[Official] Legion Shaman Class Preview & Discussion

[Volitar]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/199...man-11-10-2015

DISCUSS

This is now the official location for Legion Shaman discussion. I'll update this as new information comes out. -Blithe

[Prankish]

Elemental

Certain shaman have dedicated themselves above all else to forging a deep bond with the elements. They have peered beyond the Elemental Plane, gleaning visions of an ancient past where manifestations of volatile energies once raged unimpeded across primordial Azeroth. Through careful study and dedication, the elemental shaman is able to channel such power into destructive magical surges. Through the body of the shaman flows bolts of lightning, as if from storm, and bursts of fire, as if from molten earth. They manipulate the land itself and summon spirits of earth, fire, and storm to their aid. To battle an elemental shaman is to taunt the very forces of nature.

"Through the body of the shaman flows bolts of lightning, as if from storm, and bursts of fire, as if from molten earth"

Gameplay

Elemental Shaman already have a strong, thematic ability repertoire. We’re retaining much of that existing gameplay in Legion, while smoothing the rough edges. The previously mentioned switch to Maelstrom as a resource is most significant. Elemental Shaman will build Maelstrom through their Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, and Chain Lightning, and spend it on abilities like Shocks and Earthquake. This change also allows us to remove the cooldown on Shocks, since they instead compete for resources. Shock usage is now more flexible for Elemental Shaman, such as using more of their Maelstrom on Flame Shock to DoT multiple targets. Another notable change is the return of Elemental Overload as their Mastery; Molten Earth never lived up to our hopes, being too non-interactive and confusing.
To give you an idea of the Elemental Shaman in action, here’s a basic look at their core combat abilities:

Lightning Bolt
40 yd range, 2 sec cast
Fires a bolt of lightning at the target, dealing moderate Nature damage, and generating 15 Maelstrom.

Lava Burst
40 yd range, 2 sec cast, 8 sec cooldown
Hurl molten lava at the target, dealing strong Fire damage. If your Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will deal 50% additional damage. Generates 15 Maelstom.

Flame Shock
0 to 20 Maelstrom, 45 yd range, Instant
Sears the target with fire, causing minor Fire damage and then an additional minor Fire damage every 2 sec. Lasts 10 to 30 sec based on Maelstrom spent.

Earth Shock
10 to 100 Maelstrom, 45 yd range, Instant
Instantly shocks the target with concussive force, causing massive Nature damage, based on Maelstrom spent.

Lava Surge
Passive
Your Flame Shock damage over time has a chance to reset the cooldown of Lava Burst and cause your next Lava Burst to be instant.

Mastery: Elemental Overload
Grants a 40% (with Mastery from typical gear) chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target that causes 75% of normal damage and Maelstrom generation, and no threat.

Additionally, to provide a glimpse at how some talents may build upon this, here’s one example of an Elemental-specific talent:

Maelstrom Totem
40 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
Summons a Maelstrom Totem near the target for 15 sec that repeatedly attacks an enemy within 30 yards for moderate Nature damage. Every time the Maelstrom Totem attacks, it will generate 5 Maelstrom for you.

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My Analysis:

Seems like they moved fulmination into this Maelstrom resource and reverted our old Mastery. Im also guessing we will have an idle level of 20 Maelstrom, much like Demo Lock demonic Fury, so that our opening FS isn't terrible.

The FS change essentially means we use 4 fulmination charges to re-apply it which I'm guessing won't be an issue as it looks like we will be generating Maelstrom quite quickly(compared to fulmination charges). If I try to compare it to the current system, LB and LvB will both be consistently generating 3 Fulmination charges with the chance of Mastery Proccing for 5.25. With that in mind im guessing the basic rotation will feel a lot like it did back in MoP, where shocks will be cast more often.

With a talent like Maelstrom Totem I cant see our rotation being quite interesting.

With the following quote:

spend it on abilities like Shocks and Earthquake

Im assuming EQ will no longer be dependent on CL buffs which makes me think that we may be able to have EQ's waiting for adds to spawn.

[Seezer]

SWEET! ELE is getting old multistrike mastery back! WOOT!

[Sticknsquirt]

Placeholder

[Deleted]

Phwoaaaaaar

[Taeldorian]

Wow, finally, shocks don't have a shared CD. They even one upped that and made it so no shocks even have a CD. That's some nice shit already.

[blaqkmagick]

Totems are less horrible! Yayy!!
Shocks no longer share cooldowns! Yayy!!
Elemental Overload is back! Yayy!!

Only read elemental so far but yayy!!!

[DeiVias]

Color me unimpressed.

But maybe that's just my natural shaman pessimism.

[Tyze]

Beautiful! Absolutly beautiful!

[Gardiff]

The only resto change (kind of expected really) - not sure how to feel about the new talent thing. It almost feels like a wider light of dawn, but we have no idea what the cone is. Reality is it feels like it is reinforcing the stack niche yet again unless if the arc is incredibly wide and the range is incredibly far (I think the latter is unlikely).

To me it sounds like what the second boss in iron docks does with his fire wall in some ways. I guess we will see on beta for sure but it doesn't really make sense just from the words alone why they would give that as it doesn't fit much.

[Tyze]

Insane!! Great changes, no cooldown on shocks! Old mastery!!! HYPED!

Lets just hope now that Lava Burst deals the damage it should again!

Edit: I think I withdraw a bit of my hype lol..

[Seezer]

Placeholder

Nothing about that feels like placeholders. Those are some pretty solid changes.

[Thrif]

So Shamans finally gets a new resource type and not just a non-factor mana resource. Resto was already one of my fav speccs, but I had problems with Ele and Ench being pretty boring to play. Really glad for these changes, might look into maining a Shaman again.

EDIT: Oh right and Elemental Overload (aka best mastery EVER) is back again! YAY!

[Volitar]

There are almost 0 changes for Resto except for wanting to dial down the aoe healing and buff single target healing..of which I am very skeptical of. Holy Paladin mastery is changed to "Mastery: Lightbringer: Proximity to your target causes your spells to heal for up to 30% (with Mastery from typical gear) more." which makes it look like they are going to take our place as king of stacked aoe healing.

[Putin-Chan]

They got rid of some of what was wrong with the current elemental (hint, hint, uselessness in PvP) but didn't really add anything new, honestly, these changes could have been implemented as quality of life changes for 6.2.

I'm not upset or anything, there's just not really anything to hype over, honestly, my main gripes are based on numerical issues and problems not attached to the core gameplay of Elemental.

Also I'm happy to see an equal balance of lightning and fire in Blizzard's description of elemental, I would have rerolled if this became fire mage 2.0.

[Tyze]

Thralls ulti in HoTS for Enhancement!

[Seezer]

Insane!! Great changes, no cooldown on shocks! Old mastery!!! HYPED!

Lets just hope now that Lava Burst deals the damage it should again!

Yeah, shaman can finally multidot properly.

- - - Updated - - -

They got rid of some of what was wrong with the current elemental (hint, hint, uselessness in PvP) but didn't really add anything new...

New resources system, Maelstrom totem. Blizz is seeming like they're less and less interested in creating new abilities and talents going on. I don't agree with this, I enjoy getting new abilities to play with, but it seems like this is what is going to happen.

[TheWhiteFang]

Sundering sounds really dope!

Also, getting Elemental Overlord is so amazing to have! Makes me curious about Multistrike though

[Jibberjabber]

Lava Burst doesn't mention that it always crits.......

[Andyclan]

Cool. Cant wait to see what else is in store for the sham class