As the title says, and as my character name implies
I think it would be a perfect time to add the 4th Shaman spec to retail. Blizzard needs to understand that adding new specs to existing classes is fine when it makes sense. In this case, shaman makes perfect sense. Here’s why:
The Shaman Class has been depicted using 4 elements: Fire, Air/Lightning (Storm), Water and Earth. Enhancement and Elemental kind of share the aspects of Fire and Storm, even though Enhancement is meant to be the Storm spec and Elemental the Fire spec. Restoration is the Water spec. There is NO earth spec which is a design flaw. There are like 4 earth spells scattered across the specs, a shaman Tank spec using earth makes sense.
SoD/Classic Representation, everyone knows and it’s been confirmed Shamans were meant to tank originally, that is where this Shaman tank idea stems from. In SoD, they tried to implement it and it was a total success and the most loved “new role/class” combination they added. It is very fun and fits so perfectly well they could honestly inspire their Retail design off the SoD one. People love it, it works, they tried it, it succeeded, add it. It genuinely is the one new role/class combination that had 0 debate like Rogue Tanks or Mage Healers did, it legit just worked perfectly.
No new Tank spec since 2016. The last tank specialization that was added into the game was Vengeance Demon Hunter. Back in BIG 2016, 8-9 years ago in Legion. I think a decade worth of wait warrants a new tank spec and it’s about time frl.
Tank armor types. There are no mail/cloth tanks. While I can kinda of understand cloth, mail? Come on dawg. 3 leather tanks, 3 plate tanks, it’s time.
Earth themed expansion. In Dragonflight, they literally added a new specialization mid-expansion (Augmentation) through a little questline which was flavorful and honestly kinda sick, it showed that adding a new spec mid expansion really wasn’t a problem. (Now Aug ended up being busted since it was a support/dps hybrid which was a new type of spec but that is besides the point lmao). So shamans finding a new way to wield the earth to bolster their defenses through the Earthens or through some new teachings/discoveries by delving deeper into the EARTH of our world would be so easily explainable lore wise.
This pretty much rounds it up, tank community isn’t as vocal as the dps one since there are less players, but there are people who want shaman tanks added into the game and have been asking it for YEARS. Just look at the hype SoD made when it announced Paladin and Shamans would be proper tanks in classic. And honestly this would be better than just adding new classes constantly making the game feel bloated. Certain classes could use a single new spec, this class being the most obvious choice by very far.
It’s time, Fortification, Earthwarden, Bulwark, call it how you want. Add it into the game.
(And if yall want it added PLEASE support this and make your own posts or be vocal about it, I feel like there are a lot of people who want it and dont say anything or play SoD we gotta be more vocal )
EDIT: Someone mentioned Hero Talents and it’s a good point, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen after, but they can honestly just slap 2 existing hero talents on it and make it work with that spec and call it a day. Other option is to make 1 new hero talent, not nearly as much effort either way as making the spec itself so doable imo.
I think hero classes were a miss by Blizz. Give us a glyph collection and merge hero talents into the general/spec trees. Don’t see them adding a fourth Shaman spec with hero trees
I kinda hope/wish the new roles in SoD are blizzard experimenting with expanding roles and eventually added to retail. Would love to have tank role on my rogue
I’ve always assumed that they’ve always put armor into 2 categories, light and heavy, with each of those categories having lighter and heavier subvariants. Thus, light armor tanks wear leather and heavy armor tanks wear plate. But that’s just a theory…
Dragon magic is random bs pulled from pretty much no where. We had a whole expansion about it but still don’t know what the “Aspect Powers” (AP lol) actually do.
Hero Talents suck. Too bad Blizzard considers them “evergreen content”, so they aren’t going anywhere.
As cool as it sounds, I don’t think blizz would want to introduce a tanking spec to us as that would put us on the same level as druids, which are supposed to be the “versatile” class.
I think its more likely we get an augmentation style support spec, as in vanilla, shamans (and pallys) were the OG support specs. Honestly “enhancement” sounds more like a support spec than a pure DPS spec.
Here’s how I would do it:
Resto - Water-focused and ancestral, Healer Elemental - Master of All 4 elements, Ranged DPS Enhancement - New support style using totems and giving imbues, Support DPS Stormbringer - Storm-focused melee (Uses gameplay of current enh) and Animal Spirits, Melee DPS Hybrid
I think what makes druid the “versatile” one is the fact you can accomplish what the other spec do in any specs aka shifting into cat, bear, off-healing and even boomy (less). And ima keep it a buck after Augmentation and its impact on the meta for like 2 years no shot they add another support dps for a while lol
It’s always baffled me why Warriors don’t have lust. They’re warriors. They lust for blood. Fury Warriors literally have an ability called Bloodthirst.
I’ve never played SoD. I’m not a huge classic fan. I played it 20 years ago, and it sucked then, and when classic came out, it still sucked. Just my opinion. But SoD seems interesting.
If I were to download it, how would I go about making a shaman tank? Do they have a dedicated tank spec, or do they tank in Enhance? What “extras” do I need to make it a proper tank? Got a guide on this kind of stuff?
Honestly, they could make an earth based tank spec work with both Ancestral and Totemic. They could tweak a few things to add defensives to the ancestors move pool/totem and beep boop you’re done.
It’s not really a “dedicated spec”. But, it builds on either Enhancement or Elemental - Elemental is very much the way to go right now. This doesn’t mean that Shaman isn’t a solid tank, it’s one of the best tanks in SoD. In SoD, you basically find talents (runes) that grant you tanking abilities.
My GM played a Shaman in Vanilla, and he tanked for us right up until UBERS I think it was. After that he got too squishy because…no gear for it. He had extra threat with rockbiter enchant I think it was that Shamans had, Earth shock, and he used chain lightining a lot too.
Blizz just never carried out the tanking Shaman thing. And such is life. Horde was shortchanged on that because Alliance had the Paladin.
Would it not have been better for your Shamantank character there to have been actually a shaman? That way when they finally add the 4th spec (Earthwarden or something) to Shaman, you can switch to that spec?
That would make me never touch Shaman again. Augmentation is a disease and so is any “Support” role. I’d flat out demand that we were given the ability to purchase a class change if they added that. Tank? Yeah sure. Makes sense. Support / Augvoker? Needs to die horrifically.
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