Cataclysm Class Changes: Enhancement Shaman Analysis
by Rich Maloy 
Apr 7th 2010 at 5:00PM
Today is a good day to be a shaman. Actually, it will be an even better day when Cataclysm hits, based on the initial changes we were shown today. There are some very exciting things coming down the pipeline for us enhancers. While I'm not keen on all of the changes, the stuff that I don't like is rather minor and everything else looks like it will be fun.
Let's dive in and see what they have in store for enhancement when the world is torn asunder!
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.
This addresses the biggest complaint we enhancement purists have about leveling: we feel more elemental than enhancement until level 40. The big question was, will Primal Strike be yet another spell in our rotation? Nethaera went on to clarify:
Re: Cataclysm Class Preview: ShamanSounds like it will be the one-hander version of Stormstrike. Next up, we get a very cool-sounding ability:
Unleash Weapon (level 81)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%.
Wow. "Hurl" is such a special word. Any day I can work the word "hurl" into my daily vocabulary is a special day. Hurl my weapon. Hurl it. Hurl hurl hurl. HURL! I look forward to hurling all over bosses in PvE and rogues in PvP.
But seriously, 50% weapon damage plus haste increase for the next five swings is an awesome thing. Unleashed Weapon plus Flurry plus Bloodlust/Heroism will mean some seriously fast attacks. The Flametongue Weapon instant fire damage will be a nice treat too. Based on that, I think we can safely infer that WF/FT will continue as the enhance imbues of choice come Cataclysm.
Next up, more of what we've already got:
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.
Our resto and ele brothers and sisters are more excited about this, considering that enhance got this ability in since Patch 3.0. I'll take the extra 10 seconds of free casting while moving every two minutes. One potential application: in PvP Frost Shock followed by run and heal, then reengage. Depending on how the "possibly even your own attacks" plays out we could be give a few free Lightning Bolts without resetting the swing timer. Overall this isn't ground-breaking for enhancement.
The changes to cleansing look less than savory:
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.
I don't like this. Not at all. First, from a leveling perspective, poison is probably the most common DoT from mobs. I leveled a druid, then a shaman. When I went back for warlock and warrior, I was shocked at how much poison gets applied out there. Second, from a lore perspective, doesn't it make sense to have shamans able to cure nature-y things like poisons and diseases? But third and most importantly, this means we are just that much more vulnerable to filthy, dirty, sneaking rogues. As if I needed another reason to hate about rogues, next expansion I won't even be able to cleanse their poisons off. Not a fan of this change at all, or the change to the totem:
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.
The cleansing totem is a powerful shaman totem; it's highly valued both in PvE and PvP. Since we won't be able to cleanse poison and disease anyway, losing the totem is just an extra kick while down. While this is not good news, the next bit is:
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.
I look forward to seeing how this plays out. With increased fire damage from Unleashed Weapon, I would have though lowly little Lava Lash would make a comeback, but it seems this anemic 36-point talent continues to slide down the scale. Global-cooldown-starved enhancement shamans every where wait with baited breath to see what comes next.
Lastly we get into more talent changes and mastery bonuses
Enhancing Totems will be replaced with Focused Strikes, which will improve the damage of the new spell Primal Strike and Stormstrike.
Our Strength of Earth totem will now equal a death knight's Horn of Winter, whereas currently with 3/3 Enhancing Totems we provide an extra 15%. This could end up being a buff for our singular DPS but is a loss for raids overall. That 23 strength and agility from talent points serves to buff all physical damage dealers in the raid. Unless the single enhancement damage boost makes up for the loss across the raid this is a slight nerf to raids in my opinion.
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.
I predicted we'd see changes to Mental Dexterity and Mental Quickness based on the changes to mana regen and gearing in Cataclysm. I'm interested to see how it pans out. My only hope from this note is that they do remove Improved WF Totem and bake the increased melee haste into the base totem, or possibly give it a rank 2.
Finally, we get a peek at our passive mastery benefits:
Enhancement
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Nature Damage
I like what I'm seeing. Increased damage, increased haste, and increased nature damage. It all makes sense.
Just as you thought you saw it all above, Nethaera posted some Q&A that included some very interesting things for enhancement!
Re: Cataclysm Class Preview: ShamanA: That's the plan currently.
Q: Will Unleash Weapon work with Frostbrand?
A: Yes. We just provided some examples.
Q: Will Unleashed Weapon consume your enchants?
A: No.
Q: Are you supporting two-handed weapons for Enhancement?
A: Once you start to get into the dual-wield talents, then Enhancement is a dual-wield tree.
Q: You didn't address Enhancement survivability or mobility or X and Y!
A: This was just a preview and is not a comprehensive list of every change. Much more will be revealed in beta and much will change during beta.
Q: You didn't answer the most important shaman question! What about Sentry Totem?
A: The Cataclysm is a time of great upheaval. Deathwing's return to Azeroth tore a hole in the fabric of the universe that tragically resulted in the ultimate and irrevocable destruction of all Sentry Totems. Level designers are contemplating a shrine for the Sentry Totem near that of Uther the Lightbringer. We know shaman players will greet this news with grief, but as with all class changes we'll have to get into beta before anything is final.
Holy Windfury. Do you see that major change?!?
I don't know about you, but I'm really excited about these changes. What are you most excited about? What other changes do you think are in the pipeline for enhancement?
May all your hits be crits!
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From goblins and worgens to mastery and guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Shaman, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
alastairduffield Apr 7th 2010 5:55PM
Well if i'm honest one of the reasons i went enhance (apart from loving nothing more than running up to something and hitting it) was due to the complexity and challenge it offered to play well. I'm just not too sure how comfortable i am with the idea of dumbing it down but as with everything we'll have to wait and see
Greeni Apr 12th 2010 7:08PM
"dumbing it down"? *trys not to type hate text*
ok, the longer cooldown on LL means more spells to mix into your rotation, meaning it's more complex. if Blizz wanted to dumb shams down, they would only have enh shams with two or three attacks, instead of the shocks, the Maelstrom Weapon-proc LBs, along with SS and LL. i personally think this makes it harder for 'noobs' to play enh shams (as if they weren't already picking failadins 57.5% of the time)
Dave Apr 7th 2010 5:59PM
"Unleashed Weapon plus Flurry plus Bloodlust/Heroism will mean some seriously fast attacks"
Actually, Unleashed Weapon getting the Flurry proc effect (+2 charges and removing the necessity to crit), while Mastery gets Melee Haste as one of its stats more likely means that Flurry is on a slow arc towards File 13. Hopefully this is being done to turn it from something that's essentially always on once you have sufficient crit, into something that hits in bursts and falls off; reducing baseline melee damage (at 39-40% for most Enhance now), by creating lulls based on how much of Flurry's current haste goes to Mastery and how much goes to the UW WF Proc. This would open up more room for our other abilities to hit harder. It also means that you will likely have the haste buff when opening up on a target instead of waiting on your first crit - which will be better when we're running back and forth between targets.
" I mean of course the use of Lava Burst with Maelstrom Weapon procs! This could have major implications. Could. With passive Nature damage bonus from Mastery I don't know how viable a Lava Burst will be,"
I suspect the only time LvB MW5 becomes viable is if you can line up a FlS Dot + UW 20% Fire damage buff -> MW5 LvB combo so that it crits with the buff active.
Otherwise, the Nature Damage baseline buff is probably going to keep LB ahead; especially if they go ahead with the suggested removal of Mental Quickness.
relmatos Apr 7th 2010 6:12PM
I'm just worried about the changes to the mana regen.
Anything else sounds just like the changes brought to wow with wotlk. Cool but easy to get used to.
(that doesnt mean I dont love those new abilities).
Kura Apr 7th 2010 6:23PM
I'm kinda hoping for a movement speed increase to be added to the Spiritwalker ability. Anything to make it a bit more useful for enhancement.
Probably wont happen, but hey. I can dream, yeah?
Angus Apr 7th 2010 6:23PM
It really should be "Magic Damage"
Enhance already is using flameshock, magma totem, fflametongue weapon, lava lash, and fire nova. Making a skill that doesn't increase them when you add lava burst is just dumb.
I am also worried that we are losing an AP -> SP conversion talent, not getting anything in return (making our spell damage anemic) and also losing the elemental talents that increase those abilities without a mastery ability being given to compensate.
And having mastery only work on one tree is basically kicking Enhance in the teeth without those talents. The amount of talents with "increases X by Y" in the shaman trees is pretty huge.
SaintStryfe Apr 7th 2010 7:49PM
Personally, I bet they're gonna give us two different ways to play: an easier method using Nature damage (Earth Shock and LB) and one that's slightly more difficult (Flame Shock, ES, LvB). The latter will be a bit more timing dependent but if done right it'll give more damage. The other one will be slightly less, but will be much easier to keep track of.
Fuuken Apr 7th 2010 6:43PM
Alright, so regarding the Maelstorm Weapon changes to include Lava Burst, I think this could open up much exciting possibilities. Say that, when you get 5 stacks of MW, you Unleash Weapon. You get increased haste for your next few swings and your next fire attack gets a bonus of 20% damage. THEN you use Lava Burst.
This could build up a potential multi-branched priority list of abilities. Per example.... you start combat with a SS, followed by a FS, and a LL. Assuming you'll have 5 stacks of MW by now, you cast Unleashed Weapons and Lava Burst. You could then alternate with Earth Shocks instead of FS and Lightning Bolt instead of Lava Burst until UW is off-cooldown.
Still there's several problems with this idea of mine. I was just playing (very loosely) with the concept, and probably it wouldn't offer the maximum damage output. My point is, I think it may allow for more open and personal Enhancement ability rotations.
That, or I'm just sounding silly. Am I?
Anathemys Apr 7th 2010 6:29PM
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Now I won't be able to tell exactly when and where a rogue was standing when he one-shot my totem then probably hid in a corner for me to come looking for him!!!
Ah, Sentry Totem, yours was an exceptionally long and useless run. We'll miss being able to gripe/make fun of you...
Noah Apr 7th 2010 6:35PM
Yeah, can't believe they took that totem out of my rotation.
You know, right after Stormstrike, before Lava Lash, lay down a Sentry Totem? Am I the only one who does this?
Angus Apr 7th 2010 6:48PM
I used it all the time in BC.
"Everyone get together for a boss kill screenshot. Angus, drop your sentry and come over, take the picture from it so we are all in the shot."
After they made it no longer stop falling, that was the only real use.
Elmo Apr 7th 2010 6:34PM
Is it me or does the removal mental dexterity sound like a complete c**k up?
what we get in return is only some nature damage.
what about the frost and fire spells we're using? especially with LvB getting added to Maelstrom this requires Flame Shock up too, and then there is Fire Nova, Flametounge weapon and magma/searing too.
and with PvP in mind how about heals? without metal dexterity my HW's will only gain a little from Flametounge meaning they will heal like a turd.
out of all talents they could have removed this one has to stay around in some incarnation at least.
On spritwalker grace, I think it's actually quite good if you use it after a stormstrike you can cast like 3-5 LB's in those 10 seconds depending on haste and reactions.
I have a feeling it may be better than 1 or 2 shocks a LL and a FN. I think only Stormstrike could interrupt it because of the nature debuff (it's ahead of MW5 for a reason)
it's just a feeling though, can't prove anything.
so get that damn beta going now and get some decent Enh theorycrafters in there.
Docrev Apr 7th 2010 6:49PM
Considering the fact that enhancement won't have intellect on their gear anymore, Mental Dexterity would be completely useless in its current form. You'll get something like the retribution talent Sheath of Light to cover your spellpower needs.
Elmo Apr 8th 2010 7:18AM
stupid me I mixed up Mental dexterity and Mental quickness...
Eldoron Apr 7th 2010 6:48PM
people, don't whine, it is only alpha status, we don't know the numbers at all, etc etc. We don't know what new talents we might get and how old ones change. So just Shut The.. umm I mean, shees y'all.
Briz9 Apr 7th 2010 7:25PM
I'm a bit confused that they want to free up some global cool downs by increasing the cool down on Lava Lash, but at the same time they're adding another ability to our priority system (Unleash Weapon). Even if they're cool downs compliment each other, where you'll flip flop between the two, that's another keybind. Add in Lava Burst, and I seriously need another hand to push all the buttons I'm going to use.
Vitos Apr 7th 2010 7:26PM
"Wow. "Hurl" is such a special word. Any day I can work the word "hurl" into my daily vocabulary is a special day. Hurl my weapon. Hurl it. Hurl hurl hurl. HURL! I look forward to hurling all over bosses in PvE and rogues in PvP."
Hurl: Slang for vomiting.
RiverDragon Apr 7th 2010 8:39PM
Well thank you Captain Obvious!
Aside from this inane comment, this article and the changes that are being highlighted are making me so totally excited to be able to start a dwarf shaman come cat...
Cantus Apr 7th 2010 8:29PM
These changes seem reasonable for PvE.
These changes are terrible for PvP. The addition of offensive abilities - unless these offensive abilities are so OP that the forums explode with shaman hatred - do not make up for the removal of defensive abilities (cure poison, cure disease, purge). Shaman are already somewhat vulnerable in PvP and what we see here makes it worse.
I look forward to seeing how they intend to fix the survivability angle...
alpha5099 Apr 7th 2010 7:40PM
I'm very curious about where Blizzard is coming from when they say they want Enhancement to be more "dynamic." I'm not really sure what they mean by that. It's a vague word. I really like our playstyle, but I'm scratching my head if what Blizzard is saying is that they want us to have more buttons to push. Don't we already have pretty much the most complex DPS priority system in the game, with the exception of cat druids? Wanting to make a spec "more dynamic" sounds like making it less faceroll, which I have a hard time believing is something you could accuse Enh of being.