WoW: The War Within beta hints at major new role for Shaman players
Blizzard EntertainmentWorld of Warcraft: The War Within has been set for an August release and players have been working hard discovering what it has to offer in the beta. One moment in particular has drawn attention from the community, which potentially hints at a more exciting future for Shaman players.
In a post on Reddit, a player revealed a key discovery that they found from needing to run a Follower Dungeon. After loading into the instance, they noticed that the group’s NPC Tank was a Shaman, a role the class has never officially been able to play.
This happened during a particular questline, with the NPC in question playing a role in both that and the dungeon. While this could just be a simple design choice, or even a placeholder, many thought it could hint at a new direction for the class.
Much of this speculation comes from the appearance of Shaman Tanks in Season of Discovery. Though that is obviously a mode that is running the Classic version of WoW, it does show potential. This also led others to speculate that the other experimental specs could arrive in Retail WoW.
“Yeah, I foresee Shaman tank and Warlock tank coming by Last Titan. Mage healer is definitely a bit more iffy since Evoker kinda took the ‘time healer’ identity (then again DH exists).”
Others advocated for new specs for other classes. One said, “Warlock healing by adding a lot of leech / self-heal buffs to DPS. The ability to even out damage across the group, and some dual-channel siphon life stuff would be really interesting.”
Outside of potential new specs, Shaman players are unhappy with the upcoming changes for the class. Many feel that other classes are receiving overhauls, while Shaman remains locked in a state barely any different from Dragonflight.
Blizzard did confirm a new raft of changes are on the way. Whether these will be enough to placate the player base remains to be seen.