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WoW: Forever Shaman changes
Every Shaman change in Blizzard's official WoW: Forever beta development notes, newest build first. 56 lines across 4 builds. Each line links to the official post.
What changed for Shamans, in brief
- Totem stacking was overhauled (Sep 24): Flametongue Totem no longer has a duration and doesn't stack with itself, Flametongue Weapon or Windfury Totem. Tranquil Air, Windfury and Grace of Air don't stack, even from different Shamans. On Oct 15, Grace of Air became non-exclusive with Windfury and Flametongue, and the main totems became raid-wide.
- Elemental tree reshuffled (Oct 15): Elemental Mastery returns as the 31-point talent. Lava Burst moves to the 21-point slot with a new rank 4. Call of Thunder is removed. Chain Lightning costs about 35% less Mana, while Fire Nova's damage and cost are cut.
- Damage scaling: Lightning Bolt ranks 3–4 and Lava Burst ranks 1–2 are buffed (Sep 24). Lightning Bolt low ranks are smoothed (Oct 8).
- Enhancement: Stormstrike costs 8% of base Mana, and its debuff isn't consumed by spells that miss (Oct 15).
- Restoration: Water Shield can trigger from any spell crit. An extra Mana Tide Totem rank comes at level 38 (Oct 15). Totemic Recall restores Mana (Oct 1).
Summary written by Friday from the official notes below. The full verbatim list follows. See also: all beta changes by class · what to test in the Oct 19 stress test.
Beta build notes — October 15, 2026 (33 changes)
Full build notes · Blizzard source post
General Shaman changes
- Fixed an issue where Totemic Recall cost 70 silver on the trainer instead of 22 silver, as intended.fix source
- Grounding Totem is now correctly destroyed after redirecting a spell. source
- Windfury Weapon’s attacks now appear as White hits in the scrolling combat text. source
- Grace of Air Totem is no longer exclusive with Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem. source
- Windfury Totem and Flametongue Totem retain their exclusivity. source
- Grace of Air Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, and Flametongue Totem are now Raid wide. source
- Chain Lightning: Mana cost reduced by approximately 35% on all four ranks. source
- Fire Nova’s Spell Power Coefficient has been changed to 0.143 (was 0.214). source
- Fire Nova’s base damage has been significantly reduced. source
- Fire Nova’s mana cost has been significantly reduced. source
- Flametongue Totem and Windfury Totem now correctly only affect players. source
- Added a little green to the visual of Chain Heal without overpowering the original effect. source
Elemental
- Your Clearcasting from the Elemental Focus talent will no longer have a way to be spent on the same Fire Nova that activates it. source
- Elemental Mastery: This talent has returned as the new 31-point gold medal talent. Reduces the cast time of Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst by 0.5 seconds and removes the cooldown from Chain Lightning for 15 seconds. 3-minute CD. Lava Burst is pre-requisite. source
- Lava Burst: Moved from the 7th row to the 5th row as the 21-point gold medal talent. New rank 4 added and ranks reflowed. No longer has any pre-requisite. source
- Elemental Fury: Now has Lightning Overload as pre-requisite. source
- Lightning Overload: Now has Elemental Alacrity as pre-requisite. source
- Elemental Alacrity: Moved from 3rd row to 2nd row. source
- Elemental Warding: Moved from 2nd row to 3rd row. source
- Call of Thunder: Talent removed. source
- Earthbound: Moved to 4th row as the 16-point gold medal talent. source
- Elemental Reach: Now also reduces the cooldown on Totemic Projection by 10/20 seconds. source
- Call of Flame: Now also extends duration of Flame Shock by 3/6/9 seconds. source
- Column Arrangement: Many talents moved to make room for other talents and their connections. source
- Clearcasting will no longer be consumed by Lightning Overload activations. source
- Fire Nova’s tooltip now correctly increases when placing talents into Trial By Fire (the talent formerly known as Improved Fire Nova). source
Enhancement
- Your Stormstrike debuff is no longer consumed if your spell does not land. source
- Fixed an issue where Stormstrike could be consumed by other players or pets that weren’t the casting Shaman.fix source
- Stormstrike’s cost changed to 8% of Base Mana (was 125 Mana at all points in the game). source
Restoration
- Added an additional Rank of Mana Tide Totem that is learned at level 38, so now you have ranks at level 25, 38, 48, 58 (was levels 25, 48, 58). source
- The Restorative Totems talent now correctly increases the effect of the entirety of Healing Stream totem (was the base value). source
- Tidal Focus and Totemic Focus have swapped locations. Tidal Focus is now in the 1st row, and Totemic Focus is now in the 2nd row. source
- Water Shield: Can now trigger from any critical spell cast by the Shaman (was only critical heals). source
Beta build notes — October 8, 2026 (8 changes)
Full build notes · Blizzard source post
General Shaman changes
- Flametongue Totem will now correctly use the target’s attack speed if they are Shapeshifted, instead of using the speed of their equipped weapon. source
- Lightning Bolt: The base points and points per level of ranks 1-5 of this spell have been adjusted to make the growth rate of ranks 1-6 more consistent, and new ranks always an upgrade. source
- The various creatures needed for the quest “Storm, Earth, and Fire” respawn more quickly, creatures drop their twisted totems more often, Maraudine Scouts now drop Twisted Air Totems, Ongeku can now drop a Twisted Earth Totem, Murdaloc can now drop a Twisted Fire Totem. The Twisted Fire Totem can now additionally be obtained via Dustbelcher ogres across the Badlands. Larger encampents like Dustbelch Grotto will respawn more quickly, but smaller ones will not. source
- The Eye of the Tempest for “Heed My Call” is now multi-drop. source
Elemental
- Elemental Focus is no longer activated and immediately consumed when using Fire Nova. source
Restoration
Beta build notes — October 1, 2026 (3 changes)
Full build notes · Blizzard source post
General Shaman changes
Beta build notes — September 24, 2026 (12 changes)
Full build notes · Blizzard source post
General Shaman changes
- Lightning Bolt: Damage on ranks 3 and 4 increased to make these spells always upgrades over previous ranks (despite changing cast times). source
- Windfury Totem: Buff from this spell now displays as “Windfury Totem” instead of “Windfury Totem Passive”. source
- Flametongue Totem: Buff from this spell now displays as “Flametongue Totem” instead of “Flametongue Totem Effect”. source
- Flametongue Totem no longer has a duration and is instantly replaced when placing another totem. source
- Flametongue Totem is no longer able to be stacked by repeatedly casting Flametongue Totem. source
- Flametongue Totem no longer stacks with Flametongue Weapon. source
- Flametongue Totem no longer stacks with Windfury Totem. source
- Tranquil Air Totem, Windfury Totem, and Grace of Air Totem no longer stack together even if used by different Shamans in the same group. source
Elemental
- Swapped the positions of the Elemental Fury (Row 3) and Elemental Alacrity (Row 6) talents. source
Developers’ notes: Critical Strike damage increases early on in trees are exciting for other specializations, but its not as exciting for the core specialization while leveling, since they don’t have enough critical strike chance to really appreciate it. So we’re moving one of the better talents for Elemental Shaman functionality, earlier in the tree, to allow them to feel like they’re hitting important progression moments (something Elemental has lacked in the early levels). We understand that this affects Enhancement Shaman’s critical strike damage with spells, but we will use this room created to add more to Enhancement Shaman in the future.
- Lava Burst damage on ranks 1 and 2 increased to be about 10% more base damage than the Lightning Bolt rank learned around the same level. source
Enhancement
- Rage of the Far Seer (Row 7) no longer increases the Shaman’s Spell Casting Speed. source
Developers’ notes: Rage of the Far Seer’s spell casting speed was not necessary to include for the core functionality of this ability. So we removed it.
Restoration
- Corrected an issue and now Riptide can land critical hits.fix source
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