And Telaryn shall answer
A lot of people have gone over the druidism side of things in this thread so I won’t touch on that anymore as I don’t have much to add. Everything would be just me repeating what others have said. I’ll address some shaman points though.
Like this is inaccurate.
Through out the Thrall novels, the importance of the Spirit of Life is constantly mentioned, and shaman have pure Spirit based healing -- in fact, it's the type of healing that is constantly being favoured in novels over water.
The slice in his side demanded attention. Thrall placed ahand over the wound, asking for healing. His hand glowed softly, tingling with warmth, and the wound closed beneath it. He removed his robe, rinsed it clean of blood in the stream, bundled it up in his pack, and had just finished shrugging into a fresh robe when voices came to him.
Thrall took a deep breath, exhaled, and then stumbled to the side before sitting down heavily. The pain of the battle and the fall surged forward, and Thrall felt a small smile creep across his face as he realized, in this moment, that he hurt very badly indeed. He closed his eyes, asked for healing, and felt an answering warmth seep through his body. He was exhausted and still hurting, but he had tended to the worst, and he would survive.
But why use water at all then? The Shaman class quests from vanilla show more insight into that. I can’t quote all the quests here because otherwise I’ll run out of space and have to make a second post, but the biggest takeaway from the questline is that water = life. All life revolves around water, no matter how scarce it is. You travel to different ecosystems across Azeroth to observe how life nourishes in the presence of water, and how its abundance forces wild life to act differently in order to preserve it.
To find understanding and gain the sapta from me, you must seek out only the purest forms of water. As you fetch the samples for me, take note of your surroundings. Be aware of the creatures that rely on the water, that protect it. See how it affects forests and deserts. Witness how the very substance that sustains life will force creatures to take lives.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Call_of_Water_(3)
Water is pivotal to life, and when a shaman heals using water they’re releasing its rich life-giving energies to use as healing.
If one were to really overly simplify shaman into its very barebones definition, it’s someone who can form bonds with other spirits.
In Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, the Earthen Ring uses spirit links between shaman to coordinate their efforts as one.
There were dozens of them, standing alone, or in pairs or small groups on the slippery skerries, trying to stay on their feet on the bucking, shuddering earth. Their arms were lifted in gestures of both command and pleading. Though not linked physically, they were joined on a spiritual level, eyes shut, deep in the working of a healing spell.
The shaman were attempting to soothe the elements of the earth, as well as encouraging them to help heal themselves. True, it was the elements who were harmed, and the shaman who were not, but the elements had more power than the shaman. If the earth could be calmed long enough to remember this, it would be able to draw upon its own vast power. But the earth, the stones and the soil and the very bones of Azeroth, also wrestled with another wound: betrayal.
And shaman show an ability to call upon the Spirit of Life to strengthen themselves much like a Monk does with their chi (which in of itself is just the Spirit of Life within themselves).
His body was healed but still deeply chilled, and he
knew his movements would be too slow to defend himself without aid.Spirit of Life, help me, that I may defeat this foe who should not live and that I may carry your visions to those who must know of them!
Warmth flooded through him, gentle yet powerful, granting vigor and suppleness to his limbs. Dimly, Thrall was aware that even his clothing had somehow dried. Energy, sharp and soothing both, strengthened him. He did not question, merely accepted gratefully.
A shaman is connected to all life around them through the Spirit of Life.
Thrall couldn’t breathe.
He was overwhelmed by the power churning within and without him. Forcing his eyes to open, he saw pale white shapes swirling about him. One was a wolf, the other a goat, another an orc, and a human, and a deer. He realized that every living thing had spirits, and felt despair rise up in him at the thought of having to sense and control all of them.
But faster than he could have dreamed, the spirits filled and then vacated him. Thrall felt pummeled by the onslaught, but forced himself to try to focus, to address each one with respect. It became impossible and he sank to his knees.
A soft sound filled the air, and Thrall struggled to lift a head that felt as heavy as stone. They floated calmly around him now, and he knew that he had been judged and found worthy. A ghostly stag pranced about him, and he knew that he would never simply be able to bite into a haunch of venison without feeling its Spirit, and thanking it for the nourishment it provided. He felt a kinship with every orc that had ever been born, and even the human Spirit felt more like Taretha’s sweet presence than Blackmoore’s dark cruelty.
Everything was bright, even if sometimes it embraced the dark; all life was connected, and any shaman who tampered with the chain without the utmost care and respect for that Spirit was doomed to fail.
Big agree.
The druid vs shaman thing isn’t really meant to be a competition because while they’re both two sides of the same coin and they often overlap, their duties as per their class ideologies focus on different things. But life is complex and never so simply that it can be divided into binaries.
The shaman are in their own way incredibly connected to the world around them. In some ways even more so than a druid, because shaman are always one with the world after they bind their spirit to it. According to the shaman class quests from Vanilla, they literally become one with it, and not just on a spiritual level.
A sapta is a drink created to bind our spirits to the elements. Fused with magic, the potion will allow the strong willed to see the elements as no one else can. Your spirit will be connected to the element the sapta was created for, and only a select few shaman know the recipe.
Bound together in body and spirit, you will go forward knowing that the mountains are your strength; the plains, your patience; and the world itself your essence.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Call_of_Earth_(Durotar_2)
Sources:
- Lord of the Clans
- Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
- Call of the Water
- Call of the Earth
Also how cool is that formatting? 