Blizzard’s September 24 beta update changes the Shaman in twelve lines: totem stacking and naming, two Lightning Bolt ranks, a talent swap in Elemental, a Lava Burst increase, an Enhancement talent trim and a Riptide fix.
Totems are the bulk of it: 
Flametongue Totem loses its duration, is replaced the moment another totem is placed, and no longer stacks with itself, with 
Flametongue Weapon or with 
Windfury Totem; Tranquil Air Totem, Windfury Totem and 
Grace of Air Totem no longer stack even when different Shamans in one group drop them (September 24 development notes). In the Elemental tree, 
Elemental Fury (Row 3) and 
Elemental Alacrity (Row 6) swap places, which Blizzard’s note explains as moving a talent Elemental uses earlier in the tree, at the cost of Enhancement’s spell critical damage, with more for Enhancement promised for the future. 
Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 and 
Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 get more base damage, and 
Riptide can now land critical hits. When this post was written, our spell pages and the Shaman talent trees were on build 1.60.1.69913, and the two Elemental talents still sat in their old rows there, and Rage of the Far Seer was not on our pages yet.
What to do: if you play Elemental, look for Elemental Fury in row 3 and Elemental Alacrity in row 6 of the beta tree before spending points. Enhancement players lose the spell casting speed part of Rage of the Far Seer (Row 7) and keep the rest. On the buff bar, the totem buffs now read “Windfury Totem” and “Flametongue Totem” instead of “Windfury Totem Passive” and “Flametongue Totem Effect”.
The changes at a glance
- Lightning Bolt: ranks 3 and 4 deal more damage, so each rank is an upgrade over the last despite the cast time changes.
- Windfury Totem: the buff is shown as “Windfury Totem” (was “Windfury Totem Passive”).
- Flametongue Totem: the buff is shown as “Flametongue Totem” (was “Flametongue Totem Effect”); no duration, replaced instantly by the next totem; no longer stacks with itself, with Flametongue Weapon or with Windfury Totem.
- Tranquil Air Totem, Windfury Totem and Grace of Air Totem: no longer stack together, even from different Shamans in the same group. Our pages hold the Tranquil Air Totem buff as
Tranquil Air. - Elemental Fury and Elemental Alacrity (Elemental): positions swapped, Row 3 and Row 6.
- Lava Burst (Elemental): ranks 1 and 2 now deal about 10% more base damage than the Lightning Bolt rank learned around the same level.
- Rage of the Far Seer (Enhancement, Row 7): no longer increases Spell Casting Speed. It was not on our pages when this post was written.
- Riptide (Restoration): can now land critical hits; Blizzard files it as a corrected issue.
Related on this site
- Shaman talents
- Shaman
- Lightning Bolt (spell)
- Windfury Totem (spell)
- Flametongue Totem (spell)
- Flametongue Weapon (spell)
- Tranquil Air (spell)
- Grace of Air Totem (spell)
