I know there have already been tons of posts on this, but I just wanted to write one anyway.
I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Shamans become a little more like paladins again in 10.0, by that I mean having a tank spec as well. We already use shields for 2 of our 3 specs, so it wouldn’t be too weird to have us tank.
The obvious element to focus on that spec is earth, which we already have plenty of abilities for, but could bring back rockbiter and possibly make some new abilities for the spec.
Earthquake could be weakened so that it isn’t using maelstrom, but could still serve as one of our area attacks to keep mobs on us.
I know we can use shields, but I’d personally prefer if we got a tank spec that uses a two-hander. Currently only Death Knight uses a 2h to tank with (bears and monks don’t count—neither one actually uses the weapon). It’d bring back an iconic look for us, be thematically awesome, and round out the class.
Added specs aren’t a thing. Neither are “class skins”. While it’s a fun thought experiment, if you actually expect anything out of it, you’re a problem. Some people get ideas that they are real in their head and then when it doesn’t happen they throw a fit.
People are going to 100% throw a fit when blizzard introduces very limited cross-faction interaction as many are, for some reason, thinking that factions are going away or will be greatly diminished in 10.0.
As far as Shaman tanks go, I would say no, as if they don’t add a spec they would likely axe Enh, which is a more likely scenario if they were to do it.
I don’t take myself that seriously, but I highly doubt they’ll ever axe enhancement. However, to say a spec will never be added just because it hasn’t been before doesn’t mean they never will. Just throwing out some ideas for 10.0.
Are you saying that people who want anything to be different in this game then they currently are, are a problem? I’m really not following your logic on that one.
I was just pointing out that there are a lot of people who take their opinions too far. Yes tank shaman could be a cool/fun addition, but there will be people who would take it personally if it doesn’t happen.
Hope can turn to expectation and if those expectations aren’t met, they get angry.
I’d love a monk ranged dps spec but I’m doubting it will ever happen. I bring this up here because there have been a lot of threads like this asking/suggesting shaman tanks, and if the people making these posts see more posts saying the same thing they get the idea that everyone must agree with them so blizzard should/must do it. Then blizzard doesn’t.
Worst case scenario, Blizzard does acknowledge this desire and scraps/reworks enh into a tank spec and people who do play enh are screwed. See survival hunter.
Something interesting about this whole debacle is that there are shamans who actually want to tank as shamans. We know that it can work. It’s honestly kind of what Thrall is.
So many players hate playing as tanks, but here is a part of the community that actually wants to as their class! Cuz they think it would be fun and round out the class that they love playing as.
Who knows if they’ll ever add it, but if they do, I know what spec I’m playing.
So I think this could be fun. Make us either a dw tank or a shield tank. Have us use windfury or give us a weapon and shield imbue something that increases our threat gen would be nice. make our ar giving abilities pull rocks from the ground to become like a 2nd skin so we use rocks for armor and wind to push magic spells away so wind for mr. Or give us a 2h tank and give use a imbue that does both threat gen and give resistances.
Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean they can’t add them in the future, also druid was a 3 spec class and they gave them a fourth spec. So to say they didn’t add specs is false, they literally gave them another spec.
People also said Demon Hunters would never get added to the game because they had too many similar abilities to Warlocks, now look what happened? Also Demon Hunters didn’t have 3 specs, they had 2 which is against the norm.
See what I’m getting at? Things can change.
I’m totally for a shaman tank spec, I only play shaman and if that gives me the ability to do some tanking again I’d love it.
Personally, I think a Shaman tank would be better off using a shield since our class is able to use one. We are the only shield-wearing class that does not have a tank spec. It makes sense for the other tank classes who wield two-handed weapons to use them as they don’t have a shield (and yes, neither Druid nor Monk actively use their weapons to tank). While I understand the dream of being a Shaman who uses a 2-handed weapon, if it was given to a potential Shaman tank spec, the Enhancement players who want 2-handed Windfury would be furious.
looks at Guardian Druid
Other people have already responded to this, so I will just reiterate. Added specs are a thing, though it has only happened once and that was because Feral Druids had the potential to improve their bear tanking potential or cat damage potential depending on how they spent their talent points. Enhancement was once in the same boat. We had talents that would either improve our damage or defensive potential. The difference is that Blizzard fostered druid tanking and gave it its own spec, while Shaman tanking was phased out.
If the people who have been asking for a Shaman tank spec for the last 10+ years aren’t angry right now, they probably won’t be getting angry. And if they do, that’s on them.
The difference is that Feral could actually tank(eventually) and were intended to. They had two complete playstyles in the same tree. Shaman never had that. They had defensive talents, but so did every talent tree.
Feral and Enhancement were never the same. Maybe they were intended to be at some point in early class development for vanilla, but that never made it into the game.
Regardless, none of that is any reason why they couldn’t add a shaman tank spec in 10.0. There’s really no reason shaman can’t tank other than Blizzard hasn’t given them a tank spec. Blizzard adds/changes/redesigns classes and specs quite often, it would be really cool if they would hook shaman up in 10.0 with a 4th spec.
Shaman could actually tank too. There is quite a few that were/are actively tanking in Classic. In fact, Shaman were also initially intended to tank as well. In a Shaman Class QA about 12 years ago (mid-WotLK), former Lead Systems Designer “Ghostcrawler” said that “There was a potential tanking role for shamans as well, but we have pretty much phased that out.” This goes back to what I said the difference between Shaman tanking and Druid tanking was: Druid tanking was fostered to give more of what it needed to be a competitive tank, while Shaman tanking was phased out. Just as you said that Feral could actually tank (eventually). Both Shaman and Druid had the ability to tank in some capacity. Were they optimal? No, Warrior tanks were the best. But were they viable? Yes, they could easily tank dungeons and even raids with the right setup to help enable them to do so. Hell, even Paladins, the once alliance-only counterpart to Shaman, were in the same boat where they didn’t have a taunt. They were more defensive, yes, but had far less threat generation. The original three hybrid classes all could tank, but none of them were great at it.
But regardless of the past, there are three plate tanks in the game, and three leather tanks even though leather is a weaker armor type than mail and none of the leather classes can equip a shield. So why not let Shaman have a tank spec? As it was pointed out, a fourth spec focused on earth would round out the four elements that our class uses. Shaman tank spec just makes sense.
I like how after every class change, like what Lava Lash change did, there’s suddenly a spew of threads on the class forum about “what else needs changed”. And then Blizzard goes dead silent about it for about two years.
Said this during SL alpha, Shaman needs Rockbiter Weapon brought back as a damage reduction Enhancement, and Earthliving as a self-healing Enhancement. If a tank spec is added for Shaman, the emphasis should be on Ice and Earth for defensive power, and Fire and Wind for threat and utility.
Truthfully, the only change needed is WoW2.
But Activision will beat this dead horse as long as it keeps spitting out money.
I have always imagined the Shaman tank spec being a geomancer or Earth Warden.
A hybrid class that can switch between tank and dps by infusing himself with the elements.
Obviously earth for Tanking, and Fire for DPS, you could even add Water in there to heal yourself while the other tank has aggro.
Earth would act as a shield, and increase the threat generation of your weapons and skills, would also apply a natural absorb for 100% of your health essentially doubling your health, and would need to be reapplied when it is off of cooldown.
Fire would increase the damage of your weapons and would apply damage to anything that hits you.
Water would heal you for every hit on an enemy, and allow you faster swimming and water breathing.