As a class, Shaman have long had some of the most distinctive categories of spells in the game—Totems, Shocks, Shields, Weapon Imbues, and Chain spells—but over time, some have become the domain of specific specializations. In Shadowlands, we're giving these types of abilities back to the entire class. As a player levels up, they'll be exposed to the many ways a Shaman can interact with the elements to overcome challenges. Over time, the Shaman will discover which of these tools they have the strongest affinity for, and which abilities they’d like to focus on as they master the elemental forces.
Shaman Class and Specialization Changes
General Changes
In Shadowlands, Chain Heal, Chain Lightning, Healing Stream Totem, Flametongue Weapon, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, and Lightning Shield will be available for all Shaman to use regardless of their specialization. Searing Totem also returns as an ability for all Shaman to use, which bombards nearby enemies with fireballs for a short duration.
Elemental
The Maelstrom resource and accompanying bar have been removed, returning Elemental Shaman’s to their former cooldown management playstyle. When we added Maelstrom to Shamans in Legion, we wanted to improve affordance around the use of Earth Shock and Earthquake in their rotation. But the addition of the resource had the side-effect of converting the spec into one with “builder/spender” abilities, which comes with certain built-in expectations on the payoff of its spenders. When an Elemental Shaman presses Earth Shock and it consumes most of their resource, the expectation is that this moment is the peak of their rotation and there should be a big payoff. But we want the focus of the rotation to be about managing your Flame Shock debuff on multiple targets to maximize the potential of Lava Burst through Lava Surge procs. Lightning Bolt, and consequently Earth Shock, are meant to be a flavorful but secondary part of the single-target rotation. As such, we are returning to a design that relies on building stacks of Fulmination to determine when to insert Earth Shock into the rotation. Similarly, Chain Lightning and stacks of Seismic Thunder will serve to enable Earthquake.
Echoing Shock is a new Talent that blasts a target for significant damage, and makes it so the Shaman’s next healing or damage-dealing spell casts a second time shortly afterward without costing additional resources.
Enhancement
As with Elemental, the Maelstrom resource and Maelstrom bar have been removed from Enhancement Shaman. Enhancement will return to a specialization based on managing a number of cooldown abilities with high points built around repeat casts of Stormstrike. In Shadowlands, Enhancement Shaman who chain certain abilities in combat will see their efforts rewarded when the time is right (and the elements will it) with the capacity to unleash a powerful cooldown dealing devastating damage. . Maelstrom Weapon returns, giving each attack a chance to grant a stack of a buff that can be used to make your next healing or damage-dealing spell instant. Flametongue Weapon and Windfury Weapon can once again be applied to Enhancement Shaman’s weapons, imbuing them with the power of the elements to suit the situation at hand.
The passive bonus provided by Hailstorm has been redesigned so that it resets the cooldown of Flame Shock and Frost Shock when a Shaman uses Stormstrike. Searing Assault metamorphosizes into a powerful fire attack, striking the foe for significant Fire damage and causes their Searing Totem to cast incredibly fast. It also triggers Flame Shock to rapidly dish out its damage-over-time burn effects to melt enemies.
Overcharge now generates five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon instantly and another stack every second for a short duration. Stormkeeper will make your next two Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning spells instant cast and deal bonus damage. It also benefits from Maelstrom Weapon, lowering Stormkeeper’s cast time so the Enhancement Shaman can chain powerful abilities together to pummel down foes quickly.
Elemental Blast is now a Talent option for Enhancement Shaman, giving this melee-focused spec access to a powerful spell to destroy foes from a distance. It also benefits from Maelstrom Weapon’s effect, which can reduce its cast time or even cause it to become instant cast.
Restoration
Once Restoration Shaman step into the realm of the ancestral spirits, they will find new ways to tap into the elements’ powers. Earth Shield can now be used by all Restoration Shaman without needing to select it as a Talent. Surge of the Earth is a new Talent that expends a few charges of Earth Shield to significantly heal the current Earth Shield target and several nearby allies.
https://www.wowhead.com/news=311877/...nd-class-philo
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So, no more Maelstrom and it also kinda sounds like Enhancement is "stealing" away both Stormkeeper and Elemental Blast - both of which seems odd.