I don’t know the likelihood of getting a talent rework. I feel the general despair of other Shams of being passed over and neglected. But…the recent hunter rework has left me with a ray of hope. Even if we don’t get crap, which I’m prepared for, I want to just add to the many threads already in existence about Shaman talents.
I want to also make a thread about general shaman mobility and defensives too, but I’ll wait a bit on that one.
Anyway, my desired changes for the Resto Shaman talent tree is pretty simple and are as follows:
Bottom and Mid Talent Tree:
I honestly feel the top and middle of the Resto tree is pretty good. Do I think certain talents like ‘Tidal Waves’ and ‘Flash Flood’ could be made baseline? Yeah. Shamans don’t have the best mechanics compared to other healers. Deluge(riptide and rains increase casted healing on target by 20%) combined with Tidal Waves and Flash flood serve as a kind of primitive, outdated mechanic, but its better then nothing.
Other then that, I think the top and mid portion of the tree are overall decent and not the prime issue.
Bottom of Resto Tree:
This is where the tree is really below average and should have been reworked at some point during Dragonflight. I understand the talent trees were recently reintroduced and do like that blizzard decided to return to this talent model, but the bottom of the Resto Sham Tree is among the worst in the game. It’s really agitating that the Dev’s haven’t even addressed this at any point in the last 2 years and still haven’t even given us the slightest hint that they care about it.
Bottom Left of Tree:
a) The Infamous P-Wave:
a2) First off, why is it a total of 4 talent points? It should be 2 at the most. The first point for the actual ability: P-Wave and then the 2nd point is the cooldown reduction. Even that is still pretty lacking. There shouldn’t be 2 additional point to take a 40% Healing Wave to a 65% Healing Wave. Those extra 2 points should just be incorporated into the original, single point ability.
a3) The mechanics of it just aren’t good. When your in a bind and all hell is breaking loose, whether it’s pvp or PvE, why do you have to go through multiple global’s just to heal your group? You have to make sure riptide is up on off targets ----> apply P-Wave to main target ----> Nature’s Swiftness ----> Unleash Life(Optional) ----> Ancestral Guidance(also optional…but doesn’t hit for much without it)------> Healing Wave. You could also do this sequence with Ascendance instead of Ancestral Guidance. It feels clunky. It doesn’t feel like a smooth emergency mechanic to stabilize your team if the group is taking a lot of damage. Multiple global’s in a clunky fashion for emergency healing isn’t good gameplay.
a2) Solution: Rework P-Wave into something more fluid or remove it entirely. If not removed, make it 1-2 points and increase the efficacy of it. I’d even be okay with adding increased modification for Chain Heal. Maybe some type of talent(s) to greatly reduce Chain Heals mana cost to make it more workable without burning through mana so easily.
b) Primal Tide Core/High Tide: These 2 are not that bad, but kind of lackluster. Primal Tide core will probably work pretty well with the ‘Farseer’ hero talents and High Tide will work alright with Totemic, but they could use a bit more, not sure what though. If someone could chime in hear with any creative ideas.
b2) Solution: Primal Tide Core - I don’t know, it’s decent I guess, but kind of bland.
High Tide- Make the chain heals cost no mana as part of the high tide proc. Lower the amount of mana needed to make High Tide proc.
Bottom Right of Tree:
a) Earthliving: It’s not bad…but why is it 3 talent points? Why isn’t Earthliving baseline? Other weapon imbues are baseline(Flametongue). Why is the resto based weapon Imbue 3 points? Why is it so deep down in the tree also?
a2) Solution: Either make Earthliving baseline(preferred) or make it a single point in the tree at the top or mid.
b) Deeply Rooted elements: This capstone talent is honestly good. Provides good burst healing. I wish it procced at more like 8-9% but beggars can’t be choosy and this is overall a good one. The issue is it shares a talent node with Wellspring. I don’t think the two go together.
b2) Solution: Separate Deeply Rooted Element and Wellsring. Make Wellspring its own capstone talent node and then this brings us to…
c) Wellspring: Rework wellspring. It’s just plain bad. Who has used this in PvE or PvP? this could be a really cool ability, instead its lame and not worth taking.
c2) Solution: Redesign wellspring. It could be like a pulsating stream that’s channeled like a Disc priests ‘Penitence’ but have a short range aoe effect like Monk’s ‘Jadefire Stomp’. So kind of like hybrid combination of Penitence and Jadefire Stomp, so it’s not a copy or a ripoff of one of these abilities but its own unique thing. Give it a cool white water stream kind of visual. Another idea is to make wellspring similar to a Preservation evokers Empower spell. “The shaman charges up and unleashes a flood of water in a large cone area” in front for a certain amount of healing based on how long it was held. You could even add a pushback to it for enemies caught in the flood.
d) Downpour: Rework it/redesign it. It’s in a similar predicament as wellspring, who takes this? In its current iteration, its not worth it.
d1) Solution: It’s not as bad as wellspring, so you could just remove it’s cast time and increase its healing. Its actually a pretty cool ability with a nice visual, it’s just not worth a cast time for the healing and Cd it has. Just make it instant cast and not hit for piss.
PvP Talents: I think burrow should be baseline for all 3 specs, not just resto. All shaman specs need something like burrow for a defensive. Survivability is lacking.
Conclusion: That’s it. I know people will say it’s futile even talking about this stuff, and i understand where they are coming from…but we can’t just lie down. Lets keep talking about this stuff. Lets keep whining. Lets keep putting ideas forth and discuss the changes we would like to see.
Let me know what you guys think of my suggestions for talents and feel free to propose whatever you want.