World of Warcraft’s Shaman has received some considerable updates and changes in WoW Forever affecting their spells, talents, and all three specializations. While the class still revolves around its iconic Totems, elemental magic, weapons, and powerful healing abilities, Forever gives Elemental, Enhancement, and Restoration Shamans considerably more tools to work with.
Compared to Classic, the current Forever build has 16 new Shaman spells and talents, 95 changed abilities, and 8 removed talents. We’ll go through all of the new Shaman spells in World of Warcraft Forever, as well as the other changes that have been made.
The biggest change to Shamans in Forever is that all three talent trees have been substantially reworked. Elemental gets new tools for dealing damage, including Lava Burst and Lightning Overload, while Enhancement gets a more clearly defined combination of melee attacks and spellcasting through abilities such as Maelstrom Weapon and Mental Dexterity. Meanwhile, Restoration gets Riptide and Water Shield, giving the healing specialization additional tools for both sustained healing and Mana management.
New Shaman Spells and Talents
There are many new abilities for Shamans in WoW Forever:
Lava Burst
Lava Burst is a new Elemental talent that gives Shamans another major ranged damage spell. It deals Fire damage to the target and deals 20% increased damage if Flame Shock is active. This gives Elemental Shamans another reason to maintain Flame Shock while adding an additional spell to their damage rotation.
Lightning Overload
Lightning Overload gives Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning a chance to trigger an additional spell. The additional cast deals half damage and generates no threat, giving Elemental Shamans a chance to deal additional damage without additional Mana cost.
Maelstrom Weapon
Maelstrom Weapon is one of the major Enhancement additions. When dealing damage with a melee attack, Enhancement Shamans now have a chance to reduce the cast time and Mana cost of the next Lightning Bolt. This can stack up to five times.
Mental Dexterity
Mental Dexterity converts Intellect into Attack Power, meaning Enhancement Shamans have more reason to focus on the stat that previously wasn’t important to melee damage.
Mental Quickness
Similarly, Mental Quickness can use Intellect to contribute to spell damage and healing. This helps further the melee and spellcaster hybrid identity in Forever.
Riptide
Restoration Shamans gain Riptide–an instant healing ability that also applies a healing-over-time effect. Riptide also increases the effectiveness of Chain Heal.
Water Shield
Water Shield gives Restoration Shamans another way to recover Mana. The Shaman is surrounded by three water globes that are consumed when Shamans take damage or critically heal others in exchange for restoring Mana. However, only one elemental shield can be used at a time, so Water Shield needs to be considered alongside other options.
Shamans get new Totem management abilities
Totem management is also getting a significant overhaul. Call of the Elements now allows Shamans to save and summon groups of up to four Totems from level 20. Call of the Ancestors becomes available at level 30, and Call of the Spirits becomes available at level 40, each allowing another group of four Totems.
Shamans also get Totemic Recall, an instant ability that returns active Totems and refunds 25% of the Mana required to cast each recalled Totem.
Totemic Projection remains available as another way of moving Totems, but its cooldown has been increased.
Elemental Shaman changes
Elemental Shamans receive significant changes in Forever. They’ll get Lava Burst, Lightning Overload, and their Elemental Alacrity Talent has been redesigned. Elemental Alacrity now reduces the cast time of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst.
Lightning Bolt is faster and cheaper than in Classic. Its maximum rank has a 2.5-second cast time instead of 3 seconds, and Chain Lightning has been reduced to 2 seconds from 2.5 seconds.
Elemental Reach has been expanded. It increases the range of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning while also affecting Fire Nova and Lava Burst, with Flame Shock getting an additional range increase.
Elemental Mastery has been removed from the talent tree. The Classic talent guaranteed a critical strike for the next Fire, Frost, or Nature damage spell while making that spell cost no Mana.
Enhancement Shaman changes
Enhancement is being redesigned, so instead of relying on traditional melee abilities, the new talent tree allows for more ways to combine weapon attacks with spells. Maelstrom Weapon allows melee attacks to improve subsequent Lightning Bolt casts, while Mental Dexterity converts Intellect into Attack Power, and Mental Quickness uses Intellect to increase Spell damage and healing.
Stormstrike used to increase the damage of the next two sources of Nature damage against the target in Classic. Now, it increases the damage dealt by the next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Earth Shock by 20%.
The old Shamanistic Rage ability doesn’t exist, effectively being replaced by Rage of the Farseer. Instead of providing its Classic defensive and Mana-regenerating effects, Rage of the Farseer increases melee attack speed and spellcasting speed by 30% for 25 seconds. Its cooldown is longer, increasing from 60 to 180 seconds.
Restoration Shaman Changes
Restoration gets several changes, too. The biggest additions are Riptide and Water Shield, but existing abilities including Healing Way, Mana Tide Totem, Tidal Focus, and Restorative Totems have been changed.
Healing Way no longer builds stacks that increase subsequent healing. In Forever, it directly increases the amount that Healing Wave can deal.
Mana Tide Totem’s range has increased from 20 to 30 yards.
Shaman Totems last longer
A number of Shaman Totems now last five minutes instead of two, while the range of many has increased from 20 to 30 yards, including:
- Fire Resistance Totem
- Frost resistance Totem
- Nature Resistance Totem
- Healing Stream Totem
- Mana Spring Totem
- Strength of Earth Totem
- Grace of Air Totem
- Windwall Totem
- Tremor Totem
- Poison Cleansing Totem
Alongside these changes, Ghost Wolf’s cast time has been reduced by three seconds and can now be used indoors. Several Shaman talents have been removed including:
- Elemental Mastery
- Enhancing Totems
- Improved Weapon Totems
- Nature’s Guidance
- Shield Specialization
- Totemic Mastery
- Two-Handed Axes and Maces
- Weapon Mastery
Overall, Forever keeps the familiar Shaman Totems, elemental magic, and melee weapons but gives each specialization a more distinct identity. Shaman still feels familiar to Classic players, but has more going on to support your gameplay.
