Which race to pick for Shaman?

[susvain0362]

First off, i cant super twink but i could adequately twink with a few thousand plat.

I know about trolls getting a necklace with snare. Is this instant and unlimited charges? That no other race can get. I know iksars cant use JBB. Im leaning towards iksar right now because i like the regen, and barbarians look bad and ogre/troll i dont really wanna be one of them with no shoes either.

Im also thinking of creating this char and not giving it any gear to twink with, or any money. I kind of wanna play a new char and earn every piece of gear or items all on his own, or in a group or with my guild. Ive never had this experience and i think itd be fun. This seems funner than twinking and racing to 60 to raid! I think playing like its my first character on the server could be fun and rewarding.

So could this lovely community inform me with some other reasons to play a certain race for a shaman?

Thanks for the help.

[susvain0362]

I guess theres alotta threads already covering this >,>

[Pullyn]

Ogre or fail.

[susvain0362]

Is this pullyn trains the monk? Who is my boy???

[loramin]

As you said, this has all been covered before, but personally my advice is to play whatever seems the most fun to you. No racial powers matter so much that any race is "unplayable", so if you want to be an iksar be an iksar.

But if you want to ignore that advice my personal ranking would be ...

1. Ogre - immunity from stun is a big deal (and being the second-fastest leveler doesn't hurt)
2. Troll - regen is great, but it becomes less signifant the more you level
3. Barbarian - fastest levelers, and being on the good faction is convenient
4. Iksar - again, regen is cool, but you'll really miss your JBB (and everyone hates you and you have a big exp penalrty)

Personally I went Barbarian, both for nostalgia (my first EQ character ever was a Barbarian Shaman) and because I wanted to save time on leveling/factioning.

[NegaStoat]

1. Ogre - immunity from stun is a big deal (and being the second-fastest leveler doesn't hurt)
2. Troll - regen is great, but it becomes less signifant the more you level
3. Barbarian - fastest levelers, and being on the good faction is convenient
4. Iksar - again, regen is cool, but you'll really miss your JBB (and everyone hates you and you have a big exp penalrty)


According to the Wiki, the Shaman is a base 0% exp adjusted class. Barbarian is +5% exp required, Ogre 15%, Troll 20%, Iksar 20%.

With that considered, the penalty might as well be thrown out the window in consideration of Groups wanting you or not as well as what you personally gain in return as an End Game character in level. Troll and Iksar Regen is Kind Of A Big Deal with Velious Values (when we get it). It's almost a big deal with current Kunark values, excepting (some) Shaman can wear a Fungi. Ogre stun Immunity is a WORLD of difference in solo'ing in general, and solo'ing Summon capable targets in specific.

Ogres and Trolls really are the min-max best. But I love my lizard and wouldn't trade.

Edit - made some useless commentary on starting gear, then re read you were starting from scratch on purpose.

[Zeonick]

I went with a barb because its really nice being able to bank/sell everywhere. A troll would probably be the best choice because of the regen though, its like a free fungi! Personally I love the look of a barb shaman though :)


I

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I went with a barb because its really nice being able to bank/sell everywhere. A troll would probably be the best choice because of the regen though, its like a free fungi! Personally I love the look of a barb shaman though :)


I

QFT.

I also rolled a Barb. Though any of the other three are better for min/max purposes, gear (see Epic, Fungi, JBB to a lesser extent) and spells (Torpor) really even the field towards the end.

Last time I checked it was a Barb Shaman that was mastering the Solo Artist Challenge - take from that what you wish.

[Lojik]

I know about trolls getting a necklace with snare. Is this instant and unlimited charges? That no other race can get. I know iksars cant use JBB. Im leaning towards iksar right now because i like the regen, and barbarians look bad and ogre/troll i dont really wanna be one of them with no shoes either.

Trolls who worship innoruuk can get a clickie snare neck (must equip cast time 6.0) and it only stops runners at 10% instead of a druids at 20%.

Trolls who worship cazic can get a clickie undead fear neck (cast time 2.0)

[DrKvothe]

Troll's probably the way to go.

I went barb, and i enjoy it, but if I could do it again I'd go troll.

As mentioned, Trolls have better itemization than iksar or barbarian. They get a choice of clicky necks, and they can wear jaundiced bone (iksar can't) and ivandyr's hopp (barb can't).

The regen bonus over barbs greatly outweighs the faction advantage if you're untwinked. The advantage is literally double hp regen until lvl 24, but even after that it's non-negligible. The faction advantage of barbarians is offset for non-twinks by the incredible cash earning leveling spots that quickly ruin factions, like sister isles and HHK guards. If you want to gear your self up from scratch, you'll probably have limited banking even as a barb. A troll might actually have more accessible banks than my barb does.

[SamwiseRed]

froglok or vah shir

[Johntek]

All of the races have a lot going for them. Unlike some classes, when rolling a Shaman you really can't choose wrong for a race. However, I really like Iksar. They have regen, yes, but that's only part of it. They also have the highest WIS of any Shamans, meaning you will have more mana and less resists than other Shamans. Plus, it's easier to hit the 200 soft-cap.

Yes, they lose the JBB, but really, that's a single item you don't really even need, so there's no point in making your decision solely on this. Besides, it becomes irrelevant come Velious, when Iksar gear becomes vastly more powerful.

The combination of high WIS and regen means that Iksar Shamans have, hands-down, the largest possible mana pool of all Shamans. Something to consider.

[DrKvothe]

Iksar have 39 less stamina and 20 more wis than troll. The stam offsets about a quarter of the difference in wis. Troll also has 38 more str, for whatever that's worth to you. JBB isn't the only jaundiced bone armor that people often equip. Anybody know anything about how bugged AC is atm? I've heard varying information. If AC still works, then the other jaundiced bone pieces are very nice for the price.

[Zeonick]

Iksar have 39 less stamina and 20 more wis than troll. The stam offsets about a quarter of the difference in wis. Troll also has 38 more str, for whatever that's worth to you. JBB isn't the only jaundiced bone armor that people often equip. Anybody know anything about how bugged AC is atm? I've heard varying information. If AC still works, then the other jaundiced bone pieces are very nice for the price.

Someone here posted a link to a thread where someone did some ac testing. I dont remember the details but it showed that ac does have some significant effect on damage reduction. Not sure what their data showed, if someone knows what I'm talking about maybe they could link the thread.

[Ishio]

I like the benefits you get with Iksar, the only biggest downfalls I see about them is

They are hated
They have a hell of a time getting OFF Kunark
20% exp penalty does show it's ugly face in hell levels
Unless you're willing to do a lot of faction work, can only bank in Cabilis
They miss out on a few key items that are vanilla


However, this can be offset by higher mana pool, easy soft cap, being right in FoB and Kurn's, and LoIO, and OT. Can easily go 1-40 there. It will just take a really long time to get there.

Regardless, I'm tossed between Troll and Iksar. I know Iksar's will get a lot of love in the next expansion, but Trolls get some nice clickies. I ended up with a Barb Shaman, which I may just go ahead and kill off to move to Iksar/Troll. It'll just be a bit of a bitch to get the items over there.

[ncapatina]

Only one race has an ability that cannot be duplicated by another through items, spells etc: frontal stun immunity. If you are a min/maxer there is no other choice but ogre for this ability alone.

Slam also wasn't mentioned as iksars lose out on that.

Wisdom is an overrated stat, how often do you blow your entire mana pool during a fight? Shamans get the best mana regen of any class so a lower mana pool is insignificant.

Regen is helpful but by max level isn't significant.

All the other crap like better starting area, better faction, etc...not only is it a bad reason to create a race that will be less powerful in the end, but it will be entirely worthless in Velious when everyone is on an even playing field faction wise.

[pasi]

All the other crap like better starting area, better faction, etc...not only is it a bad reason to create a race that will be less powerful in the end, but it will be entirely worthless in Velious when everyone is on an even playing field faction wise.

Just to nitpick:

Ogre Shaman are actually on a better field than other shaman come Velious. Rallos Zek worshippers are non-kos in Kael initially. Hence everyone and their brother having level 1 Ogres to face track Kael on live!

[ncapatina]

Just to nitpick:

Ogre Shaman are actually on a better field than other shaman come Velious. Rallos Zek worshippers are non-kos in Kael initially. Hence everyone and their brother having level 1 Ogres to face track Kael on live!

That sir is an excellent nitpick and you should not feel guilty whatsoever posting it!

[NegaStoat]

Out of just plain curiosity, how would an Iksar shaman go about attempting to complete this quest line?

http://wiki.project1999.com/Cazic_Thule_Symbol_Quests

What strategy(s) might best work for attaining the needed faction? Make the assumption that the character is around level 29-34, so that Invis and/or pet might be available.

[Lojik]

Out of just plain curiosity, how would an Iksar shaman go about attempting to complete this quest line?

http://wiki.project1999.com/Cazic_Thule_Symbol_Quests

What strategy(s) might best work for attaining the needed faction? Make the assumption that the character is around level 29-34, so that Invis and/or pet might be available.

Same way troll does. Head to erudin and kill guards. Not sure how long you'll have to as an iksar, but 2 or 3 hours slaughtering them as a ~38 shaman was enough to get me to indifferent faction. Doable by 35 definitely, kill the guards by the dock.

[fishingme]

I went barb, got him to 49 so far. I enjoy him, the best race for a shaman im not sure. Only thing that bothers me is usual lack of mana and eventually using canni to drop down so far on hp that i need to med/sit to regen hp. Probably would re-roll iksar/troll. Looks like the choices of ogre is for stun immunity/higher stamina? Probably a good thing, havent needed either yet. I wouldn't particularly bother with choosing a race strictly for velious, still at least another year away. I've only been outleveled by one race as a shaman and it's been troll, guy seems to play a few more hours than me though. But I've definitely caught up to him through 40-49, Twinked barb shaman mind you, no fungi/jbb though. I can say that JBB does kind of seem worthless, but i can see some applications of it in certain group compositions/duos if you can keep a solid mana bar the entire time. 50+ though id probably say it gets a bit more useless unless duoing with a monk in KC. I think a couple months back everyone was on the troll train about being the shaman class and seems to of switched to ogre so id just say play what you want to play/enjoy.

[DrKvothe]

Doesn't really matter. If its your first char, you almost certainly won't be able to afford JBB before 45. This diminishes the consequence of choosing iksar and the benefit of choosing ogre.

I went barbarian. Faster exp is pretty sweet.