The spotlight of this overview is the Enhancement Shaman, a powerful close-range fighter and the only mail-wearing melee spec currently present in the game, soon to be joined by Survival Hunters in the Legion.
Blizzard’s idea for Enhancement is “to be more than a melee-range Elemental Shaman, while having a distinct “Battle Mage” feel”. The biggest change comes in form of a new resource bar, namely, stacks of Maelstrom, that Enhancement will be given in Legion. Stacks of Maelstrom will be building up through the fight, making the Shaman more and more deadly, but you have to “be careful not to let it overflow, while maintaining enough to utilize their most dominant attacks at critical moments.” This change has caused a lot of discussions among the Shaman community, with majority being unhappy at the ‘Warrior Rage v.2.0’ and losing the uniqueness of the specialization.
Take note, this is just an alpha, and the changes between what we currently see in Test Realm and what will be present when the expansion goes live might be major, however, the idea of class fantasy will remain and it is worth it to see what changes have been made so far - in particular, to talents, totems and Elementals. Some existing abilities (Ascendance, Capacitor Totem to name a few) are returning as talents, a lot of current spells are going away (Fire, Earth & Storm elementals, Fire Shock, Fire Nova, Healing Rain, Ancestral Guidance as well as almost all totems). For better or worse?
Let’s take a look at the talent trees. Below you can see what talents exist currently in Warlords of Draenor and what they will get changed to in Legion.
)
)
WoD talents on left; Legion talents on right
As you can see, all talents but [Earthgrab Totem] and [Ancestral Swiftness] have been changed, and even one of them has been moved up a tier, so let’s take a quick look at each Tier from 15 to 100 and what the changes represent:
Level 15: Tier 1 of Warlords of Draenor offers a variety of choices affecting the shaman’s survival, whether it is passive [Nature’s Guardian] or an active defensive cooldown like the other two choices. Tier 1 of Legion has been designed to enhance performance:
Windsong - Attack your enemy for (152.5% of Spell power) Nature damage, and enhance your weapons with wind, increasing your attack speed by 50% for 15 sec.
Spiritual Resonance - Increases the Maelstrom generation provided by Rockbiter and Feral Spirits by 10.
Fists of Stone - Draw on the power of the ground beneath you, encasing your weapons in stone, increasing Critical Strike chance by 10% and all Damage dealt by 5% for 10 sec, but reducing your Attack Speed by 50% and movement speed by 50%.
Level 30: Tier 2 of WoD offers variety of choices dealing with Crowd Control - or an additional escape from it. [Earthgrab Totem] makes a return as a talent in Legion, but moves up a tier. Tier 2 of Legion gives the Shaman additional movement options. Let’s take a look:
Gust of Wind - A gust of wind hurls you forward.
Feral Lunge - Lunge at your enemy, striking them and dealing 450% Physical damage with your main-hand and 450% Physical damage with your off-hand. Only usable within Ghost Wolf.
Wind Rush Totem - Summons an Air Totem with X health at the target location for 15 sec, continually granting all allies who pass within 10 yards 60% increased movement speed for 5 sec.
)
Level 45: Tier 3 of WoD affected the utility of the totems, while Legion’s takes on the function of WoD’s Tier 2 and offers variety of choices affecting Crowd Control. Beforementioned [Earthgrab Totem] makes a return in this Tier as well as Lightning Surge Totem - a revamped version of Capacitor Totem, which now becomes a talent.
Lightning Surge Totem - Summons an Air totem with 5 health at the target that gathers electrical energy from the surrounding air and then explodes after 5 sec to stun all enemies within 8 yards for 5 sec.
Earthgrab Totem - Summons an Earth Totem with X health at the feet of the caster for 20 sec. The totem pulses every 2 sec, rooting all enemies within 10 yards for 5 sec. Enemies previously rooted by the totem will instead suffer 50% movement speed reduction.
Voodoo Totem - Summons a Voodoo Totem with X health at the target destination for 10 sec. The totem pulses every 5 sec, hexing all enemies within x yards for x (numbers not yet listed). Enemies can only be Hexed once. Replaces Hex.
