World of Raids Forums: Shaman Totem Bar

When patch 3.2 releases, with it comes a new totem bar for the Shaman class. The bar sits above your action bars on the default UI, similar to other class bars (shapeshifting, stances, auras, etc.) and can either be clicked, or have keys bound to it by setting them in the Key Bindings options.

You can find these in the "Action Bar Functions" portion named "Drop All Totems 1," "Drop All Totems 2" and "Drop All Totems 3." You can also bind keys to specific totems on the bar, but the real power of the bar is allowing you to assign and drop four totems in a single global cooldown, with a single button press or click.

Visit your trainer and train the various Call abilities offered: Call of Fire (Level 30), Call of Water (Level 40) and Call of Air (Level 50). You can then assign a set of four totems to each of these spells in the totem bar. So for instance, you can set up Call of Fire to drop your four PvE totems, Call of Water to drop your PvP totems, and then Call of Air to drop another choice of four totems. The fourth call spell is actually Totemic Call. It's renamed to Call of Earth in the patch, and is also available on the totem bar, on the right.

The tooltips of the spells will probably be confusing to some players; they suggest that the higher level versions allow more types of totems to be dropped at first glance, but what it actually means is that Call of Water and Call of Air enable you to save another set of four totems, so that you have other options. You'll also notice that the mana cost of the call spell will update as you choose or change the totems the spell is assigned to drop. This mana cost is a combination of the totems you've chosen, so use the call spells with caution or you'll rapdily run out of mana!

The call spell does not have to be active on the totem bar to drop those totems -- the totem bar itself is primarily used to assign each set of totems to a call spell. You can also place each of the call spells on your action bars, if you so choose. In the end, this looks to be an extremely welcome addition to the user interface and gameplay mechanics of the Shaman class.