Hey fellas.
I’m stopping by to make a few final requests that I personally feel we all really want. What I mean by, "We all really want", is that these are key functional abilities or passives that are Necessary for us to be competitive and successful. And a few things s e r i o u s l y need to be reworked.
1. Level 40 Talent Row Rework
- Nature’s Guardian | Ancestral Guidance |Wind Rush Totem
Currently Natures Guardian is a mandatory Talent and is taken in every situation. It dominates the talent row and is frustrating to know that Stampeding roar is baseline but our Wind Rush Totem competes with our key defensive ability. Secondly, Ancestral Guidance needs to be baseline OR extremely buffed to be taken for any situation. I haven’t seen that ability be used in the last 4 expansions because it simply is not competitive. Especially since it only affects 3 nearby players.
2. Level 30 Talent Row Rework
- Spirit Wolf | Earth Shield | Static Charge
-The issue here is that there is no good option. Straight up, these options are so suboptimal and awful that I genuinely feel someone isn’t giving our developers the time to test their talents in action. First off, Spirit Wolf… Spirit Wolf requires 4 seconds of staying in ghost wolf to get its full affect. Never in any competitive content are you staying in ghost wolf that long, and if you are, you’re wasting SO Much time. Whether in PvE the time wasted DPS (Where mages can blink to their location instantly, warlocks can port or gate, balance druids have tiger dash or feral charge disengage or fly to ally, hunters can move and cast. HECK Druids can move and cast almost permanently with the new starfall change. Excuse my tangent. I’m just so frustrated with this talent. It’s a literal slap in the face to shamans to get a full affect of this movement ability after 4 seconds.
-Secondly, Earth Shield. Bruh. takes a long, slow heavy breath. This version of earth shield is only good on Restoration.
In PvP - Earth shield is taking up a global cooldown, and does not add any benefit. You’ll get hit for 1k, and heal for 100. Nice! Wait. No. Not nice. It translates into a pseudo 10% dmg reduction every few seconds for a few hits. That’s not going to keep you alive in a PvP situation, and if your ally is getting focused by your enemy, you typically don’t have time to spend the global on earth shield just for the 10% extra healing to then spam at MAX 4 healing surges that heal for absolutely nothing.
In PvE - If you take Earth Shield in PvE it’s the biggest waste of a talent out of the entire tree. You shouldn’t be getting hit, and if you do, 10% of the hit being reduced isn’t going to do anything for you. The 10% bonus healing is only useful if you’re healing yourself, and doesn’t work like the Feral Druid passive in the old day that increased their healing received by all sources, which Earth Shield should if its going to be competitive in any Raid/Mythic+ Scenario.
Lastly, Static Charge. Dude, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Lol. Just…really? “reducing 5 seconds for every enemy hit up to 20 seconds” making it a 40 second cool down at best. Guess what?!?!? Another talent that is only useful based on a super specific condition. So Spirit Wolf only useful when moving for 4 or more seconds, right? So now, Static Charge only getting the full benefit when having 4 enemies? Why are these talents only getting full use at VERY SPECIFIC moments?
-In PvP - You’re never going to be stunning more then 3 people in arena and if you do, that’s a rare and hype moment. You’re not going to be using it in RBGs either, since there are rare “mid fights” where everyone is stacked and makes you want to use cap totem every 40 seconds.
-In PvE- If you’re considering taking this for PvE, you’re probably only doing so for Mythic Plus, because that’s the absolute only place it would ever get its use. Never in Raids, you’re not stunning groups of adds every 40 seconds and you’ve got 20 other people with better stuns than you. And in Mythic plus sometimes you can’t mount up in areas so you need movement speed. Spirit wolf gives the movement bonus so you end up taking that over Static Charge.
This whole row is so bad that I sometimes question why I even play the shaman…
Extra Goodies
- Gust of Wind
- Lightning Bolt Animation to the 7.3 version or better
- Ascendance Baseline
- Ascendance reskinned
- Extra defensive not in the form of a 5 minute CD Earth elemental covenant conduit
- Stormkeeper baseline or taken away from competing with anything because it’s too strong for it to NOT be taken.
- Water walking castable while mounted
- Earthen Rage passive baseline again. (You wouldn’t make Spriest Auspicious spirits a talent for them to be able to have those, so why would you make our spiky boys a talent. They’re cool and fun, just like the spirits)
- Echo of the Elements Baseline
- More Totem engagement or usefulness
- Straight up more totems
- If we’re not going to be topping meters, give us auras, raid wide buffs, or reasons to bring us. For instance, Restoration Shamans are known for their Spirit Link Totem. It would be awesome to be given an amazing totem specific to Ele and Enhance that would make you genuinely want to bring them to anything. LITERALLY ANYTHING. You’re never taking an enhance over another melee dps, and you’re never taking ele over another ranged. That’s not an exaggeration. They only get playtime if there is open spots for filler DPS, never for core requirements.
Free up the Talent Tree with some NEW and FUN talents. 2020 is here. Heck, 2021 is almost here. These talents need to be FUN and INTERESTING. The Design Team needs some Dip n’ Dots and a Jump Castle because they forgot what the meaning of Fun is.
I’m looking forward to Shadowlands. It is looking great. However, I’m not looking forward to watching every other spec and class have key core features that I should have. Shamans have to play at 100% Perfection to achieve A Tier and compete with other classes that can play at 60% skill to reach S Tier.
Why play a shaman then? Cause I like zappy bois. That’s why.
I labeled this as my One Final Request because I know if I continue writing anything before Shadowlands that it’s going to get negative and probably be useless feedback like so many people do on these forums. I don’t want to turn into someone who just complains and never offers constructive feedback, but I am beginning to feel let down. So, here is my One Final Request.
Thanks y’all
Gubby