That’s literally about 50% of the reasons why I drop it. And tanks love it when I get 2-3 aftershock procs. So yeah, it’s mitigation too.
I agree its mitigation as well, but it is not the primary reason it is dropped. Its primarily dropped for its aoe damage.
they could tank in any 5 man dungeon so leveling as a shaman tank you can do but as the raid meta go if they even have an enhancement shaman its for windfury totem and nightfall axe.
but enhancement can tank 5 mans the problem is people thinking they are good at it.
The purpose of all of the utility spells is to help stay alive, whether that’s through removing a debuff or providing CC, hence why I consider it defensive; again, that’s semantics; it’s just a difference of opinion, and neither is necessarily right or wrong.
Sunder is another ability that was added in legion (so 4 of 7 offensive abilities were all added in legion, when they refocused towards the roles a class has been able to fill), and it’s main use is damage, but it also provides utility with the incapacitate.
And I clarified that I would include utility spells as defensive. I split it up that way because that’s how you had done so. Again, the wording I used in the statement was poor, and should have just said something like “a majority of earth spells shaman have had are not offensive”. The debate over it is pointless, because it’s a matter of differing opinions that are neither objectively correct.
Rockbiter still generated threat all the way until legion. It was a 5% DR and +30% threat from Cata - WoD, and it has never been used primarily for the damage outside of early leveling; even now, it’s used mostly for the MS generation.
Earth shock had a DR/attack speed debuff from WoTLK - MoP, and was still an interrupt in TBC. For more time than not, it had defensive effects. The damage on it was pretty much in line with frost shock until they did some pruning in WoD and removed the secondary effect.
Again, I’m looking at the spells as they have been at any point in time, not as they currently are.
I didn’t say Earthquake was primarily used for the utility (It was added to a DPS spec in legion as the primary AoE; of course its primary purpose is DPS), just that it also had a utility/defensive effect attached to it - whether that’s the primary reason to drop it or not doesn’t matter - it fits both categories.
Regardless, there were a fairly large number of Shaman abilities that were tanking/defensive oriented in their design for more of WoW’s lifespan than not, about enough to make a real spec built around them, so making a tanking spec would be a relatively small amount of work for Blizzard (as far as creating a new class/spec is concerned), as it would only require 1-2 new animations/abilities (probably only 1: the earth ascendance form). Blizzard laid the groundwork for it in vanilla, then opted not to go through with it, which left a lot of shaman abilities basically unused for ~10 years until they were mostly removed outright or reworked in legion.
If shaman do get a tank spec, the most likely time for it would be the start of the next expansion or the one after.
Because once you got to a certain level, 40 i believe, rockbiter was replaced entirely. No one used once you had WF and Flametongue. It was a dead spell. So when people actually used it, it was used for damage.
You are also forgetting about fulmination that had stacks from lightning shield that unleashed large burst using Earth shock. In vanilla, earth shock was our larger shock, while frost was comparable, it was still larger and used to nuke when NS or EM into CL>ES.
But it does matter. It does matter why someone would primarily use and ability, regardless of other uses it can have. You can have ability have more than one use, but there is always a primary circumstance in which people would have a fair expectation of you to have it and use it.
Most people are familiar with these type of abilities, as many have been pruned. One that comes to mind is Ring of Peace that still exists.
You still left out Sundering, which if one were take your list wholeheartedly and accept it, would still have 7 offensive, 7 defensive, and 6 utility. Making your argument of there being more Defensive abilities, null and void.
Again, I love seeing another thread speaking put about or desire to tank on our Shamans. However, I think we all should voice our concerns and flesh more of this out on a single thread. I have my original thread right here
I mean it’s not the only one
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You can make a ‘bubble’ tank spec for Priests where the priest tanks with holy damage and prevents damage with absorb shields
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A ‘Bonded’ tank spec for Hunters that focuses on buffing their pet to tank and mitigate damage
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A ‘Brigadeer’ spec for Rogues that taunts and flourishes using dodge and parry to have DR
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Mages can do a ‘Timewarden’ spec to reduce incoming damage and generally manipulate enemies placement
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Warlocks can have a ‘Souleater’ spec that consumes their Demon to empower the Warlock to be able to tank in melee
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And of couse the Earthwarden for Shaman that uses the elemental power of Earth to buff and armor themselves.
This is a game with the only real limits to Spec and Class design being the limits of what the developers want to include. Personally I don’t think every class should tank, especially Mages and Priests, but it shouldn’t just be discounted because it’s strange.
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If it were up to me
Resto- water and ice specialist.
Ele- storm and wind because it’s flashy and we have enough fire mages and destros throwing fire around
Enh- earth and fire specialist and tank.
But they all draw a little on each other’s elements like they do now
Bump bump bump.
Bump so I can say no shaman tank spec again. Kthxbye.
never a tank is there to soak damage and enhancement get destroyed easy.
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They will if there’s demand for it, like the demand for demon hunters. Still wishing for it to come, nevermind the naysayers. Leave them to their b itching and let’s focus on hoping.
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Unfortunately for you, ill keep bumping on posts like these just to annoy you. And yeah, it costs me nothing to do so. Have fun.
Its always fun shooting down the idea of a shaman tank spec!
Enhancement is a fine spec as DPS, i will support the idea of a 4th tank spec, but send away that idea of crapping a fine DPS spec as it is enhancement by turning it into Tank
it will have a tank spec as long as people desire for it
The majority dont desire it.
Shaman tank support
So, do we have a tank spec yet?
As I’ve stated before, in the Maw, Thrall was Taunting, plus he was also using a 2H axe.