New Build!
Death Knight
- Item – Death Knight T10 DPS Relic (Obliterate, Scourge Strike, Death Strike) – Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities grants 73 Strength for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Item – Death Knight T10 Tank Relic (Runestrike) – Your Rune Strike ability grants 44 dodge rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Druid
- Item – Druid T10 Feral Relic (Rake and Lacerate) – The periodic damage from your Lacerate and Rake abilities grants 44 Agility for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Item – Druid T10 Balance Relic (Moonfire and Insect Swarm) – The periodic damage from your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells grants 44 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Item – Druid T10 Restoration Relic (Rejuvenation) – The periodic healing from your Rejuvenation spell grants 32 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 8 times.
Paladin
- Item – Paladin T10 Retribution Relic (Crusader Strike) - Your Crusader Strike ability grants 44 Strength for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Item – Paladin T10 Holy Relic (Holy Shock) – Your Holy Shock spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
- Item – Paladin T10 Protection Relic (Shield of Righteousness) – Your Shield of Righteousness ability grants 73 dodge rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
Shaman
- Item – Shaman T10 Elemental Relic (Shocks) – Your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells grant 73 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
- Item – Shaman T10 Enhancement Relic (Stormstrike) – Your Stormstrike ability grant 146 attack power rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
- Item – Shaman T10 Restoration Relic (Riptide) – Your Riptide spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
The numbers here seem a little low, at least for the Enhancement one. While it won’t drop off in any fight where we can stormstrike every 8-10 seconds like normal, 438 AP is only 38 more AP than our current Relic. However, as ghostcrawler has said- it’s much more work for them to put an item/spell/ability in than to tweak the numbers. (Nearly every relic buff seems to be about 10% higher than t9 relics, which seems to be a bit low at this point.) These are early PTR numbers, so the only thing we should really be looking at is how we feel it works.
First, I do have to say- I’m starting to be a little let down by Relics. Historically, they’ve given pretty cool varied bonuses from spec to spec and class to class. Having every Melee DPS relic in 3.2 be 200 strength/attack power/agility, Caster Relics be 200 Crit/ 200 Haste, every Heal Relic be 234 Spellpower, and every tank relic be 200 Dodge Rating wasn’t terrible. It was A) New, and B) It was known the patch had it’s focus set on PVP and Isle of Conquest, and that ToC was a playground so that the kids didn’t get bored. Which was fine.
But 3.3 isn’t that. 3.3 is Icecrown Citadel, the culmination of all our efforts in Northrend. It is largely a PVE patch. And having evvery relic be virtually the same as every other classes’ is just a little annoying. Every melee class will hit and gain ap or strength in stacks. Every caster will throw up their dots and get crit rating. Every healer will use their instant heal for 255 spellpower. The only real difference is in tanks, where Paladins and Death Knights will get dodge and druids will get agility.
Beyond just being annoyed with the sameness, I don’t really like the stacking effect. I’ve got fury of the five flights on Grazeless, who also uses Rune of Razorice in her offhand. Both abilities stack on melee hit, and have short durations- FotFF has 10 seconds, the rune has 20. If there is any boss that might require us to be away from the target for extended periods of time (I’m looking at you, Northrend Beasts. Burning Bile sucks. Also, phase transitions like Mimirons) will cause us to have to restack our stack. Even if Stormstrike is hit the second it’s off CD (which isn’t always the case) it will take us 24 seconds to restack to it’s fullest. That said, I just find it annoying- not stupid/broken/anything.
I’m also wondering a bit about the elemental relic. Crit is sux for Elemental compared to haste- having an instant crit every 8 seconds (6.5 with 4pct10!) means that crit is not their friend compared to haste. Also, no Elemental shaman in their right mind will be wasting a GCD to cast flameshock before they need to…which is every 16ish seconds. After the buff has fallen off. My hope would be that they change this as a chance to give crit on Flameshock ticks. (Really, I’d prefer they did haste, but w/e.) Because, as of now, Electrifying Wind looks to be BiS in ICC.
Meanwhile, crit is very attractive for Enhancement, as it effects both spell crit and melee crit. Anyone who has really high crit ep values might want to consider getting this totem for Enhancement, as we do shock every 6ish seconds or so.
Srsly need to finish this paper. Peace out chillun.
Edit: “The Elemental totem is haste, not crit, and I believe it is a 30 sec duration.”
Go go, Ghostcrawler! This totem is so much better now.
You haven’t noticed how grossly overpowered the DK relic is in comparison to ours (and even the ret one).
Enhance = 146AP x 3 = 438AP
Ret = 44STR x 5 = 220STR = 440AP (before kings and talent buffs)
DPS DK = 73STR x 5 = 365 STR = 730AP (before kings and talent buffs)
WTTTTFFFSSS…those numbers better change before 3.3 hits.
The DK bonus is a little overpowering, hope we get toned up, I didn’t notice that.
I was too busy staring slack-jawed at the new frozen core talent for frost mages. If that goes live I’m going to QQ up a storm in pvp.
I’d be tempted to try simming the Elemental Relic in Enhancement gear. Even with Haste…
@lordofthefries
If the current numbers stand, many enhance shamans will use the elemental relic rather than the one intended for enhance. I believe Ghostcrawler has mentioned that that 73 crit was intended to be 73 haste instead. 219 haste will be superior to 438 AP for any shaman that has an EP value of more than 2 for haste.
Lets see, DK’s Druids and Pallies all get a melee relic that scales with Kings (strength or agility), making them 10% more valuable.
Yet Enhancement Shammies are stuck with Attack power that doesnt scale with kings!
Sounds about the usual bullshit that they try and pass off on us.
To be honest, I wish they would be a bit more creative about shaman relics.
I’d actually like to see one that boosts all 3 of our attack power stats.
Maybe something like “Your Stormstrike ability increases all stats by 33 for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times”.
Hey Elam!
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http://epicadvice.com/questions/2185/blog-roll-series-shaman
Be sure to upvote and star the questions/answers you find useful.
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@typeronin
My EP value for haste is pretty high… not quite that high, but high. The difficulty for me will be securing a spot in a guild that can/will run the content. =\