Stone Bulwark should be a choice node with Burrow as option

The pvp talent ‘Burrow’(you go underground and avoid damage for 5 secs) that’s available to all 3 specs should be moved to the general tree where ‘Stone Bulwark Totem’ is. Make it a choice node between these two. Burrow wouldn’t be overpowered as a capstone talent and it’s a super cool ability in terms of Shaman lore.

Stone Bulwark is just meh and doesn’t solve the problem of Shamans being sittings ducks in many scenarios. Totemic shamans also get an absorb shield which just makes this even more lackluster. Burrow largely fixes issues with Shaman vulnerability.

Traveling storms and seasoned winds were pvp talents that were moved to the general tree, and many view this as a positive change. Make burrow a capstone talent as well, it shouldn’t be a pvp talent.

A mediocre dinky shield from a totem vs. burrowing underground like a lord of the earth?

No, because we need both for PVP. Some
Other way, sure, but no way should we have to choose between 2 defenses, we need both and burrow should heal us while active.

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So you want burrow to stay in pvp talents, am I understanding you right? What about PvE shamans that have issues with surviving? Most people PvE and don’t do the mini-game of pvp. It’s a ridiculously small portion of the player base. So no, screw that.

And yeah sure, having both would be nice, but beggars can’t be choosy. They wouldn’t give us both. Having burrow as an option along with Stone bulwark would be a vast improvement.

Burrow in the class tree I don’t think would happen because that would have a substantial meta-defining effect in M+ and Raiding in some cases. Even if it was a choice node that could stand to be too problematic for PvE. Are you unable to take Burrow AND Bulwark given the former is a PVP talent and the latter a class tree talent?

You can. Freeing up PvP talents is a major win though as there are a lot of useful abilities crammed in there like grounding totem, static field totem, unleash shield, and not to mention the damage talents. And now even more with TwW in shamanism coming to ele.

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I PvP a bit more so I could, but I’m also thinking about how a lot of purely PvE shamans are unhappy with stone bulwark as a capstone defensive.

I don’t know that I agree with this, but I’m not sure. Its like a shaman flavored dispersion, but not as good. It’s a 2 min cooldown. It also only prevents direct damage, DoT’s still keep ticking on you.
If you could elaborate on how you think it would disruptive or meta-defining I’m open to hearing it.

Ah that makes sense.

It depends. I like it personally because it diversifies our defensive tool kit. Depending on the damage event and defensive CDs, an absorb can be levered differently. Main defensive kit for Enhance we now have Health Increase + Small DR, On Use Defensive, AG for burst Healing (most of the time it’s not assigned and can be used whenever), and now an Absorb. Degen tech with Totemic Recall to insta reset its CD also is there.

If this is just direct damage then that’s different. The only thing is if it prevents DoT applications while you are burrowed. If dots can still be applied than no, if then can’t then it can be used for cheesing mechanics or major dot applications but maybe not giga impactful.

Does this help?

No it wouldnt, becuaw during that time you deal 0 dps, it solves nothing. Other classes with actual, meaningful cds will outscale shamans insanely. Its only useful in pvp sadly.

I’m all for Burrow being in the class tree. But wanting it to be a choice node with Stone Bulwark (more like Stone Dogsh!7) totem isn’t the move. Some of us ran Stoneskin Totem; and we aren’t happy with Stone Bulwark, but will take it anyways since Ele and Enhancement survivability is horrible enough already.

Forcing us to choose between anything related to survivability… nah man. I get that we already had to choose by selecting talents in the class tree, but having a choice node for burrow and Bulwark would be a serious nerf.

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So then we just advocate/make the argument for it to be an additional capstone talent.

I just said make it a choice because they seem so tentative around doing something that would make shaman defensively sound in the current meta.

I’ll take it. Good idea.

“Some other way” - Like burrow having its own separate capstone? What other way would there be besides a)leaving burrow as a pvp talent(kinda crap, not optimal) or b) Making an additional capstone for burrow(optimal)

Cant they just add it as a separate talent?

Its a skill that already exists that they already have that fixes a hole in pve, just add it to the main class tree…

Yeah, that’s what the original post says. It’s just that some people didn’t like my suggestion of making it share a node with ‘Stone Bulwark Totem’. They wanted it to be a separate talent. I’m totally fine with that and like that better, I just don’t think WoW devs would allow us to take both in the general tree.

They already added a couple pvp talents to the general tree and I think it makes the class a lot better off. Burrow would be even better being made into a general talent imo. It fixes a major issue with Sham survivability across all 3 specs without cramping it into pvp talents or creating a new ability.

Yeah exactly.
Stone bullwark can be designed as a 10s cd, 1min or 5min depending on what blizz want, an invulnerability should probabky always be a high cd. Id suggest burrow as the high cd one and make bulwark totem mid survivability.

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If you are in burrow and are playing against another shaman that uses Earthquake or Sundering, it should take you out of burrow and Daze you

Fine with me.