The Shaman is one of the least played classes in World of Warcraft. Perhaps that is because until the arrival of The Burning Crusade it was a Horde-only class. However, despite the Alliance being able to create them for more than two years now, Shamans still remain underplayed.
Let’s take a quick look at the local statistics. www.wowgamers.co.za gives a great summary of the characters local WoW players have added to the site’s database. According to their random sampling of players, 9% of South African characters are Shamans. This places the Shaman fourth last. This is slightly above the international average, where it seems Shamans are usually a little less favourable.
Regardless, compared to some other classes, the Shaman is, as ironic as it may be, dwarfed in numbers. As a result, in the past Blizzard often seemed to overlook them in the development of new content – at least from a Shaman’s perspective. So what exciting changes does the future hold for the Shaman? To be quite honest – not much.
First up, with the arrival of Cataclysm we will see the addition of a new race to the ranks – Dwarves. Some may question the validity of Dwarves as Shamans, but if one keeps in mind that Dwarves are descendants of the Element of Earth, their branching into shamanistic ways does not seem so strange. This is great for those interested in creating their first Alliance Shaman, but to existing Shamans this isn’t anything to write home about.
However, one very welcome change comes in the form of a move similar to the Druid skin overhauls is the addition of race-specific totems. This will arrive with Patch 3.3. Trolls will relish in their appropriately tribal-styled totems, whilst Orcs’ totems resemble something like a shield attached to a pole. Draenei keep their unique space-age totems, and Dwarves have arguably the most random yet interesting design – that of what looks like a giant bullet impaling a pole. Since totems are basically what define the Shaman class, changes in this department are exciting.
As with each new patch, Blizzard will strive to make balance changes. There are some interesting changes on the horizon for Shamans in this department. One also has to keep in mind that Cataclysm will no doubt introduce some new spells too.
However, some may still feel that the Shaman needs something new and interesting that will encourage more people to play them. Cataclysm, after all, encourages the creation of alts. Now is the opportunity to convince people to make those alts Shamans! The question is – what can be done? Totems alone are an interesting mechanic of gameplay. Surely Blizzard could create totems capable of less combat-specific roles, such as portal totems or the like? On another extreme, they could introduce more direct-damage totems, such as a Frostbolt-like totem. Totems certainly leave a lot of room for creativity.
Shamans and prospective Shamans will no doubt be watching closely as more details on Cataclysm are released. It could very well be the chance for the class to truly shine and take up a more direct role in-game.
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