Hello fellow players. After the introduction/testing of the Support Spec for Evokers, watching the forums for a bit, reading some stuff put out by Blizz, and filling in the blanks along the way, I think I see Blizzard’s plan for the future. Support specs are going to be the way Blizzard seeks to fulfill those “dream specs” for each class.
For Shaman this would be a totem heavy spec, much like the play style of old. Through good usage of totems the Shaman can buff allies, debuff enemies, and help create battlefield control that is advantageous to their allies.
Blizzard is more likely to expand their existing roster of party/raid buffs into more dynamic support mechanisms than they are to design an entirely new spec for any one of the existing classes.
Dracthyr Evoker provided a unique “playground” opportunity because it was a brand new class concept that had not yet existed in WoW at any point in its history, so they had a lot more flexibility to experiment with stuff as they see fit.
It’s also why Dracthyr Evoker has seemingly cannibalized so much of the class fantasy desired onto other specs (such as a healing mage spec that uses time magic to heal).
EDIT: With that said, I’d prefer they do a Tank spec as Shaman’s 4th spec over a 4th spec dedicated to support.
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I don’t disagree with your premise or points, I just feel its a bit blind to the continued method of Blizzard’s additions of new systems. Blizzard implements fan-service and requested designs in a way that fits THEIR goals, not ours. In this case, Support. The Augmentation Evokers are going to be viewed as a success. They need tweeking, but they are mostly working as intended. Blizzard’s not going to stop at 1 Support spec. There will be others. Aug is just the live play testing on the large scale.
Because of that, if they implement more, let’s face it, Shaman is a wildly likely candidate. Now with that said, it might actually be a Tanking spec that they implement. If I were a Blizzard developer, I would push for a Tanking Support spec. The damage would be low, the buffs would be plentiful, and the Totems would be everywhere. I would bring back Rockbiter, so all attacks generated high threat, There would be totems that buffed stats, reduced enemy damage, etc.
I would like to see the “Earthwarder” spec, and perhaps with Ebyssian as the Earthwarder, and clearly a Shaman class character, it opens up the lore to Shamans gaining it. But I think it will likely be a short-range tank/support spec.
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Just no, I am extremely tired of being the only class that has to tow a cart or totems around every 15 yards, then set them out a the cost of GCD. Honestly for Enhance and restoration it is lame that they still exist. Elemental relies on almost no totems for core functionality.
I’d prefer if they fixed the issues with restoration before they did anything else.
Maybe a spell caster tanking spec derived from enhance, all the functionality is there.
Also a momentary off tank cooldown for restoration would be a nice idea, where the only reason two tanks are around to remove a defbuff then they continue as normal; again the functionality is there, I used to be the shammy tank the water strider in BC Lady Vashj, Frost shock held plenty aggro. I can see a place where maybve we can serve as a proper OT with astral shift and ascendance, Erath Wall totem, Erathan elemental.
Call it the “Earthen Defenders last stand build” or something. A temporary state with proper talents selected. Once the need has passed the shaman transitions back to thier main role.
No…the concept of support classes and specs did exist…it existed in Vanilla, locked away behind old and outdated game mechanics.
Just because Augmentation uses new and flashy playstyles, doesn’t mean that Shaman and Paladin weren’t playing support classes in Vanilla/Classic.
All they did for augmentation was adapt to the modern idea of supports provided by other MMOs.
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