Last week, we were finally introduced to the new, streamlined, 31-point talent trees. Iconic talents will become available along with their specializations at level 10, when young characters get to answer the question “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”, which should give budding Elemental Shaman 75 levels worth of practice in the art of annoying their tanks and melee by Thunderstorming mobs out of their range. Not that I condone that or anything.
But what does that mean for those of us who will have an almost full allotment of talent points to play with when the new trees go live?
My first thought is this: I love mobility. It lets me survive better by moving away from areas of the floor that have a greater desire to broil, gril, poison, freeze, or otherwise harm me. I don’t trust the floor. That means both my Elemental and Restoration specs will have 7 points in Enhancement to pick up Ancestral Swiftness.
Elemental
Not much is new. Most of the talents are currently live talents, or knew about from recent previews. On that note…
I’m glad we’re retaining Totemic Wrath, as it really addresses the problems with Totem of Wrath right now, by scaling well with better gear, and allowing us to drop DPS Fire totems and buff the raid at the same time.
There are still many passive talents in the tree, but that may not be bad, in and of itself. One glance at your spell book will show just how much is going on there. I’m fine with there not being 15 more active abilities to keep track of.
Searing Flames is now out of reach for Elemental specs, so the debate between that and Lava Surge is over.
Restoration
Restoration offers some intriguing trade-off, with stronger tank healing from Nature’s Blessing, to improved survivability via either Nature’s Guardian or Ancestral Resolve.
Sadly, Restorative Totems is still a prerequisit for Mana Tide Totem. I will still spend those points, joylessly.
Focused Insight and Telluric Currents are probably the most interesting talents. Extra healing, and mana conservation, by dealing damage. I don’t know well they play out in a real raid environment, but they have the potential to add more variety to the play style, and I have to appreciate the apparent intent here.
Well, that’s all for now. Hopefully, my next posts will be more frequent.
Storm, Earth, Fire And Shields 