My background
- I am mostly PvP player, but I do also a lot of collecting. I am very interested in various diverse design playstyle and I like this about games in general. While I mostly PvP I judge this from how it feels and not only for PvP viability. That said, it is my background so I share it so you know.
Overall Feeling
no 3-point nodes FEELS GREAT!
- as far as I can see there are no 3 point nodes in Restoration nor in Shaman tree. That feels incredible
- having 3-point talent nodes feels incredibly bad and it should generally be removed from all the other trees that suffer from it
old fun spells returning
- it’s great we have now option to pick Nature’s Swiftness, it’s a spell that Shamans lacked, especially in PvP, relying too much on hard casts and thus being unviable or underperforming most of the times… this might help a bit at times
- Gust of Wind is another fun spell that is returning, that is also incredible, being able to choose to have mobility as a form of survival (currently Shamans are weak defensively, at least in PvP and mobility is great way to buff it while not necessarily make it broken)
relatively free routing feels very good
- compared to some class and specs tree, Restoration and Shaman trees are relatively free in terms of player choices - meaning a lot of talent nodes are interconnected, so players have decent amount of option to avoid stuff they don’t want
class over spec is FUN (rich CLASS TREE)
- few fun stuff like Thunderstorm and Lightning Lasso, which were available only to Elemental, will now be available to Restoration as well, it’s really great to have option to choose it to do damage
- it has to be said however, that Enhancement route will be mostly avoided by both Elemental and Restoration
some badly placed talent nodes and PRUNNING however suck
- Frost Shock was very fun when it returned and now we have to pick it? that doesn’t feel that good, especially with where it’s placed, Earthgrab Totem is also placed in a very weird spot, being required by some talents that people might want to avoid
- having to spend point to pick Hex also doesn’t feel that good
mandatory AoE spells suck
- Chain Heal and Chain Lightning as the first nodes doesn’t feel good, it feels bad to have to pick these spells, that we will never use in the mode we play, while losing different ones we would want. It goes directly against player’s agency over what he wants to play with, being forced into picking button, he will not even put on action bar.
Shaman Tree
I made a visual (picture) explaining it on the tree.
First section
- Chain Heal (1/1) is a huge problem. It’s required point as a Restoration but goes directly against player’s agency. I don’t know how it’s used in PvE (I didn’t use it in PvE myself, when I was doing M+ in BFA). In PvP however YOU NEVER PRESS THIS SPELL EVER . It feels super-bad to have to have this as baseline when it’s exactly the spell you may not want. If the point of talent trees is to be able to choose what I want and not pick what I don’t want, then Chain Heal is badly placed. Healing Stream Totem (1/1) probably would’ve been more reasonable there.
- Maelstrom Weapon (1/1) is currently absolutely irrelevant for both Elemental and Restoration, it should probably be redesigned to something that feels more relevant to these specs (although being Enhancement themed). Probably even swap places with Surging Shields?
- Frost Shock (1/1) feels very badly placed. To pick Frost Shock, Chain Lightning is requirement. It suffers from the same thing as Chain Heal - it’s completely irrelevant to some playstyles and some people may want to avoid it. Chain Lightning does nothing in single target is straightforward dps loss over Lightning Bolt. Frost Shock however is single target spell. They should probably swap places or Chain Lightning should be put somewhere else. Having AoE spell as a must pick on talent is generally bad idea. Currently Frost Shock feels inaccessible to Restoration and that feels bad.
- Flurry (1/1) is also irrelevant to both Elemental and Restoration and should rather be changed to something relevant. This should probably be made baseline for Enhancement.
Second section
- Hex (1/1) should be probably moved somewhere to first section, it feels to deep in the tree.
- Generally the nodes around Capacitator Totem, Earthgrab Totem, Hex, Tremor Totem and Purge don’t feel good… some of them are mandatory when you want to continue further and all of them are situational.
- Improved Lightning Bolt (2/2) is very bad talent. It’s very deep into the tree, it’s very costly and it is just flat % damage increase to Lightning Bolt. It’s not interesting.
- Gust of Wind (1/1) is currently too costly and could very well do being swapped with Winds of Al’Akir
- Winds of Al’Akir (2/2) should not only be swapped with Gust of Wind, but probably also tweaked a little so it scales for each totem, instead of just being condition if there are 3+ totems. I think 2% per totem instead of 7% if there are 3 or more totems increase to speed bonus sounds reasonable. This talent btw doesn’t feel bad as 2-pointer, because it has two combined effects and is quite interesting (although being simple). It feels bad however that it’s hard-requirement for Gust of Wind.
- Earthgrab Totem / Wind Rush Totem requiring either Capacitator Totem+ buffed version of Capacitator Totem or passive flat bonus (Ancestral Defense) feels bad. Maybe Capacitator Totem and Earthgrab / Wind Rush should swap places (and of course then Capacitator and Static Charge should swap places as well).
Third section
- Surging Shields (2/2) could be placed higher up, and not so far in the bottom.
Restoration Tree
- it feels way better than the first iteration, and even that feels above average, great job
First section
- great!
Second section
- Torrent (2/2) probably should be buffed or shouldn’t be 2-pointer. 20% for 2 points talent doesn’t feel particularly great or interesting.
Third section
- maybe some capstones should be changed? currently most of them are AoE or buff AoE abilities, to me only Ascendance currently seem powerful, but at the same time this offers me more choices if I want to go only for one capstone, so not sure if that should be changed.
I spend a lot of time writing this and elaboritng it as well as condensing it, to be more readable. Hopefully it wasn’t wasted.
What’s your opinion? Do you share mine?