WotLK Shaman Info Part 1

Oh boy, the moment I've been waiting for since the first WotLK leaks hit the street... the shaman talents, spell, and abilities are out. They hit the streets a few days ago, but I've been too busy to do a complete post. Here is the first list with more to come soon.

The master list is here:
http://wotlkwiki.info/index.php/Shaman

The talent tree is here:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=h

(note: links updated 7/12/08)

Let's look at this from an enhance perspective, starting from the bottom and working our way up.

Feral Spirit - Summons two spirit wolves under the command of the shaman, lasting 30 seconds. 2 minute cooldown. 51 point talent in Enhancement tree.
This talent and go either way. It could be one of those super awesomely annoying pets in pvp & arenas like the frost mage's elemental, or it could be the half-joke that is the Moonkin's treant. From what I saw on the video it didn't look like the wolves were all that effective, so they might end up being less Water Elemental and more Treant. Regardless, I will be spending points in this to find out.

Weapon Specialization - Axe - Increases the critical strike damage bonus by 25%. Mace - Has a 5% chance to increase your melee haste by 10% for 15 sec. Fist - Attacks from your fist weapons have a 5% chance to reduce the armor of your target by 20% for 6 sec. (Numbers reflect 5/5 points in the talent.) Requires 45 points in Enhancement talents.
For us theorycrafters this talent will be very interesting for us test and calculate. In fact, I can see how this is going to complicate weapon and gear choices. Personally I refuse to use maces as they are the hallmark weapons of no-skill rogues, but the haste increase makes me salivate. I heart haste. I could start into a long-winded breakdown of these stats but I think I'll hold that until we see what the weapon itemization is like in the next expansion. Until then, no matter how you cut it, this is very nice dps boost.

Improved Shamanistic Rage - While under the effect of Shamanistic Rage, you have a 50/100% chance also cause you to be immune to all stun, snare and movement impairing effects. Requires 40 points in Enhancement Talents. Requires 1 point in Shamanistic Rage.
Very cool. I'm assuming this will not clear current effects but will prevent more. It's only 15 seconds of love, but for my 3v3 burst-damage team that'll rock. Drop some wolves, kick in Imp Sham Rage, and go to town unmolested. I expect that I'll be using Sham Rage every time it comes up, not just when I'm being focused. And I don't think I need to mention how incredibly awesome this will be against rogues. No more chain stunning for you, jerk.


Static Shock - You have a 2/4/6% chance to hit your target with a Lightning Shield Orb charge when you do damage, and increases your spell damage by 1/2/3% when you have Lightning Shield active.
I'm not so excited about this one. I see they are trying to make Lightning Shield more useful. But realistically I don't expect to use this talent. As it stands now in PvP I get beat on enough that LS procs quickly, and then I usually put up water shield after that bc I know I'll need the mana late in the fight. In PvE that 6% could mean a proc per minute (very rough guess) which is only an additional 380 Nature Damage at level 80. And as for increasing my spell damage the 3% is negligible. I don't see myself investing points in this unless I wanted to create a purely PvE spec and had 3 extra talent points. But for a 41 point talent this is pretty weak.

That is all for this morning. More to come in this weekend.