This comes from a main and only Elemental shaman player who raided in mythic and did high keys since MoP.
The class is already a tank. All the spells and abilities should be modified a bit and the there is going to be an amazing new specialization which will add a great niche to the game since we ALREADY have pure blood dpsers (hunter/rogue/mage/wlock) and a new tank is always welcome to the game. Also elemental shaman is rarely a meta class and not a popular option among groups for high end content since it lacks survivability cooldowns.
Ideology:
Elemental shaman enters the state of primordial earth elemental changing form / or enhancing the his body with permanent ‘‘rock’’ parts from the earth elementals body.
Use of earthquake as a crowd control spell (similar to thunderclap)
Use of slows, stuns and passive heals.
Flametongue weapon and lightning shield modified to benefit tanking role.
Ascendance (enter a state of full primordial elemental become immune to ccs and reducing damage taken)
And many many more fun abilities to tweak and adjust.
Elemental shaman has become a pain with out original role in the game. Any mage or warlock or hunter or rogue can bring much more in the game.
This would be my preference. Call it Earth Warden perhaps.
Back in TBC I used to be (sort of) able to tank normal dungeons. My main issue was lack of taunt, Frost Shock used to be high aggro (I think) but holding aggro was an issue.
I think there is scope to add 4th specs to a lot of classes (probably better than adding new classes at this stage).
Swashbuckler dodge-tank rogue.
Shockadin ranged paladin.
Necormancer mage.
Drain Life Warlock Healer.
Enhancement is a lorebound specialisation. Doomhammer has a sould in the game.
However, elemental specialisation does not have a niche in game or lorewise, its just another semi dps / crowd control specialisation with horrible survivability.
Adding a fourth (4th) specialisation for the shaman though might actually work as good.
Well, to be honest i just see how much discrimination and lack of utility there is against ele shaman. I rarely get invites nowadays since i don’t have 16 hours a day to queue for m+ and therefore increase my RIO.
Main reason though is that no matter how much dmg the class can pull it will never have the survivability to go in end game content.
In all seriousness though, it should be 4th spec or enhancement. There’s already more melee than ranged specs in the game, we shouldn’t make the disbalance worse by removing a ranged spec to turn it into a tank.
This petition is a ‘‘last resort’’ for me. I had other forums back in legion explaining how much the class is lacking. Blizzard never helped and never changed anything. Damage can be there optimizing cds etc., however survivability and mobility are the main reasons i believe ele should be either get reworked or replaced.
Variety is reasonable and is of the biggest weapons of blizzard, however having an one legged class with just dmg output and lack of survivability / mobility makes no sense.
The class used to have lighting bolt casting while moving - REMOVED
The class had an amazing niche of totems - REMOVED
Healing cds are now TALENTS
The class used to have 1 damn leap / escape - REMOVED (Legion)
Playing mage is sick in terms of dmg / survivability and reward.
Maybe i should give up and play mage then (This is what most of the ele players say very often, even myself at times. However the class is in my heart and its what i have done all this time)
Its a post on the EU forums that wont be read by a Blizzard employee. Its extremely rare they visit.
Ele has a good amount of survivability (astral shift/earth ele in a pinch/self heals/re-incarn) and mobility (wind rush totem/ghost wolf/spirit walkers grace). Granted some are talents but its still there.
Also ele/sham in general has a bucket load of utility.
I haven’t really paid much attention since I hit KSM. But didn’t buffs during the 9.0.5 patch push Ele Shamans up into one of the top DPS slots?
Needless to say, I’d be more interested in seeing Blizz get creative and giving a cloth class a Tanking Spec. It could work for all 3 cloth classes.
I think it could be fun to see some Ball of light sheilds/Disc style Priest Tank, or some kind of super Battle Mage tank, or a Warlock using all of its warlock powers to control a demon tank (would be an interesting concept where the tank itself wouldn’t be the players character, but rather one of its pets under full control of the player.).
