I’ve been an enhancement shaman for years now, and though I think the spec is fun to play in its current iteration, I have a few ideas that I’d love to get others opinions on.
Element Balance
Shamans specs are currently largely split by primary element usage (i.e. fire for elemental, water for restoration, air for enhance, earth for unnamed tank spec yet to be introduced…here’s to wishful thinking) which is fine, but I’d love to see more incorporation of all elements into the spec to feel more of a master of all. Specifically the use of water (Frost shock and ice strike when talented) and earth (sundering and earthen spike, both when talented) feel a bit lacking.
Now before I go into detail here, let me acknowledge that there would be some level of ability bloat to have each element represented more fully in the spec. I understand that and do have a potential solution below. Also, I know the spec isn’t in a terrible place at the moment, so an over haul might not be warranted. I’m purely speaking from a creative/thematic look at the spec.
For earth element, sundering and earthen spike both being talents leaves Enhancement without an offensive earth themed ability. You can argue Earth elemental is there, but with a 5 minute cd and not much interaction with the rest of our abilities, it doesn’t add much to our rotation/spec. I would ague that one of those abilities should be moved to baseline or the return of either rockbiter or boulderfist. I know not everyone is a fan of one or both of these, hang tight a bit longer.
For the water element, ice strike has a similar issue of being talented. Frost shock is interesting though in that it does provide exposure to the element in our rotation (albeit low priority outside of the Hailstorm talent) . My main gripe with frost shock would be visually it does nothing for the spec and pressing it never really feels amazing.
Now how would we add abilities when we are already mostly GCD limited spec. Adding in more things to push would likely feel clunky in the current state of the spec I agree. Enhancement has already begun implementing the solution with fire/wind and that’s the introduction of micro burst rotations. Running a doom winds build for example introduces a burst window designed around our wind element. Similarly, Hot Hands introduces a micro burst window designed around our fire element. Similar events could be added for water/earth where abilities become priority during those micro burst windows and largely useless outside of it. This in effect creates a system sort of like a Balance druid, where when you are in a fire window, you use fire abilities, when you are in an air window, you use air themed abilities etc.
Now there are some big issues with this system, one we don’t want to be balance druids and also how do we prioritize when all 4 burst windows are active or available. Do we control entering a window? How do we balance all 4 so that you don’t just skip over an element entirely if it is underperforming. Lots to think about here, but this would open the door for lots of unique interactions and character customization.
One unique idea this opens up is modifying each window to specialize in a specific situation. Doom winds is largely AOE focused where Hot Hands is single target. We could expand to funnel and or cleave situation with other elements. I know rockbiter in the past could be used to gain threat, even though enhance isn’t a tank spec could it effectively function as one for say 15 secs if needed. Could maelstrom make a return during the earth window for a more builder/spender burst. For water/ice, maybe freeze the shaman in place for the duration of the cd or transition the spec purely into ranged abilities for 10 seconds (a literal glass cannon). It opens up a ton of thematic changes to the spec that would make you feel more of a master of elements.
Having so many different short burst windows would engage the user a bit more in thinking what element am I in now, which element should I use/will I be in next. How do I maximize my element rotation so that I’m in aoe when needed. The ceiling becomes much higher for players who know how to rotate their elements accordingly. Instead of one burst window every minute with Doom Winds, now you have 4 or more burst windows per minute that you have to optimize. You also remove the 45 seconds outside of Doom Winds that feels lackluster to play.
Totems
The other major gripe I have is the loss of totems, fire totems specifically. As a major point of the shaman fantasy, reintroducing fire totems would be a welcome addition. A few ideas I have around these.
Searing totem was a bit awkward being a stationary item that took up a GCD to use and spitting out fairly low numbers. The stacking effect it had at one point to buff LL made it worth it to use, but it was clunky when changing targets. Now the obvious feedback most would have “make it hit harder” or “ability to transfer stacks” is an ok step, but doesn’t address how well it would feel to press. Instead I would propose the following:
Searing Totem becomes a passive. Whenever an enemy is hit with LL while being afflicted with Flame shock, the Flame shock is consumed and a Searing totem is dropped. This in effect saves a GCD and doesn’t change our priority at all compared to what is already live and working. The totem behaves similar to a dot at that point (though ranged and stationary). Buff it’s damage from a normal flame shock (essentially Lashing Flames talent) and also allow the shaman to interact with it. This could be done in a number of ways, but ideas off the top of my head would be allowing crash lightning to hit the totem which causes a Fire Nova to erupt out of the totem. Or allow the shaman to improve the searing totem to a magma totem which streams damage to all afflicted with Flame shock. Put an effect on the totem if it’s destroyed it erupts for its full damage it would have done immediately to all around it. There are possibilities here.
This also could serve as the micro burst window start as mentioned above if it were made to be more of a single target window. The totem could grow in strength with every Lava Lash during that window, storing a percent of damage to be dished out over a period of time after the window. Entering the “fire window” could be as simple as Lava Lashing a Flame Shocked enemy. Again the point is that there are possibilities to incorporate it where it doesn’t just feel like a stationary object that consumes a GCD. We’re not just buffing the damage of the old searing totem, but making it function within the current iteration of enhance.
Wrapping Up
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! This is all theoretical changes of course, but I’m curious for others ideas around improving the spec as well.