Night Elf Shaman?

[Sharnie786]

Night Elves have been friends with Tauren for a while and Tauren are known for their Shamanism. Even the Draenei are close to Night Elves and could teach them.

Night Elves were the chosen Druids meaning they're attuned to nature and it could be argued they control nature when being Druids.

The only reason I can think of, for Blizz, not to give Nelf Shaman is that they'll have too many options open to Nelf. However, Dwarves and Trolls have almost every option available to them.

Why do we not have Nelf Shaman yet? Some of you will know better than me, come educate me

[reiserfs]

i think is a cool ideia, and fit it.

[Vaedan]

I think night elf shaman could work in several ways. The first is what you propose, that night elves teach shamanism through tauren, draenei or dwarves and becoming regular shamans.

The other approach of night elf shaman is that their shaman are actually variant of mages who delve deep into elemental magic. It is similar to treatment tauren priests and paladins got, since they are both druids revering sun canonicaly. Mages are already able to wield powers of fire and frost. They command it through arcane. I can imagine they developed scholars who use arcane to manipule other elements as well and becoming elementalists, masters of elements. There are several facts that supports that idea:
- Azshara herself used her magic to manipulate water long before her transformation into naga. Actual reference of this is restoration shaman artifact weapon Scepter of Tides
- Elves develeped special caste of fighters who combine melee attacks and spells, so called "spellblades". That actually fits nicely with enhancement shaman, who imbues his attacks with elements.
- Goblin shaman have pretty different approach to the elements as well. Instead of serving elements, they abuse them. Not really hard to imagine having elven shaman who command elements via arcane.

[Syegfryed]

i would find hard for the night elves ditch elune to favor the elements

the thing is how they are so close attached to the druidism i don't see why they would seek the shamanism, makes worse then they don't have that much close races to teach then, draeneis could do, but night elves would probably prefer to stick with their own cultural thing

Also, elves already are too much popular with too many classes, we don't rly need more.

- - - Updated - - -

- Goblin shaman have pretty different approach to the elements as well. Instead of serving elements, they abuse them. Not really hard to imagine having elven shaman who command elements via arcane.

they don't, they make bargains with the elements, a trade for mutual benefit/profit.

[Nnyco]

I think night elf shaman could work in several ways. The first is what you propose, that night elves teach shamanism through tauren, draenei or dwarves and becoming regular shamans.

The other approach of night elf shaman is that their shaman are actually variant of mages who delve deep into elemental magic. It is similar to treatment tauren priests and paladins got, since they are both druids revering sun canonicaly. Mages are already able to wield powers of fire and frost. They command it through arcane. I can imagine they developed scholars who use arcane to manipule other elements as well and becoming elementalists, masters of elements. There are several facts that supports that idea:
- Azshara herself used her magic to manipulate water long before her transformation into naga. Actual reference of this is restoration shaman artifact weapon Scepter of Tides
- Elves develeped special caste of fighters who combine melee attacks and spells, so called "spellblades". That actually fits nicely with enhancement shaman, who imbues his attacks with elements.
- Goblin shaman have pretty different approach to the elements as well. Instead of serving elements, they abuse them. Not really hard to imagine having elven shaman who command elements via arcane.

Goblins dont abuse elementals, they make deals with em. Which is basically how all races do it.

[Beloren]

Elves don't need to be shaman, and the vibe, premise doesn't fit the elven races either.

Night elves basically can do everything shamans can do with arcane magic and druidism.

So whiles anyone can learn and train to become any class in theory, generally the type of tribal shamanism is not what the night elves would do. The best you can hope for is something like the Tidesages or Blood Knights happening, where you get a new order that is able to do things similar to shamanism and it's just called shamans.

imo, druid and mage collaboration results in this class. Maybe they can use the Valewalkers for that, or a new order. They generate elemental air, fire, earth, water/frost using the arcane, but the balance and harmony comes from the druidic side, they're also fighters which explains the enhancement spec for them.


For blood elves, same thing, except you ignore the druidic part. Call them Entropists or Thermatauges, they're using magic to generate elements and fight from it. Maybe it's an art form the Moonguard and Duskguard teach the night elves and blood elves.

- - - Updated - - -

Night Elves have been friends with Tauren for a while and Tauren are known for their Shamanism. Even the Draenei are close to Night Elves and could teach them.

Night Elves were the chosen Druids meaning they're attuned to nature and it could be argued they control nature when being Druids.

The only reason I can think of, for Blizz, not to give Nelf Shaman is that they'll have too many options open to Nelf. However, Dwarves and Trolls have almost every option available to them.

Why do we not have Nelf Shaman yet? Some of you will know better than me, come educate me

See it's more than that. The culture of shamanism doesn't fit the elves here, and the Tauren are not close to the Night elves. Night elf druid work with Tauren, but we now that Malfurion invited them to join the druids - not the night elves.

The druids aren't the night elves - there is no Tauren/Night elf friendship, the friendship is druid to druid and it only exists within the class.

[Vaedan]

i would find hard for the night elves ditch elune to favor the elements

the thing is how they are so close attached to the druidism i don't see why they would seek the shamanism, makes worse then they don't have that much close races to teach then, draeneis could do, but night elves would probably prefer to stick with their own cultural thing

Also, elves already are too much popular with too many races, we don't rly need more.
.

Night elves would not have to ditch Elune to grant favor of elements. No other race had to abandon their believes in order to work with elements.

- Draenei kept their faith in the Light
- Dwarves kept their faith in the Light
- Tauren kept their faith in the Earthmother, which actually have some mutual believes with Elune worship
- Pandaren kept their August Celestial worship

It seems elements are actually pretty tollerant and are willing to share. Night elves worship Elune as a goddess of tranquility and harmony, and shamans are also a lot about harmony... so that's not that unimaginable.

Also, pandaren tought most of races to be monks without any special relations with them, so that argument is also not really strong.

I agree with you that elves already have pretty solid selection of classes and are not really in any urgent need to have more. I personaly believe that if night elves get any new class, it will be paladin. They got that way paved in Legion and supported in BfA.

[Satelliteyears0o]

Night Elves have been friends with Tauren for a while and Tauren are known for their Shamanism. Even the Draenei are close to Night Elves and could teach them.

Night Elves were the chosen Druids meaning they're attuned to nature and it could be argued they control nature when being Druids.

The only reason I can think of, for Blizz, not to give Nelf Shaman is that they'll have too many options open to Nelf. However, Dwarves and Trolls have almost every option available to them.

Why do we not have Nelf Shaman yet? Some of you will know better than me, come educate me

The elements are the core powers of the the cosmos: earth, fire, wind, water. These are fundamental energies that are bound together by spirit, and essential for reality to exist.

Nature is a balance, governed by the forces of both life and death, and the souls n spirits that are bound to both through the emerald dream, and now as we have recently come to find out, ardenweald which is the afterlife of rebirth of nature aligned spirits like cenarius, the wild gods, loa, etc.. Druids will commune with nature and can either act as a catalyst to bloom a flower in moments when it would take days, grow a tree in seconds when it would take years, they can even whither away things as life does eventually fade as is the cycle.

Personally I dont think Nelves would ever be a candidate for shamans, doesnt make sense culturally for them as it would go against everything Elune is to them.

The closest class to the shaman is the monk, particularly pandaren brewmasters and windwalkers due to their skill in Geomancy (storm,earth, fire).

[A Chozo]

As of now, they don't have a culture of shamanism and they still believe that their Goddess and Nature are enough to protect their ass, so they have no reason to embrace Shamanism.

They totally could, but they won't, for it is not relevant to a single Night Elf.

[ravenmoon]

If they make night elves shaman, they might as well open all classes to all races.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Culture is the big barrier. Religion and culture play a huge role in Azerothian societies, and it is no small ask to take on a role outside of your culture. It's akin to the suggestion that a westerner go to Africa to learn how to become a witchdoctor. A shaman is not primarily a spellcaster who throws magic fire and ice at people. A shaman is the religious leader in an orcish clan, performing rituals ranging from asking the Spirit of Water to redirect snowmelt so that the village doesn't flood to communing with the ancestors and practicing funerary rites.
In Elven society, the religious role is performed by the Priestesses of Elune, and the arm of their society which deals with petitioning nature for aid is the druids. There is simply no place for a shaman in Night Elf society.

[Saltysquidoon]

OP as with any race/class issue the question shouldn't be "Why can't X be Y" because anyone can make up any reason why one specific X could be Y.
The question should be "Is there a reason a large enough proportion of X would be Y to be representative".

For example; I'm Australian could I be trained to be a member of Russia's special forces? Maybe. Have Australian's been so trained? Maybe. Are there enough Australian's in the Russian special forces for that to be representative of the Australian experience? Of course not.

- Draenei kept their faith in the Light
- Dwarves kept their faith in the Light
*snip*
- Pandaren kept their August Celestial worship.

One of the early Draenei shaman quests talks about how the other draenei hate and mistrust Nobundo and will mistrust you because consorting with anything less then the light is seen as dubious. Of course, this was before the draenei were flanderised to lawful boring like every other alliance race so it's probably been retcon'd.

I'm pretty sure in the lore only wildhammer dwarves are shamans.

The August celestials are wild gods I'm not sure why they would have any problem with elementalists.

[Triceron]

I'd say lore-wise, NE already have Druidism so they don't need to tap into elemental spirits. If we open this up to Night Elves then we might as well open it up to all races, since there's no reason why this can't be taught to anyone/everyone.


Personally, if we wanted Night Elfs with Shaman options, I'd say make it a Class Skin. Take Shaman gameplay, reskin it with a different theme and aesthetics into a new Night Elf-specific class.

Maybe something like a 'Sentinel' class that mixes Huntress and Priestess of the Moon themes. Sentinels in WC3 already used fist-blade melee weapons. Resto would be revamped with Moon-based healing spells and effects, Enhancement would continue to be a dual wielding DPS spec mixed with some ranged abilities (reskinned as thrown weapons, spirit owls and moon/night-based magic) and Elemental would be a full on Priestess of the Moon that uses unique magical bow animations to cast spells.

Ghostwolf turns you to a Spirit Nightsaber, Totems would be converted to stationary Owl Spirits, etc.

[ravenmoon]

I'd say lore-wise, NE already have Druidism so they don't need to tap into elemental spirits. If we open this up to Night Elves then we might as well open it up to all races, since there's no reason why this can't be taught to anyone/everyone.


Personally, if we wanted Night Elfs with Shaman options, I'd say make it a Class Skin. Take Shaman gameplay, reskin it with a different theme and aesthetics into a new Night Elf-specific class.

Maybe something like a 'Sentinel' class that mixes Huntress and Priestess of the Moon themes. Sentinels in WC3 already used fist-blade melee weapons. Resto would be revamped with Moon-based healing spells and effects, Enhancement would continue to be a dual wielding DPS spec mixed with some ranged abilities (reskinned as thrown weapons, spirit owls and moon/night-based magic) and Elemental would be a full on Priestess of the Moon that uses unique magical bow animations to cast spells.

Ghostwolf turns you to a Spirit Nightsaber, Totems would be converted to stationary Owl Spirits, etc.

Agreed here. Class skins or identities would be the way forward. A Star Augur skin could do, where the elements are swapped for cosmic forces with star, moon magics in play instead of natural elements.

Solar winds , Starfires, meteors

[Razion]

Night Elves have a deep respect for the natural world, which is conprised of elemental forces. Night Elves strive to maintain balance in the natural world and the elements strive for balance in them as well. Their goals align in many ways, to make Azeroth work in harmony. Night Elves should already have shaman, both as an extension of their ability to already wield elemental magic but also their connection to and motivation to maintain balance in the world.

[StillMcfuu]

Night Elves have been friends with Tauren for a while and Tauren are known for their Shamanism. Even the Draenei are close to Night Elves and could teach them.

Night Elves were the chosen Druids meaning they're attuned to nature and it could be argued they control nature when being Druids.

The only reason I can think of, for Blizz, not to give Nelf Shaman is that they'll have too many options open to Nelf. However, Dwarves and Trolls have almost every option available to them.

Why do we not have Nelf Shaman yet? Some of you will know better than me, come educate me

As was mentioned, Shamanism is more religion than a profession. NElves themselves already have Elune, and Druidism plays into Elune as well.
While not necessary, Shamanism usually includes a different form of ancestor worship than Elune worship usually includes. But just as importantly the NE's seem far separated from Elementals and the Elemental plane. It would require a subgroup of Night Elves to break off from Elune and do their own thing. It's not impossible, but I see acceptance for these Shaman to be less likely, also the ancestor worship side would require these spirits to play along, which... With Shadowlands we may find a Shaman's ancestors to be in a different place than Elune/Emerald Dream ancestors would wind up going.

The biggest hurdle I see here is the Elemental cooperation that Shamanism is known for is a stark contrast for NElf culture and religion.

Non-lore answer would be, sure Blizz could do it, who really knows with them anymore.

- - - Updated - - -

Night Elves have a deep respect for the natural world, which is conprised of elemental forces. Night Elves strive to maintain balance in the natural world and the elements strive for balance in them as well. Their goals align in many ways, to make Azeroth work in harmony. Night Elves should already have shaman, both as an extension of their ability to already wield elemental magic but also their connection to and motivation to maintain balance in the world.

Elementals strive to one-up and control the other elementals, it's the origin story of Azeroth. The titans found Azeroth and the Elementals were raging across the surface in a constant state of battle, Titans created the elemental plane and basically put shackles on the elementals to give the planet some time to actually develop as anything living was dying as collateral in the Elementals war.

[Stelio Kontos]

I think thematically shaman would work for night elves, being sorta nature-inclined elves.

But honestly, I'd rather see night elf paladins first.

[Vaedan]

One of the early Draenei shaman quests talks about how the other draenei hate and mistrust Nobundo and will mistrust you because consorting with anything less then the light is seen as dubious. Of course, this was before the draenei were flanderised to lawful boring like every other alliance race so it's probably been retcon'd.

I'm pretty sure in the lore only wildhammer dwarves are shamans.

The August celestials are wild gods I'm not sure why they would have any problem with elementalists.

Well, I always got the impression that other draenei mistrust Nobundo because he was Broken and thus his connection to the light was severed. All Broken faced this prejudice from uncorrupted draenei. I'm not sure how they view shamans in general, but we've seen that there is draenei presence amongs Earthern Ring, so it probably improved.

No, I don't think it was said only wildhammers are shamans. Playable dwarves were always those of Ironforge. If you can provide me with a source that playable dwarves were meant to be wildhammers (who are coming in Shadowlands btw), please share it. Until that, we have to stick with that dwarf shaman are of bronzebeard clan.

Wild Gods are way more connected to druidism in general since they are beings of Nature, not of Elements. Sure, they have no problem with elementalists, I didn't even mentioned that. I counted them as an example that if you want to be a shaman, you can follow any other faith, be it worship of Light or Nature. That means night elf shaman would not have to give up their worship of Elune.

[Tuor]

Night Elves have been friends with Tauren for a while and Tauren are known for their Shamanism. Even the Draenei are close to Night Elves and could teach them.

Night Elves were the chosen Druids meaning they're attuned to nature and it could be argued they control nature when being Druids.

The only reason I can think of, for Blizz, not to give Nelf Shaman is that they'll have too many options open to Nelf. However, Dwarves and Trolls have almost every option available to them.

Why do we not have Nelf Shaman yet? Some of you will know better than me, come educate me

The main point against it, is that NElfs being imortal for a long time, didn't had the need to comune with the spirits of the dead.

But if we see the other side, the aspect of dealing with the elements, i would say it actually makes sense. And they would have learned such a skills, not with Tauren or Draenei, but with Furbolgs, which NElfs always protected.

EDIT:
There is also a hint in the game, which are Fire Druids. When we slay Fandral in Cata he wields the element fire to fight us... A case of a NElf wielding the elements.

[Beloren]

Night Elves have a deep respect for the natural world, which is conprised of elemental forces. Night Elves strive to maintain balance in the natural world and the elements strive for balance in them as well. Their goals align in many ways, to make Azeroth work in harmony. Night Elves should already have shaman, both as an extension of their ability to already wield elemental magic but also their connection to and motivation to maintain balance in the world.

Actually, you've proved why they don't need shaman - druids already fulfil the principals of shaman, and their mages wield the elements magically

A night elf shaman is literally a night elf mage with a druidic philosophy. Druids can hear the elements, but a night elf doesn't need to beg an elemental to produce magic, he can do it himself via the arcane.

Knowing what they can do, introducing a shaman class in relation to other races would make no sense as they already can do all things shaman can through their druid and mage. All they need is a small group of night elves who combine both, and results in basically everything a shaman does and it has a unique name, like the Tidesages, but in character creation it's just Shaman.

- - - Updated - - -

The main point against it, is that NElfs being imortal for a long time, didn't had the need to comune with the spirits of the dead.

But if we see the other side, the aspect of dealing with the elements, i would say it actually makes sense. And they would have learned such a skills, not with Tauren or Draenei, but with Furbolgs, which NElfs always protected.

EDIT:
There is also a hint in the game, which are Fire Druids. When we slay Fandral in Cata he wields the element fire to fight us... A case of a NElf wielding the elements.

Ah but they wouldn't need to, not with druids, in a sense the Draenei although they had mages, would need shamanism, they have othing like druidism that is about balance, and harmony, speaking to spirits of the wild/elements/dead - which druids can do, but in an elven tradition. The main differences elves know how to wield these magics themselves because of their great knowledge and mastery, whereas shamanic races depend on the elements doing the work or gifting them some of their magical ability with their native element.