At the level 25 cap, Shaman is considered the best overall tank in Phase 1. Good sustain, good single target threat, good aoe threat, the usual Shaman utility.
People are even Dual Wield tanking now with raid gear and the ST threat there is absolutely uncontested. It doesn’t matter how much DPS is pumping no one can rip aggro off a DW Shaman tank with Double Rockbiter Weapon enchanted. They don’t even need to press anything they’ll hold aggro with pure auto attacks.
My sincere hope is that SoD is just a test ground for Retail. And I hope that seeing a Shaman tank spec work just fine (And it is fairly popular) will encourage this to actually happen one day. Not holding my breath for The War Within launch, but with no new classes/specs currently set (Just a new race), maybe there is hope for a new spec or two during that expansion.
I mean we are getting Earthen Dwarf as a new race…Introducing an Earth based tank might be cool…
been absent for awhile (real life) man didn’t expect this to blow up as much as it did. Nice to see they are playing around with it in SoD. Hopefully it’ll come in the war within at some point!
Go look at the Druid class tree and tell me 4 specs sharing a tree is a good idea.
bump i still want this!
Well, it’s still in the realm of possibility for this expansion. I might be drinking way too much copium but consider these things:
Just because they didn’t announce Shaman Tanks in the direct doesn’t mean we won’t get them - they didn’t announce a legendary and it’s REALLY hard to believe that we won’t be getting one of those in Season 2.
It COULD be that they decided to not reveal a legendary because it’s tailored to Shaman Tanks - Blizz would likely do this because they’d want players to play the new spec.
The direct showed things that they’ve put in the game dating back to Vanilla - why did they needlessly put a Shaman at the very end?
They datamined that Thrall Murloc that shows off Shaman abilities but it’s not in the game yet. Wouldn’t you think that they’d release it at the same time as the Shaman Tank spec?
Why did Thrall change from his cloth garb to his “plate” armor for this expansion?
We still haven’t received the significant Shaman changes that Blizz mentioned way back when… One of the changes that we know we’ll be receiving is DRE proccing based on maelstrom spent instead of chance on spender. Blizz did state that they’re pretty happy with how the current Shaman trees look at the moment - why, unless they’re planning a 4th spec?
According to the roadmap, there will be “System Changes” right before Season 3 - maybe this is when they’ll put it in?
There continues to be countless things, narratively, that make Shaman Tanks fit perfectly into this expansion - wouldn’t you think that Blizz would take advantage of this to include one of the longest-requested things in all of WoW’s history?
I think you’re shrimply getting your hopes up friend.
You’re probably right. But, it’ll continue to be the thing I’ve wanted most in this game since the very beginning.
I mean SoD is there for you mate. Frankly with way trees are now sticking a new tank into an existing tank is more work than its worth given they’re still reworking shaman over and over again.
I’ve had a ton of fun on SoD and it certainly has been a dream come true. But, regarding retail talent trees though, I’d bet that if there were a tank spec then it would fit between Resto and Ele and they’d rework the Farseer tree - it’s pretty bland imo and doesn’t really seem to have a lot going for it… at least on the Elemental side. Furthermore, I’d also bet that they’d make the tank spec an Intellect tank as the crafted shields in the game are only for Str or Int and why would they make a third Str/Shield tank? The SoD Shaman Tank builds are mostly leaning into Spell Power builds instead of Attack Power builds… coincidence? Idk, all I can do is hope and wait and there’s no harm in that.