Totems Are A Shaman's Best Friend (Part 2)

Welcome back to the second half of our exciting two-parter! Just in case this is the first article that someone reads on this blog, please note that there is a Part One (in case the Part 2 didn't give it away) so go read that and then come back to this. That's how two-parters work. With that said (well, typed)...let's get straight back into the juicy totem discussion action.

WATER

Healing Stream Totem-Ah, the AoE healer totem. It may not seem like much but the healing can add up and really help in situations where everyone is taking damage. Use this if you're in a melee heavy party/group or if you know everyone will be feeling some pain.

Mana Spring Totem-This is my favourite Water Totem. It's an "unsung hero" who just sits back and steadily helps out with mana restoration. However, if you've got a Pala and they use Greater Blessing of Wisdom, this hero has to retire because they won't stack. If this is the case, use Healing Stream and tell Mana Spring that it will always have a special place in your heart.

Cleansing Totem-I was very happy when they combined the Poison Cleansing and the Disease Cleansing totems into this. Now I can be efficient (lazy) and just put this baby down instead of having to focus on which Cleansing totem I'm putting down. So if you know you'll be having to deal with a lot of poison/disease, put this down and save yourself the effort of having to cleanse your allies one at a time.

Fire Resistance Totem-Well, let's see. Do you need Fire resistance? If the answer is yes, put this down. If the answer is no, use another Water totem. Pretty simple. I think Fire Resistance and Frost Resistance should swap places though since Frost Resistance feels like a Water totem to me and Fire Resistance works as a Fire totem too (it is in the name after all...FIRE Resistance).


AIR

Windfury Totem-This went through a nice makeover and now offers melee haste to your party. If your party is melee-orientated, put this down and watch them all speed up like they're overdosing on Relentless (energy drink for those sad souls who have never tried it). However, unless you have two points in Improved Windfury Totem (Enhance talent), a DK can overwrite this easily if they have Improved Icy Talons so be aware of that.

Grounding Totem-This totem is a kinky submissive. It loves pain and will happily take the next spell cast at you or your party (as long as it's not an AoE spell...that would be far too easy). This is brilliant for both PvE and PvP. However, I must confess that I always forget to use it. I humbly apologise, Grounding Totem. I never meant to neglect you. Can we put this behind us and have make-up sex now?

Wrath Of Air Totem-If you're with a bunch of casters, put this down for the spell haste and watch every other caster look at you and proclaim you a god! Okay, not really...a shaman can dream though.

Nature Resistance Totem-Nature resistance in a totem form. However, it doesn't stack with a Druid's Mark of the Wild and a Hunter's Aspect of the Wild.

Sentry Totem-This totem is often jokingly hailed as THE totem of totems. However, it's really only useful as a camera to take screenshots of yourself. It's a pocket camera totem! Okay, I'm being a tiny bit unfair...it can also help in PvP battle grounds by serving as a scout. And it can help with the "Higher Learning" achievement too. However, it's still gonna be that totem that sits around going "Please, use me....please? Anyone? PLEASE! I just want to feel LOVED!" before crying to itself. So now I'll give my opinion on what Blizz could do to make this totem useful because I don't want to see it removed. First and foremost, change it so that if I put it down, I don't auto-switch to Sentry Totem. I get that Sentry Totem wants my attention but does it have to steal my view too? Attention-Hog Sentry Totem needs a change so that when you put it down, it doesn't auto-switch. But moving on from that issue and going with the "sentry" theme, I'd like the totem to have stealth detection and be stealthed itself. I think those two are must-haves. However, if it wouldn't be too greedy, I'd also like for there to be a debuff called "Spotted!" when an enemy player walks past the Sentry Totem that lowers their movement speed by 10% or something. There's my ideas for Sentry Totem...let's hope it gets some love from Blizz at some point.

ELEMENTALS & IDEAS

Time for the final part of the totem-related article...I'm going to suggest some ideas for "new" totems below that I've seen other mobs use. Also, you'll find the Elemental totems here cause I wanted to group them all together so that's why the Earth and Fire Elemental totems are making an appearance here instead of in Part One. Let's start with the Elemental totems.

Earth Elemental Totem-Ah, good old Rocky. I generally use him as an "Uh-oh!" totem if I get swarmed and I feel like I need some help. The Earth Elemental serves as a tanking elemental really so don't expect him to do some funky damage. He's there to take mobs off you in a tight spot and as long as you keep Rocky and yourself alive via healing, you'll survive pretty easily. However, Rocky's not so good at tanking Elite mobs sadly...I found that out the hard way.

Fire Elemental Totem-Speaking of damage...say hello to the Fire Elemental Totem. Hothead loves to do AoE damage (while his mana bar allows him to do it) and he's very useful for clearing up a group of mobs. However, don't expect him to be able to survive if he comes under attack...he's fragile like a baby.

Water Elemental Totem-Now we come on to the first of my hypothetical elemental totems...trying to decide on this has been tricky. I mean, you don't want it to be a Mage Water Elemental rip-off and a healing elemental would be more interesting and fits the Water totem theme. However, it can't be too powerful otherwise Shaman healers might push ahead. With all this in mind, my idea is for the Water Elemental to summon a pool of water that will increase healing done to allies by 10% while they stand on this pool. I know it's situational and requires your party to stand on a certain spot when some boss fights require mobility but I felt the pool idea was cool and it doesn't seem too over-powered to me so it won't get other healer classes to start complaining. If it's not enough, then the pool could heal allies over time instead of increasing the healing they'll recieve. However, that sounds like a Healing Stream Totem knockoff idea.

Air Elemental Totem-We have a tanking elemental, an AoE elemental and a healing elemental. What's lacking is a single target dps elemental...and that's where the Air Elemental comes in. I reckon the Air Elemental could simply do reasonably powerful melee attacks. It would be better if the melee attacks also had a knockback effect to send enemies back/interrupt them but that might be too powerful. As long as the Elemental did good single-target dps smackdowns, I think the Air Elemental Totem would be a fine addition to the totem arsenal.

Now the elementals are out of the way, time to finish with comments on a couple of totems that I know other mobs have which would be cool to have.

Earthgrab Totem-This is the one I'd love to see given to Shamans. It would simply be an AoE snare involving roots. It's a Druid's Entangling Roots spell on a larger scale but with a reasonable handicap to make up for the AoE snare effect. I think it's a nice way to get some breathing space in PvP (or in a "Uh-oh" moment in PvE) and it's not too overpowered cause all you have to do is destroy the totem to break free. It's simply a stalling technique.

Brain Wash Totem-Used by Mr. Jin'do the Hexxer, I remember fighting him and a part of me wishing my Shaman had a totem like that. It won't have as much health as Jin'do's totem of course but it would be rather groovy if Shamans had a totem that would control an enemy that's in range and make them fight others. In return, it could heal them so that if it lost control, you've just helped the enemy out and it won't be useful in 1 on 1 scenarios cause all you'll do is heal them. While the loss of control for the enemy who's being targeted might be a pain, I imagine it's on the same level of annoying as when you're feared a lot or having to put up with a Rogue who's stunlocking. And the key reason why this isn't unfair in my eyes is because someone else only has to come along and destroy the totem to free the brainwashed enemy and it won't be used 1 on 1 for reasons above.

So...that's this article pretty much done. It gave you my opinions, a few tips and a few ideas for making current totems better and introducing "new" totems that I think would be cool. If you take one thing away from this...let it be this. Sentry Totem wants your love. So remember, the next time you see a Sentry Totem, give it a big hug.