That is usually how it works with people. They see a thing & knee-jerk a reaction, especially if they see a click-bait-y video title.
That’s true. I’ll take your word for it.
Ridiculous. How dare you.
When I’m done ousting you from your throne, gonna buff this whole game goddamit.
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You don’t do comparison to other masteries. You look at Marksman in a void. You could clear 300c with 0.85 Shaman. Didn’t mean that Shaman was any good. Everyone universally agreed that Shaman was an absoltue F in 0.85. Let’s be honest 300c is not the endgame EHG wants it to be and when Marksman start struggling with both damage and survival, while Blade Dancer literally doesn’t care, even when using Dual Wield, then what’s the point of playing a Marksman? Hell a lot of Bow builds can go Blade Dancer and be flatout better. Multishot, Puncture and Cinder Strike Decoy could just play BD and be better builds. Probably Bowmage as well.
Have they said anything to that effect? I’ve been out of the loop since December…
But honestly the devs just don’t have enough time to test every single build in the deep endgame environment. They can’t spend 3k+ playing a single class. Besides the Committee decisions would be just a recommendaion for the devs to consider. It’s the devs who would have the last word
Mike said on stream today that 300c is where they balance for high end builds (while acknowledging that some can go a lot higher)
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I don’t think thats a good idea lol. They already have things like Beesfriends, community testing program etc so they really don’t need a new program to manage.
While i do understand the frustration that some nerfs and buffs and things that are ignored is very frustrating however this particular suggestion won’t solve anything.
You simply could make a forum feedback post about a skill or skills that you feel like are not performing as they should and you most likely get the same results as with every commitee and whatnot considering either its ignored or addressed.
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Appreciate your input, I will consider trying to compose my thoughts and use the forums more regularly to try and give feedback more often in the future.
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Well Id like to point as someone who loves shaman thematically, shamans problem isnt that it does not have builds that are good.
its that its extremely niche and isnt a pick up and play class.
Even the worst of the worst classes have some niche that let them go hard, I think FG for example is really bad, but it has a few good minion builds. But FG isnt strictly a minion class, its supposed to have other identities. it just does not deliver on those fantasies because its passives are old and outdated.
Shaman is supposed to be design and thematics wise, a totem elemental focused hybrid fighter. Where as beast master fights along side his beasts, Shaman raises totems and calls the forces of nature.
So why is it that beastmaster tornado + totem support is better then shaman at that? Frenzy totem being locked to beast master a few patches ago was one of the worst mistakes imo for shaman.
Shaman has tons of passives that buff you along side a totem, so why are none of the totems shaman has access to actually feel good buttons to press for more then just a damage minion?
I dont really care if classes are weak or strong, but they 100% need to deliver on their fantasies and have multiple unique build paths. Shaman is shoed horned into storm totem builds because thats all it can do, and if you could get storm totem on druid, I bet we would see tons of storm totem druids frankly or even potentially beast masters rofl.
Classes like shaman/FG are unpopular and ranked low not because they dont have strong end game builds, but because no one has any reason to explore them or try them. They are rigid and specific and do nothing else. Making them F tier.
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I didn’t realise that perception had any impact of how effective a class could be. I agree that Shaman are certainly viewed as bad/f tier but I’m not sure that a class being rigid and inflexible means that it’s f tier. Having more viable options certainly helps a class.
Spriggan form Shaman is pretty good too. One thing that Shaman is very good at is Overcapping resists, However the only interaction that works well with Shaman on that is Frostbite Shackles(and Uhkeiros ofc).
There are 4 overcap res mechanics aside from Frostbite shackles
- Ruby Fang(poison chance): Shaman has no poison support or synergy
- Torkrefin’s Hunger(bleed chance and negligible pen): Viscera is pretty meh and Shaman doesn’t have much support for DoT or attack speed
- Serpent Strike(dodge rating): Again meh melee support from Shaman and Serpent strike was nerfed heavily by the poison(DoT) rework as well as tree rework
- Urzil’s Pride: Mana regen is just awful to invest in. 25-27 mana regen per sec sounds cool but ends up feeling meh especially compared to a mana generator like Swipe or Tempest strike which would just let you invest more in damage
I dont seem to agree with this statement, if anything Shaman is attempting to do a few niche things based on its archetype: Totems/2Hand/Cold/Lightning the main issue is the skills linked are pathetically weak now and cant keep up or you need insane gear to even be remotely good, namely: Tornado/Earthquake/Tempest Strike/Avalanche
If imagine for a moment we had infinite Mana (as thats Shamans biggest issue is mana cost apart from damage) Archetypes that exist/could exist:
~9+ Totems (without Spriggan Form)
Tempest/Tornado/Avalanche
Hybrid EQ/Spellcaster with a Staff (EQ converts into a spell)
Shatter Totems - actually is better as a Beastmaster
No real ‘true’ melee (Upheaval sucks)
Not saying these dont actually exist but they are to me unplayable due to mana
Shaman has shit nodes and need a rework but they have some decent, ie a Druid and Shaman are completely tied for Adaptive Spell damage but Druid has better nodes all-round, Druid has access to Shamans totem nodes. Shaman gets almost free capped resists so you can gear into more HP but Druid gets more HP/Endurance and regen…and Entangling Roots - theres a strong node in Roots that wraps around totems…
Shaman has a few ‘damage after 3 seconds’ which is supposed to line up with EQ but fails because its too annoying/boring to play, other parts of the tree are forgettable and some are awful like the retaliation procs and the Lagon Lightning that doesnt do damage but they have one insane node which gives 5% ele/phy res per totem and Ascendant Circle. Ascendant Circle needs to be changed to ‘xx’ Adaptive Spell per totem, since the ‘9’ totem build is a minion build the only build at all would benefit from 9 is hit based Spirit Thorns
But Shaman is tied to totems same as Necro is minions so may as well lean into it
I would love if EGH added a new skill called Ancestral Ferocity or something exclusive to Shaman where you can only use a 2Hander and if you have totems out you consume them for stackable Savagery stacks where you gain massive attack speed and others, you could spec into more totems on hit or more damage or even some sort of ‘life degen’ for even more bonuses where you need to be leeching etc
Also despite what I wrote this guy is the Shaman god of LE https://www.youtube.com/@Valinov/videos and has quite a few builds. I found them while attemping to make a Shatter Totem Shaman and failing, found that guys videos, he has a Shaman Meteor build abusing the rage sustain on Spriggan im assuming
That would be a really cool idea to give shaman a class identity about that. Getting bonuses based on overcapped resistances. Makes sense considering shaman are supposed to be tied to the land.
You may not care, but most players do. Power is THE main reason for a build’s popularity. Rogue’s Shadow Dagger is the big example for that. It’s the most boring of all the BD builds by far with mechanics so detatched from the class, that it feels more like playing a summoner than an actual hit and run ninja. It’s the most popular Rogue build, because of how stupidly powerful it is from base to scaling.
A lot of players? Most likely, yes.
MOST players? Unless EHG releases some usage data, how would you know that? Last Epoch sold over 500.000 copies. This forum + Steam forum + reddit would be what, 1000 regular users total? Maybe 2000? Nothing remotely representative anyway.
An important reason, yes, but I believe it is on a par with ease of play, especially for new players.
Whirlwind has always been extremely popular with new players, despite not being “meta” for a very long time (if ever). The infamous “autobomber” is another example, popular not because it is the strongest, but because it is pretty much fully automated.
Of course, none of it helps our poor little shaman, who is neither the strongest nor the easiest to build. 
Be happy ypu are not like me ^^. I don’t like Totem play style but I love EQ and avalanch. It’s pretty meh to pick a mastery only for two skills while both skills aren’t even working that well with each other ^^.
Shaman is a mess and it makes me kind of sad.
The same way I know most people are right-handed. Why would you need data to confirm common sense? And if you do need data, look no further to the most popular ARPG that actually shows % of people playing builds and you would find out the strongest builds are the most popular (at poe.ninja). Why do you feel the need to argue against the obvious?
Because thinking the way you play is the way everybody plays is a natural and easy mistake to make. If you are a dev trying to look at the big picture, you need something more solid than just feelings.
On poe.ninja right now, the most popular mastery is at 18%, folowed by two others at 12%, then a lot between 5% and 10%. The most popular skill is at 15% (9% normal + 6% Vaal), followed by nearly 20 other skills between 4 and 8%.
So yes, a lot of players follow the meta. Around 15-20% of players. “Most” players would mean over 50%, we are still very far from it.
Note that I generally agree with the spirit of your post, I only argued with presenting it as the absolute majority of players. We don’t know that.
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My man, you can argue into percentages or not, But he’s right on the concept.
Many people tend to META builds, because they want to use the most effective build to challenge the content, they want to speed through the content, or because they feel that’s the right way to play an ARPG. Or maybe, they don’t have that full understanding of the framework of systems the game has to offer, so they go with a tried and tested, and successful build.
This game gives you a ton of leeway to go your own way, and is generally recommended to other people, specially if you are an ARPG veteran from other similar games.
But if a “LENinja” existed, would be a safe bet the META builds will be always on top of the charts.