Elemental Weapons Suggestion - Earth Shield Interaction

[Ainton]

*Disclaimer* I've not tanked end game content with a Shaman, so I'm not going to attempt to get exact with numbers. I think it's a step in the right direction. *End Disclaimer*

Elemental Weapons is a very cool talent and is executed well, but I think there's room to include another piece of the Shaman kit as well as create a unique defensive "cooldown" ability without overloading the tool-tip any more than it already is...hopefully.

Elemental Weapons buffs all four imbues in unique and flavorful ways, and includes benefits for other core parts of the class kit/identity.
-Frostbrand interacts with a shock spell.
-Flametongue interacts with fire totems.
-Whirlwind is a notable exclusion to this, but honestly it's strong enough and iconic enough it doesn't need more than it has. It's an auto attack buff and that's all it needs to be.
-Rockbiter also only interacts with melee attacks and no other parts of the Shaman kit, which is where I think the biggest opportunity lies. Elemental shields aren't tied into the talent at all.

First though, Earthen Bulwark. I think it's cool in that it scales with both the melee damage you deal, which makes sense because Rockbiter buffs AP significantly, but it also scales with max HP, and provides % based mitigation to account for low Shaman armor. In a way, it helps the Shaman tank prioritize stats. More melee damage, and more HP = more consistent mitigation. I'm cool with it as is, but I will offer an alternative to go with my addition, as well as an option that works with the existing Earthen Bulwark that accomplishes something similar. Both options create an interaction between Rockbiter, and you guessed it, Earth Shield! Thematically I feel like I don't need to point out that Rockbiter is the Earth imbue, and that's what drew me to Earth Shield, but here I am pointing it out.

Option A - No change to existing Earthen Bulwark. Only the addition of Earth Shield Interaction

This option would modify Earthen Bulwark while Earth Shield is active by increasing the maximum health of the Bulwark by X%, increase the the damage absorbed per hit by Y%, and finally, instead of healing each charge of the shield would be empowered and would add to the Bulwark with the ability to crit just like Earth Shield already does. The empowerment would be similar to what Lightning Strike does.

Put more simply, Earth Shield would Buff every aspect of Earthen Bulwark while it's active.

Option B - New Earthen Bulwark as well as Earth Shield interaction

In this version, instead of working with a pool of damage to be absorbed directly related to melee damage dealt, it's a charge/stack system. While Rockbiter is active, melee attacks add a charge of Earthen Bulwark. For each charge, armor is increased by A% of maximum health, up to a maximum of B charges. These numbers would be tuned to roughly equate current Earthen Bulwark's overall mitigation. Charges begin to fall off after C seconds of not attacking. Values A&B triple while wearing a shield just as the current version does. Requiring melee attacks keeps the active element, and max HP scaling keeps it from becoming too strong on Resto PvP players.

While Rockbiter is active and Earth Shield is used, Earth Shield charges are added to the Earthen Bulwark total and increasing the maximum charges while active. These charges would fall off when taking hits just as a normal Elemental Shield would, down to the normal maximum of B charges, or until another Shield is activated. This would provide a huge armor boost instantly that would degrade as charges go down.

The tooltip version can read much cleaner than that. To be clear though, melee attacks would not be able to build up the charges past B. Only Earth Shield activation, and damage spells with Call of Earth as the talent currently reads would be able to do that.

So I know as soon as you read Earth Shield many of you lost interest because Water Shield is too important for tanks. That opportunity cost is what makes this into a "cooldown" ability. It would only be usable so long as you can spare the mana to do so. Not to mention the threat associated with Totem of the Tides and Sigil. I'm afraid that's where my end game inexperience might make this idea seem silly or unusable. Perhaps mana is already strained too much, or threat isn't sustainable. I just don't know.

I think it would make Spellhance tanking a bit more attractive simply because Call of Earth would directly impact mitigation.

I will also say I considered suggesting the Earth Shield interaction replace Earthen Bulwark entirely to simplify it all, but if having the Bulwark as an entirely passive ability is factored into balance, then I didn't want to take that away.

In summary, I believe there's room to work Earth Shield interaction into the Elemental Weapons talent to both create a defensive cooldown for Shaman tanks, as well as bring the talent full circle by ensuring the big three Shaman mechanics (Shocks, Totems, Shields) are represented within it. What I've suggested may not be the best way, but I think it sounds cool and I'm interested in hearing some feedback about it.

Thanks for reading.