Shaman as a class should separate itself from this ceaseless race for the most mobility by leaning more into ‘area denial’ and maintaining a territory. If youre near a Shaman and his totems it should be meaningful and really help or hurt you. Huge buffs to totems, and along with that, make cooldowns related to the buffed totems, like carrying them around for a short time while theyre active.
Additionally: proximity-minded defensives and animations. There is a quest in Voldun that slaps a big ball of lightning over your head that discharges on enemies when they get close. That should be something we have, either in that form or a totem that does huge damage to people when theyre near it, then the cooldown that lets us carry it around, and a choice node that changes it into a Grounding Totem to everything directed at the Shaman, redirected or zapped out of the air.
Additionally some more: Take some inspiration from other classes and have a good idea for once, Shaman devs. I want, and there needs to be, a passive defensive that is Paladin’s immunity to spells, Mage’s Iceblock, Warlock’s Call Fel Lord, Rogue’s Cheat Death.
Bare bones, it needs to proc on lethal damage, Shaman takes a knee and becomes immobile and shielded, encased in a shroud of storm and lightning. The shroud is immune to spell damage, or at least absorbs it with a breakable threshold, and standing close to it, inside the dotted lines, zaps for big damage. Our health gradually increases the longer we’re in the unbroken storm shield, after it ends we stand up and continue to fight.
Further depth and detail, incorporate each element into the animations. Storm and nature is the shield, water is the healing, fire and lava is the proximity damage. Or tie the animations to the elemental shields you have on. Make the proximity portion, if not dealing damage, have a stacking increasing debuff to elemental damage so the Shaman breaks out and hits back hard, or forces enemies away entirely.
Side notes -
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Having two elemental shields should be baseline, having three should be a talent.
Do your jobs. -
The fact that Mages get to create terrain with Frost Wall before we get any version of that with that actual earth is trash, and also embarrassing. At the very least we should have a version of Ularogg’s ability in Neltharion’s Lair, where we create stone hands at four places around us. Those hands should be instant cast and create LOS for us. Make them appear at our 10, 2, 4, 8 o’clocks to maintain our own LOS when theyre summoned. Thats at the very least without geting into the fact that we should get a multi-charge ability that creates hexagonal pillars at clicked location.
Do your jobs.