Outlined in this post is an updated idea for a tanking spec for Shaman, altered from the one I posted back in August to reflect the changes to Shaman as a class in Shadowlands. Similarly to back then, instead of defending using Armor or Dodge, this proposed spec would manage buffs and crowd control in order to mitigate damage. If the rotation plays out in game as it does in my head, it should be as viable as any other tank.
With the current Shaman specs seeming to represent one of the four elements, (Elemental representing Fire, Enhancement representing Air, and Restoration representing Water, based off of their respective Ascendants) I figured it would only make sense for Shaman to be the only class other than Druid to have four specializations. With Blizzard returning to the old meaning of ‘specialization’ meaning a focus on a specific aspect instead of an entirely different toolkit, it would also make sense that some Shamans would ‘specialize’ in Earth control, instead of it just being a footnote in all the other types of Shamanism.
For its gameplay, I originally simply built upon Enhancement, building off of the old idea of Shaman off-tanking.
And, in the end, this is just an idea. I don’t expect Blizzard to add any new Tanking functionality after they said they wouldn’t around 9 years ago, but it’s fun to think about stuff like this from time to time.
To try to achieve some sort of brevity, each spell listed will show any applicable range, casting time, cooldown, and magic school listed as such:
[Elemental Blast]
40yd, 2s, 12s CD, Fire
Warding
Tank (Melee)
Weapons of Choice: 2h Weapon (Mace, Axe)
Primary Stat: Agility
A guardian of the elements channeling the unrelenting power of earth to protect allies from damage.
Abilities:
Seismic Pressure
An alteration of Maelstrom Weapon, Seismic Pressure would act as passive mitigation. Along with mana, this resource would have to be managed in order to strike a balance between damage dealt with abilities, and being able to mitigate damage. Some abilities grant Seismic Pressure, and some abilities take it away.
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[Seismic Pressure]
Passive
When you take damage or deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to gain Static Charge, stacking up to 20 times. Each stack of Static Charge reduces damage taken up to 30% at 20 stacks. Every 2 seconds, if there are one or more enemies within 8 yds. of you, a stack of Seismic Pressure will be consumed to deal ___ Nature damage, spread over the amount of enemies within 8 yds.
Weapon Imbues
Similarly to current Flametounge Weapon and Windfury Weapon, these weapon imbues would work to enhance your abilities. Dissimilarly to them in other specs, however, the Warder would have a choice on which imbue to use at any given moment, allowing choice on how one wishes to approach a situation. Only one imbue can be active at any time.
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[Flametounge Weapon]
Instant, 10s CD, Fire
Imbue your weapon with the element of Fire for 1 hour, causing each of your melee attacks to deal ___ additional fire damage. -
[Earthrager Weapon]
Instant, 10s CD, Nature
Imbue your weapon with the element of Earth for 1 hour, causing your attacks to generate extra threat and your autoattacks to generate stacks of Seismic Pressure. -
[Waveseer Weapon]
Instant, 10s CD, Ice
Imbue your weapon with the element of Water for 1 hour, causing your attacks to have a chance to make your next cast of Healing Surge or Chain Heal instant.
Offensive Abilities
-
[Singe]
Melee, Instant, 3s CD, Fire
Strikes an enemy with a smoldering weapon, dealing ___ Fire damage. Generates 3 stacks of Seismic Pressure. -
[Static Strike]
Melee, Instant, 6s CD, Nature
Strikes an enemy with a charged weapon, dealing ___ Nature damage and grounding them. Grounded enemies have the next ___ damage dealt by them absorbed. Generates 3 stacks of Seismic Pressure. -
[Stonebolt]
30y, Instant, 5s CD, Nature
Hurls a sharpened stone at an enemy, dealing ___ Nature damage and sundering their defenses, causing them to take 10% increased damage from you and deal 5% less damage for 10 seconds. -
[Earthquake]
Instant, 20s CD, Nature
Causes the earth within 8 yards of you to tremble and break, dealing ___ Physical damage over 10 seconds and sometimes knocking down enemies. Consumes up to 10 stacks of Seismic Pressure, if available, to reduce its cooldown by 1s for every stack consumed. -
[Fury]
40yd, Instant, 8s CD, Physical
Taunts the target to attack you, increasing threat generated against the target for 3 seconds. -
[Angered Earth]
1s, 30s CD, Nature
Taunts all enemies within 20 yds. to attack you.
Defensive Abilities
-
[Earthen Ward]
Instant, 18s CD, Nature
Coalesces earthen energy, reducing damage taken by 10% and slowing the auto-attack of enemies within 15 yds. by 2% for every stack of Seismic Pressure you have. -
[Planar Affinity]
Instant, 10s CD, Nature
Increases block chance by ___% for 5 seconds. Consumes 3 stacks of Seismic Pressure, if available, to increase the duration to 10s. -
[Stone Aegis]
Instant, 4m CD, Nature
Sheathe yourself in elemental earth, protecting you from all physical damage for 10 seconds but slowing movement speed by 30%. Cannot gain stacks of Seismic Pressure while active. -
[Dust Devil]
Instant, 15s CD, Nature
Kicks up a whirlwind of dust around you for 8 seconds, granting 15% chance to silence enemies within 8 yd. of you every 1 second. Additionally, while active, Seismic Pressure deals damage to nearby enemies and decays every 1 second instead of 2. -
[Hurl Boulder]
20yd, 1.5s, 30s CD, Physical
Conjures a boulder and hurls it at your target, knocking them back and stunning them for 5 seconds.
Totems
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[Stone Bulwark Totem]
Instant, 1.5m CD, Nature
Summons a totem at your feet for 30 seconds that grants you and up to 5 nearby allies a shield that absorbs for ___ for 10 seconds, and granting only you an additional shield for ___ every 5 seconds after. -
[Stoneclaw Totem]
Instant, 2m CD, Nature
Summons a totem with ___ health at the target location for 15 seconds that taunts enemies within 8 yards to attack it. Enemies attacking the Stoneclaw Totem have a 50% chance to be stunned for 3 seconds.
Passives
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[Seismic Pressure]
-
[Geothermal]
Passive
Flame Shock’s damage has a 20% chance to reset the cooldown on Singe. -
[Geyser]
Passive
Whenever Earthquake or Dust Devil’s Seismic Pressure deal damage, they have a 5% chance to restore a charge to your Healing Surge and Earthen Affinity. -
[Mastery: World Soul]
Passive
Increases block chance by ___% and makes all active totems increase healing toward you by ___%. Also reduces damage taken by ___%.
Changes to Baseline Shaman Spells
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[Lightning Bolt] & [Chain Lightning]
Can consume 5 stacks of Seismic Pressure to become instant cast. -
[Healing Surge] & [Chain Heal]
Can consume 10 stacks of Seismic Pressure to become instant cast. Both have a 5s CD, and Healing Surge has 3 charges. -
[Purge] & [Wind Shear]
Grants 10 stacks of Seismic Pressure on a successful purge/interrupt.
Talents
Level 15
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[Welding Motions]
Passive
Singe now reduces the hit enemy’s auto-attack and movement speed by 10% for 3 seconds. -
[Echo of the Elements]
Stonebolt and Earthquake now have 2 charges. Effects that reset their remaining cooldown instead grant 1 charge. -
[Shockwave]
Instant, 25s CD, Physical
Slams the ground with your weapon, dealing ___ Physical to enemies within 10 yds., causing them to bounce up a short distance into the air.
Level 25
-
[Seismic Tension]
Instant, 1m CD, Nature
Uses elemental earth to absorb energy, absorbing the next ___ damage you take. If the effect is ended by damage, grants 20 Seismic Pressure. -
[Rolling Thunder]
Passive
Earthquake grants 7 Seismic Pressure when it knocks an enemy down. -
[Static Cling]
Passive
Lightning Shield’s damage scales with your Seismic Pressure, up to 150%.
Level 30
- [Spirit Wolf]
- [Earth Shield]
- [Static Charge]
Level 35
-
[Superheated]
Passive
Hitting an enemy affected with Flame Shock with Singe spreads Flame Shock to up to 3 enemies within 8 yds. of the hit enemy. The spread Flame Shock shares the same remaining duration. -
[Air Elemental]
Instant, 3m CD, Nature
Calls forth a Greater Air Elemental that spreads out incoming damage for 1 min.
(Hidden: Around 40% of damage taken by you and allies within 8 yds. of the Air Elemental is spread out among allies within 30 yds. of the Air Elemental.) -
[Richter Scale]
Passive
If you hit 20 stacks of Seismic Pressure at any time, it begins rapidly decaying and dealing damage, decaying 1 stack every 0.2 seconds.
Level 40
-
[Nature’s Guardian]
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[Roll Out]
20yd, 1s, 30s CD, Physical
Sheathe yourself in stone and hurl yourself at your target, knocking them back and stunning them for 5 seconds. Replaces Hurl Boulder. -
[Wind Rush Totem]
Level 45
-
[Stoneskin Totem]
Instant, 1m CD, Nature
Summons a totem at the feet of the caster that increases the armor of party members within 40 yds. by ___. Lasts for 30 seconds. -
[Mountainfist Totem]
Instant, 2m CD, Nature
Summons a totem with ___ health at the target location for 15 seconds that taunts enemies within 10 yds. to attack it. If the totem expires due to damage, it stuns enemies within 8 yds. of it for 10 seconds. Replaces Stoneclaw Totem. -
[Blademaster]
Passive
Reduces the cooldowns on your Weapon Imbues by 7 seconds.
Level 50
-
[Ascendance]
Instant, 3m CD
Transform into an Earth Ascendant, transferring 50% of damage taken by party members within 20yds to you and reducing all damage taken by 30%. Additionally, Planar Affinity increases block chance by an additional ___%, and increases healing received by 50%. -
[Astral Aegis]
1s, 4m CD, Nature
Force yourself or a targeted ally to fade into the twisting nether, removing threat and becoming invisible and immune to damage for 15 seconds. While under this effect, you cannot take any action, but you can still move around. Use this ability again to cancel the effect. Replaces Stone Aegis. -
[Waterspout]
Passive
Whenever the Geyser effect triggers, you are healed for ___ over the next 3 seconds
Suggested Rotations
[Earthrager Weapon] & [Flametounge Weapon]
- Cast [Flame Shock].
- Cast [Singe].
- Cast [Static Strike].
- Cast [Stonebolt].
- Use [Lightning Bolt] or [Chain Lightning] when instant cast.
Use [Earthquake] and [Dust Devil] when available.
Fill with [Singe].
Actively mitigate with [Earthen Ward] and [Earthen Affinity]. Heal with [Healing Surge] when needed.
[Wavefury Weapon]
- Cast [Singe].
- Cast [Static Strike].
- Cast [Dust Devil].
- Cast [Earthquake] when available.
With [Geyser] , [Dust Devil] and [Earthquake] will return charges of to you, allowing them to be used more efficiently with Wavefury Weapon.
would be awesome to see shaman get a 4th spec for tanking!