I see Blizzard has chosen for the Enhancement Shaman to go through the conventional dual wield (tbc/wrath) route. But I (and others mentioned this as well) believe the Enhancer fighting dual wielded is not line with the actual vanilla Enhance Shaman, and that dual wield does not fit the class fantasy of Shaman that well. Shamans are wise, strong, patient, and in touch with nature. They are calculated and move with intent, when you look at Thrall or the Tauren Chieftain you get the idea. Dual Wielding is not their style at all. What characterizes Enhanced in Vanilla is their BIG windfury hits, and insane burst potential. I know dual wield was originally introduced to fix the problem of enhance having ridiculous burst dmg and no sustained dps, and it did fix this problem. But I think a better solution for Season of Discovery is to actually steer for faster 2h weapon swings. Hitting faster but not as hard, basically the same idea as dual wield but in a more fitting manner. Lets get into my idea of achieving this, and more.
Enhancement Shamans in current Classic era have Windfury weapon procs with Stormstrike as their main source of damage. Windfury has no internal cooldown or max procs per minute like Seal of Command does and therefore does not increase dps with either slower or faster weapons. So there is no objective downside of having faster weapon swings in PVE, more weapon hits means more procs. So if we steered Enchanced shamans to faster melee hits with 2h-weapons the dps would remain the same but less bursty in nature, that way we can actually add a new spell to the rotation without having to risk the Enhancer to one shot anyone with the right RNG. This new spell I would like to see introduced is proc based, proc based means one would actually want to have faster hits to be able to get more procs.
Lets call the proc attack Elemental Calling for now, here is how it would work:
Any 2h-Axe or Mace would get a normalized speed of 2.5. I have thought about not adding this mechanic, but not having normalized speed would lock you into only using very fast 2h weapons, and by doing so you would miss out on Sulfaras, Hand of Ragnaros or Might of Menethil, and other iconic weapons, and we don’t want that. On the other hand, not having a speed restriction combined with the soon to be explained ability would force down-tuning the ability into oblivion to reduce one shot risks. So lets get into the actual ability.
When a 2h-weapon attack procs this effect one of the following abilities become available:
If flame shock was the last shock spell used: Elemental Calling strikes the target inflicting fire dmg, and leaving a flaming consecrated floor around the target at 15/20 yards wide, dealing a lot of fire dmg per tick. (Like a fire consecration). (aoe flavour)
If Frost Shock was the last shock spell used: Elemental Calling would do frost dmg and leave the target frozen and stunned for 2-3 seconds. (basically frost mage’s Deep Freeze/Freezing Band proc). (pvp/utility flavour)
If Earth Shock was the last shock spell used: Elemental Calling would do nature dmg and adds a Chain Lightning/(Thunderfury animation also an option) effect hitting 2 additional targets. (cleave/burst flavour)
It would be cool to not add a time window for the strike to be used, I think planning these abilities and bringing them to your next battle for the perfect opener adds an extra layer of gameplay in both pvp/pve (Altough the actual proc could be dispelled by a smart priest?). The damage should be calculated based on atk power as well as + damage and healing to promote the Hybrid nature of Shaman. Probably a bit skewed to atk power to avoid the risk of Enhanced Shamans running around in mage robes.
Additional thoughts:
I think there are several reasons why this one mechanic would open up so much for Enhanced Shamans, while staying very close to the class fantasy and nature of Classic Vanilla while adding flavor and some nuance to the spec:
Firstly, a LOT of weapons which are regarded as garbage in Classic Era would instantly become really good like Fiery War Axe, Brain Hacker, or Treants Bane from DM, to name a few.
Secondly, adding a spell damage oriented attack to Enhance would add a lot of value to some beloved Shaman gear that are currently seen as “not meta”: tier 0.5, tier 2 and tier 2.5. Not to mention all the unique items combining melee stats with damage and healing.
Lastly, An Enhance Shaman wearing spell damage and healing will feel more like a true Hybrid. Having less trouble healing or casting a spell from a far without running oom after 2 casts or hit like a wet noodle.
I think the abilities mentioned above would be easy to program, would not be any more game breaking than the runes added in now ;), and would open up completely new builds and play styles. Most of all, it would return shaman to the elemental warlord swinging a 2handed weapon and raining down flames, frost and thunder on his enemies.
If you think this idea is lame, that’s fine just count this as a vote for the 2h Enhanced Shaman camp.
