Game Mechanics Haul rework for the shaman class

Hello,

All of this is based on my experience playing spellspam shaman up to level 102, which I mostly enjoyed.

We all know how haul can be a bit annoying as a movement spell. We've all been there when you cycle totem-haul with sweat dripping off your forehead and accidentally cast uproot instead of totem, fly backwards and then curse loudly.


can you feel it?

So I thought why not give haul a second cast mode (a bit like what uproot has now, just without the aiming requirement) when cast without an active totem? When casting haul like this you'd simply jump in the direction you're facing. To balance this out it'd not have any added damage when you have no totem active. It might also be necessary to disable casting haul mid air (like escape) without a totem to not make it completely broken for loot running, but I'm not sure about that.

The only downside I'd see with this is it would be kind of a worse charge which would make it a somewhat boring movement spell, but at least it'd be better than what it is now, without hurting or changing shaman's basic combat too much. It might also be a bit difficult to explain lore-magic-mechanic-whatever-wise considering the name "haul", but I'm sure one could come up with something.

Would this add too many layers of complexity to an already complex class or perhaps make shaman too strong in duels, bossfights or lootruns? Or could this be a legitimate way to help shaman's mobility? Or do you perhaps feel shaman has enough mobility as it is and the clunkiness is justified by the classes other perks?

I'm very interested in hearing what you guys think about the suggestion, the current haul and the shaman class overall in this context.

 

Rip my Abso ambi totem smash & haul build

I think the problem you failed to mention is the bounce when you land which disrupts fast movement and makes the weakest defense baseline class even more vulnerable. It used to be that while on solid footing on a block's surface, if you used haul you wouldn't bounce when you landed - idk what changed but it sucks.

While I feel most people would support the notion of using haul without totem, I am not one of those people. Shaman's spells revolve around the totem and I think it should stay that way. That's my only complaint really ^^

Nice post :)

 

You can switch hotbar slots when you're moving the fastest when using Haul, so it will trigger the little bounce when you're in mid-air, so you won't be slowed down, and you'll also get a small height boost

 

Thanks for your feedback! :)

That is good reasoning. I had that in mind too but thought that uproot also has a kind two different cast modes; with and without totem - so I thought why not have that with haul as well.

To clear things up what I meant was that haul would only lose its damage when you cast it without an active totem. So this change should not affect shaman's current combat at all. I'll edit the post to make it clearer.

 

Wha????

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I'm talking in combat

 

When you have an active totem haul would work just like before. When you don't, haul could still be cast to jump in the direction you're facing, but just wouldn't deal damage.