The Game Dame

Shamans were given a free (forced?) respec today as part of the changes in Patch 3.0.8. My previous build was Elemental with some smatterings in the Resto tree so that I could be more efficient at off-healing. Turns out my guild is full of brilliant healers and other DPS hybrids who have more healy power than me, so I decided to ditch the pseudo-resto posing and just try to max out my DPS.

I liked what I saw in the first few levels of the Enhancement tree so I specced 14 points there instead of Resto. Respeccing plus the good things this patch brings for Elemental Shaman left me with some hefty improvement on my spellpower numbers, especially crits. Prior to the patch I’d been averaging 4500 on Lava Burst crits, but now I’m averaging close to 6000, with 6500 not that unusual. Wowser!

Sorry for not being able to link a live build. Seems that neither Blizzard’s nor Wowhead’s talent calculators have been updated yet so I had to take a screenshot.

My haste is now off the charts, too. I don’t even really need to wait for Lava Burst to cool down before using it (although I usually do to get some more damage out of Flame Shock).

When I used Elemental Mastery today, I noticed that it had changed. It stays up longer now, almost as if the buff is only timed now and doesn’t count how many spells you cast during the time (before you could only get the effect on 2 spells). I still see a counter on the buff but I don’t see the buff go away before the timer is up. I wonder if this is a bug or the new way the spell works now. Anyone see it in the patch notes? I missed it, apparently.

It’s a scoop! Coming in patch 3.0.8, rumor has it that shamans will finally be rid of the useless Sentry Totem. Instead, we’ll get a Totem of Fishing! It adds +300 to your fishing skill, so you can pretty much fish wherever you want to now. It also pulses to draw fish toward it so your frequency of catching fish improves.

Fishing ganks got you down on a PvP server? Well, drop this puppy and anyone who comes within a 10-yard radius gets hit with a drowning debuff that gives them 3 seconds of air before they die — just like they were underwater! (Don’t forget to protect it with a Stoneclaw Totem.)

Like all shaman totems, it buffs your entire party. So why not create a fishing raid! You and 49 of your closest friends can boogie on down to Stranglethorn Vale and fish to your heart’s content.

I also heard that in this upcoming patch Blizzard intends to release a new extremely rare mob off the coast of Burning Steppes, called Doby-Mick. If you catch it, there’s a 0.01% chance that it will drop an epic Tabard of Haba Shmaeli, a fishing tabard that makes you look like you have an ivory pegleg and grants rep with the Nazjatar in heroic dungeons.

[Can you tell I've been doing too many fishing dailies??]