Totem Talk is on the wrong day because Matthew Rossi had a big bug in his bonnet (what? No, I don't know if it was a bee or not. Look, I'm not sticking my head into a bonnet to check the kind of bug in it. No, you go look if you're so interested! It's a bug, that's good enough for me) about expert ease or something. Anyway, today we're going to talk about the future of the Shaman class now that there's a new expansion on the horizon.

Wrath of the Lich King is in Alpha. That means... well, it means some folks are playing around with a really early version of the next expansion. It also means that we hearken back to the last time WoW had an expansion, and start considering how the classes will change. Will there be new talents? If so, we'll see even more specialization between talent specs. If not, we'll see a lot more broad viability as people find ways to spend ten extra talent points.

Just before The Burning Crusade we saw the Before the Storm patch which introduced the new 41 point talents to all three trees. Dual wielding, raging enhancement shaman, earth shielding resto shaman, and wrath totem dropping elemental shamans all come from this patch, which changed the face of the shaman class. The ridiculously high burst of a windfury imbued 2h weapon became less common as the new talents changed the way each spec played.

Now, clearly I have no special insight into the direction Blizzard and the developers plan to take the shaman class. I'm just another shammy out in the trenches punching things. But there are things I'd like to see and also things I'd like to see but which I don't expect will happen, and so I figured I might as well speculate as to a few possible changes coming in the expansion. Maybe somehow the viral nature of the internet will cause one of these ideas to worm its way into someone who can actually implement them. And possibly vast sums of gold will rain down upon my shaman wherever he goes, while I'm dreaming.

We can has CC plz?

Suffer through the lolcat diction! Anyway, it's occasionally bandied about that shamans might get a form of CC in Wrath. If that's the case, what kind of CC should it be? Well, it wouldn't make sense for them to get something that works on humanoids. Not only do we already have at least two CC classes for that (mages and rogues, and sometimes warlocks) but it doesn't really suit the lore and flavor of the shaman class at all.

I actually think that any form of CC shamans get should be related to elementals. Something similar to a warlock's banish, except instead of banishing the elemental (which warlocks can already do) the shaman can render it passive or even friendly for a time, ensuring that not only will it not attack your group, but that stray AoE won't aggro it. If a group could keep the elemental pacified in this manner long enough to get out of combat, they could even leave the elemental up and continue on in the dungeon, perhaps, as the temporary pacification effect wouldn't have to automatically aggro it. Of course, how many dungeon groups are going to want to leave it back there? Not many.

Another possibility would be a variant on priest or warlock 'mob control' abilities. The shaman could temporarily negotiate with or enlist the aid of the elemental lords and cause an elemental to switch sides, attacking its own former allies. This could work as a mind control or enslave, or in keeping with shamans' elemental totems, perhaps the 'temporary' elemental would behave according to its own AI, attacking at random. This form of control would basically exist just to get groups to kill one of their own.

Since elementals are fairly rare, this form of CC/Control would hardly be overpowering for the class, and it suits the lore of shamans as an intermediary between elemental spirits and mortals. It might make the most sense for it to be confined to elemental shamans, although I'd prefer it not be. Perhaps one could be a talent (the ability to enlist elementals to your aid seems more specialized than merely asking them to sit a fight out) while the other could be a general ability.

Shock me shock me shock me

We have Frost Shock, Flame Shock and Earth Shock. Where's Wind Shock? After the Flametongue weapon and totem change/rollback on the PTR, we got to talking about possible effects other than a healing debuff that shamans could get for PvP viability. One of the favorites seemed to be a debuff not to healing done, but rather a straightforward debuff to the ability to hurt other people. Imagine a Wind Shock with an attack power and spell power debuff... perhaps a 20% debuff for five seconds? (I'm the first to admit I'm not sure how long would be balanced compared to the long shock cooldown.) You could build an arena team with shamans as the 'strikers', so to speak, going out and gimping the highest damage on the other team to help outlast their DPS. It would also be an awesome shock to help out a tank group... not many main tanks are going to say no to taking less damage from a boss, after all. I'd really like to see some new mechanic for a Wind Shock/Air Shock type of spell, something that moves away from the 'let's clone Mortal Strike" philosophy that seems to have gripped the game lately.

I stormstrike you! Then I wait a while.

Like ret paladins, enhancement shamans are a melee class that has exactly one melee strike. Granted, shocks help with that to a degree. But it would still be nice if there was something to do while waiting for Stormstrike to come off of cooldown. I'm not looking for a massive boost to DPS... I don't know that I'm even looking for a boost to DPS at all, come to think of it, so much as a variety of ways to hurt people. Perhaps an armor reduction? A stun? (Wow, we could stun a rogue! Who would then stunlock us to death. Ah well.) It's hardly the most urgent concern, but it would be nice.

The Fifth Element

There's been various talk in game of a fifth totem since the beginning. Thrall, upon having his meeting with the spirits, deals with five groups, air, water, fire, earth and the wilds. The level 50 shaman quest has you create a spirit totem, and you again use a totem of spirits in Shadowmoon Valley later. There are tantalizing hints all over the game of a fifth elemental group, and iconic shaman characters like Thrall interact with it, so when do we player shamans get to?

It seems like levels 71 - 80 would be a good time to introduce a fifth totem and give shamans a new category of abilities to access via it. One possibility would be that the fifth element, be it spirit or the wilds, could allow shamans to directly imbue themselves with elemental power in a similar fashion to the current weapon imbues: perhaps even allows shamans to finally provide a direct buff like a blessing or Gift of the Wild. Imagine shamans placing Spirit of Rock on a tank, increasing his armor value, or Roaring Wind on a rogue, increasing his melee haste, or Fire's Fury on a mage increasing his spell damage, or Waves Embrace on a fellow healer to help with mana regen. Possible limitations on this ability could include that only one person could be so imbued at once, or that the shaman him or herself would have to remain within range of those he or she buffs in this fashion or the imbued effect expires.

Another possibility could be greater control or interaction with the local environment. Powers similar to the old Far Seer ability Earthquake? A channeled AoE would be a nice addition to the elemental shaman. Perhaps restoration shamans could summon a wind elemental to perioidcally cast an AoE heal by use of this fifth totem?

In the end, this is all blue skying. I mean, there was some talk about the reason that the Grimtotem Spirit Guide was made untameable by hunters being that shamans were going to get ghost wolf pets. That would be cool, yes, but what would they do? We already have two pets that attack things for us on limited timers, would they just be another one of those? Would we strap our totems to their backs and have them carry them around? I have no idea for what this would be, which is why I didn't speculate about it, but I bet you can come up with a few suggestions. What about you? What would you like to see between 71 and 80 for shamans?

Next week, a return to restoration, as I'm healing stuff again lately.