I know the SHM has been one of the most baked in classes, but I had some ideas to throw out and see if anything sticks. My proposals would be to put even more emphasis on the SHM's master of "time" (HoT, DoT) theme by adjusting the following spells:
1. Swap Fang of Harune (level 1) with Strike of the Snake (level 3)
2. Adjust Fang of Harune ----From - "Deals minor (direct) Nature damage to the target" ----To - "All of your active periodic poison effects will instantly finish their durations, directly damaging their targets for the remaining amount". -Maybe remove the cast time and add a cooldown to match Hurry the Past for HoT but adjust mana cost accordingly.
3. Adjust Ancestor's Rest ----From - "Restores 20% mana over 10 seconds, but puts you in a weakened state" ----To - "Deals minor nature damage to "the caster" and restores 20% mana over 10 seconds. This spell cannot be resisted." -Maybe change the name to something like "Ancestor's Sacrament"
4. Adjust Choking Thirst ----From - "Deals minor damage and dehydrates the target...etc" ----To - All of your active periodic fire effects will instantly finish their durations, directly damaging their targets for the remaining amount, and dehydrates the target". -Maybe remove the cast time and add a cooldown to match Hurry the Past for HoT but adjust mana cost accordingly.
5. Either reduce the range of Serpent Strike to 3m and have it scale off of weapon damage, OR have its damage changed to DoT. These changes would make the SHM's direct damage (DD) still come in the form of DoT, similar to how Hurry the Past makes their HoTs into direct heals (DH).
I think this would lend more to the "X over Time" flavor of the Shaman, and give more distinction between the healers, where the Cleric is the master direct healer (DH) with weak direct damage (DD), shaman is the master of HoT and DoT, and the Druid would rely on a combination of moderate HoT/DoT/DD/DH
I would love if spells would scale off of or be modified by weapon damage. I think it was lineage that did something like that. Instead of your staff doing great damage when you hit with it, it modified all of your spells damage. Then you could do the same for healers weapons. similar to spell power in WoW. I hate caster weapons just being a piece of metal or wood.
I wouldn't suggest allowing one of your spells to ever damage another player, like in the example above. It should damage you, since you can consent to it and you are the one messing with time.
@Bennedict69
I mentioned that particular technique (Serpent Strike) damage scaling off of the weapon damage because it isn't a spell and is actually a ranged "strike", even though the SHM doesn't have a ranged weapon. Other "strikes" in the game that don't cost mana are melee attacks that scale off of weapon damage.
I agree with caution of "damaging another player spell" - I was thinking more along the lines of self (similar to the catabolize line from EQ - which is what Ancestor's Rest is supposed to emulate) or the Shaman's ancestral wolf companion. I'll edit the post to say "self" instead of "ally"