WoW Shadowlands – Update 9.0.1 Shaman Class Changes

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-expansion Update 9.0.1 brings with it a bevy of various class changes, and the Shaman was no exception. Many classes will find some of their more popular abilities that were removed many expansions ago returned, and their skill acquisition adjusted due to the massive level squish introduced in this same update.

Not every class received massive adjustments, but Shaman certainly saw a healthy amount of class changes (extra health from Reincarnation is certainly nice). Below is the full list of class changes to Shaman in Shadowlands pre-expansion Update 9.0.1. For the full patch notes, be sure to check out the link here, where additional class changes are listed.

Shaman – Shadowlands Update 9.0.1 Class Changes

GENERAL

• New Passive: Improved Reincarnation – Reincarnation now revives you with an additional 20% health.
• All Shaman can now use the following abilities:
  • New Ability: Flametongue Weapon – Imbue your weapon with the element of Fire for 1 hour, causing each of your attacks to deal additional Fire damage.
  • Chain Heal – Heals the friendly target, then jumps to heal the 2 most injured nearby allies (3 for Restoration). Healing is reduced by 30% with each jump.
  • Healing Stream Totem – Summons a totem at your feet for 15 seconds that heals an injured party or raid member within 40 yards for every 2 seconds.
  • Lightning Shield – Surround yourself with a shield of lightning for 30 minutes. Melee attackers have a 100% chance to suffer Nature damage. Only one Elemental Shield can be active on the Shaman at a time.
  • Chain Lightning – Hurls a lightning bolt at the enemy, dealing Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets.
  • Flame Shock – Sears the target with fire, causing Fire damage and then additional Fire damage over 18 seconds.
  • Frost Shock – Chills the target with frost, causing Frost damage and reducing the target’s movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds.
• PvP Talent changes:
  • Skyfury Totem, Grounding Totem, and Counterstrike Totem now have 50 health (was 5). Any damage taken automatically kills the totem.

ELEMENTAL

• New Ability: Spiritwalker’s Grace – Calls upon the guidance of the spirits for 15 seconds, permitting movement while casting Shaman spells. Castable while casting.
• Flame Shock now has an 18 second duration (was 24 seconds).
• Lightning Shield: Generates 5 Maelstrom for the Shaman when attacked.
• Lava Surge proc chance reduced to 10% (was 15%).
• Ancestral Guidance (Talent) no longer has a global cooldown.
• The following Talents have been adjusted:
  • New Talent: Echoing Shock (replaces Call the Thunder) – Shock the target for Elemental damage and create an ancestral echo, causing your next direct damage or healing spell to be cast a second time 1 second later for free.
  • New Talent: Static Discharge – Discharge excess energy from your Lightning Shield, dealing Nature damage to an enemy within 40 every 0.5 second for 3 seconds. Targets with your Flame Shock on them are preferred.
  • Elemental Blast now increases your Critical Strike, Haste or Mastery by 3% instead of stat ratings and generates 30 Maelstrom. Elemental Blast Overload generates 15 Maelstrom.
  • Totem Mastery has been removed.
  • Ascendance now fires a Lava Burst at all of your Flame Shock targets, and refreshes their Flame Shock durations to up to 18 seconds upon activation.
  • Primal Elementalist Primal Fire Elemental’s Meteor now capped at 8 targets.
  • Primal Elementalist Primal Storm Elemental’s Eye of the Storm now capped at 6 targets per pulse.

ENHANCEMENT

• Maelstrom resource and Maelstrom bar have been removed.
• New Ability: Windfury Weapon (replaces Windfury passive) – Imbue your main-hand weapon with the element of Wind for 30 minutes. Each main-hand attack has a 25% chance to trigger two extra attacks, dealing Physical damage each.
• New Ability: Windfury Totem – Summons a Windfury Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 2 minutes. Party members within 30 yards have a 10% chance when they auto-attack to swing an extra time.
• Maelstrom Weapon has been redesigned – When you deal damage with a melee weapon, you have a chance to gain Maelstrom Weapon, stacking up to 10 times. Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon reduces the cast time of your next damage or healing spell by 20% and increase the damage or healing of your next spell by 20%. A maximum of 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon can be consumed at a time.
• Feral Spirit now generates one stack of Maelstrom Weapon immediately, and one stack every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.
• Lightning Shield now has an additional effect – When Lightning Shield deals damage, you have a 50% chance to generate a stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
• Chain Lightning has an additional effect – If Chain Lightning hits more than 1 target, each target hit by your Chain Lightning increases the damage of your next Crash Lightning by 20%.
• Stormbringer no longer causes your next Stormstrike to trigger no cooldown, but will still have a 5% chance to reset the remaining cooldown of Stormstrike.
• Lava Lash damage reduced by 50%, now has a 12 second cooldown, and has an additional effect: Damage is increased by 100% if your offhand weapon is imbued with Flametongue Weapon.
• Frostbrand has been replaced with Frost Shock.
• Frost Shock shares a cooldown with Flame Shock.
• Frost Shock and Flame Shock now have their cooldowns shortened by Haste.
• Flametongue has been replaced with Flametongue Weapon.
• Rockbiter has been removed.
• Crash Lightning now deals reduced damage against additional targets.
• The following Talents have been adjusted:
  • New Talent: Lashing Flames (replaces Boulderfist) – Lava Lash now increases the damage of Flame Shock on its target by 100% for 12 seconds.
  • New Talent: Stormflurry (replaces Landslide) – Stormstrike has a 25% chance to strike the target a second time for 40% of normal damage.
  • New Talent: Ice Strike (replaces Totem Mastery) – Strike your target for Frost damage, snaring them by 50% for 6 seconds. Ice Strike will also reset the cooldown of your Flame and Frost Shock spells.
  • New Talent: Elemental Assault (Passive) (replaces Overcharge) – Stormstrike damage is increased by 15%, and Stormstrike now generates 1 stack of Maelstrom Weapon.
  • New Talent: Fire Nova (replaces Searing Assault) – Erupt a burst of fiery damage from all targets affected by your Flame Shock, dealing Fire damage to up to 6 targets within 8 yards of your Flame Shock targets.
  • New Talent: Stormkeeper (replaces Fury of Air) – Charge yourself with lightning, causing your next 2 Lightning Bolts or Chain Lightnings to deal 150% more damage and be instant cast.
  • Hot Hand now causes melee auto-attacks with Flametongue Weapon active to have a 5% chance to reduce the cooldown of Lava Lash by 75% and increase the damage of Lava Lash by 100% for 8 seconds.
  • Elemental Blast now increases your Critical Strike, Haste or Mastery by 3% instead of stat ratings.
  • Forceful Winds Windfury bonus damage is now 50% (was 80%).
  • Hailstorm has been redesigned – Each stack of Maelstrom Weapon consumed increases the damage of your next Frost Shock by 35%, and causes your next Frost Shock to hit 1 additional target per Maelstrom Weapon stack consumed.
  • Sundering no longer has a Maelstrom cost and now has a 6% mana cost.
  • Ascendance now causes you to explode with Nature damage upon activation, dealing damage to all enemies within 8 yards.

RESTORATION

• New Ability: Water Shield – The caster is surrounded by globes of water, granting 50 mana per 5 seconds. When a melee attack hits the caster, the caster regains 2% of their mana. This effect can only occur once every few seconds. Only one of your Elemental Shields can be active on you at once.
• New Ability: Mana Tide Totem – Summons a Mana Tide Totem at the feet of the caster for 8 seconds, granting 100% increased mana regeneration to party and raid members within 10 yards.
• Earth Shield is no longer a Talent and is learned by all Restoration Shaman at level 22.
• Riptide duration is now 18 seconds (was 15 seconds).
• Flame Shock now has an 18 second duration (was 21 seconds).
• Lava Surge proc chance reduced to 10% (was 15%).
• The following Talents have been adjusted:
  • New Talent: Surge of Earth (replaces Earth Shield) – Consume up to 3 charges of Earth Shield to heal up to 3 allies near your Earth Shield target per charge consumed.
  • Torrent now increases the initial heal from Riptide by 20% (was 30%).