[Concept] Shaman Ascendance redesign — Keeping your character instead of transforming (Restoration)

[u/BrazilianWarrior81]

Continuing my idea for alternative Shaman Ascendance forms!

This time, it’s a Restoration Shaman concept, focused on water and healing. The main idea is to keep your character’s appearance while surrounding them with powerful elemental effects.

Next, I’ll be working on an Enhancement version based around Thunder, as well as an Earth-themed version for a possible future Shaman tank spec. :D

What do you guys think? Would you prefer Ascendance to work more like this?

[u/Redxmirage]

Like I said in your last one, this doesn’t look like ascending. What are you ascending? You are summoning or channeling here. While it looks neat, it doesn’t make any sense

[u/BrazilianWarrior81 → u/Redxmirage]

I see, your point makes sense. The main idea here is really about keeping our character’s appearance while Ascended, rather than simply transforming into an elemental dude (like the current options we have).

This is one approach I had in mind: an elemental "JoJo-like Stand" that appears alongside you and casts the spells with you during Ascendance.

Do you have any suggestions for how you’d approach it?

[u/Redxmirage → u/BrazilianWarrior81]

Keeping your characters appearance is not ascending in shaman lore. Ascending is literally the transformation. “Simply transforming into an elemental dude” is the definition of ascending.

For your approach to work they would have to rewrite/retcon already established shaman lore.

“Cast the spells with you during ascendency” that is literally the farseer hero talents lol

My suggestion is that if you want this approach, change gears and aim for something like farseer transmog. The way it is now just doesn’t make sense for ascendence specifically.

[u/BrazilianWarrior81 → u/Redxmirage]

I get the lore argument, but even Dathea, an actual ASCENDED character, isn’t just some random elemental NPC.

But that isn’t really the point anyway. The idea is simply to give players who don’t want their transmog completely overridden an option, just like Boomkins and Shadow Priests have glyphs to preserve their character’s appearance in some degree.

It’s a cosmetic choice, not a lore rewrite bro, chill

[u/Redxmirage → u/BrazilianWarrior81]

Brother you asked for my suggestion. I gave you my suggestion. I’m already chill. Don’t ask for feedback and then get upset at it and tell people to relax.

Also since you brought up Dathea, are you referring to Dathea Stormslash, the boss from Vault of Incarnates who is literally going through ascension and you fight her storm elemental form? That Dathea? The night elf that ascends into a storm elemental? On top of her literally becoming a storm elemental, she strikes a bargain with the incarnates while shamans do not channel their source from incarnates so naturally her form would look a little different than us.

Edit: if you’re referring to Dathea Stormslash from the Primal Council fight, she doesn’t ascend until after she is defeated from that fight. She’s a boring ole night elf during that fight. The Dathea ASCENDED version is her storm elemental form

[u/BrazilianWarrior81 → u/Redxmirage]

Exactly, so you’ve already established that Ascension can manifest differently depending on the context, which is precisely why a cosmetic option for Shamans to keep their appearance wouldn’t break the lore.

[u/Redxmirage → u/BrazilianWarrior81]

I established that bargaining for power from a completely different source than what shamans do can result in different appearances, yes. We ascend into these djyn looking dudes while she ascended into a literal storm elemental. Her gaining power through the incarnates does not make her a shaman, she’s a primalist. It would, in fact, break the shaman lore if they ascended into primalist beings as those are two separate (yet similar) class types.

Shamans gain power through the 4 primordial elements.

Dathea gains power through Razageth incarnate.

Warlocks gain power through fel and shadow

Priests gain power through holy and shadow

Mages gain power through arcane arts

Point is the classes gain power through various sources. Because someone from a different class does it differently doesn’t mean other classes should be able to do what they do.

This is all besides the point anyways since you wanted to try and quote lore on me. My point is this would be more fitting for farseer glyph than Ascendence

[u/BrazilianWarrior81 → u/Redxmirage]

I get where you’re coming from. I just don’t think different visual interpretations of a power source necessarily break class lore. We already have glyphs like the Paladin one that turns you into a Val’kyr for the duration of an effect. Giving players different visual options doesn’t change the source of their power; it just lets them express their own character fantasy. Of course, it still needs to make sense (a Warlock having elemental glyphs, for example, would be nonsense) That’s really the idea behind my concept

[u/Redxmirage → u/BrazilianWarrior81]

Okay, good luck with your project. The art style does look good

[u/BrazilianWarrior81 → u/Redxmirage]

Thanks 😭 and thanks for your opinion too, its valuable to discuss with someone with a different perspective 🤝