After finally levelling my first shaman to 120, I really like the class thematically and I can’t believe that I went this many years before playing one. However, just as I am with my hunter, I am usually seeing things that could be added or altered about the class in order to bring it more flavor. Not necessarily more utility or anything like that, but just fantasy-type things.
One of those things that has been on my mind for many weeks now is how limited “pet” selection is for many classes other than hunter. Pet is in quotes there because shamans don’t have pets in the traditional sense, in the way that hunters do - and that’s not what I’m arguing here. Although, I guess, under some circumstances mostly relating to RP, it would make sense for a Shaman to have a elemental pet in that way.
Now, I know I’m a new Shaman and all of that jazz, but Shaman’s Earth Elemental and Fire Elemental used to be totems. You would drop the totem down, and the totem would summon the elemental. I think taking that out was a loss of class flavor, and is yet another unfortunate bystander to Blizzard’s nearly-indiscriminate war against class flavor. I’m a Hunter main so my feelings in regards to this trend are very bitter, but suffice to say I’m not surprised by this change in the slightest. However, it does seem like they have finally learned their lesson and are re-introducing things in Shadowlands. With that being said, I know this probably won’t be seen by any devs, but it’s still fun to speculate and throw your ideas out there for what you’d like to see in the class.
But let me get down to it.
Shamans could be given a new ability called something like “Summon blank totem” and it’s just a standard no-nothing totem that gets placed on the ground.
This totem could then be used to “bind” an elemental of the Shaman’s choosing to it.
(((Interesting side note on the language of “binding” - while thematically used and alluded to in many classes, it has unique fantasy connotations to it. Visually, in Night Elf areas it is not uncommon to see trees with massive ropes tied around them - this is an example of binding, but I’m unfamiliar with the lore behind it or if any lore even exists to explain it in that regard. I imagine it has something to do with the wisps that guard the trees. It was inspired by, I believe, the Japanese folk tradition of the same thing. Additionally, other cultures use binding as well - some South American Andean cultures created Khipu ropes (or Quipu) as their language and mathmatical system using knots and differing lengths of rope. Rope imagery and things of that nature can also be seen in various places in Pandaria, which might have been influenced by the previously mentioned items and other various Asian cultures. At any rate, the rope is very important and has unique fantasy connotations to it.)))
In regards to Shaman, I don’t think it’s out of the way to say that Shamans have much to do with the balancing and harnessing of the chaotic elements, and the “Summon Elemental” spells used to reflect this through their totemic adherence. The Shaman uses totems to accomplish this, and so I think it’s pretty clear that the totems are the “rope” that “binds” the elements to the Shaman’s will.
Now, as it is currently, the Shaman only has access to a few manifestations of the elements through his summon elemental abilities, and yet many exist. Why would it be the same elemental to every shaman? I know a few glyphs exist, but those are still very limited. Why not adopt a system that could be used to provide shamans of all races/backgrounds the ability to summon the elemental which best fits them? There’s probably dozens of visually different elementals found throughout the game.
This blank totem, once summoned, by some mechanic (either casted by the player or occurring automatically), would begin to latch onto the nearest elemental to begin the binding process. It would be something like 10 seconds or so, similar to Tame Beast. Then, once the binding process is complete, the totem takes on the color of the elemental which was tamed and it is renamed to something like “Summon (insert elemental name) Totem” If you bind one of those purple cataclysm fire elementals, the totem will look purply, for example.
Would this replace or exist alongside the current summon elemental abilities? It wouldn’t make sense to have your summon fire elemental ability and a totem bound to another fire elemental, for instance. In order to fix this, there could be two blank totem spells - Summon blank fire totem and Summon blank earth totem. Each blank totem will only bind to it’s appropriate elemental type. This would give the Shaman the ability to choose their Fire and Earth elementals that they call out.
Cooldowns and elemental abilities and damage all stay the same as how it is now. Only the appearance changes. The Summon Earth Elemental will still be 5 minute CD, for example, and it will still taunt and act as a mini-tank for the Shaman. Same for the Fire elemental.
Alright, that’s it. Just wanted to throw this out there. Thanks for reading.
Edit grammar, missing words.