Shaman changes for Cataclysm

Ok. So I'll hold off on more Bloodlust fueled rage to talk about the awesomeness that is coming for shamans in cataclysm. I got a lot of content here since it covers all 3 specs, but there is some exciting info for every spec.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we'll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you'll get an early look at some of the changes in store for the shaman class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs. New Shaman Spells

Primal Strike (available at level 3) : Primal Strike is a new weapon-based attack that every shaman will learn very early in the game. Our goal with this ability is to make leveling as Enhancement rather than as Elemental more viable, since many key Enhancement talents become available at fairly high levels.

Primal Strike sounds like a lower level version of Stormstrike. Kinda the one-handed deal. It will help us enhancers feeling more enhance-like at the lower levels. Anyone that has done their fair share as enhancement from 1-30 can tell you that it does feel a lot more like elemental than enhancement. not really relevant to me but still pretty sweet.

Healing Wave (level 4) : While the shaman already has an ability called Healing Wave, we're adding another spell to the class's direct-healing arsenal and giving it a familiar name. The current Healing Wave will be renamed Greater Healing Wave, and the intent is for the 'new" Healing Wave to be the shaman's go-to heal. Lesser Healing Wave and Greater Healing Wave will be used on a more situational basis.

Another interesting change. It seems like Blizzard is trying to add a little flavor to our healing toolbox with a middle of the road heal to fit between lesser and our current healing wave. Anymore with enough haste and certain talents healing wave doesn't seem like it takes that long to cast, although occasionally it seems like an eternity when chain casting it on the tank as he whittles down the last 6% of Thorim managing to just barely keep him alive with each subsequent cast. (That was the only time we downed him and I picked up my shiny T8 shoulders of awesomeness.)

Unleash Weapon (level 81) : Unleashes the power of your weapon enchants for additional effects (see below). A dual-wielding Enhancement shaman will activate the effects of both of their weapon enchants. Instant cast. 30-yard range. 15-second cooldown. Undispellable.

Here are a few examples of effects we're considering for this ability:

- Windfury Weapon – Hurls a spectral version of your weapon at a target, dealing 50% weapon damage and increasing the shaman's Haste for the next five swings.
- Flametongue Weapon – Deals instant Fire damage and buffs the shaman's next Fire attack by 20%.
- Earthliving Weapon – Heals the target slightly and buffs the shaman's next healing spell by 20%.

So this sounds really awesome. One it gives us another tool to use on the run, on a ranged mob/player, and gives us some nice effects to boot. As enhancemnt getting both effects with one cast is really nice. Currently if I could use this I would deal some melee and fire damage, and get haste for my swings as well as buff my next fire spell. This should help bring our dps up a little depending on how it plays out, but forcing a flurry effect by a button we can click is nice to time with BL/Heroism(for you alliance dawgs).

Healing Rain (level 83): An area-effect heal-over-time (HoT) spell that calls down rain in a selected area, healing all players within it. There is no limit to the number of players who can potentially be affected; however, there are diminishing returns when healing a large number of targets, much like the diminishing returns associated with AoE damage spells. This should give Restoration shaman another healing tool that improves their group-healing and heal-over-time capabilities. 2-second cast time. 30-yard range. 10-second duration. 10-second cooldown.

Once again I am liking new toolbox toys for resto to play with. If you spent much time with me in game you would think that I don't like healing much. I tend to play it down quite a bit and try to seem burdened when someone asks me to heal, but truthfully it is a lot of fun at times and things like earth shield and chain heal are just visually cooler than flash of light or circle of healing. I'm kinda a closet healer in this sense, but that's only because I absolutely love destroying things as enhancement(and a slight aversion due to people expecting me to be resto when I was a level 70 shaman. Even people that could click on me and see my gear)

But healing rain is like our druid's counterpart of tranquility and it isn't channeled. That is correct my resto sham friends. Just wiat for the cast time of 2 seconds and then you can move out of the fire you are standing in and still heal everyone. More aoe healing woo! I'm actually more excited to see what it looks like than the actual spell itself.

Spiritwalker's Grace (level 85) : When this self-targeted buff is active, your spells are no longer interrupted by movement and possibly even by your own attacks. This will give shaman of all three specs another way to heal or do damage when it's necessary to move in both PvE and PvP. Instant cast. 10-second duration. 2-minute cooldown.

Healing on the move? Yes please. This will be nice for a lot of reasons. Shamans can now move a little more and still cast spells. The way I read this it isn't like Maelstrom Weapon where it reduces cast time, but allows you to cast while moving. So when paired up with things like, oh Healing Rain, you can now move while doing your 2 second cast time so you can get out of the fire even sooner! I know this will be something that will excite our guild resto shaman quite a bit. Plus for us enhnacers and elementalists, it will help us out a bit with our mobility issues as well. Cast Lava burst on the run? Cast a chain lightning while MW is down? Savory goodness just got better.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to adding new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.

• Restoration shaman and other healing classes will need to pay attention to mana more than they've had to during Wrath of the Lich King. Spirit will be the Restoration shaman's primary mana-regeneration stat.
• We're making changes to which classes and specs are able to dispel magic, diseases, curses, and poison, largely for PvP purposes. Shaman will have Cleanse Spirit as a baseline ability, but it will only remove curses. Restoration shaman will have a talent that will improve Cleanse Spirit so that it also removes magic. Shaman will no longer be able to remove poison.
  
  Booooooooooo. /cast Bloodlust /y Frothing PvP nerf RAGE!!!!
  I still don't see how this will fix our survivability issues.
  
  
• Cleansing Totem will be removed from the game, as we want dispels to be a decision for players, not something done mindlessly. To that end, all dispels will cost slightly more mana, and you will waste the spell if you cast it when there is nothing to remove. (Currently, the dispel is only cast when there is something to remove, which encourages spamming 'just in case.") We will balance PvE dispelling with this new model in mind.
• Totem of Wrath now will replace Flametongue Totem for all shaman, and dropping this totem will buff the group's spell power by 4%. Elemental shaman will have a talent that lets all Fire totems provide +10% spell power, allowing them to drop Searing, Magma, or Fire Elemental Totems without losing their spell-damage buff. The 4% and 10% buffs will be exclusive with each other and with the warlock's Demonic Pact, so you can't benefit from all of them at once. We're also considering letting Elemental drop Searing Totem at range.
  
  Nice. No more having to have Totem of Wrath down 100% of the time. Frees up the fire slot and still gives us a nice boost. Plus scaling bonus!
  
  
• We want to free up Enhancement global cooldowns to make the spec more dynamic to play. We're considering, for example, increasing the cooldown of Lava Lash so shaman have time to work other interesting abilities into their rotation.
  
  This would be nice. More buttons to push please! I really do enjoy pushing buttons and trying to figure out how they best go together. So much more fun than arcane mage 3 button rotation. Gotta make room for my Unleash Weapon button press.
  

New Talents and Talent Changes

• Elemental Reach will be simplified so shaman have a more consistent spell range.
• We plan to add Earthquake as a deep Elemental talent for targeted and persistent AoE.
  Sounds interesting. Maybe a land based Druid Hurricane style damage.
  
• Spirit Link will likely be worked back into deep Restoration in some form. The idea is that you will be able to link targets together so they share damage. When we had previously tried to implement Spirit Link, it was hard to balance and a little confusing. However, we really liked the concept -- and so did players -- so we are trying to bring it back.
  Didn't get a chance to try this out since it was in beta, but it did sound intriguing. Would work really well with chain heal, not to mention preventing a tank from eating a full cleave since the other tank isn't positioned correctly. Sharing is caring!
  
• Elemental will have a deep talent that allows Spirit (which will appear on the gear they share with Restoration shaman) to boost their Hit rating.
  That will help explain why we would actually want spirit on gear now.
  
• Ancestral Knowledge will boost mana pool size, not Intellect.
  More resources but still just as stupid.
  
• Enhancing Totems will be replaced with Focused Strikes, which will improve the damage of the new spell Primal Strike and Stormstrike.
  More stormstrike damage is always welcome.
  
• With the Mastery system, we're also considering removing a number of talents that grant passive bonuses, such as Mental Quickness, Improved Windfury Totem, Mental Dexterity, Call of Thunder, Tidal Mastery, Purification, Nature's Blessing, and others, to allow players more freedom to choose more interesting talents.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Elemental
Spell damage
Spell Crit
Elemental Overload

Enhancement
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Nature Damage

Restoration
Healing
Meditation
Deep Healing

Elemental Overload : Your direct-damage spells have a chance to proc a less powerful 'bonus" version of the spell. This will work much like the current Lightning Overload talent, but would also apply to Lava Burst.
Sweet. Secondary Lavabursts would be really nice(esp. in PvP) Although they are trying to get away from burst damage being mandatory for PvP.
Nature Damage : This will provide a passive bonus to the Nature damage dealt by the Enhancement shaman.
Also good. Could use elemental bonus, but Blizzard didn't want it to feel like just more damage. That way we can prioritize a nature damage spell.
Deep Healing : Your direct heals will do more healing when the target's health is lower. This will scale to damage (e.g. someone at 29% health would receive more healing than someone at 30%) rather than have arbitrary break points.
More healing at lower health! Woo. That fight with Thorim would have been a little lest stressful at the end with this.
We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.

More goodness to come later!