Blizzard reveals in a preview what they have in mind with the changes to Warriors, Shamans, and Monks in World of Warcraft: Legion.
A Small Glimpse into the Future
With the upcoming expansion Legion for World of Warcraft, the gameplay feel of the different classes will drastically differ from each other. To prepare players for the upcoming changes, Blizzard is releasing a preview of the different specs and explains the developers’ thought processes. Today, they focused on Warriors, Shamans, and Monks.
Warrior – Fewer Core Abilities, More Talents
Arms Warriors are already in a good position for Blizzard. The biggest changes will be found in an increased number of active talents that will fit into the rotation and allow for multiple different specs.
Fury Warriors are meant to have a stronger feel of an absolute killing machine. For this purpose, “Berserker Rage” will be a truly significant ability that increases attack speed, thus leading to faster Fury generation.
Protection Warriors have always been the epitome of a tank in World of Warcraft and only require a little refinement. Shield Barrier will be replaced with the new ability “Pain Suppression,” which reduces damage taken for a while. This will be the new main consumption of Fury. The majority of Fury will still be gained by taking damage, which means that in tough fights, “Pain Suppression” will often be available.
Shaman – New Resource and Refinement
Elemental Shamans get a new resource called Maelstrom. This will be built up through abilities like Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst, or Chain Lightning and can then be consumed with Earthquake or the various shocks. Therefore, the cooldown of the shocks will also be removed, allowing Shamans to apply the Flame Shock to multiple targets.
Enhancement Shamans are already quite appealing to the developers, as they solidly fulfill the role of “melee spellcasters.” However, they want to place more focus on their name, that is, enhancing the weapons and attacks of themselves and their allies. In talents, they take some inspiration from Heroes of the Storm, as “Shattering” tears the ground in a straight line and hurls enemies aside – a nod to Thrall.
Restoration Shamans should feel a greater variety in their spell selection. Blizzard aims to move away from the constant spamming of the spell “Chain Heal” and ensure that healers can more often target specific allies.
Monk – More Combo, Less Complexity
Brewmasters still do not feel as desired for Blizzard. Too much revolves around absorption shields and not around the “fun” playstyle of a stumbling fighter who can evade attacks in apparent drunkenness. Chi is being removed as a resource; instead, Brewmasters will now have several charges of Brew that interact differently with various abilities and enhance them.
Mistweavers also bid farewell to Chi and fully rely on their Mana. Additionally, it is no longer necessary for healing Monks to engage in melee combat; they can focus entirely on healing. In choosing their healing spells, it is no longer necessary to use endlessly weak spells to “prepare” the big ones – there should be freedom to choose between abilities.
With Windwalkers, the goal is to achieve an interesting balance between “less complicated gameplay” and “more depth” by introducing the new mastery “Combo Strikes. This ensures that the Monk’s abilities deal more damage when they differ from the previous ability – thus allowing different skills to come into play that align more with the essence of a “combo” fighter.
For more information about the “Legion” add-on, you can find it on our World of Warcraft theme page.
