Hi all,
I’ve seen a few posts asking for Shaman tanking, and I agree that enhancement is fairly boring, so it really got me thinking. I wanted to take a stab at what this class role could look like. Please forgive me if this has been done before, I didn’t immediately see it. Ok, here we go!
Intro:
To fill the elementalist fantasy, it makes sense that Enh tanks would call on the powers of earth, fire, water, and wind to protect themselves and their allies.
Over the past few days I’ve gone down a few variants of what I think this cold look like, but ultimately found it really interesting to be able to mix elements to counter unique situations. Here’s how I think these abilities could work.
Abilities:
Much like a Death Knight, Enh shamans could have “runes” (or whatever nomenclature we would assign) that they spend to trigger elemental effects. These runes would of course be earth, fire, water, and wind. Runes are instant cast and have a set recharge time, with 2 charges each.
EARTH RUNE:
The shaman calls upon the ground beneath them to form stone armor around their body. Reduces physical damage taken by 30% or until the shield has absorbed x damage. Makes the shaman immune to knock back effects. While stone armor is active, the shaman moves 15% slower.
FIRE RUNE:
The shaman sparks the latent energies around them to create a barrier of fire that incinerates incoming harmful spells. Reduces magical damage taken by 30% or until the shield has absorbed x damage.
WATER RUNE:
The shaman surrounds themselves with cleansing water, increasing the effectiveness of incoming beneficial spells for 10 seconds. While the waters are active, incoming heals restore 30% more health and have a 10% increased chance to critically heal.
WIND RUNE:
The shaman attunes to the winds around them, increasing their haste by 30%.
COMBINING RUNES
Okay, here’s where I think this could be really interesting, and a very unique play style. You can use multiple runes together to trigger different effects, depending on the situation.
EARTH RUNE + FIRE RUNE
Triggering a fire rune while stone armor is active (or the inverse) causes the rocks to become molten. The shaman loses the physical damage reduction of stone armor, but all physical attacks are imbued with a x fire damage. While molten armor is active, the shaman takes x fire damage each second and enemies who attack the shaman in melee take x fire damage.
Note on molten armor: The decision to trigger molten armor is one the tank makes to favor damage output at the cost of defense. This could be useful in situations where mitigation isn’t an issue, but poor uses could result in death.
EARTH RUNE + WATER RUNE
Triggering a water rune while stone armor is active (or the inverse) causes the stone armor to form into clay, creating an animated copy of the shaman with 50% health and damage that taunts random enemies.
Note on clay copy: Animating a minion can be strategically used to have your copy take a big hit from a boss, or relieve some pressure on you while tanking dungeons. If tuned properly, it could be an impactful, but strategic, tool. Remember, it technically consumes 2 charges, 1 earth and 1 water. If timed improperly, it leaves the shaman unprotected, especially if other runes are on CD.
EARTH RUNE + WIND RUNE
Triggering a wind rune while stone armor is active (or the inverse) causes the rock to detonate outward in shards of shrapnel, causing nature damage and knocking back enemies who are close by.
FIRE RUNE + WATER RUNE
Triggering a water rune while barrier of fire is active (or the inverse) causes the fire to quell and creates a thick cloud of steam around the shaman. Enemies inside of the steam have their casting time increased by 30%
FIRE RUNE + WIND RUNE
Triggering a wind rune while barrier of fire is active (or the inverse) creates a whirlwind of fire, pulling in nearby enemies to the shaman’s position.
Note on flame pull: I imagine this to be something similar to a Death Knight’s mass grip, or a Demon Hunter’s sigil.
WATER RUNE + WIND RUNE
Triggering a wind rune while cleansing waters is active causes the waters to spread to nearby allies, enveloping them in the waters and increases the effectiveness of incoming beneficial spells on them for 10 seconds. While the waters are active, incoming heals restore 30% more health and have a 10% increased chance to critically heal.
TALENTS
Talents could be a unique way to change the mechanics of your elemental runes, depending on your gameplay and your encounter. For example:
Molten Attunement: Creating molten armor by combining a fire and earth rune no longer causes you to suffer period fire damage, and triggering a fire rune during an active stone armor has a 30% change to refund an earth rune.
Purged by Fire: Creating molten armor by combining a fire and earth rune purges bleeds and poisons afflicting the shaman.
Lightweight Stone: Stone armor no longer reduces your movement speed but no longer makes you immune to knock back effects.
Backwinds: Activating a wind rune also increases your movement speed by 15% and instantly recharges another rune currently on cooldown.
These are just some ideas I’ve been toying around with. Would love to hear your thoughts on how this might work, or could never work. I might add more as I think of it.
Thanks everyone!