Shaman lore have always focused on elemental spirits—primordial beings of fire, water, earth, and air. Mystics sought communion with the earth, air, fire, and water, and learned to tap into their raw power. In time, these spiritual guides came to understand that nature’s elemental forces aren’t wholly benevolent, but have, in fact, been locked in an unending conflict of chaos and primal fury that once consumed the physical realm. So began the calling of the Shaman, to bring balance to these volatile energies.
So Farseer should have tried something like this. Instead of Ancestors it should have been Spirits. And they should last 10 seconds instead of 6. These Elements should be based on the spec.
Elemental would have Lightning Elemental that would produce a Lightning Storm above the targets location and would channel this storming for 10 seconds. You could have it be a certain damage amount that is split by the mobs within it. And it would have a chance to stun targets within it for 2 seconds. This would make it so its awesome in aoe and single target.
Enhancement would have Magma Elemental that would pull lava up and create a lava pool under the primal target. This could also increase damage the target takes by 2% from all sources and the damage would be split by the amount of targets in the pool. Again this would make it so its awesome in aoe and single target.
Resto would have a Mana Elemental that would create a mana pool under the target and would resto resources (mana/energy/rage) and also provide cooldown reduction by say 2% per second for those who stand within it for 10 seconds.
This would also provide a position where having more than one shaman would be a waste and add some eye candy as well as less button bloat
Well, in wow shaman have always communed with the elemental spirits, but shaman in general are literally guides for their peoples and speak with ancestors and spirits using rituals of some kind. Farseer totally fits and I’m very glad that we get at least some return to the roots of what a shaman is and not just more elementalist design. My issue with Farseer is that it should have been called Spiritwalker.
Ancestral spirits have always been a core part of Horde shamanism at the very least. Which is where Farseer comes from. Blizzard just hasn’t really focused on that part of shamanism at all recently.
I think Draenei and dwarf shamans are the only ones that learned shamanism as purely about elements. Nobundo from wind spirits and Magni from earth spirits.
Everyone else has some kind of ancestral spirit lore behind them. Even Kul Tirans.
The fact that so many people keep popping up going “What the heck do shaman have to do with ancestors???” is exactly why I’m so glad Farseer chose them as its theme, and would be immensely disappointed if they got changed to elementals.
Ancestors were a core part of the shaman identity from their inception, but were largely lost when Legion butchered every class in the game’s lore in order to shove them into tiny one-class-hall-fits-all packages.
Draenei have a long history of communing with our ancestors through Auchindoun on Draenor. Yes, that was mostly priests, but it very much fits the shaman. I have no problem with the ancestral spirits. They’re also part of shaman class lore.
