Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: blizzard, entertainment, legion, shaman, video games, william shatner, world of warcraft

World Of Warcraft – Legion Brings Maelstrom To The Shamans

Today I continue my look at the proposed changes for character classes in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Legion. And this time we are going to look at William Shatner's personal choice to play… the Shaman.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/4ouSrpsAHf8[/youtube]

The first two big changes off the bat aren't necessarily spec specific. There is an overhaul in using totems which all Shaman do. No longer will you be restricted by the type of element of a totem, making it capable to put out healing stream and healing tide totem at the same time. Also, some totems can no be placed in the distance instead of at your feet… the example being an Earthbind totem can now be set using a reticle instead of having to run into the group and drop it. Safer that way.

The second change is the source of the Shaman's power for Enhancement and Elemental. They will not be using a new resource, Maelstrom while the Restoration Shamans will continue to use mana.

Thematically Elemental shamans are doing well. Their main change is the switch to Maelstrom as their power source. You will build Maelstrom by using Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and Chain Lightning while you will use it on Shocks and Earthquakes. This now removes the cooldown on shocks. This allows the elemental shamans to use Flame Shock more often to build damage over time. Also, the mastery talent is going back to being Elemental Overload as Molten Earth never lived up to its potential. A new totem is being added called Maelstrom Totem that attacks nearby enemies for light damage but generates 5 maelstrom with each attack.

Now for Enhancement Shaman, the designers didn't feel that the mechanics really flowed for the theme of the character. So they are focusing more on the strikes from melee range, empowering your weapons and enhancing the players around you. They felt that the spec had far too many inconsequential buttons for fun game play. One of the spells the enhancement shamans will have is Sundering, it costs 60 maelstrom, is an instant cast with a 20 second cooldown… and what it does is shatters the ground out in front of you causing strong physical damage and knocking enemies to the side. A nice ground and pound.

Restoration Shamans were pretty good as is according to Blizzard. They have tweaked the healing making more emphasis on targeted heals and less on chain healing. They've also gone through the talents trying to make more impactful options available. With the ability to combine healing stream and healing tide totems, Resto Shammys are going to be the ones most loving the lifting of the totem restrictions. One of their spells is Wellspring, which creates flowing water that goes out in front of you casting strong heals on all friendly players in its path. That sounds very peaceful.

The overall feeling here is that Shamans were doing pretty good but just needed some tweaks. How the change of resources for the dps specs will work out will have to be discovered in the beta testing. But lifting the totem restrictions could make Shammy healers the top choice in Legion.

For more on the proposed changes to Shamans, check out this write up from Blizzard.

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