The Shaman is receiving some changes in Patch 8.1 of World of Warcraft. We’ll reveal what Blizzard has planned.
The Shaman has a tough time in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. His playstyle is not enjoyable, and often his performance in dungeons is a few percentage points worse than other classes. This negative reputation has led many Shamans to struggle finding a group and losing enjoyment in their class.
Many talents revised: With Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance, Blizzard aims to change that and make a series of adjustments to the talents to make the Shaman more attractive and versatile again.
Which talents that will be, Blizzard has now revealed:
- The bonus damage of Stone Fist will be increased to 35% (previously 20%)
- Lightning Shield no longer generates additional Maelstrom when the shield overloads.
- The proc chance of Earthquake has been increased to 40% (previously 20%).
- Powerful Winds now only increases damage by 80% per stack (previously 100%).
- The totem of the Storms of the talent Totem Mastery increases the damage of Stormstrike by 10% (previously 5%).
- The damage of Hailstorm has been increased by 50%.
- Overload now only generates a cooldown of 9 seconds on Lightning Strike (previously 12 seconds).
- The damage of Wrath of the Air has been increased by 40%.
- The damage of Maelstrom Storm has been increased by 40%.
Aside from that, the damage of all abilities of the Enhancement Shaman will increase by 5%.
What are the changes supposed to achieve? For the Enhancement Shaman, there is a more significant need for the “perfect” talent selection than in any other class. Blizzard is trying to balance all talents roughly equally so that players have a broader selection.
By the way: The Shadow Priest is also getting a major overhaul!
Community reacts mixed: The reactions from Shaman players are varied. Some fans are looking forward to the changes and say that this is “the love that Shamans needed”. Other fans consider it to be “the laziest rework of all time” and do not believe that the fundamental problems of the Shaman will be addressed.
The changes are being tested on the PTR. Whether they will actually go live with Patch 8.1 in December remains to be seen.
Do you think the changes are good enough to make the Shaman attractive again? Or does it need more adjustments or larger overhauls?
