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Wind Shear

Wind Shear

9.4% of base mana	25 yd range

Instant	12 sec cooldown

Requires Shaman
Requires level 16

Disrupts the target's concentration with a burst of wind, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec.

Spell Details

Duration

3 seconds

School

Nature

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

9.4% of base mana

Range

25 yards (Medium-Short)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

12 seconds

GCD

0 seconds

Effect

Interrupt Cast
Mechanic: Interrupted

Flags

Guides

Elemental Shaman Guide

Elementals in
Draenor: A Guide
to Elemental Shaman

Enhancement Shaman Guide

Ranged DPS
Overview -
Tips and Specs

Restoration Shaman Guide

Warlords of Draenor
Shaman Changes

Comments

Comment by Goldteddy

might be somthing usefull for anti spell without getting agro.....
but then again kinda useless if your not overdpsing in raids

Comment by Kelaon

You don't need to be over-DPSing for this to be useful.

There could be a few bosses where they have a minion that can cast a debuff, a powerful spell or just an annoying spell but isn't a priority to kill, and this could allow you to prevent that spell from being cast and possibly lower your overall aggro on the main boss or just not attract that mob itself while stopping the spell?

That is just one possibility.

But its probably going to be primarily used as an aggro dump for when you are getting too much aggro in a raid.

Comment by Windreaver

Why would shamans get this at level 16 though when they don't have access to air spells until 30?

Comment by Supremacy

Why would shamans get this at level 16 though when they don't have access to air spells until 30?

A valid question. My theory - and this is purely conjecture, mind you - is that they get this at level 16 because wind/earth/poison are all considered Nature spells, and not really tied to any specific tree.

If you want to get technical, shaman start off with lightning bolt, which is a nature spell, but not tied to anything. And if memory serves, you can get Frostbrand weapon before you get the water totem.

It's probably just a gimme to shaman. People have been clamoring about a wind shock for ages. Lore wise, it would make sense that shaman could utilize at least some of the elements without those quests for totems.

But in all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if this gets remaned Wind Blast, or something like that. I also woudn't be surprised if changes came to either this or Earth Shock; I can forsee some...issues...with shaman having a standard interrupt, and another interrupt off of the global cooldown.

And two shocks that both have an interrupt component, even if one is meant for PVP and one for PVE, is a little--

Well, like I said. Don't be too surprised if changes occur.

Comment by seniorverde

does anyone know if this shares a cooldown with the other shocks?

Comment by netrbrunet

Anyone have information on how much agro is dumped? I assume its not a temporary dump from the phrasing, but it doesn't idicate how much. If it's just 2-5% or something, then it becomes much less useful (although, not useless).

Comment by Achiistra

I personally think the spell interruption should be left to Earth Shock. Wind Shock, in my opinion, should have *either* minor knockback or a short (1 or two second) Cyclone (Druid spell) effect. It would be odd having two interrupt/magic school silence abilities...

Comment by pizzabringerX

man some you guys pvp to much, this is awesome and shouldn't be changed at all, earth shock is your main interrupt and great cause of storm strike as an enhance shaman, but there a threat issue in pve, so they made this little spell so even if you need to use over earth shock, it doesn't sacrifice the interrupt. this is = to fein/cower with the changes to salvation gonna be funny to see how sucky some players are at pve just like back in the day before BC.

Comment by Obierka

btw, rank one earth shock now costs the same as all other ranks of earth shock. Spell mana costs are now a percentage for all ranks.

Comment by dollar99

I used this spell to kite gamon all over the place but I never managed to get him past all the people at orgs front gates.

Comment by Rahizz

May I just say.
This does NOT share the global cooldown.
So you can macro it with maybe a grounding totem when your being focused on.

It's useful spamming Stormstrike, and this spell, if you can't hit ES because of the Global CD

Comment by loozerr

Call me immature and all but the name of the spell makes me think about fart. Laughed a bit after I heard the name and then got bit ashamed.

Comment by eturtle

You can rank me down for this, and yes, i agree there is a use for this spell, but my thoughts are that Blizz only implemented this spell because they wanted shammies to have a shock of the 4 main elemental spells (fire, frost, earth, wind; main ones shammies use). They implemented a temporary weapon enhancement for each of the 4 elements, so, i feel that they wanted to have a "shock" of each too. Just to clarify, i do think this spell can be beneficial in the right scenario, but, a shamman may want to use their 6sec cd on another shock. Please comment if you discover a beneficial use of this spell for PvP though.

Comment by Moozh

As a resto shammy that pugs regularly, this spell is a godsend when you're grouped with a tank that seems to think Thunderclap is a waste of rage.

Comment by Manbewbs

Would be nice if this spell gives a small amount of damage (like the paladin's hand of reckoning doing 1 holy damage) so that it can proc Elemental Devastation if it critically hits (sorry can't link I'm new to wowhead).

Comment by Sermor

Summary:

Shares the cooldown with all shocks
Is not on the global cooldown
Dumps aggro
Interrupts like earth shock

PvE-use: Dump aggro, interrupt for minor mana loss (8% vs 18%) without #$%^ing up you cycle.
PvP-use: Interrupt for minor mana loss (8% vs 18%) without @#$%ing up you cycle.

Example macro
#showtooltip
/cast Wind Shock
Cast Wind Shock at your focus, if any, else at target if target/focus is an enemy

Comment by PaulustheShamy

Resto Shaman PoV

If you're a Restoration Shaman you should be using this as you main interrupt spell for two very important reasons:

1) It has significantly cheaper mana cost than Earth Shock. 8% vs 18%.

2) It's not on the Global Cooldown (GCD) so picture it like a mini Counterspell. This allows you to quickly cancel a spellcast and interupt straight away potentially winning a game or avoiding an early loss, you cannot do this with Earth Shock due to the GCD.

You should only use Earth Shock when you're attempting to assist Burst ^^.

Comment by Neepsh1942

Does anyone know if this will ever be receiving a model update? It uses the same model as earth shock and it's kind of annoying.

Comment by ChaosEsper

anyone else think the fact that a gust of wind blown at a mob's face is an odd way to lower your aggro?

it's also odd that it's an interupt when you consider that that was the reason given for earth shock having an extra threat component before they moved it to frost shock and also the reason that counterspell causes high aggro as well.

Comment by TokiLoki

I think people are missing the point of this spell. It's an interrupt first. Put in place cuz no one could understand that elemental shaman couldn't interrupt because of GCDs. Though the very short range (20yrds vs CS's 30yrd range) will render it useless in most fights in PVE, as range dps, well, they dps at a range, usually max (30-35yrds).

Currently nifty in PvP (even though it ruins your burst damage because of shared CDs), but as of next patch, if will be removed from many elemental shamans action bars because it undoes the Booming Echo talent by setting Frost Shock and Flame Shock on their original CDs. Meaning that casting Wind Shock will cost you the ability to Cast 2 damaging shocks.

And "AGGRO DUMP" ? Feign Death is an aggro dump, divine shield is an aggro dump. Wind Shock is a minor threat reduction (~2k threat at best) so don't rely on it to save you. Consider that Lava Burst pull and ungodly amount of threat. Would take quite a few shocks to undo that one cast. IMO stopping dps is still far more effective.

Comment by niono

I'm saddened by the lack of resto shaman posts that relate to this spell and arena matches... Off the GCD and an interrupt... Wind Shock plus Purge on an enemy healer is helped me and my team win countless times.

Comment by Tehadam

A macro to basically allow you to introduce this into your rotation is:

#showtooltip Lava Burst
/cast Lava Burst
/cast !Wind Shock

you can replace lava burst any other DPS spell, just not flame shock.
The threat reduction isnt as good as alot of other aggro dumps, but its better then nothing.

Comment by darkthunder

Renamed "Wind Shear" in the latest PTR patch, and no longer shares cooldown with Earth, Flame or Frost Shocks.

Comment by frostyfire14

Personally i think it should be more of a multi target threat reduction rather than a single tasrget interrupt. Something like this:

Wind Sheer: A quick blast of Ancestral Wind conceals the shaman, lowering his or her threat to all enemies. Lasts 6 seconds. 2 minute Cooldown.

The graphic of this spell would be similar to the Priest's levitate, but once the Shaman is off the ground, a tornado like wind graphic surrounds the shaman (Like Windfury). All this happening within the 6 second mechanic time frame.

Also, The shaman class needs a new AE or improved AE spell.

For example, maybe there could be a quest line for the shaman that will eventually have the shaman Master in Fire Totem throwing. Quest titled "Playing with Fire" perhaps? Anyways, here they would be able to throw their fire totem into a crowd, similar to a rune on the floor just as a mage would do before using Blizzard of Flamestrike.

OR

They could add a new AE spell that involves fire damage.
Perhaps something like Lava Spike

Lava Spike - Channeled Spell (8seconds) - 15 Second Cooldown.
The shaman calls apon his ancestry to ripple the ground beneath, rerouting lava to spike through the openings causing fire damage to all enemies in an 8yard radius.

Please leave comments/opinions on these ideas! To me, they sound awesome, and would make the shaman class more valuable in raids for AE purposes.

Comment by kinghaven

Patch 3.2.0

Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).

Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.

WS will take over ES in its roll of interrupting spells, and now you can interrupt spells and use any other shock right away or other way around without worrying about cd...

Comment by Nerobyrne

There seems to be a problem with this spell. It was a problem right from the start, and now that it's the only interrupt spell shamans have it's grown.

The targets seem to resist ALOT if they are at my level or higher. I'm lvl 30, and I was wondering if someone has had a similar problem. I'm hoping this will even out as I level further, or it could be a real pain later on!

Comment by Blaner

Overpowered.

Comment by Novawolf

I see it's been established that this spell is not on the shock cooldown OR the global cooldown, and thanks to the low mana-cost, you can easily macro this to cast with any other spell in your book.

The one I use, personally, is mainly out of nostalgia for Earth Shock's old interrupt (and because I like the convenience of multipurpose buttons).

#showtooltip Earth Shock
/cast Earth Shock
/cast Wind Shear

The way I see it, this isn't adding an interrupt to your Earth Shock, but adding damage to Wind Shear, think of it that way! Hell, you can stick this to all your shocks. I know at least Enhancement Shamans won't have mana problems.

Comment by Gynnder

Happen to have a stray mob running towards you because of healing aggro or other sources in the group/raid? Use this spell on the mob and it will drop your threat a little making it likely the mob will stop targetting you.

Comment by Arniespizza

Since it no longer shares cd with shock spells, dps shamans can spam it in fights where they are in danger of pulling aggro.

It is sort of a buff along with earth shock in PvP, seeing as you can give them a new 10% attack speed reduction AND interrupt them in the same 6 seconds. I am not sure if the earth shock debuff works on bosses, which is why I'm not sure if earth shock was PvE buffed.

Comment by Vonara

This spell can basically be spammed now in PvP to basically give mages access to only less-than 4 second casting time spells. Arcane mages will have a tough time dealing with a shaman 1v1, with every other cast being interrupted. Any Arcane Blast buffs earned will either run out or potentially be purged. (Can anyone confirm if Purge steals arcane blast buff?)

Comment by ExEvolution

Taking away the interrupt from earthshock made leveling such a dismal experience since you don't get Wind Shear until level 16. Good luck trying to kill a mob that can heal itself while you're on base mana without an interrupt.

Comment by shadowarror

/cast Earth Shock
/cast Wind Shear

Takes me back to the days of TBC...

Comment by Moethetroll

This might just be me, but I am level 18 and when I was doing Wailing Caverns and I was pvping I missed with this spell over 50% of the time on mobs 1 or 2 levels above me. Anyone else getting this issue?

Comment by Metroshica

New animation as of 3.3
Shows air coming in a circle shape under the mob, very cool looking.

Comment by Cambo

In my opinion, it does not dump enough threat.

In heroic 5-mans, when my ele shammy unloads on mobs, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst crits often causes me to take aggro off the tank.
I immediately use Wind Shear on any mobs running to me, but it has NEVER caused them to turn around. I then have to Thunderstorm the mob back to the tank, but the mob runs back to me immediately, where Wind Shear again fails and I end up running to the tank for help.

Blizz needs to increase the amount of threat reduction.

Comment by 1337Lucius

This spell is CRAZY good for clearing Spell Reflection when 1on1 against Warriors.

Comment by joe16

This is a very negative addition to the game imo, i can see its benefit PvE wise but pvp it really is quite overpowered for me as a mage at least, it prevents me from getting any spells off near enough and also their hilarious grounding totems and their happy ice barrier purge makes all the more impossible to beat any specced shaman. Needs changed to be almost identical to a mage CS as it gives to one chance to get it otherwise is 28 sec i think till you can do it again.

Comment by zior

Here's a little macro you might like. perfect for the new Cataclysm bosses

#showtooltip Wind Shear
/stopcasting
/cast Wind Shear

Comment by BagraEtch

For all of you who don't know, you CAN cast Wind Shear and any shock spell at the same time, meaning this macro is highly recommended to replace all of your shock spells

/cast Flame Shock
/cast Wind Shear

/cast Frost Shock
/cast Wind Shear

/cast Earth Shock
/cast Wind Shear

My recommendation is to put the macros with the same image as the shock spell as to not confuse yourself (Trust me, it did confuse me to not have it)

Downside: Wind Shear can only be cast at 25 yards instead of max distance like all the shock spell for Elemental sham's

Comment by Shin1ng

On PTR for 4.3 atm it has 25 seconds base CD, up from 6 seconds. If that stays you will be forced to take 2 points in Reverberation (as it is changed to lower CD by 10/20) to keep beeing a dedicated interrupter in raids. Guess it's to stop Resto Shaman from having an interrupt macro but still sucks.

Comment by ucplayer

Wind Shear is nerfed to the ground, special for enhancement shamans at low level.
15secs CD and interrupts for 2secs only...that's just ridiculous. It's useless now.

It should interrupt for 4-5secs like kick/pummel and so on, and they have 10secs CD.

Sad :/

Comment by seahen

I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your spell down! This is why worgen should be able to play shamans.

Comment by anubalabeloralon

/cast Wind Shear
This macro will cast wind shear on the 'focus' target (/focus); unless your current target is hostile, which it will interrupt your current foe instead.
You can also press "ctrl" to override the condition, so when you press "ctrl" it will always cast on 'focus'.
A handy fire and forget interrupt macro for restro.

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