The spec I’ve spitballed on the forums before is a MH/shield tank that uses Earth themed spells to heal and provide shields (absorbs/damage mitigation/armor) for the character.
Using some of the classic spells that Shaman get and have gotten you can get a Taunt (earthbite’s unleash elements from Cata), have a remote tank totem like a Monk’s Ox statue if you allow Earth Elemental to work in tank spec, have Earth Shield operate as an Armor buff that the tank needs to maintain and can add/consume while tanking, have Malestrom as the builder/spender for the spec to activate abilities like DKs do, and you can steal some of the Warrior/Enh abilities for movement as needed.
In all there are tools and flavors that the spec can use, it’s just up to the class design team to make happen.
The two-handed Enh style that you mentioned is a bit out of flavor for what I would want in the Earthwarden spec.
Obligatory statement: WE WANT A NEW SPEC, NOT REWORK OF ENHANCE. Now that that’s out of the way…
As much as I think the 2-H tank spec could be cool, I’d agree that sword and board would just feel like the better set-up. Let Enhance have the fun weapons and maybe one day get their 2h play style back.
On the topic of actual spells and class design: For our active mitigation I see an elemental version of Ironfur basically. “Earthen Ward: Increases armor by X for X seconds. Costs 40 MS”
For movement, I can’t tell you how much I wanna see my shaman do a Earth-bender like rock slide. I figure it can function similarly to a Monks roll, but the Shaman would either A) Pull the earth up and slide forward or B) The Shaman goes into the earth Drog’bar style and shoots forward. Either of these options would be beautiful and provide a perfect mobility spell for our beloved tank spec
Yeah, I 100% agree. Do NOT make Enhancement a tank spec and lose damage capabilities. I think there’s an arguement for a 4th spec to mirror our 4th element. I can think of many interesting ways that Shamans could tank but s&b is already in place so I’ll take it.
Earth bending is one of my favorites! I think it would be sweet to see that move where they stomp the ground and then punch the boulder lol
Yeah, this is the first time I’ve played shaman all these years. It feels like the class is a bit off with no tank spec. Idk the shaman class just feels like it could tank, can almost see the earth elemental defense abilities going off now. So I also support a 4th spec: shaman tank
One major concern thats slightly voiced here hut in Bofur’s other posts as well is the “1 element per spec” kinda thing, and I fully understand that side and agree more or less. There’s no reason for each spec to have a limit to what element they use. Now, each one may have a more prevalent theme, but that’s all it would and should be.
An “Earth Warden” isn’t a Shaman that would only use Earth type spells. They might use a Frost ability to slow the attack speed of their enemy. They may use water the rejuvenate themselves in combat. They may spew lava or send out bolts of lighting to cause damage to everything around them. And then they might reinforce their armor with rock.
They would use everything. Someone in one forum mentioned and Earth-based shaman would mean Enhance being more wind based which would then be too much like a windwalker monk. There’s nothing that would mean enhance would have to give up any of it’s more earthen based spells at all.
Enhance and resto have more natural themes of air and water, but that doesn’t mean there’s limits to what they can do. Elemental though has just been built and flavored towards someone that uses everything and so its the only one that has upheld that sorta feel.
The specs don’t need to be earth OR water OR fire OR air. Each spec MAY have a theme or a more prevalent element over the others, but a Shaman should still take from all elements and use them regardless of their roll, and one spec would not have to give up a spell so that another could use it.
Couldn’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t like the name. I love how all shaman specs have all elements baked into their abilities, even if there’s a clear dominance of one element above the others in each case. That being said, I love the idea of a tank spec and I’d love to see it use all elements, with a dominance of earth. Perhaps another name would fit better since just removing “Earth” from this one would be misleading. Maybe Bulwark?
Before they even look at doing this they need to fix us first. Enhancement is a joke, elemental is more respectable but still feels lack luster and rest is well resto. I love my shaman ever since vanilla when in a bg I 1 shot a dwarf pala with a 2h axe and windfury. Before we could even trust blizz to add a 4th spec they have to fix what we already have.
Just wanna voice my support for this idea. I can’t tell you (Blizzard) how popular and we’ll-received this would be. I’ve heard in multiple “leaks” that earth warden was to be a thing.
I hope that’s true, I would be ecstatic to play a defense-based shaman, and finally a mail tank.
Still can’t say I want to lose enhance, elemental, or resto to have this happen.
And there is a 0% chance they will add a 4th spec. A 4th spec has never been added out of the blue to any class. Druids had 2 existing specs split up. But whenever any class gets a new spec, something gets replaced. Look at rogue or hunter.
I literally only logged onto these forums today because someone told me yesterday that Shaman tanks were confirmed for next xpac and I wanted to see for myself. I would LOVE to be able to tank as a Shaman. I pretty much exclusively tank nowadays due to guild demand which means I never get to play my Shaman anymore. Please let this be true Blizz!
