With druids/priests now having very powerful Wild Growth/CoH and ferals getting windfury the whole resto sham identity has been lost. I have no doubt the devs have something up their sleeves to replace this though in the future. What do people think that might be?
My hope is with the air totem slot now open with no need for windfury they introduce Spirit Link totem. What else could be brought into the fold for Shaman that would make them bring something interesting to the table with their previous classic niche dead?
I am pretty sure that the air totem slot is being freed up for Tranquil Air totem, no? Maybe you’ll get a rune that increases range and makes it 30%, maybe even 40% to be better than salv.
Does Tranquil Air get massively buffed then? Right now it’s an awful version of Salv. Salv is 30%, 5 minutes, and can be cast on anyone. Tranquil Air is 20%, party only, 2 minute duration, and is a totem so it has to be recast and you must stay within range of it.
That would also be a pretty horrendous thing for Shaman. “We took away your insane utility and you can replace it with something you already had which is a worse version in every way of the Alli way of doing it while they get your porevious utility”
I just suggested it might. Maybe you’ll get some sort of personal passive too on the rune too in the spirit of Heart of the Lion, etc.
But anyway, these predictions are based on how lackluster the Hunter runes were and still are. I know you’re hoping for flashy, but it may very well not be and my predictions won’t actually change what you end up getting.
You’re right, but I honestly think if it isn’t flashy then no one will want an R sham at 60. Druid/Priest just pairs together so well and r sham is so lackluster comparatively without bringing some sort of monster utility.
If it makes you feel any better, Holy Paladin, an iconic class and practically symbol of the Alliance, only got two relevant runes related to it out of 12, and did not even get any dedicated gear for it (mail) in all of BFD.
EDIT: scratch that, could be 1 rune (beacon) depending on how you look at the other it could be prot.
I think Shaman will still be the best raid healer at 60. Overload is a straight 25% throughout increase with Chain Heal next bracket, and because CH has smart bouncing very little will be wasted on overheal
With the way wild growth is scaling and priest just being so much more versatile with the ability to simply flip a rune quick when needed for CoH vs. flipping back for single target heals I just don’t see it mattering.
Also if they aren’t bringing utility like they used to in Windfury then what’s the point anyway when other classes can bring plenty of their own utility?
Would raids rather have an r sham healing with maybe 10-15% more HPS or a druid slightly behind but bringing brez and innervate?
What? A Shaman healing for 900 hps vs. a druid healing for 775 hps means you can cut out an entire healer? And this is like at absolute worst, it sure looks like Wild Growth will out scale CH anyway since runes are so powerful and automatically scale per level instead of being subjected to ranks.
Shamans can be good healers, that’s not even a question.
The real problem is the utility.
Their exclusive spells were given to other classes, they can’t be just a “Healing Wave and Chain Heal spam class”, they need something more to justify what Blizzard did.
The only thing that can make shamans unique at this point is lust.
Doesnt have to be some crazy thing… but a water / fire totem that is like a 3% melee / spell haste would do just fine. “thralls blessing” or something. We need some kind of lust / haste ability to give horde something powerful and unique.
Eh i dont think thats even good tbh. Wild growth is far more powerful and resto druids can flex wrath 0 mana cost and pump DPS in between broken heals.
We run 1 priest in BFD and a “resto” druid that really only heals on Kelris and WF totem drop
Agreed, they really need utility since other classes bring so much and all the r sham utility has been commoditized.
Bloodlust would be interesting, but if it isn’t somehow r sham only then again they really gain nothing. It’s another option though, I can’t really think of much else from future expansions aside from Spirit Link totem and Lust, but I’m probably missing something.
I’m mostly curious to see what other ideas people think the dev team might be cooking up.