Shaman Tank | Classy & Fresh

Although I’ve leveled up two shamans doing the 1h/shield build that is a thing (search on youtube) and LOVED it until respecing at 60, this seems more like a future “classic+” type server if Blizzard releases that type in the future to an audience that wants to try new things in classic like having hybrid specs be more playable, pally/shaman available to both factions, etc.

Just my opinion, but I think it would be cool if the changes so far talked about for this upcoming 12 month SoM pretty much stay the same WITH Bots and mage boosting solved, and then after that, let the other playerbase that wants something more like a “classic+” version to come out so they can enjoy that experience. Heck, I would possibly try that as well. You watch those videos that go over areas in the world where people think Blizzard had planned an instance and/or raid (Azshara, etc.), would be cool if Blizzard also threw in new content in zones like that in addition to a lot of the changes people want to experience in classic like class tweaks.

Wait a minute Saying me suggesting giving us wrath classes This is too far but basically An entire rework would be Easier ?

On top of that it would only work with horde

I don’t think I worded it correctly, my brain is fried and I’ll try to explain it a little differently. Basically wrath class systems were a lot more modern. If they were to change the classses they’d want them to still have that old and clunky/tricky feel to them but still have them be useful in theory.

I mean let’s be honest here a lot of classes didn’t come into their own until wrath Is I mean useful Is what does a Druid do in classic well exactly?

I mean they’re most useful speck is resto but even that’s not very good You don’t even really get tree form until bc But let’s What does a prot paladinue especially with the difficulty being upscaled.

I’m saying all that’s gonna happen I can see warlocks maybe being a little bit more relevant but The reason I’m Is saying wath Is classes.

I mean If you really want to talk about modern I wouldn’t say we really got the modern until mop / cata Is the thing is in wrath.

Is we still I feel have that old feel of you get to put those talent points in but with 60 talent points not 71

We won’t be so overpowered And realistically blizzard could always scale up the mobs just a little bit That’s what I’m saying.

I know what you’re trying to hit at but just copying and pasting wrath builds into the classes would kind of mess it up. If they would rework classes then they’d need to get into seperate classes and adjust them accordingly. In classic warriors are perfectly fine for dps and tank. Arms could use help so they could tweak it for example. Warlock may see a lot more affliction cause the debuff limit is gone. Classes like paladin and Druid don’t need a complete wrath overhaul but they need heavy modifications to make their specs viable without cheesing specific items/game mechanics. Also if you copy and paste wrath’s mechanics for specific classes in, it will likely conflict with other game mechanics and cause a mountain of problems.

Would it not make more sense to just host with the crusade patch and let you have paladins on horde?

See I would make an argument that you might as well just do It would just be easier Is to give us wrath classes with 60 talent points because the amount of work that some classes need.

I mean you’re talking a lot a lot of classes in the classic talent trees need a lot of work paladin’s and drew insides they are the biggest ones.

But it’s not just about talents It’s just about giving them simple skills like taunt And either way both of those tanks specifically His paladins both had manner issues instowded boomkins.

That’s why I’m saying it would probably just be easier if they copied and pasted wrath is beasted wrath classes and gave those to us with 60 talent points.

Is that and I think it would give the game a little bit more diversity personally

They get addressed in wrath but let’s be honest paladins Is having Mana problems which I can say because I am a palli tank And although righteous defense is OK if you’re asking me personally I would rather reduce the cool down on that thing and reduce the range.

Is or here’s a thought actually build a taunt something when it’s not hitting something else.

Is as I said wrath just makes the classes complete

there is not going to be any class changes, and we’re certainly not using TBC or wrath classes or talents. please stop the nonsense.

I really enjoyed paladins on alliance only, and shaman on horde only. Honestly, with the talent selection within Enhance tree, it feels like they were going to be a tanking tree, or at least the option to be.

Shield spec alone screams tank, because Enh DPS would never take it, Ele DPS would never take it, Resto would never take it. Blizzard team acted with more intention in design, but edits always left remnant behind of concepts abandoned.

Seems pretty cool, always thought it was stupid that Shamans and Paladins couldnt tank. I support this

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If Shaman got a taunt before Paladins, I think there would be riots in the streets of Stormwind!! :smiley:

For real though, I’m fully in support of making Shaman viable tanks. I think it would be fun!

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All these changes together seem like way too much.

I’d settle for Cata Rockbiter (30% threat increase and 5% damage reduction).

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Sounds amazing… I even want to be able to tank gnomer on my dwarf shaman. Is this hubris???

Litterally the only thing they lack in order to tank is a taunt, just like prot pallies did. But pallies got one, shamans never did. Yes, they would be squishy due to mail armor, but that’s about it. Buffing the shield talents more, like increasing block by a lot, or even adding some unique talent, like a chance on hit to increase block and spellpower for a short duration, could instantly turn shamans into a tanking class without having to revamp anything major. It would litterally take one or two minor changes, and boom, tank class.

since they wear mail, the idea is they’d be tankier vs. magical damage.

Plate is still king of physical damage.
Mail is king of magical damage.

That seems like more of a re-design which is likely very out of scope

Probably, and one can only hope. I mean look at Enhancement tree, traditionally thought of as a DPS and utility spec, but look closer.

  • Shield spec
  • Anticipation 5% dodge
  • Toughness 10% armor value
  • Parry
  • Rockbiter weapon (high threat)
  • Rockbiter talent (more threat)
  • Reincarn (a tank with 2 lives, yes please)
  • Synergy with Elemental Devastation in Ele: spell crit to melee crit.
    Enhance is more akin to feral druid tree, cat dps and bear tanking, than a stand alone DPS tree like hunter, rogue, fury.

Parry is a great stat for all, but more for tanking, and it’s an opt-in/out.
2-h weapons is a talent for dps, and it’s an opt-in/out.

My money is on, Shaman was suppose to be 1 tree with dps/tanking, like Druid, but someone removed 1 or 2 crucial pieces to that puzzle. ie. Taunt & an oh-sh*t mitigation ability.

okay so the thing with adding more survivability to the enhance tree is that enhance then becomes a hard counter for rogues in pvp, and if you add all that resistance they then become a hard counter for mages and certain shaman/druid. Even more a problem, if you add all that to early tier talents as you have suggested, you’ll get ele/resto shaman going and grabbing them in a hybrid pvp spec, and pretty much being unkillable. Big balance tipping problem there.

As shaman who has MT/OT everything through p5 and most of p6 with the last rendition of talents, I can tell you not much of what is suggested may be necessary. We really don’t need that much more in our kit.

shaman can already raid tank in vanilla classic, and the issue with giving them increased viability in that regard is that it doesn’t make sense to do that and not also buff the melee dps build. You then run into the issue of threat, how do you make it so that a tank shaman produces more threat than a dps shaman while still giving dps shaman good dps. It’s tricky tricky.

3 or 4 things need to happen.

  1. threat modifier needs to move to frost shock
  2. storm strike debuff dmg increase works only for earth shock dmg and is increased (only ele can hijack the debuff now)

can do 3 and/or 4, but both is not necessary for the desired result

  1. increased armor/resistances/avoidance(dodge/parry) in a LATER tier talent in the enhance tree only, so that resto/ele shaman can’t take it without sacrificing a lot.
    AND/OR
  2. increased threat modifier to threat shock and rockbiters static 72tps gain, once again in the LATER tier talents only, to play keep away from ele/resto and to make it unattractive for enhance dps to take.

The reason I say only 3 or 4 are necessary is because shaman can already tank most everything. The main issue is that either threat is great and mitigation suffers, or mitigation is fine and threat suffers, and with one of the options 3 or 4 in place we can gear accordingly with what is already in-game to make up the difference, and we wont need a taunt. Pushing shaman over the edge in the type of way I describe will keep the feel of the other 3 specs and increase the viability of tanking, without blowing up pvp balance too much.

Maybe in the Season of Balance.

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