(If anyone can help me because I can’t insert images and it becomes difficult to follow the text. Thank You)
The whole presentation is here-> https: //ibb. co/w4w6Twp
I have been reading about the Shaman Tank on the forums for a long time but, maybe I am wrong, I have never seen an elaboration on it. Today, there is the Shaman Tank on Discovery but there is still no confirmation from Blizzard that something similar will be implemented on Retail.
The time may be ripe for the fourth Shaman specialization and I hope to be able to give a starting point. I have never played tanks so the numbers you will see may be under or oversized, forgive me.
The starting point is the name of the specialization: Warden. I chose this name to connect a bit to the Druid (our cousin who already has four specializations) and because the mission of the Shaman Tank should be to keep the (restless) elements at bay and ally with them to protect Azeroth. So from now on I will call him that!
I rework the Shaman talent tree to try to make it little more flexible and eliminate some of the hassles of achieving important talents. I also thought about grouping together the skills that are of the same type better. I think it’s much more organized this way and players can focus on what they really want to achieve.
I think Wind Shear and Earth Elemental should be base spells. This change is well suited to the introduction of the new talent “Furious Land” but above all because I believe that interrupt is a fundamental basic ability.
I think Reincarnation needs to be changed because it’s a bit clunky. Negates a death, but it does so with many non-enjoyable flaws, and very few upsides. The drawback of wasting active CDs and Buffs is already a huge loss more often than not. It just making it reset on pull would don’t make it overpower.
The Astral Bulwark is never considered. If it had the effect of being usable while stunned, it could find its niche, perhaps in PvP.
The changes to Elemental Resistence were made because it is a completely situational specific talent but, when needed, it needs to be easily usable to make sense. Adding it to Earth Shield’s healing makes it easily obtainable and nerfing it a bit makes it less important to have but you’ll want to have it anyway.
I changed Hex because after the pruning of the two-point talents, I found inappropriate to have two points to spend for such an unnecessary CC except in PVP or in niche situations. Bind Elemental talent is thematic, for Shamans, to add a CC about elemental creatures. Like Warlock with Demons.
The Furious Land talent was added to bring the Earth Elemental CD up to par with its cousins (Fire/Storm). A 2,5 minute CD is still long and therefore does not incur unbridled use.
I changed Creation Core because it was overshadowed by Call of the Elements and therefore a dead talent. Now this talent becomes an additional option to help Shamans with resource generation.
I added Haze Totem, a new totem. I have introduces a new utility, it was previously exclusive to the Rogue. Just like Wind Totem competes with Stampeding Roar, the new Haze Totem will also compete with Shroud of Concealment. Haze is a fixed point that hides anyone inside it for a certain radius while Shorud moves with the user. So Haze is a nerfed version of Shroud. Totems should be able to copy the abilities of other classes but in a more awkward way.
The Mastery might seem a bit cumbersome but my goal is to give Warden the need to use all the available elements. So I came up with the idea that each element could strengthen a different defensive stats.
The Warden’s gameplay is to alternate the damage spells (Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst) needed to accumulate Maelstrom to launch the spenders (Earth Shock and Earthquake) with those useful for maintaining aggro on the targets (Rockbiter and Stormstrike).
Warden can then choose different paths:
- enhance the Earth Elemental that helps him maintain aggro in situations with various additions and allows him to obtain additional shields;
- enhance the passive effect of the shields (Lightning Shield and Earth Shield) to do more damage and receive additional healing;
- use various Totems to have access to abilities useful for protecting allies or spreading DoT and damage on the targets (the PvP talents that have now passed to the Warden, will then have to be replaced with new abilities);
- also use a whole branch (Barricade of Fire, Flame Mastery, Primordial Wave and Splintered Elements) linked to Flame Shock to deal damage and increase block change;
- enhance Stormstrike or Earth Shock/Earthquake to obtain additional effects based on the situation.
Warden also has three spells (Shamanistic Rage, Stoneburst Resurgence and Elemental Barrier) in addition to Ascendance, to mitigate damage in dangerous situations.
Other utilities that could be considered are:
- Furious Totem and Resurgence (on Reincarnation’s effect) that, based on the situation, come to the aid of the Warden in case he should die. The first offers a totem that aggro targets, if Reincarnation is not available, until the Warden is ressed by an ally, while the second forces the use of Reincarnation and creates a pool that heals him and up to 4 allies in the area;
- On Feral Lunge there are Feral Swap which adds the ability to help an ally mitigate damage and Feral Quake which adds a small AoE.
The last ability is Tempest Beam which, is inspired by Chain Harvest, useful for dealing damage and healing allies.
That’s all, I hope you appreciate the effort and love I put into this class that I love so much.
