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Legion Shaman Class Changes
By Wowhead
Last Updated:
2016/08/24
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Table of Contents
Rating:
This post covers all of the changes to Shaman in Legion: talents, spec-specific abilities, artifacts, class changes, spell animations, glyphs, and tier sets.
Class Guides
Elemental Guide
|
Enhancement Guide
|
Restoration Guide
|
Leveling 1-20 Guide
|
User Guides
Wowhead has guides to each spec written by popular
Warcraft
community members, linked above. The Elemental guide is by
Binkenstein
, the Enhancement guide is by
von_wordup
, and the Restoration guide is by
Dayani
.
New to Legion, you can also create and submit your own build guide! We designed a new user-friendly UI for writing class guides, which allows you to do the following new things:
Embed Talent, Honor Talents, and Artifact Calculator builds into the guide, with notes on each ability choice.
Leave tags specifying the skill level required for your build, and if it's suitable for different categories of PvE and PvP. Perhaps you're looking for a simple build for an alt, or something specifically for dungeons on your main.
Select stat weights and rank useful enchants, gems, and food.
Leave notes on any important items that impact your build, such as
Legion Legendaries
.
To set up a Legion Class Guide, just go to "
Create New Guide
" on any guide page and select "Classes" from the guide category, then pick a spec. You can also set up a guide for a spec via the "Create New Guide" option on the
Legion Talent Calculator
.
Class Changes
Totems no longer belong to “schools”, and there is no restriction on the number of e.g. water totems a player can have active at any one time. No more accidentally overwriting your
Healing Tide Totem
with Healing Stream Totem!
Totemic Projection is no longer available for all totems, but targeting reticles do appear by default for certain totems whose positioning is key
Tremor Totem has been removed
Grounding Totem has been redesigned as a PvP Talent, and is inaccessible in PvE content
Earthbind Totem has been removed
Elemental:
The main change is the addition of the new resource Maelstrom. Some abilities like
Lightning Bolt
generate Maelstrom, while others like
Earth Shock
cost Maelstrom, and deal more damage based on how much Maelstrom was stored up.
The cooldown on shocks has been removed, making things more flexible for Elemental Shaman.
Enhancement Shaman have more of a "Battle Mage" feel, with the number of buttons trimmed down and a greater emphasis on empowering weapons and allies.
Maelstrom added as a primary resource
Stormstrike
costs 40 Maelstrom, with a 16 second cooldown
Lava Lash
costs 30 Maelstrom, with no cooldown
added, generates 15 Maelstrom
Auto attacks generate 5 Maelstrom on a successful hit
is now an active maintenance skill that confers a similar damage proc from melee strikes
Meteor
has been removed and replaced with Crash Lightning, which costs 20 Maelstrom, deals AoE damage and confers a buff if two targets are struck, causing
Lava Lash
and Stormstrike to splash for an additional percentage of weapon damage as Nature to all targets in front.
Shocks removed
Frost Shock replaced with Frostbrand, which deals frost damage and applies a buff causing melee attacks to slow targets for 3 seconds, lasting for 16 seconds.
Totems removed, including both Fire Elemental and Earth Elemental
Unleash Elements removed
Mastery altered to now also confer a small % bonus to
Windfury Weapon
and Stormbringer proc chance
Stormbringer added, 5% base chance to reset
Stormstrike
s cooldown, reduce the cost of the next
Stormstrike
cast by 50%, and not incur its usual cooldown. Procs from Main Hand swings only (including abilities).
Windfury Weapon
now only triggers 2 swings at 80% damage, but each hit generates 5 Maelstrom, 5% chance to proc from Main Hand swings only (including abilities)
Shamanistic Rage removed, replaced by
Astral Shift
Mana is now a secondary resource, fueling
Healing Surge
,
Purge
and
Cleanse Spirit
casts
Spirit Walk
duration reduced to 8 seconds from 15.
now instant, but deals extremely low damage, and is free.
Restoration:
Riptide
and
Chain Heal
now provide only one stack of
Tidal Waves
per cast. The Shaman may still hold up to two stacks of this buff, which makes the healing “rotation” more flexible
Water Shield has been removed; Resurgence still occurs upon critically healing with Riptide, Chain Heal, Healing Wave, and Healing Surge
Chain Heal’s baseline bounce range is now 20 yards, up from 15
Earth Shield has been redesigned and moved to the PvP Talent system, and is inaccessible in PvE content
Unleash Life is no longer baseline; it is a level 15 Talent
Capacitor Totem has been renamed to Lightning Surge Totem and is now a level 45 Talent
Ascendance is no longer baseline; it is a level 100 Talent
Fire Elemental Totem and Earth Elemental Totem have been removed
Several Talents have been redesigned or adjusted; see the Talents section of this guide for details
To allow for a viable leveling experience in Restoration spec, Resto Shamans now receive
Lava Surge
procs, and the damage of
,
Lava Burst
,
, and
has been greatly increased
Raid-wide buffs are removed in Legion and only healers can mass-resurrect.
Visual Updates
Most specialization received visual updates for Legion, especially melee. We have videos of animations for Elemental and Enhancement Shaman. Additional videos on our
Legion Spell Animations Playlist
.
Talents
There are more spec-specific talents in Legion, with each talent tree row offering more playstyle variety--active, passive, and proc talents. In addition, there are less "themed" rows--eg mobility talents are split among rows, instead of being in the same row.
Create your own talent build with our
Legion Talent Calculator
and if you find a build particularly interesting, click on "Create a Guide" after selecting your talents and leave a little explanation to share with other beta testers!
Legion
Legion
Legion
Call of the Elements
Shamanistic Rage
Grounding Totem - Now Pvp only
Tremor Totem
Searing/Magma Totem
Conductivity
Totemic Persistence
Frozen Power
Windwalk Totem
Nature’s Guardian
Stone Bulwark Totem
Unleashed Fury
PvP Talents
The new max-level PvP Honor system allows you to select certain talents based on your Honor Level. These abilities selected will be active in addition to your regular Legion talents.
Rows 1 and 2 cover general talents, Rows 3 and 4 are Shaman talents, and Rows 5 and 6 have spec-specific talents. Please check out the
PvP Honor Calculator
to create your own build and save it with commentary as a guide.
Abilities
In Legion, more abilities are becoming spec-specific to enhance the fantasy for each spec. To see how an ability has changed each Legion build, click on the spell, and then view the "Changelog" tab on the spell page.
New (or now unique to spec)
: Your direct damage spell critical strikes increase the damage and healing of your next 2 spells by 10%.
:
Heals a friendly target for (550% of Spell power). Consumes 20 Maelstrom, if available, to become instant.
Searing Assault
:
Increases haste by 10%.
Earth Elemental
:
Now Elemental Call forth a Greater Earth Elemental to protect the caster and his allies.
Fire Elemental
:
Now Elemental Call forth a Greater Fire Elemental to rain destruction on the caster's enemies. Lasts for 1 minute.
Frost Shock
:
Now Elemental Chills the target with frost, causing (52% of Spell power) Frost damage and reducing the target's movement speed by 50% for 5 sec. Maelstrom increases damage and duration up to 100%.
Chain Lightning
:
Now Elemental Hurls a lightning bolt at the enemy, dealing (130% of Spell power) Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 5 total targets. Generates 4 Maelstrom per target hit.
Flame Shock
:
Now Elemental Sears the target with fire, causing (80% of Spell power) Fire damage and then an additional (300% of Spell power) Fire damage over 15 sec. Maelstrom increases duration up to 100%.
Lightning Bolt
:
New version for Elemental Hurls a bolt of lightning at the target, dealing (130% of Spell power) Nature damage. Generates 8 Maelstrom.
Changed
Fulmination
Mastery: Elemental Overload
Earth Shock
Earthquake
Lava Burst
Lava Surge
Thunderstorm
Removed
Ascendance
- now Talent
Spiritwalker's Grace
- no longer Elemental
Unleash Flame - now gone
Elemental Overload - now gone
New (or now unique to spec)
:
Heals a friendly target for (550% of Spell power). Consumes 20 Maelstrom, if available, to become instant.
Searing Assault
:
Increases haste by 10%.
:
New version for Enhancement Fires a bolt of lightning at the target, dealing (25% of Spell power) Nature damage.
Crash Lightning
:
Electrocutes all enemies in front of you, dealing 135% Nature damage. Hitting 2 or more targets enhances your weapons for 10 sec, causing Stormstrike and Lava Lash to also deal 75% Nature damage to all targets in front of you.
Maelstrom Weapon
:
Your auto attacks and Windfury attacks generate 5 Maelstrom.
:
Assaults your target with earthen power, dealing (135% of Attack power) Nature damage. Generates 15 Maelstrom
:
Whenever you attack with your weapons enhanced, you have a chance to enhance up to 2 allies or yourself, causing attacks and spellcasts to deal additional Nature damage.
:
Chills your target, dealing (92.5% of Attack power) Frost damage, and enhances your weapons with frost for 16 sec, causing each weapon attack to reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 3 sec.
Stormsurge
:
: Each of your main hand attacks has a 5% chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Stormstrike, and cause your next Stormstrike to cost 50% less Maelstrom and trigger no cooldown.
Changed
Feral Spirit
Lava Lash
Mastery: Enhanced Elements
Spirit Walk
Stormstrike
Windfury Weapon
Removed
Ascendance
- now Talent
Enhanced Weapons - now gone
Fire Nova - now gone
Lightning Strikes - now gone
Maelstrom Weapon - now reworked
Unleash Elements - now gone
New (or now unique to spec)
Ancestral Vision
:
Returns all dead party members to life with 35% of maximum health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat.
: Hurls a lightning bolt at the enemy, dealing (180% of Spell power) Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets./li]
Healing Rain
:
Now Restoration Blanket the target area in healing rains, restoring health to up to 6 allies over 10 sec.
Healing Stream Totem
:
Now Restoration Summons a totem at your feet for 15 sec that heals an injured party or raid member within 40 yards for (70% of Spell power) every 2 sec.
Healing Surge
:
Now Restoration A quick but expensive surge of healing energy that restores (475% of Spell power) of a friendly target's health.
:
Restoration version Sears the target with fire, causing (35 175% of Spell power) Fire damage and then an additional (105 525% of Spell power) Fire damage over 15 sec.
Chain Heal
Healing Tide Totem
Healing Wave
Lava Burst
Resurgence
Riptide
Spirit Link Totem
Spiritwalker's Grace
Tidal Waves
Removed
Ascendance
- now Talent
Earth Shield - now a PvP talent
Meditation - now gone
Purification - now gone
Spiritual Insight - now gone
Water Shield - now gone
Changed
Astral Recall
All Elementals No longer anchored to totems.
Bloodlust
Far Sight
Ghost Wolf
Hex
Mail
Purge
Removed
Ancestral Spirit
- now Restoration
Capacitor Totem - now gone
Chain Lightning - now Restoration and Elemental
Earthbind Totem - now gone
Earth Elemental
- now Elemental
Fire Elemental
- now Elemental
Flame Shock - now Restoration and Elemental
Frost Shock
- now Elemental
Grace of Air - now gone
Grounding Totem - now gone
Healing Rain
- now Restoration
Healing Stream Totem
- now Restoration
Healing Surge
- now Restoration
Lightning Shield
- now Talent
Primal Strike - now gone
Shamanistic Rage - now gone, replaced with
Astral Shift
Searing Totem - now gone
Totemic Recall - now gone
Tremor Totem - now gone
Artifact Weapons and Traits
Elemental Fist of Ra'den Calculator
|
Enhancement Doomhammer Calculator
|
Restoration Sharas'dal
Our Artifact Calculators, linked above, let you browse traits, relics, and appearances in the modelviewer.
Our class guides have recommendations on how to spend Artifact Power and choose Relics.
The
comprehensive Artifact Weapon guide
covers the following:
All artifacts by spec
: any hidden abilities like
Gaze of the Val'kyr
, and flavor effects like
Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire
whispering you.
Traits
: their perks, costs, how to acquire traits, and max level bonus traits.
Relics
: how they increase ilvl, how they modify traits, and how to acquire them.
Acquiring artifacts
: your first one and later ones for offspecs.
Artifact Knowledge
: how this increases the rate at which you acquire Artifact Power, how to increase your AK level, how much extra AK you get at each rank.
Artifact Appearances
: Every appearance organized by spec, how to get them, and modelviewer and video links.
Artifact Lore, Wowhead's Art Interview on Artifacts, and FAQ.
Tier Sets
Shaman have class-specific sets from Raiding and PvP, as well as from the Order Hall. Dressing Room links and more armor sets are found in the
Legion Armor Guide
.
Cosmetic Abilities
Major glyphs have been removed in Legion and cosmetic effects have either been converted to minor glyphs, toys, or class books sold on vendors.
Vol'jin's Serpent Totem
: effect of old Glyph of Flaming Serpent
Tadpole Cloudseeder
: effect of old Glyph of Rain of Frogs
Raging Elemental Stone
: effect of old Glyph of Elemental Familiars
Waterspeaker's Totem
: effect of Water Totem
Tome of Hex: Compy
: teaches
Hex
All of these items are sold by
Elementalist Sharvak
in Outland Nagrand for .
Fantasy and Gameplay Blog
The following information has been taken from Blizzard's
Legion Class Preview Series: Shaman
blog.
Certain shaman have dedicated themselves above all else to forging a deep bond with the elements. They have peered beyond the Elemental Plane, gleaning visions of an ancient past where manifestations of volatile energies once raged unimpeded across primordial Azeroth. Through careful study and dedication, the elemental shaman is able to channel such power into destructive magical surges. Through the body of the shaman flows bolts of lightning, as if from storm, and bursts of fire, as if from molten earth. They manipulate the land itself and summon spirits of earth, fire, and storm to their aid. To battle an elemental shaman is to taunt the very forces of nature.
Gameplay
Elemental Shaman already have a strong, thematic ability repertoire. We’re retaining much of that existing gameplay in Legion, while smoothing the rough edges. The previously mentioned switch to Maelstrom as a resource is most significant. Elemental Shaman will build Maelstrom through their Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, and Chain Lightning, and spend it on abilities like Shocks and Earthquake. This change also allows us to remove the cooldown on Shocks, since they instead compete for resources. Shock usage is now more flexible for Elemental Shaman, such as using more of their Maelstrom on Flame Shock to DoT multiple targets. Another notable change is the return of Elemental Overload as their Mastery; Molten Earth never lived up to our hopes, being too non-interactive and confusing.
Intense communion with fire, earth, air, and water isn’t exclusive to the elemental shaman. In many ways, enhancement shaman similarly bond with nature and leverage its power on the battlefield. What distinguishes them in their training—and in their connection with the elements—is their combat methodology. These shaman favor empowering their physical attacks with elemental energies and facing their adversaries up close. They don’t shy from the frontlines, wielding magically augmented weapons, potent elemental attacks, and totems that shape the tide of battle.
Gameplay
The identity of the Enhancement Shaman is cool, but we don’t feel that the mechanics do well to establish that. We want this spec to be more than a melee-range Elemental Shaman, while having a distinct “Battle Mage” feel. Enhancement’s niche focuses on dishing out devastating spells and punishing strikes at melee range to destroy their enemy. Rather than leaving you with a multitude of buttons, many of which are inconsequential, we’re emphasizing empowering your weapons and allies in the fray. Enhancement Shaman become increasingly deadly as they build their power through Maelstrom generation. They must be careful not to let it overflow, while maintaining enough to utilize their most dominant attacks at critical moments.
Some shaman find a serene affinity for the restorative properties of water. These shaman do not necessarily seek the Light or turn to the divine, yet they feel a profound spiritual connection with the source from which all mortal life took root. So strong is their connection with water that the shaman is able to restore life and heal afflictions. They balance this with a command of the other elements, finding harmony in nature and purifying their allies as a tidal surge washes across a sandy shore.
Gameplay
Restoration mechanics are informed well by the themes of the spec, and we want to avoid disrupting what healers already like about it. What has changed has primarily been in terms of tweaking their gameplay in more fun directions. There’s now slightly more emphasis on targeted healing, and slightly less on Chain Heal spam. We’ve also significantly improved their talents, offering more impactful and varied options. Additionally, Restoration gains the most from the removal of totem restrictions.
For millennia, since the primitive tribal cultures of Azeroth and Draenor, the natural elements of the physical universe have been celebrated, feared, and even worshipped. Mystics sought communion with the earth, air, fire, and water, and learned to tap into their raw power. In time, these spiritual guides came to understand that nature’s elemental forces aren’t wholly benevolent, but have, in fact, been locked in an unending conflict of chaos and primal fury that once consumed the physical realm. So began the calling of the Shaman, to bring balance to these volatile energies, leveraging their intensity to mend wounds . . . or inflict them.
The use of totems is integral to the Shaman archetype, and we’re addressing some persistent issues with their mechanics. For a long time there have been significant constraints associated with totems, like the fact that they can only be dropped at the Shaman’s feet, or that they only have 5 health, or that no more than one of the same elemental type can be active at one time. While these constraints were intended to ensure that totems felt unique, they ultimately drove us to creating strange tools to allow the Shaman to bypass such constraints, such as Totemic Projection or Totemic Persistence. In Legion, we’re eliminating this awkwardness and simply removing the constraints.
Totems of the same nature type can now be summoned together, allowing you to have Healing Stream Totem and Healing Tide Totem up at the same time. Elementals are no longer tied to totems, but are guardians that follow and assist you. Totems’ maximum health will always equal a percentage of your maximum health. In addition, totems that need to be placed at a specific location will be directly placed using a targeting reticle. If you want to place Earthgrab Totem in the middle of a big pack of nasty orcs, you can do that without having to run into that nastiness or use a separate spell to throw the totem there. In general, totem mechanics are concentrated around temporary effects (either beneficial or hostile) in a localized area, as opposed to “maintenance buff” cooldowns you need to make sure are up at all times.
Finally, we’re bringing needed clarity to Shaman resources, particularly to move away from disguising a couple key resources as buffs. Lightning Shield charges for Elemental Shaman, Maelstrom Weapon charges for Enhancement Shaman, and Mana have all been replaced for Elemental and Enhancement with a new resource: Maelstrom. Mana is a fitting Restoration Shaman resource and will remain for that spec.
Blue Tweets
Blizzard has lately been very
active on Twitter
, posting clarifications on Legion developments in response to user questions. We track all of the significant tweets with our
Blue Tweet Tracker
, which lets you filter conversations by class and role.
These class tweets are grouped by month and topic--some of the earlier tweets are included for archival purposes, but may reflect outdated design choices.
All January 2016 Tweets (Click to view)
All November 2015 Tweets (Click to view)
Elemental
Enhancement
Restoration
General
Datamining Updates
Links to major datamining updates:
22201 on July 12
22133 on July 5
22053 on June 28
22018 on June 23
21996 on June 21
21952 on June 14
21874 on June 8
21846 on June 2
21796 on May 26
21737 on May 19
21691 on May 9
21655 on May 5
21570 on April 27
21531 on April 21
21491 on April 13
21414 on April 6
21375 on March 30
21287 on March 17
21249 on Mar 9
21215 on Mar 3
21134 on Feb 23
21108 on Feb 18
21063 on Feb 10
20979 on Jan 27
20914 on Jan 13
20810 on Dec 15
20773 on Dec 2
20740 on Nov 20
Share your comments about this guide in our Shaman forum!
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