If anyone wants to start a new thread for discussing the cataclysm changes to individual specs, and is willing to be responsible for updating the OP as new information comes in, feel free. I'll sticky them, and once we have all 3 going I'll lock and un-sticky this thread.

edit: We have threads for elemental and enhancement now. I'll leave this thread open for resto discussion. I'm not sure I still want to leave all the Cataclysm threads stickied. I'll leave it for now, but probably will move them down below where the rest of the discussion threads live. If you have a strong feeling either way, send me a PM.

Once more, for those that can't read: Lightning Mastery was NOT removed. It's incorporated into Eye of the Storm (Elemental Spec). mmo-champ doesn't report this.

I can do the Enhance one, but not till next week (or possibly this weekend), as I am out of town on vacation currently and don't much time. So if someone doesn't start one before then, I will.

[edit] Scratch that. I'll have something in the next couple days (like I said, out of town, time is sparse). However if someone else wants to do it instead, go nuts.

I think the Elemental tree is a bit too restrictive. Blue posts have said this is not one of the specs that still needs work, so I think it's stable enough to look at in depth. Taking all DPS-increasing talents, plus the almost mandatory 7 points in Enhancement to get Swiftness, leaves you with

- 2 filler points required to reach T4
- 3 optional points after reaching 31/7/0

These 5 points don't feel like a "fun" choice - the viable options are

- Improved Fire Nova for AoE
- Elemental Warding for survivability
- Unrelenting Storm for mana regen (last 3 points only)
- Ancestral Resolve for survivability (last 3 points only)

This feels like a choice that will be dictated by gear/encounter, not player choice. If AoE is required in boss fights, Imp Fire Nova becomes mandatory. If mana is an issue, Unrelenting Storm becomes mandatory. Otherwise, all those points will go into rather boring survivability talents.

The elemental tree just doesn't feel like it's moved towards their Cataclysm design intentions - this is further highlighted by talents like Shamanism (increasing coefficients) and Reverberation (which is no longer accessible to Enhancement, and therefore just feels redundant). The impression I got was that there'd be maybe a tier or two in each tree where to advance, your choice of talents was at the level of (for example) 2 points to reduce Astral Recall CD to 5 minutes, or 2 points to increase Ghost Wolf speed increase out of combat to 100%.

This theory was brought up in the warrior forums too. Testers in the beta have shown it to not work this way (for now?). A warrior wearing mail armor with mastery still gets the benefit from the stat.

The official statements by Blizzard weren't precise, but my understanding was that you get a bonus for wearing your proper armor class -- above and beyond any mastery stat listed on your gear.

I can't imagine that will be the ultimate way to keep people using their own armor class. There are more than likely going to be specs where Mastery is one of the lower stat priorities, and in that case nothing will prevent them from taking lower armor class items that don't have Mastery. Just an semi-educated guess right now, but it looks like Enh Shaman may be in that situation, with a huge need for hit/exp right off the bat making rogue leather very attractive again, while our mastery only affects a relatively small portion of our damage.

WRT resto being "stuck" in a 0/10/31 spec, yes, you could run a basic spec that gets every output talent, but there are still optional talents in those. I currently don't run with Ancestral Healing because I have two holy priests and another resto shaman who provide that buff and they're very reliable at keeping it up on the tanks. Also if you're not tank healing, Nature's Blessing is wasted points, Imp Shields isn't needed for fights where there's only a single tank at a time, you have another resto shaman for ES, and there's no aoe damage that procs your water shield (BQL for example). There are options, and while yes, I'll probably run the cookie cutter spec the majority of the time, there is plenty of potential for a slightly off spec to be a great boon for certain fights/raid compositions.

Now that we have individual threads for more specific discussion of the elemental, enhance, and resto shaman cataclysm changes, I'm closing this thread. Please continue the discussion in those threads.