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Shaman Tanks? - Follower Dungeon NPC in The Rookery
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7 дн. назад
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During the Rookery's story playthrough, one of the accompanying characters plays the role of a Shaman tank! Here, we speculate on what that might mean for player Shamans during
The War Within
.
Baelgrim, the Shaman Tank
Keen eyes may have noticed this during their initial leveling experience during the Isle of Dorn, where one of its main characters Baelgrim and a retinue of Earthen replace the typical four followers with story-fitting characters. However, while the other three are a role-fitting Restoration/Elemental Shaman, Fire Mage, and Beast Mastery Hunter, Baelgrim has the ability to play the role of tank while retaining his typical Shaman class.
Like most of the follower dungeon NPCs, his kit is fairly simple, with a Chain Lightning for ranged pulls and an AoE frontal cone for grouped up enemies. His one notable ability is a passive tank stance befitting his story role as Stormward, with a simple damage reduction effect.
Shaman Tanks for Players?
While this is a relatively minor story on its own, it does raise the interesting question of how this might relate to player shamans and their specialization options. During
The War Within
Beta, the class got a small overhaul of their class tree, and at the end of the lengthy forum post, Blizzard promised future changes not only during the Beta cycle, but in a later patch during
The War Within
.
Please note that we intend to continue tuning and iterating on the changes above throughout the Beta, and we also have plans for further updates that will come with a future patch in The War Within.
This, along with the conspicuous addition and re-addition of mitigation abilities such as
Закаляющий ветер
and
Тотем каменной преграды
, have led many to speculate that Shamans may be getting a fourth tank specialization during
The War Within
. While this concept may have seemed impossible in the past, the addition of new specializations was proven to be a possibility during
Dragonflight
with the addition of Augmentation to Evokers.
Interestingly, this wouldn't be the first time we've seen Shaman tanks for players either. In
Season of Discovery
, Shamans are one of a few classes who are able to use the Rune system to change roles entirely from what their original designs were in Classic.
With abilities like Way of Earth and Molten Blast, level 60 Shamans are given effective ways of tanking in
Season of Discovery
, and Shield Mastery firmly places them in the archetypal shield fantasy for tanks. While these abilities are distinctly made for the gameplay of Classic, the concepts prove that a Shaman tank is entirely possible.
Shaman Stories in The War Within
Narratively, there would be no better time for an addition like this. In an expansion entirely centered around delving deep into Azeroth's subterranean regions, an Earth-themed specialization would be a perfect fit, and despite his notable appearances in
The War Within
's marketing, Thrall has yet to play a significant role in the expansion thus far. Perhaps like with Orweyna and the Haranir, his prominence was to set up a larger role in patch stories -- stories involving his connection to the elements that he was teased to be grappling with.
Shamans have frequently been left on the sidelines in expansions like
Shadowlands
and
Dragonflight
that had ample reason to involve them, but with the planet itself taking the center stage in
The War Within
, now may be the perfect time to finally give Shamans the focus they've been waiting for.
Similar to Augmentation Evokers and their narrative prominence during patch 10.1, perhaps one of
The War Within
's patches could lead into a sub-patch like 10.1.5 where we journey alongside Thrall to deepen our connection to Azeroth and unlock a new specialization.
This could also mean nothing, that Baelgrim is simply playing the needed role for the dungeon and that Shamans will get a new rework to their existing specializations later in the expansion. However, the thought of an Earth-themed Shaman tank has excited many players for years now, and Blizzard certainly has the perfect chance to make good on that wish during
The War Within
, if that is indeed what these narrative and gameplay changes are teasing.
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