Ghost Wolf

You forget, orcs and their shamanism originated on draenor, not azeroth.

Also be aware that while in ghost wolf form you can be tracked by a hunter using 'Track Beasts' and will also be effected by any abilities that effect Beasts such as the flash bombs and hunter ability 'scare animal' which fear Beasts as well as the druid Hibernation spell which will put you to sleep.

Ghost Wolf can NOT be Spell Stolen.

If a mage casts Spellsteal on a Shaman with this buff, it can possibly debuff the Shaman. The mage however, will not gain the Ghost Wolf buff.

Appears to make no change in swim speed.

If you're affected by the Masquerade-ability from Suramar; you will take on the form of a Mana Saber instead of a Ghost Wolf or a Ghost Raptor.

If you are dual wielding when you enter this form, you will still attack with both weapons.

According to the 2.4 patch notes, ghost wolf form's cast time to be reduced to 2 seconds. Which means that, when talented, it will be instant cast. I am speechless.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

You can block (if you have a shield equipted) in ghost wolf form.

Actually, you CANNOT mine in Ghost Wolf. You're changing your form to "normal" and then start mining.

Any spellcast will now automatically cancel ghost wolf :)

As of 2.3, this can dispelled by Arcane Shot rank 6 and up (by level 44 hunters and above). Edit: Blizzard has moved hunter magic-purging from Arcane Shot to Tranquilizing Shot. Ghost Wolf can no longer be purged by hunters below level 60.

Just to add shamanism itself did not originate on Draenor. The orcs practiced it but the Tauren were already shamanistic before the orcs went to Azeroth.

With the change to Sap that allows rogues to be more useful CC in PvE (it works on humanoids, beasts, dragonkin, and demons now), that means that Ghost Wolf no longer makes you "sap-proof."

A few fun things about ghostwolf, you can loot items such as chests, herbs, dead beasts, skinning and mining, and the crystals in Ungoro, also, two abilities cannot be cast on you while in the form, such as sapm, but also be aware that it can be dispellable

You should see the /dance animation while in wolf form. It's hillarious!

It might be random, but I've noticed the howl every hour according to the server clock. So 1:00, 2:00 etc.

This has now been changed so that Spellsteal will no longer remove the buff from the Shaman.

No, Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack result in you ALWAYS being dazed when taking damage, whereas you can take damage without being dazed in Ghost Wolf. It's possible that GW form makes you more susceptible to daze, but I don't think that's the case.

...because all wolves live to frolic in flowers.

Wolf as well. Makes some sense - as a shaman you tie yourself to the elementals of the land of Azeroth... why not their animal too? But now that you mention it, it is kinda odd. :)

I've noticed that even with 2/2 Improved Ghost Wolf (Instant Cast), Mental Quickness will not reduce the mana cost of Ghost Wolf, even though it is made to be Instant Cast through talents.

But you can get Hibernated, so watch out during arenas against druids

Strictly arena:
The instant ghost wolf buff is in my mind a huge buff. The one thing that shaman doesn't have is mobility. They are stationary casters like paladins. Paladins have BOF and cleanse to get rid of slow effects or immobilizing effects (frost novas and such), while shamans is left with frost shock (not a viable option in arena due to heavy earth shock spamming) and earthbind totem to keep the enemies from getting close.

Claiming the buff is useless because it doesn't remove snares is just wrong. Shamans has the best healing and MP5 (water shield is insane) in the game. A skilled shaman can keep a caster from casting anything at all with earth shock and grounding totem rotations.

My point is: Shamans will be the best healers in 2v2 with this buff and will improve in all brackets. Why is the impact so big you might ask? Well, with a instant boost in speed and LOS meaning so much in arena it gives shamans a huge advantage. In patch 2.4 we will have a shaman that instead of just outhealing its opponents, can outrun them like a druid. If you combine that with the great tools shaman has we have a unstoppable healer that will run around and popping out of GW when a totem, interrupt, heal, purge or anything like that is needed then back with +40% run speed and hide behind a pillar

I will be playing my friends shamans alot more often in arena after 2.4 that's for sure!

However you can use Lifeblood without breaking form, which is awesome

The Tauren did not invent the ghost wolf spell. The orcs were intuned with the wolf spirits on Draenor and were able to call upon them. They in turn passed this ritual onto the Draenei. The Tauren probably did have this 'spell' before they met the orcs since they were instrumental in turning the orcs back to their shamanistic roots but they did NOT invent the 'spell'.

When you shift to Ghost Wolf form, you will attack with your weapon(s), but your weapon skills will get maxed out. This will prevent you to gain weapon skill points, but you will do full damage with them.

While you are in Ghostwolf form, u might howl randomly.That looks cool, is there a command to do that on purpose like /mountspecial?

I didn't know, thank you!

New tooltip as of 3.2 says: "Effects that reduce movement speed may not bring you below your normal movement speed" This will be extremely useful in PvP, and, if im understanding this right, NOTHING (No, not even those CoI spamming DKs) can bring you below normal movement speed. Very very nice little buff for pvp

You can now be sapped in Ghost Wolf ; as of the new rank of Sap adds Beasts in the description.

This along with the Improved Ghost Wolf talent is definitely intended for and the most useful for PvP; however, it's a huuuuge quality of life spec too. In both my Resto and Enhancement specs, I just can't stand not having the ability to instant-wolf whenever I leave a building. Regular mounts are faster and more efficient over long distances, but this baby's instant.

I could get two extra points in healing or DPS talents, but... jeez, it's so fun being able to pop into a wolf at any time. I just had less fun when not spec'd into it, and realized that if you choose the more boring talent choices, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Go with your judgement and play style on this. Some will prefer to talent into extra DPS/heals, while others (like me) will be running around as a wolf, licking people. Do what you enjoy.

WolfSkinCoyote is the skin for Ghost Wolf. WolfSkinArctic WolfSkin_Ghost is the skin if you have the glyph.

I was in a dungeon on my Shaman, I was the only Shaman in the group, and there was a hunter too. I saw his Coyote running up to the mobs and didn't notice it wasn't spectral as the lighting wasn't great, and I was like "Wtf where did that other shaman come from?" Then I realized it was his wolf...

Ghost Wolf can be used in a smart mount macro:

#showtooltip
/use [flyable]drake of the west wind
/use [noflyable, swimming]Anglers Fishing Raft
/use [noflyable]green skeletal warhorse
/use [combat]ghost wolf
/script VehicleExit()
/dismount [mounted]

This will summon a flying mount when in a flyable zone, a ground mount in a non-flyable zone, an aquatic mount (or any water travel item or ability) when swimming in a non-flyable zone and Ghost Wolf when in combat.

Can someone tell me if the Ghost Wolf speed increase interacts with + Speed racials and Speed stat gear? or Is it like Druid travel form where it flattens the speed increase to a flat line amount?
Thanks

Tauren had nothing to do with Orcs returning to their shamanistic roots. That was all Thrall and Drek'thar.

The wolf only howl when you are not moving/attacking.

Now trainable at Level 16 in Patch 3.2

Currently on the Beta of Cataclysm, Ghost Wolf is usable indoors as well as outdoors, Which makes it much better.

You can drink potions in Ghost Wolf form.

Just a fun fact; if you're in the ghost wolf form and control click on an item to view it, your character will appear as a "ghost" in the dressing room :D

1) Chains of Ice hasn't stopped movement for some time, it was changed to reduce movement speed by 95% (so lowered from 100% so players didn't have to re-input movement) and 10% less per second.

2)

As a Ghost Wolf, the Shaman is less hindered by effects that would reduce movement speed.

as a ghost wolf, unless specifically rooted(i.e. druids roots, mages freeze) movement slowing effects won't bring he Shaman lower than 100% movement speed.

Edit: looks like on beta GW is being reduced to 30% -_- just when we had something over the druid forms with GW indoors

Sure this is slightly slower than the druid counterpart however, unlike the druid version, this can be used indoors as in raid/dungeon environment to stay out of the fire.

PvP wise, druids have the polymorph immunity and if resto also free's the caster from roots. However most classes have a way to slow you by 50% so the 140% speed goes down to 70% (~77% with the 4 piece feral set bonus) whilst as a Ghost Wolf you remain at least at 100%.

Keep in mind that travel form is innately instant whilst ghost wolf is on a LONG 2 seconds cast that can turn to instant at the cost of 2 talent points, however the mana cost is cheaper for GW. Also if you're interrupted during a LB cast, etc. you will be locked out of ghost wolf as well since it belongs to the nature school, whilst travel form is physical so can be used regardless of interrupts/silences.

Both have their cons and pros but in the current metagame I believe the druid version is more reliable for PvP.

It's fun to watch your wolf literally dig for herbs.

Ghost Wolf has capped weapon skill no matter what weapon you're using, like feral druid forms, so if the weapon you're currently using isn't at max skill you will notice a small (or possibly quite large) increase in critical hit chance in your Ghost Wolf form.

Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.

Shamans, this is the change we've been waiting for. Let's just hope it stays.

If you've noticed, the wording implies that the new effect works like a reversed Judgement of Justice: While under the effect of Ghost Wolf, the Shaman may not go slower than 100% of movement speed.

It's actually better than Druid shapeshifting because it provides sort of an 'immunity' to snares (they only reduce movement speed from 140% to 100%, which is plenty for an escape if coupled with Frost Shock)

Considering that the wording does not imply otherwise, it's safe to assume that it will work on snares already on the Shaman when GW is cast, meaning that it also 'breaks' us out of snares.

The downside? It apparently doesn't work with roots. But that's fine and fair... ups and downs considered, it's still a great change.

Scare beast and Hibernate both work on shamans in Ghost Wolf form

Maybe silly questions, but here goes anyway....1) Is Ghost Wolf faster than the standard Apprentice Rider mount? 2) Does it speed change once Journeyman Rider is achieved?
I understand that its main advantage is that it can be used indoors. Just wondering if it scales at all as you level?

that wrong smile... should be ":(" not ":)" /cry

It would seem however that weapon enchants will not go off, nor abilities such as Windfury.