Ion has already stated if they could redesign the classes they would go the DH way and give them 2 specs instead of 3. As much as I would love a fourth spec, we are most likely to see a new class with a tanking spec than have shamans with one.
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Excellent post. I was thinking about doing something myself, but never got around to it. I might not agree 100% with everything you said, but overall i think its fantastic, and would love to see it. I thoroughly enjoy playing my Shaman for what the class represents, and would love to be able to tank. Also i would love to feel like im channeling the earth to become a magically imbued tank
blizz can’t even make the melee dps spec of the class work correctly I don’t think they can handle a tank as well.
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no thanks.
#keep3specs
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play classic wow bro shamans can take all 5 man content in classic.
thats the only place you will see a shaman tank is in classic wow.
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This post is absolutely fantastic!! Great job Quinzal. I personally think they should add a 4th spec and name it Earth Warden. That would fit right in with what you’ve outlined here.
I invite you to bring this to an older thread I have running about shaman tanking to limit the amount of clutter we’re producing on the shaman forums.
People are CLEARLY into this idea and the more we talk this out with as many people as possible, the better chance we have at getting it brought back into retail wow! Those of you that are concerned or are agaisnt it should voice their opinions there as well! It only helps the cause.
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TBH, I think this is adding too many new abilities and lacks a bit on overlap with other specs. Lavalash shouldn’t be in the rotation at all, IMO; replace that with stormstrike and drop static strike and the new weapon imbues entirely (just use the existing ones). Lavalash has always been an off-hand only ability.
Why not use shocks instead of making new abilities that may as well be the same thing? The core shaman kit is completely missing.
That version of spirit link looks like a PvP talent or a healer ability; it doesn’t really fit a tank spec.
The spec shouldn’t have both an AoE taunt and stoneclaw totem. Just use stoneclaw totem and treat it like Ox statue (cast taunt on the stoneclaw totem to taunt all the mobs within its range to you).
The power level of a lot of what you’ve suggested is way too high. 8 second aoe stun is insane, and shaman already have cap totem, so there’s no need for it, earth ward 30% AS slow and 15% DR with 67% uptime is insane; that’s stronger than most major defensive cds and has a longer duration. Air elemental is designed as an OP raid healing CD, instead of a tank CD.
I think in general, it’s better to avoid so many “new” abilities when making a suggestion like this, as creating animations and new effects takes a lot of dev time. They could make a tank spec for shaman with only a few new animations/assets (Earth Ascendance form, a new look for stoneclaw totem, and an artifact shield for Doomhammer).
I put this in another thread (some minor changes) as an example of what could be done with minimal new animations/art/effects, following current class design, and that can utilize the current azerite traits:
Spec: Earthwarden (seems good), Guardian/warden, or Fortification/Reinforcement (enhancement, but defensive - fits a bit better with the other spec names)
Passive effects:
- Earth/Stone Reinforcement - X% increased armor/stamina
- Maelstrom: generate 10-15 maelstrom on basic attacks.
- Mastery - Earthen Bulwark: attack power and block chance increased; reduces damage taken while earth shield is active.
- ~25% Chance to reset Earthquake cd on hit with rockbiter and make it free.
- ~15% chance on avoiding damage or dealing damage with rockbiter to reset the CD on stoneskin.
- Parry - scaling with crit
- Maybe a chance for basic attacks and/or rockbiter to generate a charge of earth shield if it’s active.
- Resonance: Earth shocks at a target in earthquake hit all other targets within that earthquake for 30-50% damage?
Damage Abilities:
- Rockbiter - as current enh, primary resource generator
- Fire nova/Crash Lightning - 6s cd AoE generator (4MS per target)
- Lightning bolt/Chain lightning - resource dump (becomes instant and has increased damage by consuming X maelstrom). Could possibly be cut entirely and CD on rockbiter removed, then ES/EQ be used as dump abilities.
- Earth Shock - 6s cd, concussive force - [reduces damage taken from the target for 8 seconds]. Generates maelstrom if stoneskin on mitigation, otherwise costs maelstrom?
- Earthquake - 10-15s cd 6s duration; ~20 Maelstrom (Or use as generator and remove fire nova/crash lightning and treat similar to consecrate)
- Flame Shock - 6s cd, as ele/resto. - generates Maelstrom?
- Frost Shock - as per ele.
Defensives:
- Earth shield (self only) - maintenance buff with charges for passive healing (as current).
- Stoneskin - ~6s armor buff, costs ~30 maelstrom, ~15s CD, 2-3 charges (Maybe cut because earth shock functions as mitigation and because riptide/earth shield self-healing)
- Shamanistic rage - 2min CD, 20% dr and increased MS generation for 8s. - OR Spirit Link (to make use of the existing azerite trait.)
- Astral Shift - Same as other specs.
- Grounding Totem
- Healing Surge - 20 Maelstrom and 4000 mana - makes it instant on self-cast (as Enh)
- Riptide (self only) - 30 maelstrom (To make use of the existing resto azerite trait)
Tanking utility/taunts:
- Stoneclaw totem - (basically Ox statue)
- Ancestor’s Call(?) - 8s cd, taunt
- Earth Elemental - as other specs
Other Utility/abilities:
Wind Shear, Earthbind Totem, Hex, Tremor Totem, Cleanse Spirit, Spirit Walk, Ghost Wolf Form, Reincarnation, Water walking, Ancestral Spirit, Far Sight, Astral Recall
Talents:
15: Boulderfist, Earthen Rage, Lightning Shield
30: Landslide (chance on rockbiter to increase next EQ/ES damage), Call the Thunder - increased max MS, and reduced MS cost of instant lightning bolt/CL(?), Totemic Mastery (2% haste, passive MS gen, x% increased Earth Shield healing, increased rockbiter damage)
45: Static Charge, Earthgrab Totem, Unstable Ground - adds slow and increases knockdown chance of EQ.
60: Earthen Wall Totem, Ancestral Guidance, Ancestral Vigor (10% increased hp for 10s to healing surge/riptide target)
75: Wind Rush Totem, Feral Lunge, Graceful Spirit (reduces cd of spirit walk)
90: Surge of Power (ES buffs next ability - EQ: Increased radius/damage, Rockbiter: extra MS, LB/CL: trigger overload, flame shock: affects an additional target, Stoneskin: provide a shield), aftershock(25% chance for EQ/earthshock to reset cd?), Sundering
100: Nature’s Guardian, Ascendance ((Earth) - 3 min cd, ~20% DR and empowers rockbiter/earth quake for 15 sec.), Earthen Spike - (Reduces damage taken from the target by ~10% in addition to current effect).
Echo of the elements could probably fit in place of something on the 15, 30, or 90 tiers and give shocks and fire nova/Crash lightning 2 charges, and/or stoneskin could be reworked to 1 charge and get an additional charge from it.
Current azerite traits that function with the spec:
- Natural Harmony (nature/frost/fire damage gives crit/haste/mastery)
- Ancestral Resonance (chance on hit to gain mastery - BL lasts 10s longer)
- Tectonic Thunder (increased EQ damage, chance for next CL to be instant cast)
- Lava Shock (flame shock ticks cause earth shock to deal additional damage)
- Strength of Earth (Rockbiter causes next ability to deal additional damage)
- Surging Tides (If below 50%, gain a shield when casting riptide).
- MAYBE spouting Spirits (Spirit link heals all affected targets after 1s)
- For inner traits, all secondary stat traits benefit, and healing traits benefit
It misses out on “proper” tanking traits, but avoids the need for additional traits to be made for the spec retroactively.
Spirit link is probably a no-go, as it’s too strong of a raid CD to have on a tank, and isn’t purely a self defensive. They’d have to use a different version, like moving X% of damage taken from the shaman to allies, or only moving HP from allies to the tank, to remove the raid heal CD properties of it, but then there’s the problem of the same ability with the same animation doing different things to allies that walk into the effect.
That leaves the only thing to be addressed the legion artifacts - I’d go with letting the spec use Doomhammer, but the offhand becomes a shield.
Nice idea yep
Terrible idea, shaman are not and should not be tanks. Leave the 3 specs and leave them in their current roles. no shaman tanks.
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shamans cant soak the damage they wont ever be tanks.
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They wear mail, no reason they shouldn’t be able to tank when 3 of the 6 tanking classes already in the game wear leather.
Anyways, i want a tank spec for shaman but i think we should be designed in a way that sets it Apart from other tanks. Everyone has slightly different mechanics, no reason to just clone someone else’s onto us.
So my idea is this:
Tank spec gets a stone golem perma-pet. Same kind of golem you see throughout the game built by dwarves. Different races could have slightly different golem appearances.
The mastery passive works with the pet:
Mastery: stonewarden
A percentage of all damage you take is instead dealt to your golem
A percentage of all damage you deal heals your golem.
This creates a system where you get your mitigation from damage splitting with the pet - something no other tank does - and your attacks and spells heal the pet in turn so that you can extend your mitigation further.
Also, to the previous poster who said lava lash has always been an offhand ability, why not make it lava bash for the tank spec and have it use your shield offensively? Would look pretty cool, imo, forming lava over your shield and back handing someone with it. Could even leave a molten slag effect on the ground that roots, slows, or burns enemies
Nothing new to see here, same theorizing as every other thread. Do you need a new thread daily to do this? Or do people that dont want and/or think shamans can/should tank need to post their opposition in every new thread daily as well?
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You clearly are attempting to do that, Meada. And I per chance saw you posting how much you love classic sham, just go back to classic and stop ranting about retail evolving.
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There fixed it for you.
Glad you seen my adoration for Classic, which thread was it? I’m it wasnt in 10 threads talking about the same thing. My rant will continue as long as it needs to.
It’s a good idea, shaman tank 4th spec please blizzard.
is one guy running around on alts making posts about shamans tanks?
if you want to tank roll a tank class.
3 Likes
obligatory bump since I like the ideas.
I dont like the ideas at all. No need for a tank spec.
The last time I was crit in a BG, my shaman exploded into dust. I had to wait for weeks before the particles could be found in order to rez me.
Even in classic, shaman are not great tanks. They have very little in the way of real tank talents. 5% dodge, 10% armor, and perry. Your dodge is still low, 10% armor doesn’t put you close to warrior or bear base damage reduction, and we get parry later in the tree because we are the only melee class that doesn’t have some kind of real avoidance, or way to deal with melee damage.
Shaman are Jack-of-all-trades characters. They are never going to be the best at most things. Group healing is their niche, along with group buffs. All tanks do it better. All damage dealers do it better.
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what enhance shamans whs known for windfury blizzard gutted for class fantasy in legion hen killed it even more in bfa.
its funny enhancement shaman has always been about the windfury for class identity and blizzard kill enhancement shamans class identity with class fantasy in legion…lol.