Enh wish list

[Omanley]

1. Daggers changed to swords for enhancement.
2. Being able to stack maelstrom procs above 5.
3. Changes to the fire nova mechanics. Unlink it from lava lash. Have fire nova apply a dot on the target if no dot is on the target.

4. Searing Flames proccing from melee attacks/strikes
5. Hex becoming instant for enhance
6. Elemental Brackets from Totems removed (earth/fire/water/wind totem concept scrapped)
7. Elemental Pets unlinked from totems
8. Searing and Magma Totem becoming 1 minute cooldowns with 15 second duration and quadrupled damage
9. Buff to SBT's absorb, as well as it becoming non-spealstealable and stacking
10. Totems getting more individual treatment (Grounding and Earthbind becoming unattackable for example, damage totems, SBT and CPT (ST/MT) having increased health, some totems usable while silencend (grounding, tremor...) etc.)
11. CPT down to 3 sec charge up, glyph lowers to 1 second
12. Imbue swapping is off the global cooldown
13. Rockbiter removed, dmg absorb backed into other survivability talents as buffs (unless there'll be warden)
14. A gap closer. Either our Feral Spirit's leap, causing us and (if active at the moment) our wolves to leap at the target. OR reduce Spiritwalk to 15second cd or so, reducing sprint to 5 seconds, providing 3 second freedom from movement impairing effects
15. An actual "O shit!"-button that works like a battle reset against teams which would othewhise just pop all their cooldowns and drain you from beginning to end. A bubble/ice ice block/deterrence like ability would be an option, but:
I actually think that this could be provided by OP's idea of windwalk (as a new, seperate ability maybe, minus the crit thing, or make it a guaranteed spell crit instead). The drained shaman would "vanish" for a few seks, healing himself back up and reengage. Would be a nice way to get out of trouble, more so than an engage ability. Also it would fit shamans nicely, with the spirit theme and everything
16. A seperrate cooldown for frostshock, with the damage removed
17. The dmg bonus to LL from FT is backed into the ability baseline. Searing Flames will either provide no longer any damage to FT, or will also do so for FB. The magical damage bonus from FT will now also be provided by FB.
18. UE:FB, instead of applying a 70% snare when target is already snared, will apply a 3 second stun.
19. Some sort of recource. It doesn't have to be energy, focus, rage or runic power or something like that. Something along the lines of rets and moonkins would be nice...maybe enhance msw's influence on the enh game play, interweave it with searing power even, to make a fire and a lightning phase, similar to druids' sun/moon phases? Would be nice to have something along those lines, affected by haste.
20. A finisher ability for pvp, also allowing for catching up on low hp phases in boss fights
examples:
Primal Strike: Avaiable on targets at 25% health or lower on a 8(?)second cooldown, dealing 700% mainhand weapon damage (random number). Also avaiable when one of your melee hits is blocked, dodged, or parried. Cant be blocked then, but deals only half damage and has a 12 second cooldown then.
Fang of Neltharion: Pierce your target with a sharp, solid spike of rock, dealing 700% weapon damage. 30y range. Only used on targets with 25% health or lower. Cooldown 8 seconds.
random hp/cooldown/range/damage numbers
21. More frost. There's far to less of it.

...would be my continuation of the list

[Klone]

Nice feed back! I like to read the spells that other players design they are very interesting. I guess there are many more issues than I had originally imagined. Thank you for contributing.

[Ankhy]

1. Make windfury proc a cleave effect, much like chain lightening.
2. Make windfury hit harder or more often below 20%.
3. Make 2 hander viable again.
4. Change rockbiter to something useful.

[Deleted]

what i think enhance could really need, both defensive as offensive is the next ability:

Bend Earth: The caster summons a pillar (or wall) of earth out of the ground with 10% of the shamans max hp (3 yard radius) pushing any enemies back close to the shaman. lasts 30 seconds, 6 seconds if used in pvp ; or untill destroyed (1-2min cooldown)

can be placed like ring of frost, so the player decides where it stands.

this would be a great defensive cd vs burst and for example in between rogue stuns.
+ an additional interupt vs healers casters as many classes have, for example a dk can stun 5sec, silence, pet stun, grip and interupt...
shaman has wind shear and grounding-only offensive spells.. not usuable vs healing ... warriors have extra charges, (stun), rogues couge as additional interupt ... etc.

think about the possibilities, using it as a los for a healer whos healing his low hp party member for example, - bend earth - oh no!
its really shaman like and think it would give enh in particular alot more synergy and survivability. any thoughts?

[Deleted]

Cleansing totem returned, possibly in the same style as the way HST works now.
Chain lightning CD removed altogether, it's sooo annoying this tier. (esp. with AS)

[bleh bleh 420 bleh]

Enh shamans need every move in teh game just with a few lightning bolts thrown in right? No our spellset is fine how it is. I can agree on most of your points aside from the windwalk thing and the auto fear. Imagine how op groundign totem would become if it feared the attacker for 3 seconds after.

[Deleted]

Enh shamans need every move in teh game just with a few lightning bolts thrown in right? No our spellset is fine how it is. I can agree on most of your points aside from the windwalk thing and the auto fear. Imagine how op groundign totem would become if it feared the attacker for 3 seconds after.

This.
We don't need a "frost cleave", we are not Death Knights. We AoE with Lava Lash spreading and Fire Novas, with some CL weaving, it's our class style and one would imagine it's here to stay.

What I do think is stupid is LL still being a 12 second CD whilst we are AoE'ing, and they removed Fire Nova extending Flame Shock duration like in Firelands.

I'd personally argue that those are the main reasons our AoE feels clunky. Make Fire nova extend FS duration again so we don't refresh it, and give it like a 15% chance when it hits something to proc a LL cooldown reset so we can re-spread it faster. Do that Blizzard, and we can maybe forgive the dodgy 4 second cooldown on Fire Nova.

-- And if you're complaining about the shared shock cooldown and having to refresh Searing Totem, why the hell are you playing Shaman? stop, go home, you're drunk.

[Omanley]

-- And if you're complaining about the shared shock cooldown...why the hell are you playing Shaman? stop, go home, you're drunk.

With that argument, we'd still have our interrupt tied to the shared cooldown (old earth/wind shock).
Just because something's been around for a while doesn't mean it is class defining and perfect. Blizz got rid of all warrior stance restrictions on abilities (THAT, is class defining), which is on the level of completely overhauling totems. Shocks' shared cooldown is a minor thing in comparisson, and frankly, the design is garbage. At least Frost Shock should get a separate cooldown.

edit: we're also masters of all elements, including water/ice. Before blizz changed heals to water based, all shamans had in this regard were a few totems without visuals, Frost Shock and Frost Brand. It's not to much to ask for more frost based spells, especially with FrS and FB seeing no use in pve, and close to no use in pve (ele hindered by shared shock cooldown, fb only used by enh, and only because of UF:FB).
Maybe not a frost cleave, but at least something to fill gaps.

For ele I could imagine a frost based dot, or instant damage spell, for enh I could picture a cleave or something along those lines (primal strike on separate cd and dealing frost damage maybe?).

[Deleted]

1. AE reworked.
2. Tank spec cus rockbitter damage reduction, threat generation, unleash taunt and frost shock threat generator + Lv15 talents annoy me as hell without a tank spec.
3. Charges on shocks, like hand of guldan.
4. Swords. Every expac or every new patch all BS designs have daggers or swords and never agi maces/fists/axes. Also looks insane.
5. Change that retarded Elemental Blast and Conductivity.
6. Totems usable while silenced.
7. Capacitor, nuff said.

[Embermoon]

Why would it be illogical, its just a game machanic for the sake of loot distribuition, for futher point to this, have a picture of Drek'thar, shaman who taught Thrall:

And that's why Drek'thar lost. :P (jus' kiddin)

On topic: I really wish that fire nova to spread flameshock instead of lava lash

Totally agree, one-zillion percent.

I'd also prefer more sustained damage, with less dependence upon burst damage. If I don't pop my CDs on raid trash, I feel like a holy priest trying to dps. If I do pop them, I do more damage than anyone else. It's sorta crazy.

[Deleted]

With that argument, we'd still have our interrupt tied to the shared cooldown (old earth/wind shock).
Just because something's been around for a while doesn't mean it is class defining and perfect. Blizz got rid of all warrior stance restrictions on abilities (THAT, is class defining), which is on the level of completely overhauling totems. Shocks' shared cooldown is a minor thing in comparisson, and frankly, the design is garbage. At least Frost Shock should get a separate cooldown.

edit: we're also masters of all elements, including water/ice. Before blizz changed heals to water based, all shamans had in this regard were a few totems without visuals, Frost Shock and Frost Brand. It's not to much to ask for more frost based spells, especially with FrS and FB seeing no use in pve, and close to no use in pve (ele hindered by shared shock cooldown, fb only used by enh, and only because of UF:FB).
Maybe not a frost cleave, but at least something to fill gaps.

For ele I could imagine a frost based dot, or instant damage spell, for enh I could picture a cleave or something along those lines (primal strike on separate cd and dealing frost damage maybe?).

Whilst I'd agree Frost Shock on a separate CD could be a pragmatic change for the better since it is never used for its damage properties, I don't understand the rest of your complaints. If you follow through what you're saying to it's logical conclusion, you're arguing that you want Ele (already arguably the easiest spec in the game) made easier, and Enhancement given more buttons when it's already at bursting point...

The combined Shock cooldown is the only skill test that Elemental has - that, and reaction times. Remove that, and... well...

Frost Shock and Frostbrand are enough for stylistic spells, DPS as shaman is mainly based around the use of Fire. You're talking in stylistic terms, so let's match that - out of the four elements, Fire is the one that screams danger and damage, and that is why we use Fire coupled with one minor Earth spell to deal damage. Frost is far more CC orientated in concept (e.g. Frost mage), and even DK draws from the idea of an undead, disease PoV - Shaman does not really draw from much of that at all, we have Frost Shock for rooting and CC, and Earthbind (not a frost spell) is our AoE root. A DPS orientated frost attack for Shaman just doesn't make any sense.

and Primal Strike was added in Cata only for low levelling purposes in melee situations pre-level 10, admittedly it's useless but that's why it's there. Whilst I can't at hand source it, I'm fairly certain GC has said on Twitter that he doesn't think Enhc need more buttons, and also in the last week stated that there won't be any new resource systems added to any classes in the near future (should include 6.0). That suggests they are happy with the skillset we have, it just needs adjusting slightly for Enhancement's QoL, solving the clunkiness etc.

Overall, bare in mind that your hate for the shared cooldown is your own personal opinion, it's basically the core mechanic the spec has had since Vanilla (Lava Burst was added in WotLK), and again if you don't like the style of play that the class has, it's better you find the right class for you than chase a change that would affect the entire Shaman community, for better or worse after 8 years of it defining the way we deal damage. I think, for the above stated reasons, it would be for the worse.

EDIT:

I'd also prefer more sustained damage, with less dependence upon burst damage. If I don't pop my CDs on raid trash, I feel like a holy priest trying to dps. If I do pop them, I do more damage than anyone else. It's sorta crazy.

I think that's the idea behind the 5.3 buff for Enhc, it should equate to something like a 10% passive damage buff, at least on single target.

[Omanley]

The combined Shock cooldown is the only skill test that Elemental has - that, and reaction times. Remove that, and... well...

Well, there could always be new ways of ensuring a skill factor that is not overly limiting. Balancing FS/ES in pve seems fine to me, but in pvp I think it can be really horrible. Even assuming FrS on a separate cd to actually being able to kite for once, Having both of your main burst sources on a shared cooldown is kinda meh.
My main point was more on the "If you dont like this, dont play that" part, which, frankly, always ticks me off a little, as it negates the possibility of liking a class, but disliking parts of its design, or the direction it is going/not going.

Frost Shock and Frostbrand are enough for stylistic spells, DPS as shaman is mainly based around the use of Fire. You're talking in stylistic terms, so let's match that - out of the four elements, Fire is the one that screams danger and damage, and that is why we use Fire coupled with one minor Earth spell to deal damage.

I remember frost dks as more bursty than enh. Plus, frost in my mind is a very dangerous element. Also, fire was hardly used prior to wotlk. Without LL and Lvb, and enh going wf or in tbc wf/wf, it was almost eclusively wind for quite a while. And earth isn't much of a damaging element really. You shock them with earth? You shake the earth beneath their feet? What is nature damage supposed to indicate here? There's no actual rocks you are throwing at your enemies or something. Frost in the meanwhile sounds like something deadly. And while frost is often labeled as slowing, fire can disorient/cause uncontrollable flailing while burning alife, sounds like a pvp component. It's really only a matter of imagination. Impaling an enemy on a glacier spike sounds more deadly than anything.

I know for what they implemented Primal Strike, but I dont agree with it. They could've added SS as a 10 talent together with LL (what's it gonna do? break lvl 19 pvp?), and there you go, 100% redundant ability. It could've been some sort of overpower, a finisher ability, a heroic strike kinda thing to dump excessive mana/gap fill, there's many possibilities.

And I know that blizz is happy in the way they are ruining us, or deleaying reworks for that matter. Hunters got focus, rets got holy power, meanwhile we still run on cooldowns alone. Why should they be bothered doing for us what they did for everyone else?

And almost all of my concerns over the years for enh have been over QoL changes. Why? Because with all the downsides they add to new stuff, and all the forgotten improvements for old stuff, shamans never are able to get to a point where they could ask: okay, we're fine now, what would be cool from a hypothethical standpoint? (warlocks meanwhile are busy asking for green fire, hunters getting shiny new pets and of course need druids new models for their forms PLUS armor)
We're mainly concerned with: "That's bad, that could be better, that is also worse than other's counterpart etc.".

Overall, bare in mind that your hate for the shared cooldown is your own personal opinion, it's basically the core mechanic the spec has had since Vanilla (Lava Burst was added in WotLK)

I dont hate the shared cooldown by itself. It is just one of many instances showing how few work was actually done on us. Also, they added to shocks' importance with LVB and FULM afterwards, not considering the problems. Ele in tbc could still kite w/o problems and did not ever shock in pve at all.
Shocks outside of Frost Shock in pvp were completely meh till wotlk. Hardly a core mechanic. Shocks were not a defining damage mechanic for the most time. It became defining for ele pve with cataclysm, not sooner. And it became problematic in pvp at the same time.

[Lavindar]

Enh shamans need every move in teh game just with a few lightning bolts thrown in right? No our spellset is fine how it is. I can agree on most of your points aside from the windwalk thing and the auto fear. Imagine how op groundign totem would become if it feared the attacker for 3 seconds after.

The topic is named "Enh wish list", it not to say what we need, but what we want, maybe you, and others, could use your imagination and think about fun spells or perks shamans could have instead of creating pointless discussion of the state of the class in a topic meant to be entertainment.

On-topic

After the fight with Lei shen, I really wish we get that lighting jump that he does between the four corners while we don't engage him, it could be similar to a rogue's shadowstep or better yet, being able to aim like a warrior's heroic leap. It shouldn't do damage, but maybe slow targets near where we land could be cool.

[Thunderbleem]

4. Searing Flames proccing from melee attacks/strikes
5. Hex becoming instant for enhance
6. Elemental Brackets from Totems removed (earth/fire/water/wind totem concept scrapped)
7. Elemental Pets unlinked from totems
8. Searing and Magma Totem becoming 1 minute cooldowns with 15 second duration and quadrupled damage
9. Buff to SBT's absorb, as well as it becoming non-spealstealable and stacking
10. Totems getting more individual treatment (Grounding and Earthbind becoming unattackable for example, damage totems, SBT and CPT (ST/MT) having increased health, some totems usable while silencend (grounding, tremor...) etc.)
11. CPT down to 3 sec charge up, glyph lowers to 1 second
12. Imbue swapping is off the global cooldown
13. Rockbiter removed, dmg absorb backed into other survivability talents as buffs (unless there'll be warden)
14. A gap closer. Either our Feral Spirit's leap, causing us and (if active at the moment) our wolves to leap at the target. OR reduce Spiritwalk to 15second cd or so, reducing sprint to 5 seconds, providing 3 second freedom from movement impairing effects
15. An actual "O shit!"-button that works like a battle reset against teams which would othewhise just pop all their cooldowns and drain you from beginning to end. A bubble/ice ice block/deterrence like ability would be an option, but:
I actually think that this could be provided by OP's idea of windwalk (as a new, seperate ability maybe, minus the crit thing, or make it a guaranteed spell crit instead). The drained shaman would "vanish" for a few seks, healing himself back up and reengage. Would be a nice way to get out of trouble, more so than an engage ability. Also it would fit shamans nicely, with the spirit theme and everything
16. A seperrate cooldown for frostshock, with the damage removed
17. The dmg bonus to LL from FT is backed into the ability baseline. Searing Flames will either provide no longer any damage to FT, or will also do so for FB. The magical damage bonus from FT will now also be provided by FB.
18. UE:FB, instead of applying a 70% snare when target is already snared, will apply a 3 second stun.
19. Some sort of recource. It doesn't have to be energy, focus, rage or runic power or something like that. Something along the lines of rets and moonkins would be nice...maybe enhance msw's influence on the enh game play, interweave it with searing power even, to make a fire and a lightning phase, similar to druids' sun/moon phases? Would be nice to have something along those lines, affected by haste.
20. A finisher ability for pvp, also allowing for catching up on low hp phases in boss fights
examples:
Primal Strike: Avaiable on targets at 25% health or lower on a 8(?)second cooldown, dealing 700% mainhand weapon damage (random number). Also avaiable when one of your melee hits is blocked, dodged, or parried. Cant be blocked then, but deals only half damage and has a 12 second cooldown then.
Fang of Neltharion: Pierce your target with a sharp, solid spike of rock, dealing 700% weapon damage. 30y range. Only used on targets with 25% health or lower. Cooldown 8 seconds.
random hp/cooldown/range/damage numbers
21. More frost. There's far to less of it.

...would be my continuation of the list

I like you.

[Deleted]

An AoE move that isn't useless against lower levels mobs. Especially if the numbers inflation is going to continue upwards.

[miffy23]

From a purely PVE perspective (since I never actively play PVP), I think Enh is totally fine both in strength and diversity of abilities/uniqueness. It's been my main class and spec since Classic, I've gone through daggers, non-existant AoE and being a laughable hybrid spec at times. Nowadays Enh is definitely one of the strongest melee specs in the game if played decently and for me, the most fun.

I only read two suggestions here that I think would be great:
- diversify Alliance/Horde shamans visually aside from totems, like Spirit Wolves colour
- let Maelstrom stack over 5, maybe make it 8. Similar to Pally's change to Holy Power, it would make the rotation feel less frantic to get that 5stack off before wasting too much time

Personally I would also like our AoE to have less of a ramp-up, our AoE burst is basically nonexistant. However over time we rank finely, and single target we are one of the strongest specs overall, so it's a minor gripe.

I actually have NO CLUE why we are getting a near 20% flat buff in 5.3 with all the major buffs for our core abilities, Enh performs fine in every Sim, and I myself am never ever not first in DPS (this is, however, not on heroic progress level).

[crazed]

1. Use totems and Shamanistic Rage while silenced, exclusive to us and Elemental.
2. Searing Flame stacks proccing from melee strikes.
3. Ghost Wolf making us immune to snares/roots in addition to normal effect, exclusive to us and Elemental.
4. Double Purge for us and Elemental *debatable*
5. Spirit Walk on 30 second cooldown baseling.

Would make Enhancement very viable, and fun to play.

[Protoman]

4. Searing Flames proccing from melee attacks/strikes
5. Hex becoming instant for enhance
6. Elemental Brackets from Totems removed (earth/fire/water/wind totem concept scrapped)
7. Elemental Pets unlinked from totems
8. Searing and Magma Totem becoming 1 minute cooldowns with 15 second duration and quadrupled damage
9. Buff to SBT's absorb, as well as it becoming non-spealstealable and stacking
10. Totems getting more individual treatment (Grounding and Earthbind becoming unattackable for example, damage totems, SBT and CPT (ST/MT) having increased health, some totems usable while silencend (grounding, tremor...) etc.)
11. CPT down to 3 sec charge up, glyph lowers to 1 second
12. Imbue swapping is off the global cooldown
13. Rockbiter removed, dmg absorb backed into other survivability talents as buffs (unless there'll be warden)
14. A gap closer. Either our Feral Spirit's leap, causing us and (if active at the moment) our wolves to leap at the target. OR reduce Spiritwalk to 15second cd or so, reducing sprint to 5 seconds, providing 3 second freedom from movement impairing effects
15. An actual "O shit!"-button that works like a battle reset against teams which would othewhise just pop all their cooldowns and drain you from beginning to end. A bubble/ice ice block/deterrence like ability would be an option, but:
I actually think that this could be provided by OP's idea of windwalk (as a new, seperate ability maybe, minus the crit thing, or make it a guaranteed spell crit instead). The drained shaman would "vanish" for a few seks, healing himself back up and reengage. Would be a nice way to get out of trouble, more so than an engage ability. Also it would fit shamans nicely, with the spirit theme and everything
16. A seperrate cooldown for frostshock, with the damage removed
17. The dmg bonus to LL from FT is backed into the ability baseline. Searing Flames will either provide no longer any damage to FT, or will also do so for FB. The magical damage bonus from FT will now also be provided by FB.
18. UE:FB, instead of applying a 70% snare when target is already snared, will apply a 3 second stun.
19. Some sort of recource. It doesn't have to be energy, focus, rage or runic power or something like that. Something along the lines of rets and moonkins would be nice...maybe enhance msw's influence on the enh game play, interweave it with searing power even, to make a fire and a lightning phase, similar to druids' sun/moon phases? Would be nice to have something along those lines, affected by haste.
20. A finisher ability for pvp, also allowing for catching up on low hp phases in boss fights
examples:
Primal Strike: Avaiable on targets at 25% health or lower on a 8(?)second cooldown, dealing 700% mainhand weapon damage (random number). Also avaiable when one of your melee hits is blocked, dodged, or parried. Cant be blocked then, but deals only half damage and has a 12 second cooldown then.
Fang of Neltharion: Pierce your target with a sharp, solid spike of rock, dealing 700% weapon damage. 30y range. Only used on targets with 25% health or lower. Cooldown 8 seconds.
random hp/cooldown/range/damage numbers
21. More frost. There's far to less of it.

...would be my continuation of the list

Yes, Yes, and Yes.....all of it!!!

I think Totems should be ungrouped also, Grounding as a totem to protect other high priority totems should be an active defense ability that increases skill cap but instead it shares the same element wiht the very totems we need most protected (SLT, CPT, Stormlash, ect.)

A real gap closer for Enhance would be awesome.....spiritwalk is alright on the 1min cd but a ~20-30 sec shadowstep or leap ability would be really great (or to make it unique, a reverse shadowstep where you yank the enemy thru the astral planes to you).

I think some adjusments with FT, FB, and the ULE+ULF effects and PVP bonus are needed. Remove the 40%LL dmg buff from FT and add it directly to LL. Change our PVP 4set bonus to make it so ULE gives you a sprint (not only UL FB) and the sprint lasts like 5-6 sec with a 2-3 sec immunity at start when triggered to give you a true mobility boost and chance to close gap (similar to the rogue sprint talent). I think the ULE FB giving a stronger slow is fine although it is very boring and repetitive (could maybe slow resource regen or inc CD of next spell used after you ULE) but would need a new ULF FB effect since the sprint is on our pvp set..... can't really think of anything though but it should emphasize control and debuffing the enemy....maybe bonus damage to a rooted target plus stuns them in ice for 1.5sec with no DR lol.

An alternate way to apply Searing Flames that is applied thru actual shaman abilities is a must, despite the improvements to SF mechanic and totem.....its how all other classes apply their combo points (like holy power and crap), we need it for PVP where a totem isn't always practical and precise.

And an execute mechanic would be great, especially now that purge has been nerfed so much. I like Omanleys suggestions for either PRimal Strike being useable as either execute ability or when your other attacks get dodge/parry/blocked, and also the Earth Spike which fits thematically and would be an awesome finisher. Another idea is something like an instant, fully buffed LL (100% more dmg or 5 SF stack) with CD reset when hitting a <30% target and give it an ICD.....make it useable at ranged up to ~20yds as well.

[Omanley]

Thank you, you two

My above continuation was mostly adressing issues I see with the class.

I could also see some nice vanity, or non raiding/pvp changes being awesome:

For example I would be thrilled for a shaman class mount. I could imagine a spirit or elemental themed ground or flying mount, or even better a flying form. It could even diverse between races:
Flying Form=> Orcs: Spirit Wyvern, Trolls: Spirit Wind Serpent, Tauren: Spirit Hawk (rednex music starts playing ), dwarfs a spirit gryphon... and so on
Ground mount => celestial spirit wolf for horde, and lion for alliance

Another cool flavor change would be actual improvements on our gw form. It could really do with a polishing.

Or a glyph turning chain lightning into forked lightning.

Those flavor things aren't really important from a game play POV, but flavor is the reason I could never let go of my shaman, so I think it is important that it does not stagnate.

[Lavindar]

Thank you, you two

My above continuation was mostly adressing issues I see with the class.

I could also see some nice vanity, or non raiding/pvp changes being awesome:

For example I would be thrilled for a shaman class mount. I could imagine a spirit or elemental themed ground or flying mount, or even better a flying form. It could even diverse between races:
Flying Form=> Orcs: Spirit Wyvern, Trolls: Spirit Wind Serpent, Tauren: Spirit Hawk (rednex music starts playing ), dwarfs a spirit gryphon... and so on
Ground mount => celestial spirit wolf for horde, and lion for alliance

Another cool flavor change would be actual improvements on our gw form. It could really do with a polishing.

Or a glyph turning chain lightning into forked lightning.

Those flavor things aren't really important from a game play POV, but flavor is the reason I could never let go of my shaman, so I think it is important that it does not stagnate.

I really agree with what you said, man, what I would do for a Ghost Eagle that would work like a druid's flying form. Ever since the quest on the Tauren starter area that we became a ghost eagle I pray the skies that we get that skill.