I don’t think that players were expecting to spend an entire patch underground in DF - they could do something similar in Midnight.
The Wildhammer Dwarves will be a prominent group this expac, we’ll be exploring the home of Haranir and we’ll also be aiding the Amani Trolls. The Wildhammer Shamans do regularly practice earth magic and the Haranir are very connected to the earth. The Amani Trolls practiced magics that were closer to Druidism but being that they’re “Jungle Trolls”, maybe they’ve got some Shamanistic earth magic that they’ll wind up dipping into.
I wouldn’t rule it out, Thrall still has an opportunity to man up and do Shaman things.