I saw someone else mention this before. Its a good question though, when dod we bwvome more of an element conduit vs a tribal spiritual leader?
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We are both, my friend.
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They are both, because both tie into each other. An element, in the broad sense, is like an atom. It is a pure or singular form which, when combine with other elements, creates more complex and advanced forms. In the Warcraft universe, this is most readily apparent in the elements of earth/fire/air/water, which form the foundations for the material world.
But it’s also true that, for advanced forms like living beings, most of them are not composed directly and strictly of these elements. There are layers of Being, each more complex and intermixed than the last. For living things, they are in a very real sense composed of the (chronologically, at least) more fundamental forms of their parents, and their parents before them, and their parents before them. This is the basis of Shamanic ancestor worship. You are who you are because of the mixing of your parents first, and then back through the generations, and then back to the origins of life, and the origins of elemental matter.
It’s about tracing back an ever-widening spiral to its origin point, and through the understanding of that origin point, coming to a greater understanding of the broader pattern, how it all fits together, and where it is all headed.
That said, the Light is the only true path, and pagan rock-worshippers need to be converted for their own good.
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Used to be horde priests, but now they are just elemental warlocks.
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I’d say that there is a skewed idea if what a shaman is and what they do due to the rather poor representation the class’ gameplay provides. The game shows shaman machine gun casting a bunch of flashy effects and while they are capable of these things, they would be a lot less frequent and more powerful than they are in game. An example would be Drek’thar summoning a lightning bolt in WoD.
They base what we can do off of what Thrall used to do. He flew around throwing elemental devastation like candy at a parade. Thrall was supposed to be an exceptionally powerful shaman though. He was the World Shaman.
They’re a bit of both in the lore. Combat wise they lean heavily into the role of an elementalist w/ some spiritual fluff baked into their utility (ghost wolf, reincarnation, spiritwalker’s grace, etc)
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While I love shaman gameplay, im a little surprised we don’t see more “witch doctor” type stuff
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The way I’ve always understood it is that shaman are intermediaries, diplomats, fixers, and HR people between mortals and spirits. That can be between mortals and the spirits of their (or someone else’s) ancestors, animal spirits, or elemental spirits (like fire elementals, etc). You’ll note that when Thrall throws his mojo around, he usually calls on elemental spirits while doing so to lend their aid.
So it isn’t so much that shaman are elementalists, as it is that elemental spirits tend to be the most powerful and brute-force resource that a shaman has to work with, particularly in a combat situation.
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Maybe we’ll get an expac where druids are beefing with the shamans for having parties after eating some forbidden tree bark.
For now, spiders from outer space.
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They have a bit of both and more, Shamans are a bit of a hodgepodge of elemental conduits, spirit guides, spirit walkers, healers, voodoo practitioners, and war chiefs. I’d imagine it is because the word shaman is not super concrete and was/is applied to so many different types of people in different cultures and the shaman we get in WoW attempts to show off many of these at once.
In WoW exclusively they seem to choose a niche and stick with it, just like our specializations. Elementalists, Spirit Walkers, and Healers being the big three- with only trolls really practicing voodoo. We to see the same in Elemental, Enhancement (Spirits), and Healer/Guide in Restoration shaman. The only big disappointment for me is Resto being 95% about water, rather than taking a more spiritual route. Should’ve been a spirit-based guide with magic leaning into spiritual magic, animals, and visions like we see many NPC shamans do.
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The answer is yes.
Both!
We are also Witch Doctors
I think shaman ceased being the tribal elder archetype around Cataclysm