Level 60 blue drops from Ramps (with their 3 gem slots) lasted until level 76 .. that's just OP.

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle? Yep!

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right? I think Elemental Shaman are well positioned. I bring a flexible and adequate array of buffs, I do competitive (but not top) dps, that's often in the top 10 (25 man raid). {Edit: I know some people think we're underpowered, when compared to mages and the like, but remember, we bring additional haste, additional crit, and additional spellpower to those classes***, which increases their dps .. that additional output really belongs to us, putting us on top of the meters *grin*).}

Resto Shaman always seem desired, at least equally with other healing classes.

My guild has had bad luck with Enhancement shaman, but considering the package always seems to including standing in black pools, I'd chalk that up to the player, not the class. I know, Enh shaman on the forums are pretty pleased with their ability to contribute.

2 more things:
1) nice poll, thanks for putting it up
2) captcha: the missiles ... heh, not bad for an elemental :)

**** I know, I know, other classes can bring those buffs too. Demo 'lock > Totem of Wrath, and all that with pretty much all our totems. But here's the thing, in one package, we can drop all of that (or switch it up). With one spec, we can fill any void in the raid. Demo 'lock in the raid? I just drop Fire Elemental and Searing Totem (after getting my personal ToW bonus, of course).

Post by Tenshigure

1. What level is your shaman? 80
2. What spec is your shaman? Resto / Enhance
3. Why did you pick your spec? We were short healers one night, so I switched over and haven't looked back.
4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was? No; I have a Prot Pally from Vanilla.
5. What compelled you to make a shaman? Draenei were the only ones who could be Shaman when BC came out.
6. What is your favorite shaman spell? Feral Spirits. Gotta love those puppies!
7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes? Yes and no. Hoping to see more variety in my healing to be honest!
8. What spec did you level with? Enhance 1-30, Elemental 30 - 60, Enhance 60 - 80
9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle? I've always loved playing the support classes in games, so this fits perfectly with my kind of playstyle.
10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right? We still have some several issues with keeping up with abilities vs other classes, but I'd say we're just slightly below just right.

Post by Daveyray

1. What level is your shaman? I currently have two Level 80 shaman on different servers, one Alliance and one Horde.

2. What spec is your shaman? Both are dual-specced Enhancement/Restoration. The Alliance shaman (whom I really haven't played in months) is more Enhancement, while the Horde shaman (who just made 80 last week) is focusing more on Restoration at the moment.

3. Why did you pick your spec? The Alliance shaman was the first one. I leveled him as Enhancement because frankly I liked the talents better. They seemed a lot more awesome at that point.

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was? No, my first serious character (leveled beyond 20 or so) was a Mage. However, the Alliance shaman was my first 80. I abandoned the Mage after about 60.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman? I have free will and am not "compelled" to do anything. ;-) I am a full-blown altaholic and wanted to have one toon of every class. I ended up liking the playstyle of the shaman a lot and, as he ended up in an active guild, he got the most playtime.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell? Chain Heal. The elemental totems come in a close second though.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes? To be honest I haven't read a lot about them. Deliberately since, when it comes to Blizzard, my attitude is "I'll believe it when I see it."

8. What spec did you level with? Enhancement.

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle? Yes.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right? Enhancement is still a bit underpowered. Mana regeneration is pretty weak. Restoration is pretty good. Mana regeneration is still a problem, though if you're in a group you almost always have somebody with some sort of replenishment proc.

Post by Feeesh

1. What level is your shaman?
80

2. What spec is your shaman?
Ele / resto

3. Why did you pick your spec?
I like being ranged dps / healing is fun too

4. Was your shaman your first character? If not, what was?
Warlock. I liked to be badass caster who operates with black magic.

5. What compelled you to make a shaman?
I can't really tell. They just seemed to be awesome.

6. What is your favorite shaman spell?
Flame Shock + LB combo, but Water Walking is fun too.

7. Are you excited for the shaman cata changes?
Hell Yeah! Spiritwalker's Grace pwnz.

8. What spec did you level with?
1-75 Enha + Resto from 40
75+ Ele + Resto

9. Do you feel satisfied with the shaman playstyle?
Yup, it's fun.

10. Do you think shamans are overpowered, underpowered, or just right?
I can't really tell because I haven't raid with it seriously yet (planning to reroll at Cata launch) but it seemed fair enough for me.