Our Hybrid Siblings always get the attention

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Both not really mind shattering changes that gave depth to the elemental spec.
Elemental is without doubt one of the most simple and basic rotations in the game at the moment.
Frankly the rotation is largely the same since Vanilla. We basically got Lave Burst extra (which was a great addition) and Fulmination was a rather band-aid'ish way to force shocks in.
Most other caster classes have either: a) A special kind of resource, b) Interesting cooldowns that change the rotation, c) Simply more decision making that offers an added skill level.

I agree that Elemental is simpler than some other classes, but I don't nessesarily see that as a bad thing. It allows me to focus on other portions of the fight, especially as a Raid Leader, but fair enough, I wouldn't be against something to make it a bit more complex. I think this is something that our Fire Totems could work to accomplish as I really don't like how they work currently.

Mostly fixes to bring them on par with other classes. Enhancement is an extremely messy spec with a lot of clutter. On one hand that gives it its charm, but at the same time it lacks focus. Its not like most other melee classes where this is this coherent feeling between skills. Enhancement is mostly just juggling.


Healing Rain is nice, but it's basically ALL we have seen over the last 3 expansions. And it pushed resto even more into the niche of stacked AoE healing than it already was. We're so slammed into that niche in fact that there is little else we do well. A spread out raid is an absolute healing nightmare for a resto shaman.

I'm going to stop commenting on Enhance, because its the one I know the least of the three. All I'm going to say is it has had change, and whilst it needs more, it certainly hasn't remained the same forever.

Resto has always suffered this issue, and I'm pretty sure Blizzard have commented on it too, saying that they are okay with this niche. Some fights really are a struggle for Resto Shaman, and others are great for us. I think this is something that they could address with the talent trees, it seems like something exactly like the talents are for. Replace Condensation Totem with something like 'all overhealing is split among the X most damaged party members for the duration' or something rather than one huge mostly-overheal spell. That would be nice, even if it was just a cooldown.

We have the smart heals, but they're gutting those (which I frankly don't really disagree with) without any compensation other than "we'll buff some numbers". Buffing numbers never truly fixed a class and is yet another expansion of running behind on facts, just bandaid on bandaid fix attempt to help a class that needs changes at its core.

I'm still waiting to see where they take this. I got the feeling from the tweets that they are going to make this okay, so I'm watching this space.

...snip... talent tiers... snip...

Mobility Tier - I don't think we have a 'mobility' tier. It is a CC tier. I'm not sure if we need a mobility tier at all, but if we do it is what the Totem tier should be replaced with. Maybe something that provides mobility for our totems? Totemic Projection (move totems and yourself - blink - 1+ minute cooldown - should definitely be longer than Blink is), Totemic Levitation (terrible name, but your totems move with you, still destructible but float next too you? You get a passive movement speed buff. Could maybe be a toggled effect, though that might make it OP if when you toggled it on your totems teleported too you, not sure? Maybe just keep it always on and you make your totems weaker because they are now always in LoS to be killed in PvP), Totemic Propulsion (every time you place a totem you receive a large burst of speed for X seconds - for when you don't care about moving your totems just yourself). Just spitballing.

I don't think shaman talents are as bad as people make them out to be. But I do feel like they miss a bit of spice that some other classes have on theirs. I also feel like the talents don't alter too much about the class itself. Rotation doesn't change up much (if at all),
And to be frank I think other classes have their talents be much more situational specific as well, which is a thing I like.

When I look at shaman talents from a PvE PoV. Tier 2, 3 and 5 are almost set in stone, because there is either the illusion of choice (5), or the whole line being irrelevant/lackluster (2 and 3). Sure there is the situational fight where you'd want an AoE earthgrasp or a windwalk totem, but they have been limited in MoP.
Tier 6 scales too much by gear level rather than being preference or encounter specific (IMO). Tier 4 suffers slightly from the same issue as tier 5 where certain talents seem to cater to specific specs too much. Tier 1 on the other hand is great, there are a lot of fights where I'd wanna swap between Astral Shift or Stone Bulwark Totem, and this tier offers some variety. I just wish they updated Nature's Guardian a bit. That threat reduction has been there since TBC and has been rather ridiculous; add something slightly more useful and this would be a better option for those random damage spikes.

I think this 'illusion of choice' as you say is very true. But I also think that the mechanics of the abilities are not the issue, just the scaling of them, at least for the throughput tiers and offhealing tiers. Tier 2 I think is 100% niche, which is fine imo.