With The War Within expansion arriving soon, the devs are busy balancing all of the classes and in-game systems in preparation for Retail's next journey. World of Warcraft has seen a lot of expansions and it seems that it is not going away anytime soon.
Having that in mind, we will go over all of the Shaman class changes that were added to this week's development notes so we can get an idea of how the class will perform during WoW's newest expansion.
Table of Contents
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WoW The War Within Beta Shaman Hero Talent Changes
Farseer (Restoration/Elemental)
- Natural Harmony now reduces the cooldown of Nature’s Guardian by 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
- Natural Harmony now increases the maximum health restore of Nature’s Guardian by 10% (was 5%).
- Fixed an issue causing Downpour to not cause Ancestors to use Chain Heal.
- Farseer’s Elemental Blast damage increased by 20%.
- Hydrobubble absorption increased by 200%.
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Stormbringer (Elemental/Enhancement)
- Arc Discharge damage bonus decreased to 40% (was 75%).
- Nature’s Fury now properly modifies critical chance of Tempest.
- Awakening Storms is now properly modified by Stormcaller and Nature’s Fury.
- Maelstrom spending requirement to activate Tempest decreased to 300 (was 400).
- Tempest damage reduced by 21%.
- Ascendance’s initial damage is now properly modified by Stormcaller.
- Tempest Strikes is now properly modified by Stormcaller and Nature’s Fury.
- Thorim’s Invocation now properly limits Tempest’s damage to be capped at a maximum of 5 Maelstrom Weapon stacks worth rather than potentially up to 10 when using Windstrike.
Totemic (Enhancement/Restoration)
- Searing Volley damage reduced by 50%.
- Searing Bolt damage reduced by 50%.
- Surging Bolt is now properly modified by Nature’s Fury.
- Searing Bolt is now properly modified by Fire and Ice.
- Searing Volley is now properly modified by Fire and Ice.
- Tremor is now properly modified by Fire and Ice.
- Earthsurge now increases healing taken by 15% (was 10%).
- Downpour healing decreased by 20% and mana cost reduced by 20%.
- Fixed an issue causing Chain Heals from Totemic Rebound to reset the stored healing value of Cloudburst.
- Fixed an issue causing Reactivity to not increase Cloudburst healing stored.
- Fixed an issue causing Surging Totem to stop maintaining Healing Rain when Totemic Projection is used on a transport.
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WoW The War Within Beta Shaman Changes
- Removed a couple unnecessary sounds and animations from Stone Bulwark Totem.
- An issue causing Skyfury buff to drop off after transferring zones and disconnecting has been resolved.
- Earth Elemental summon no longer resets the swing timer.
- Fixed an issue causing Totemic Projection to fail on transports.
- Fixed an issue with all Shaman starter builds having incorrect data.
Elemental
- Lightning Bolt damage increased by 3%.
- Lava Burst damage reduced by 25%.
- Elemental Blast damage reduced by 25%.
- Earthquake damage reduced by 15%.
- Flame Shock damage reduced by 15%.
- Thunderstrike Ward damage increased by 150%.
- Splintered Elements now grants 10% Haste (was 20%).
- Earth Shock damage increased by 25%.
- Power of the Maelstrom now has a 60% chance to trigger (was 25%).
- Liquid Magma Totem now has a 30 second cooldown (was 1 minute).
- Icefury damage increased by 85%.
- Earthen Rage damage increased by 60%.
- Additional Lava Bursts from Primordial Wave now deal 50% of normal damage (was 80%).
- Resolved an issue causing Lava Surge’s chance to trigger to increase when Searing Flames is talented.
- Resolved an issue causing Flash of Lightning to not reduce the cooldown of Stone Bulwark Totem and Primordial Wave.
- Resolved an issue causing Elemental Blasts from Fusion of Elements to consume Magma Chamber.
- Resolved an issue causing Elemental Blasts from Fusion of Elements to trigger Storm Frenzy.
- Resolved an issue causing Lava Beam to not benefit from Storm Frenzy.
- Resolved an issue causing Thunderstrike Ward to not trigger from Lava Beam.
- Resolved an issue causing the Icefury aura to be hidden. It will now properly display as an aura and is on the Personal Resource Display.
- Resolved an issue causing Earthquake Overload damage to be higher than intended.
Enhancement
- Splintered Elements now grants 10% Haste (was 20%).
Restoration
- All healing reduced by 5%. Not applied to PvP combat.
- Spouting Spirits healing reduced by 35%.
- Ancestral Awakening now heals for 25%/50% of the amount healed (was 15%/30%).
- Fixed an issue causing spell queuing Lava Burst after a Healing Surge to incorrectly consume Master of the Elements when Lava Burst is instant cast.
- Fixed an issue causing Ancestral Protection Totem to not benefit from Totemic Focus or Oversized Totems.
And that covers all of the class changes for this round of development notes as The War Within is setting up to be quite the expansion in terms of balancing. Not only do most of the classes have some core adjustments to their specs but it seems that the new Hero Talents will also shake things up in terms of the identity of each separate class.
You can check out the full development notes, here.
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