In the recent Ion 8.2 video he talked about the future of class design. In this thread I would like us to give our own, personal opinions, on where the class and specs should move in 9.0.
For me:
Shaman as a Class:
Core fantasy:
Totems. A whole lot of totems.
Today we only use totems as a cooldown, but I would much prefer having totems that give buffs to players like Strength/Agi/Mana regen/WF totems.
I think Grounding Totem, Tremor Totem and Poison Cleansing Totem should be baseline for the class, at least. Don’t put them as “PvP talents”…
I would also like to see the return of very situational totems that rarely are useful.
Earth Shock, Frost Shock and Flame Shock.
Possibly merge Wind Shear with Earth Shock again?
Signature spells:
Heroism/Bloodlust.
Purge.
Too many classes has similar spells now. It used to be “our” things. I would like to go back to that.
Pruning:
No more Stun/CC. To me, Shaman should never have gotten their Hex nor their stun totem. What made Shamans unique in Vanilla/TBC was no CC at all. This meant we had other, more fun, strengths.
Enhancement:
Core fantasy:
Strong burst windows.
Signature spells:
Back to a focus on Windfury.
Back to being a 2H spec.
Strong hitting Stormstrike.
Pruning:
Possibly removing Maelstorm.
No more procs reseting the cooldown of Stormstrike. It is supposed to be this strong hitting spell that takes a while to get.
Elemental:
Core fantasy:
Strong burst windows.
Signature spells:
Lava Burst
Chain Lightning
Pruning:
Removing Maelstorm. Back to using Mana. The Maelstorm gathering abilities into these unsatisfying Earthquake/Earthshock is not fun.
No more procs reseting the cooldown of Lava Burst. It is supposed to be this strong hitting spell that takes a while to get.
Restoration:
Core fantasy:
Strong hard casted raid AoE healing.
Signature spells:
Chain Heal
Earth Shield - Should certainly not be a lvl 30 talent - It has been core to the spec since TBC..
Pruning:
Instant heals
Healing rain