Hey!
I was unsure how to categorize this post since I don't intend to write about implementable shaman changes. My main goal here is a thought-experiment, thinking about how shamans would look in the Platonic world of ideas in my opinion.
I will handle existing abilities and even retail ones (if one is introduced) with extreme flexibility. The end result strives to be balanced for TWOW power level-wise but it is so far removed from the reality of the Azeroth we know that it's rather a very detailed thought experiment.
If you have any reactions or ideas regarding this, please share them with me below.
I state here that this thought-experiment changes the shaman drastically. I know that what I do is against the nostalgy of Vanilla and against the small but useful change-approach of TWOW. I intend to use a jackhammer where people tend to use a chisel. I do so because I don't expect or want any of these changes to be a part in any shaman change debate. I just wanna share how I'd love this class the most.
What is a shaman?
Shamans are spiritual beings who gain their strength through the spirits of their ancestors and through the elements. Totems are a fabricated form of an element's character, leading to a specific effect. Each element is a bit different, so the totems made through them have different functions. Fire hurts, water heals.
I also tend to imagine them under the influence of the elements. Eyes glowing by the thunder, striking and casting faster because of the raw power which runs through them. I implemented this by adding some kind of haste into each talent tree. Either for them or them providing it or both.
The main philosophy behind the changes.
People tend to argue over the value of utility. How effective a support build should be compared to pure damage dealers for example. I don't agree that there is a class without a raid utility but I do agree that shamans have too much of it. I want to lock many key abilities and totems behind class talents, making them only available for specific builds.
There are some tools all shamans possess and even at their base form, without added talents they are considered so strong that they define how a shaman is being used.
I think the oppressive tools available for each shamans are the windfury totem, the chain heal and to a degree, the shocks. Here, these abilities are removed from the baseline or being changed. Without the best tools each shaman has (and by cutting away some utilities) each specific build can be stronger at what it does without becoming a menace if we add together the utility they bring and the damage or healing they do.
One important design decision I made is to disable totem-twisting. A totem's effect is only valid as long as it is on the battlefield. Twisting allows a gameplay which was not expected by the game developers (later it got removed) and would allow a gameplay where shamans are expected to abuse mechanics instead of casting spells or hitting the enemies in that timeframe, just to add more party buffs. Mechanics-wise it also feels strange to have the benefit of a totem even though it is not on the battlefield.
Tools getting locked behind a talent build:
* Windfury totem
* Chain heal
* Chain lightning
* Poison/disease cleansing totem (but not cure poison/disease)
* Weapon enhancements other than rockbiter weapon (nerfed version)
* Flametongue totem being changed to a spell damage totem and also being locked behind the elemental talent tree.
* Would lock tranquil air totem behind the elemental tree and would also change it. Instead of a static threat reduction, it would make so that party members cause half of the original threat with a crit. Not lowering average threat but negating sudden spikes.
Tools getting changed but remaining available for each build:
* Rockbiter weapon would give less melee attack power but would not generate extra threat. Also, its uptime would change to 15 minutes (just like all weapon enhancements).
* Frost shock would last 12 sec instead of 8 but would only lower the movement speed by 10-15% instead of 50%. Would also decrease the damage it does.
* Earth shock with somewhat reduced damage but also with no added threat. Would also add a damage penalty to this shock based on distance, having only 75% of its damage if the distance is above 10 yards and 50% if it is casted from 20 or more yards away (with a talent).
* Searing totem only shooting at an enemy in its radius if an ally is currently attacking the target.
* Windwall totem reducing damage both from ranged attacks and spells.
One note regarding this: I think that shaman's mana-management issues are partially due to the high totem cost and the fact that they have to summon them everywhere the party goes. It also stops spirit's 5 second mana refill rule too early as the shaman usually sets up totems before the pull. Would decrease totem costs by default by 20%. Following the same logic, I would increase the mana received back from totemic recal to 50%. The design goal is to make totems less of a mana commitment since they have to be spammed every minute, unlike the buffs given by other classes.
Tools getting added to the shaman baseline:
* Improved ghost wolf at level 60.
* All shields would be introduced at the same time and would have to be upgraded at shaman trainers the same way.
How a 'talentless' shaman would look like?
As a DPS, the shaman has access to rockbiter weapon, lightning shield, slightly changed shocks and most of the totems he currently has. No multi-target attacking spell though. Totemwise searing totem gets more reliable but the lack of windfury totem is a big hit. The shaman could use grace of air totem, or if a big amount of spells are incoming, a windwall totem.
As a healer, it could spam slow healing wave or mana-hungry lesser healing wave. Also, disease and poison cleansing can only be done 1 at a time, no more instant party-wide cleansing.
Elemental shaman
I'd imagine elemental shamans as casters, who use elemental magic (fire, frost and nature) for relatively maintainable single target damages and cleaves. High bursts. At the flip side, they lack aoe damage and they are drained a bit earlier than other casters if a fight is long. They provide great urtility for a raid party full of casters, though.
I'd add a mechanic to shocks. Lightning bolt would count as a nature spell by default. However, casting it on a target with flame shock, it would make it a fire spell while casting it on a target with frost shock would change it into a frost spell (preferably with added visuals for 'flame bolt' and 'ice bolt'). Chain lightning is not included, it is always a nature spell. This could help against high nat-rez mobs since it gives elemental a versatility in regards of schools of magic. This would also help lorewise - we imagine a spell-wielder casting frost, nature and fire while all we get in game is nature spell spamming.
This would also help elementals getting their warlock curse. They just need to make sure that a shock is on the target. This would also mean a nerf to shocks. If there are several shamans in the raid, instead of stacking up shocks, like flame shocks, shamans could only overwrite the shock which is currently on the target. Several shocks on one mob could mean a spell having several schools of nature at the same time.
Elemental shaman currently has 46 talent slots. I wanna follow this in this theorycraft.
What they need in the talent tree:
* Some kind of mana regeneration or bigger mana pool.
* Spell hit chance.
* Spell radius modifier (including shocks).
* Unique spells and totems.
* Buff to existing abilities.
* A unique quirk in gameplay (it will be spell crit).
Spell penetration is not a priority anymore since against a high nat rez mob they can just use fire magic for example.
In case of talents with many levels, I only mention the final amount of buff. For example a 3-step talent with 3% spell hit chance means that each step gives a 1% spell hit chance bonus. If it is important to mention specific numbers for specific steps, I mention them in ().
3 talent slot -> Giving 3% spell hit chance.
2 talent slot -> Increasing spell and shock range to (35) 40 yards.
5 talent slot -> Reducing the mana cost of your offensive spells by 10%.
5 talent slot -> A spell crit gives 10% spell haste for 5 seconds. Not stackable.
5 talent slot -> Increasing damage dealt by spells by 5%.
5 talent slot -> Reducing the cast time of lightning bolt, chain ligtning and bursts (later) by 1 sec.
1 talent slot -> Elemental spells; introducing chain lightning, lava burst and ice burst.
1 talent slot -> Giving clearcasting for 1 spell with 100% mana reduction after a spell crit.
1 talent slot -> Giving flametongue totem and tranquil air totem for the elemental shaman.
1 talent slot -> Elemental mastery but bursts included.
5 talent slot -> Increasing the crit chance of offensive spells by 8%.
5 talent slot -> Increase spell crits' damage to from 150% to 175%.
3 talent slot -> Eye of the storm, as it is.
3 talent slot -> A spell crit charges 3% of your mana back instantly.
1 talent slot -> Increasing searing totem's damage by 30%.
Lava burst and ice burst are spells which can only be cast if the target has a frost shock or flame shock on it. They have 30 seconds CD. Lava burst has high damage while frost burst, while doing considerably less damage, applies a 30 sec debuff on the target which gives frost spells +2% hit chance but gets automatically dispelled if the target doesn't have a frost shock on it. Could be a utility tool at raiding until mages and elemental shamans are hit capped. If the shock expires by the time the burst reaches the target, it gets fully resisted. Here I wanted to make a design difference between the different schools of magic despite them using almost the same tools. Fire is more damage-based, frost is more utility based (and nature allows spell-cleave with chain lightning).
These changes would create an elemental shaman focused on spell crit since they have a 'mini ruin' now, it enables clearcasting, gives spell haste, it gives mana back and tranquil air totem would prevent threat spikes generated by crits. However, to keep things balanced I blocked their access from the tidal mastery talent, meaning -2% crit chance they have to start with (their crit talent gives 3% more to balance out the missing 5 percent crit talent from the resto tree). Spell crit gets much more important, but added work is needed to get to a reliable number.
PVP-wise I think it is balanced-out. Elemental shaman is strong at PVP at the moment. Here they gain many advantages but lose some assets, too.
If they crit, they hit hard and fast. They can also cast shocks from really far away. In exchange frost shock is not the single-player CC monster it used to be and earth shock loses damage over distance. Also, shock CD can't be reduced anymore in the elemental tree. This build is mostly built upon getting advantage over spell crit but they start with 2% less crit chance now.
Enhancement shaman
In my opinion, enhancement should only be a melee DPS. Making it an 'almost tank' just takes away talent slots while a hybrid tree makes it hard to give enhancement shamans a clear identity and gameplay.
I'd imagine enhancement shamans as fighters who imbue their weapons in the elements and use their totems for close-combat advantages. Their power lies within the blade sacred by these forces so their gameplay would revolve around getting as many melee hits as possible and weapon buffs giving a bonus effect after ech successful melee hit. Shocks would play a huge part in the gameplay of this build, too. This would be a melee DPS shaman revolving around haste, melee hits, shocks. the weapon enhancement bonuses after the melee hits and totems which benefit from close combat range.
What enhancement shamans need:
* Weapon haste since 2H weapons are slow
* Hit chance
* Added damage
* Meaningful weapon enhancements
I would not add stuns or meaningful melee CCs for them and would avoid giving them an option to close in distance (at least not a better version than ghost wolf). In exchange they could hyperfocus on a target, could sometimes use a melee aoe and would receive meaningful bonuses after all those high-haste melee hits. Enhancement shamans have a huge amount of talent slots at the moment. In order to be symmetrical, keeping their talents at 46, too (each fully-invested build would have 5 talent points to spend elsewhere).
5 talent slot -> Giving 5 weapon skills for 2H weapons.
3 talent slot -> Giving them 3% melee hit chance.
5 talent slot -> Giving them 5% melee haste.
5 talent slot -> 5% melee crit chance.
5 talent slot -> 50% melee haste for 3 strikes after a melee crit.
1 talent slot -> Increasing strength of earth totems' stat boost by 20% (since totem swapping is not allowed here, enhancement shamans would focus on windfury totem as an air totem once they get it; this allows saving up a talent slot for other things).
1 talent slot -> Increases the damage of fire nova and magma totems by 15%.
5 talent slot -> Increased weapon damage by 10%.
1 talent slot -> Stormstrike (instead of the enemy debuff, giving you a buff).
1 talent slot -> Weapon enhancements (flametongue, frostbrand, windfury weapons).
1 talent slot -> Enhancement totems: introducing windfury totem and bloodlust totem (later).
3 talent slot -> Your melee crits reduce the CD on shocks by 3 sec.
3 talent slot -> Increases the hit chance of your shocks by 3% and reducing their CD by 1 sec (0,3 sec, 0,6 sec).
3 talent slot -> A shock crit reduces the CD on stormstrike by 6 sec.
3 talent slot -> Melee crits recharge 3% of your mana.
1 talent slot -> Giving you a whirlwind-like melee aoe. Mediocre damage and 1 min CD but allows charging weapon enhancement buffs.
Regarding the totems: windfury would be the same thing as we kno it. The totem would retain the added damage buff which enhancement shamans can currently pick in the current enhancement talent tree. Bloodlust totem is my idea of bloodlust. A fire totem with 5 min CD, giving 20% haste to melee hits for the party within 10 yards radius for 10 seconds. Would be stronger than the current iteration but would only work on melee and only for 10 seconds.
Regarding the weapon enhancements. After all, this kind of enhancement shaman revolves around them (and shock and melee haste). As written earlier, I imagine rockbiter as a plain attack damage buff without added threat, vilable to any build. The three others would be different though:
1. Flametongue weapon would give you a buff after each melee hit, being limited at 5 stacks. It would increase the spell damage of your next shock spell after each stack (in case of flame shock, the initial damage). Gets removed after casting a shock or after 30 seconds of not being used.
2. Windfury weapon would stack up to 3 buffs giving you 1% melee haste after each one. Gets removed after 5 seconds of you not melee hitting an opponent.
3. Frostbrand weapon would have 3 stacks. After hitting your enemy with ice, your environment seems to be much slower than you are. Each stack gives you 1% melee hit chance and gets removed after you're not melee hitting anything for 5 seconds.
This would feel a very interesting and strong build, while having many weaknesses. Part of the gameplay relies on critting with a shock which they have no talent for, and speccing into +spell crit makes them worse as a melee. They can become formidable in a PVE environment where nothing interrupts them from doing their internal circle of melee crit -> melee haste + mana + new shock then if shock crits a new stormstrike etc. However, a stun can take away most of their weapon enhancement buffs. Their only way to close a gap is wolf. Their way of finishing off a low-health opponent is good but nowhere as reliable as an execute. Their ranged utility (like stepping back and pressing a chain lightning or chain heal) is seriously reduced. If things get bad, getting away was further nerfed with the lower speed reduction of frost shock. I think this would be a very good melee utility class for raiding but would need some external support from teammates at PVP.
What I'd love about this iteration of enhancement shaman is that it would add complexity. Which weapon enhcant to use? Are the CDs reduced, can I cast x,y again? Should I use the wirlwind now for added weapon enhancement charges?
Restoration shaman
In my mind, restoration shamans are the wide-healers, struggling a bit with sustained single-target healing, specially at raids. In exchange, they bring great utility to the party. Here less revamp is needed since the build is totally viable. Giving my view on that, though, specially since in this 'universe' restoration shaman has lost windfury totem. Using 46 talents as always.
2 talent slot -> Reducing healing wave's cast time by 0,5 sec (0,2, 0,5 as per talent).
5 talent slot -> Reducing the mana cost of healing spells by 5%.
1 talent slot -> Chain heal.
5 talent slot -> Further reducing totem cost by 30%.
3 talent slot -> +25% armor for 15 sec on the target after a healing spell crit.
2 talent slot -> Reduces threat after healing spells by 15% (7%).
1 talent slot -> Disease and Poison cleansing totems.
2 talent slot -> Reduces spell interruption by 70% while casting a healing spell (priests have this talent for 2 points, shamans should, too).
1 talent slot -> Increased totem radius to 40 yards.
5 talent slot -> 5% crit effect on healing spells.
2 talent slot -> Healing wave AND lesser healing wave gets 6% stronger for 15 sec after each healing wave or lesser healing wave cast on the target. Stacks 3 times. Adding lesser healing wave here is a huge utility boost for raids. (50% chance to proc with 1 talent.)
1 talent slot -> Decreases reincarnation cooldown by 20 minutes (but does not give additional mana upon resurrection).
1 talent slot -> Nature's Swiftness.
5 talent slot -> +10% on the healing spells.
5 talent slot -> Increases the effect of mana spring totem by 50% and having healing stream totem heal the party equal to your healing power in the duration of 30 seconds, ticking every second.
3 talent slot -> A crit of your healing spell gives 10% haste for 5 seconds to the target. Not stackable.
1 talent slot -> Mana tide totem (with 3 min CD).
1 talent slot -> Healing rain (not fully the retail one).
Healing rain would be a channeled aoe heal with a 3 min CD with the below, added characteristics:
* X% of overhealed amount comes back to you as mana.
* It also serves as a weak aoe for enemies within the aoe.
All in all, restoration shaman would stay similar to the one we know today. It's main loss is it's limited effectiveness in melee groups and the loss of the 5% mana talent from the current enhancement tree. In exchange it got better mana management with totems, got some buffs for lesser healing waves in case a quick single target healing needs to happen, received a decent buff on the restorative totems and received a new ultimate which either heals a bunch or brings you back more mana than you initially had, while also helping in damage contribution. They could also give out mini-bloodlusts - unreliably.
Final words
Currently raids mostly look for restoration shamans, even putting them in melee groups for windfury. This theorycraft would change this, making all builds of shamans desirable under different party compositions. Your raid, instead of wanting 8 resto shamans in an ideal case, would want 3 enhancement shamans, 3 elemental shamans and 2 resto shamans.
Shaman theorycrafting
Re: Shaman theorycrafting
Nerfs, nerfs, nerfs and nerfs...
Chain heal only in resto tree?
We will see less healers while leveling, because it will be harder to heal in dps specs.
Disease and Poison cleansing totems only in resto tree?
Raid leaders will find you and punish for this.
Windfury totem only for enhancement?
Just run...
Chain heal only in resto tree?
We will see less healers while leveling, because it will be harder to heal in dps specs.
Disease and Poison cleansing totems only in resto tree?
Raid leaders will find you and punish for this.
Windfury totem only for enhancement?
Just run...
Re: Shaman theorycrafting
It's mostly buffs. Told in the beginning that they are some oppressive tools I lock behind talents.
For specifics:
1. Healing is harder as a DPS but I think it's okay. Dungeons can be healed through with lesser healing wave and healing wave if you wanna heal as a DPS. Questing and world-leveling not being rewarding as a healer or as a tank makes these builds rare during leveling. It is true but not the topic of this post.
2. Cleansing totems are locked but not cure disease and cure poison. DPS builds can cleanse but more slowly, if really needed (with the speed of an average priest which is not bad). People don't tend to realize how broken cleansing totems are.
3. Yes, locked up WF totem but with a reason. As a resto you don't benefit for it. In dungeons, your melee benefits from it and in raids, the same. For raids (in this setup) people could LF enhancement shaman for melee groups and for dungeons... Resto shamans received tools which they benefit from better like better mana management. No dungeon requires a windfury to be cleared. From a design pov I think it is bad that a healer spec can give out the biggest melee buff in the game (tied with the other shaman builds but they are rarely used at raiding at the moment).
For specifics:
1. Healing is harder as a DPS but I think it's okay. Dungeons can be healed through with lesser healing wave and healing wave if you wanna heal as a DPS. Questing and world-leveling not being rewarding as a healer or as a tank makes these builds rare during leveling. It is true but not the topic of this post.
2. Cleansing totems are locked but not cure disease and cure poison. DPS builds can cleanse but more slowly, if really needed (with the speed of an average priest which is not bad). People don't tend to realize how broken cleansing totems are.
3. Yes, locked up WF totem but with a reason. As a resto you don't benefit for it. In dungeons, your melee benefits from it and in raids, the same. For raids (in this setup) people could LF enhancement shaman for melee groups and for dungeons... Resto shamans received tools which they benefit from better like better mana management. No dungeon requires a windfury to be cleared. From a design pov I think it is bad that a healer spec can give out the biggest melee buff in the game (tied with the other shaman builds but they are rarely used at raiding at the moment).
Re: Shaman theorycrafting
Locking down the specs is not the way to go. Shamans are intended to be hybrids. It also goes against Turtle's spirit, since so far they have only opened up each class' trees, made previous talents baseline spells for all specs to enjoy and added new spells. Actually removing and locking things down goes against that.
There might be some good ideas in your post, but as a shaman, I'd feel those changes would limit the class too much and impact its gameplay negatively.
I understand your reasoning, the fact most raid resto shamans go full enhancement only because of Bloodlust is weird, but also kinda cool when you think about it - it showcases the hybrid-ness of the class. The way to go about fixing this isn't to lock down their core abilities behind talents in the resto tree. It's by giving them something new and more compelling in the resto tree that they would miss if they went the BL route.
-I agree the totem twisting is a menace that has to be removed. Forcing your shaman to do this just makes their life (and mana) miserable.
-The talents that specialize in certain totems like WF totem could be buffed further, while the baseline totem is nerfed, so specced totems are more viable, but please don't remove them from the baseline.
-Removing extra threat from earth shock and rockbiter is a big no-no. Tanking as a shaman is the most fun I've had on this server, please don't nerf it.
-As I said, removing chain heal and chain lightning from baseline would just make the class feel... less. Those are iconic spells that define it.
As a whole, too dramatic and fundamental changes. Changes need to be subtle and concrete and address a specific problem in a non-gamebreaking way without unintentionally affecting leveling, PvE, PvP and raid performance of any spec (even tanking). It all needs to be taken into account.
I do love your theorycrafting though. A lot of thought has been put into this :)
There might be some good ideas in your post, but as a shaman, I'd feel those changes would limit the class too much and impact its gameplay negatively.
I understand your reasoning, the fact most raid resto shamans go full enhancement only because of Bloodlust is weird, but also kinda cool when you think about it - it showcases the hybrid-ness of the class. The way to go about fixing this isn't to lock down their core abilities behind talents in the resto tree. It's by giving them something new and more compelling in the resto tree that they would miss if they went the BL route.
-I agree the totem twisting is a menace that has to be removed. Forcing your shaman to do this just makes their life (and mana) miserable.
-The talents that specialize in certain totems like WF totem could be buffed further, while the baseline totem is nerfed, so specced totems are more viable, but please don't remove them from the baseline.
-Removing extra threat from earth shock and rockbiter is a big no-no. Tanking as a shaman is the most fun I've had on this server, please don't nerf it.
-As I said, removing chain heal and chain lightning from baseline would just make the class feel... less. Those are iconic spells that define it.
As a whole, too dramatic and fundamental changes. Changes need to be subtle and concrete and address a specific problem in a non-gamebreaking way without unintentionally affecting leveling, PvE, PvP and raid performance of any spec (even tanking). It all needs to be taken into account.
I do love your theorycrafting though. A lot of thought has been put into this :)
Nydas - 60 High Elf Mage (Nordanaar)
Farren - 60 Tauren Shaman (Nordanaar)
Gothric - 23 Human Paladin (Nordanaar)
Markal - 58 Undead Priest (Tel'Abim)
Farren - 60 Tauren Shaman (Nordanaar)
Gothric - 23 Human Paladin (Nordanaar)
Markal - 58 Undead Priest (Tel'Abim)
Re: Shaman theorycrafting
Thx for the feedback!
I absolutely see your point. For TWOW I would never recommend these changes (stated in the article) but in an ideal state I would find this setup interesting.
My key idea is to keep class utility but restrict them:
* DPS shamans can offheal if needed but not with the best raid heal of the game.
* DPS shamans can cleanse if needed but not with the best cleanse tool in the game.
* Healers can add to melee damage (strength, grace of air) but not with the strongest melee buff in the game.
The things which keep the classes hybrid and utility based even in this scenario:
* Tremor for fear, charm and sleep
* Resistance totems
* Some other utility totems like grounding, windwall, stoneskin, earthbind, not upgraded mana and health totems
* Base poison and disease cleansing
* Base offheal (lesser healing wave, slow healing wave)
* Rez
* Interrupt
In my opinion, these classes would still count as a support build.
Comparing the above with base mage/warlock utility.
Mage:
* Food and drinks
* Decurse
* Portals
* Interrupt
* Arcane brilliance
* Poly
Warlock:
* Curses
* Stones
* Port
* Sometimes fear
* Imp buff if no demonic sacrifice happens
* Banish
Things get closer, specially to mage but the difference is not that big anymore.
I absolutely see your point. For TWOW I would never recommend these changes (stated in the article) but in an ideal state I would find this setup interesting.
My key idea is to keep class utility but restrict them:
* DPS shamans can offheal if needed but not with the best raid heal of the game.
* DPS shamans can cleanse if needed but not with the best cleanse tool in the game.
* Healers can add to melee damage (strength, grace of air) but not with the strongest melee buff in the game.
The things which keep the classes hybrid and utility based even in this scenario:
* Tremor for fear, charm and sleep
* Resistance totems
* Some other utility totems like grounding, windwall, stoneskin, earthbind, not upgraded mana and health totems
* Base poison and disease cleansing
* Base offheal (lesser healing wave, slow healing wave)
* Rez
* Interrupt
In my opinion, these classes would still count as a support build.
Comparing the above with base mage/warlock utility.
Mage:
* Food and drinks
* Decurse
* Portals
* Interrupt
* Arcane brilliance
* Poly
Warlock:
* Curses
* Stones
* Port
* Sometimes fear
* Imp buff if no demonic sacrifice happens
* Banish
Things get closer, specially to mage but the difference is not that big anymore.