This is the last entry of these articles. Earlier ones which handled the talent trees:
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=13548
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=13541
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13534
As always, please note that this is only theorycrafting, nothing more. No actual suggestion.
For shaman racials there is one topic we have to start with: how strong should they be?
Our only reference point is priests and design was not optimal there. Priest racials vary from situationally OP to almost useless. As a baseline I think that shaman racials should be relatively weak but usable. Most importantly, they should be flavorful.
What TWOW did is that they watered down iconic shaman abilities from later expansions and made them racials. A good flavor-idea.
More exactly, following the below URL:
viewtopic.php?t=3334
'Orc: Feral Spirit | 21% Base Mana Cost | 5 Minute Cooldown |
Summons two Spirit Wolves under the command of the Shaman for 20 seconds.
Tauren: Spirit Link | 21% Base Mana Cost |10 Minute Cooldown |
Link the spirits of an ally and their 3 closest allies within 15 yards together. When linked targets take damage, 15% is distributed among the other linked allies. Lasts 20 seconds.
Troll: Hex | 21% Base Mana Cost | 5 Minute Cooldown |
Transforms the enemy into a frog that cannot cast, and does 66% less damage for up to 4 seconds. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.'
All of these are watered down versions of iconic abilities from later expansions. I will use the same abilities but will fine-tune them. As a general rule I'll make all of the racials have a 3 min CD.
Feral spirit has two problems: it has a casting time and the wolves deal too low but (at least) sustained damage. It feels like summoning feral chihuahuas at this moment. I'd make the spell instant cast on a 3 min CD, would reduce its uptime to 5 sec but would somewhat increase the damage the wolves deal. Thematically, you summon the wolves, wolves feel strong - but they also disappear soon, to avoid making this spell oppressive. The spell would work this way: you select the target within 30 yards and the wolves get summoned directly next to the target, dealing damage to him for 5 seconds. Imagine it as a weird dot without a debuff slot.
Spirit link has two problems, too: it has a huge CD for what it does, and you can't target yourself. In this theorycraft shamans are viable tanks. A tank deciding to cast the spirit link on himself to mitigate damage should be possible. Would reduce its uptime to 10 seconds to make up for the added utility and the vastly reduced CD (3 min). It is also good for resto to divide damage and use chain heal to patch it up.
Hex is in an interesting spot. A good PVP addition but has limited PVE uses. As a resto I use it if a pull is too big and kind of CC-ing one mob for 4 sec helps. It can also help as a 'pre-interrupt' to deal with a problematic caster for 4 seconds. Good at PVP, some niche uses at PVE.
With this, I'm done. Wanted to create a full theorycraft for each shaman classes and wanted to include the racials, too.
Fortunately I have no idea how to balance other classes so this thing ends here.
Now it's finally over and I promise not spamming this forum anytime soon.
