Shaman the least played class

[Onu]

I was trolling on wow forums and i saw this...i'm not that surprised tho. Look the shaman activity (dark green).

www.warcraftrealms.com/weeklyactivity.php?serverid=-1&factionid=2


So shaman was on the top 4 played class before TBC and the hope to get buffed...After TBC and the WF/clearcasting nerf we'r the least played class.

Numbers speak for themself...It's a shame

[Farei]

Actually druid has been and still is the least played class of all. It´s not that bad playing a least-played class you know! In fact usually it´s a good thing as regards places in groups and stuff.

Take heart at the nub WF-whores and "OMGZ FROSTSHOCKZ" players having given up and rolled warlock instead for easy PvP ownz (just take a look at the correspondence in those 2 lines). At least warlocks can't wear mail ^^

[culhwch]

If all hunter bots went kablewie then we would be the least played class.

[Onu]

Druid always been least played class..this is constant. What i point out is the heavy drop of shaman players...and the heavy gain of huntard players . Also I'm sure there are also good players that leave it at this point.

[Farei]

If you list the popular classes pre and post tbc (taking post tbc as latest on graph since rerolls will be levelled out):

PRE	POST
warrior	hunter
hunter	warrior
rogue	warlock
shaman	rogue
mage	mage
warlock	priest
priest	paladin
druid	shaman
-	druid

[/tr]
[/table]

The drop in shaman numbers pre and post TBC is actually smaller than the drop in warrior numbers. Even though warriors are still 2nd most played class, their numbers are far fewer than before. Both hunters and warlocks have had a similar increase in numbers.

I think what we are seeing here is purely a shift in the preferred class of pvp-ownage kiddies. It used to be that warriors and shamans were the popular classes that could most easily own most others (at least that I have played). Now, everybody knows that warlocks and hunters are seriously good in pvp, and what better time to reroll than when half the server is going to be levelling blood elf alts.

Warriors have been nerfed a lot, and shamans have now also been nerfed. Neither is as easy to wtfpwn people now that the average person can´t be two-shotted (or at least easily). Therefore, for pvp ownage, people have chosen classes that can do a lot of damage in pvp without ever being hit.

I don´t think that it is a reduction in the genuine utility of the shaman class per se that is causing the drop in numbers. I reckon it has more to do with people rerolling for pvp purposes, and perhaps a proprtion of shaman healers rerolling through being bored with being made by their guilds to only heal in raids.

I dont think you should be overly concerned. Clearly from the damage meters I´ve been running, shamans are still capable of respectable dps in PvE, as well as being invaluable for totems. "getting round the cooldown" of windfury is not something that one should be able to do imo, since I don´t know of any other classes that can get round the cooldowns of major dps abilities (correct me if I´m wrong). You can always hope that Blizzard decides to buff shaman dps a bit to compensate, like they re-fixed bear mangle. But it´s probably the case of gear better for each hit and not rely on WF procs, or if you´re still that unhappy then perhaps a hunter is on the cards

edit: made table readable ><

[mard]

nah, clearly the fact that they fixed obvious wfury bug is the sign that blizzard hates all shamans and wants them to reroll. i want to be able to get around the global cooldown on my lock ! or swing timer on my rogue ! WTF you mean i can't ? zomg blizz u suck !

also, the day you give up all your hybrid utility, heals and group buffs will be the day you're allowed to deal same dps as pure dps classes. till then, suck it up or reroll.

[Soriah]

I'm afraid I'm with Mard here. I'm seriously glad the hybrid classes aren't buffed anymore than they are. Rogues only have their dps output to get into a raid. Buff hybrids more and pure dps classes will be quite screwed. I really find that hybrids are fine in PvE. And as for nearly all the classes, they had to get a new spec for pvp. You know, many rogues are forced to spec combat for high end arena, which wasn't really designed as a pvp build in the first place.


Oh and warriors are not nerfed...not for pvp at least. And they're still the best tanking class due to their shield block ability. Druids and rogues are the least taken classes in 5vs5 arenas, and that's for a good reason. 2 warriors will always be better with some healing than a rogue and warrior, or a warrior and a druid. Many classes are unhappy with their setup in TBC. My guess is wait and see.

Edit: Erm, it's Feyt posting, not Ambril.

[Tardon]

Generally I feel hybrid classes are getting way to specialised, and have been for a very long time. But its as much a problem that non-hybrid classes are becoming hybrids (DPS priests and warriors, mages getting pets etc)
The way I see it:
Shamans - Buffer/DPS'er/Healer
Paladin - Buffer/Tank/Healer
Druid - Tank/DPS'er/Healer

Prefferably hybrid classes should always have some use for all their abilities. Its fine that they have specialised tree's, but it should be made around always using them all (I'd say druid is the most working in this aspect, at least in pvp, where they go tankbear to take damage, change to kitty to dps, and go normal to heal, all within the same fight)
I can hear now that the hybrids will say "but we can't use that in raids"... and yes, thats true. Blizzard have been bad at designing raid encounters that encourage hybrids to actually play hybrids and no specialised classes. More fights like Garr, where you suddenly needed a big amount of tanks (except they fuxxed that a bit, by warlocks controlling the stonies) would be nice... or raid instances that very much change how much healing, dps'ing and tanking would be needed for each fight, so that hybrids automaticly were needed to do something different for each encounter. That would be awesome. Or heck, even just one boss where you neeeded hybrids to change roles all the time (by spawning a lot of mobs, varying in damage done to players, and the amount of damage needed to be done on the boss).

And about warriors being nerfed... meh, I can't say about tanking, but DPS/PvP wise, they seem quite fine for me. Its always been quite clear, also in their descriptions, that warriors are the gear dependant class. Bad gear = feeling nerfed, best gear = borderline overpowered.

But meh, with as much that has been shifted around in tBC, its almost time for another class-revamp patchmadness, to balance everything out again. Though I do think balance is better now than it was waaaay back in the beginning of WoW, I still think balance (at least to me) seemed better around patch 1.5 or so.

[Farei]

I agree with Tardon, so many classes are whining about something or other that´s unfair/overpowered/nerfed/stupid/bugged that they most likely will start changing stuff around again.

As for hybrids, I agree fully that more needs to be done to increase the usefulness of hybrids, though atm for a feral druid even Kara offers a lot of flexibility - at the moment I tank (when 2 tanks are needed), dps (when one is needed) and heal (eg. on Maiden where one tank and little melee is needed). Makes Kara great fun cause of the variety. I wish that shamans and paladins were able to do this sort of thing as easily.

But as for druids being the only class that is utilising most of its capabilities, you could say that a shaman uses his buffs, melee, spells and heals in one fight, and a paladin uses his ability to take damage, deal damage and heal in a fight as well... just with druids the change is more obvious because of the shapeshifting. In fact you could even say that shamans and paladins *in theory* should be better since they are not limited to doing one thing at once by shapeshifts that take an insane amount of mana (based on base mana pool, you can only shift 4 or 5 times on the average feral mana pool, and that´s if you don´t use your mana any other way like healing).

[jokk]

Well, im not sure if I agree that we should be semigood at everything all the time, If we take shamans for example:
We cant do 2 things in the same gear, I do dps or i heal, simple as that. I cant change gear in fights and will never be able to do, so let the fights be like they are so i can do what im geared for all that fight, and then maybe change gear for next fight or just continue healing/dpsing the next one too.

Im starting to get some kind of "ok" gear, its not like the 1000 dps+ shamans but its still enough for me to be nr 3-7 on dmg list in 25 man raids if its a boss that doesnt hate melee. My curent gear can be seen at:
armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Argent%20Dawn&n=jokk

Your arguments about that we do to much dmg isnt realy corect, we got a rogue, a warrior, and a mage that mostly does to much dmg for me to have any chance to beet, and im sure EVERY mage/rogue/dps warrior (warlocks and hunters too in some fights) can do more dmg then a shaman if they want too and got the gear to do it. If not, change to a pveraid spec and change your combos with attacks (for hunters, rogues, warlocks?) to the best one for pure dmg output.