A Review of Farseer Hero Talents - Unraveling the Ancestral Mysteries

Greetings, fellow adventurers! Today, we have some exciting news for all Elemental Shamans out there. In the latest expansion, The War Within, Blizzard has introduced a new feature called Hero Talent Trees. These talent trees are an extension of the existing talent system, designed to explore class fantasy and enhance the unique qualities of each spec. In this blog post, written by WowCarry, we will dive into the details of the Farseer Shaman Hero Talents and evaluate their potential impact on Elemental Shamans.

The Farseer and Ancestral Theming

Before we delve into the gameplay and implications of the Farseer Hero Talent Tree, let's take a moment to appreciate its thematic roots. Shamanism has always revolved around the worship and guidance of ancestral spirits, especially among Orcs and Tauren. The Elemental Shaman, in particular, can tap into the power of their ancestors through spells like Ancestral Guidance. In the Legion expansion, our journey as Shamans centered around the role of the "Farseer," bestowing us with the corresponding title upon completion of the class order hall campaign.

Gameplay and Implications

The Farseer Hero Talent Tree enables Elemental Shamans to summon powerful ancestral spirits to aid them in battle. These spirits can either cast damaging spells on enemies or healing spells on allies. The exact mechanics of these ancestral summons have not been fully revealed yet, but we can speculate on how they might function based on what we know. It is possible that the summoned spirits will mimic our default spells, like Mirror Image, casting Lightning Bolt or other elemental spells. Alternatively, they could utilize spells like Flame Shock, Lava Burst, or Primordial Wave. The question of whether or not these ancestral spells will trigger our existing spell effects, such as Surge of Power or Windspeaker's Lava Resurgence, remains unanswered.

The Farseer tree heavily relies on the spells Primordial Wave and Lava Burst to activate and spawn ancestral spirits. As a result, this talent tree leans towards what we refer to as "Fire builds." If there are no significant changes to our base talent trees, we may find ourselves with limited options to adapt our builds to synergize with this new talent tree. Additionally, with another talent tree called "Stormbringer" on the horizon, we can expect a clear division between "Lightning" and "Fire" builds, potentially compounding the struggle of finding a balanced approach in different types of content.

• Defensive Concerns

While the Farseer Hero Talent Tree offers intriguing offensive capabilities, it falls short when it comes to addressing the defensive aspects of the Elemental Shaman. The defensive nodes in this talent tree, while somewhat beneficial, do not significantly enhance our survivability. For example, increasing the healing done by Earth Shield is helpful, but it doesn't address the core issue of our squishiness. Nature's Guardian, another defensive ability, often triggers when we are not in real danger and fails to activate when facing powerful blows. Though increasing its healing is a small improvement, it does not solve these fundamental flaws. One might argue that the hero talent trees are not the ideal place to address these issues, but it is still disheartening to compare our defensive options with those of other classes.

• Pros and Cons

Let's summarize the pros and cons of the Farseer Hero Talent Tree:

Pros:

• The talent tree is passive, meaning it won't add additional complexity to our rotation.
• It may save us a talent point, as we currently have minimal options for spending them.
• It provides a slight boost to our damaging spells, making our spenders more impactful.

Cons:

• If the ancestral spells do not interact with our existing kit, the talent tree becomes entirely passive.
• The tree heavily favors single-target damage and Fire builds, which limits diversity for different types of encounters.
• Introducing more RNG elements reduces player agency and diminishes control over performance.
• Several talents in the tree feel underwhelming and do not significantly impact gameplay or damage output.

The Conclusion

In conclusion, the Farseer Hero Talent Tree is a somewhat disappointing addition to the Elemental Shaman toolkit. While we can't expect additional talent points to address underlying issues with the spec, such as its defensive capabilities or lack of raid viability, it feels like the talents in this tree exacerbate some of these problems. The introduction of more RNG also contradicts the recent changes made to Deeply Rooted Elements. However, the guaranteed spawns from Primordial Wave and may offer some control over these random elements. Perhaps our perception of the talent tree will change once Blizzard unveils more details about how the ancestral spirits function. Until then, it seems that the Farseer tree is a non-intrusive addition that still requires some adjustments to the core spec to truly shine.

About the Author

Hello, I'm HawkCorrigan, also known as Hawk. I play Elemental Shaman on a semi-hardcore level on the Draenor server, with a primary focus on PvE content. You can often find me lurking around the Earthshrine Discord, where I serve as one of the Elemental Shamans MVPs, offering advice and answering various questions. I'm also actively involved in maintaining Elemental Shaman modules in Simulationcraft and am one of the dedicated maintainers for the Storm, Earth, and Lava website.

Farseer Hero Talent Tree Details