Request for a Shaman Soloing Guide

[touchtonedialing]

I wanted to see if anyone had a guide like this (http://monklybusiness43508.yuku.com/topic/536/t/Places-to-Hunt-from-Level-1-to-60.html#.T3HrO9XN58E) but for shamans.

If not, maybe we can put one together?

[Khaedyn]

Id also love to see something like that for shammys!

[Estu]

Here is how I solo-leveled my ogre shaman:

1-8: Feerrott. Lizards and frogloks drop a lot of money, can save it for spells. Method of killing was just tanking + nuking.
9-teens: South Ro. Can do some SoW kiting at this point if you like, though it's probably still more efficient to tank. Once you hit 14 and get root, you can root-dot. This is more efficient than tanking unless you have very good melee gear.
Late teens - mid 30s: Karanas. Can start at East, then go to South and work on aviaks at the aviak city and gnolls outside of Infected Paw, then go to North and kill human guards. Soloing gets a lot faster when you pick up Canni+regen and when you pick up your pet. Before you get your pet, root-dotting is the most efficient method. Afterwards, you may want to try other methods - SoW kiting, tanking+slowing, etc. Just make sure the pet doesn't do more than 50% of the damage.
Mid 30s onwards: can start looking at guards near or inside various cities. The guards and Millers outside Surefall Glade are good early on, as well as the guards on the wall in Misty Thicket. The dwarves and gnomes in Butcherblock are good later on. Dreadlands is also an option: early on you can kill yetis, then you can move on to monsters near Karnor's Castle, and then you can move on to undead at the ruins near the port locations.
Mid 40s onwards: City of Mist, baby. Can double-pull most of the zone nicely without any 1337 gear, and work on your epic faction by collecting the reports and handing them in repeatedly while you're at it. You can max out your epic faction this way without any help from other people (though you probably need to do some of the earlier steps in the quest to be able to hand in the pages; these steps are somewhat tedious, but are not difficult), and then all you need to do is find a raid to get the child's tear from the Plane of Fear and kill the boss in City of Mist. Shamans are fortunate to have one of the easier epic quests in the game, and their epic gives them a free clicky DoT as well as the requisite huge stat boosts.

I also did some grouping throughout. Honestly, shamans are not great soloers early in their careers. Their soloing ability jumps at the following milestones:
- SoW
- Root
- Canni+regen
- Pet
- Jaundiced Bone Bracer, if you can afford the goddamned thing.
- Epic
- Torpor (this is, of course, at 60, but is worth mentioning since it makes you a god)

In my opinion it only really gets decent once they get their pet: before that, you're probably better off grouping, unless you twink yourself out with sweet melee gear (if grouping, or for that matter melee soloing, keep in mind that your slows are quite weak in the early levels and not worth their hefty mana and aggro cost). If you can't afford that, a full suit of banded and some kind of half-decent weapon are a good investment.

[Ferok]

I just hit 29 (well, 30 too). I'm in SK, but I haven't found my way to a druid city to ask someone to buy the 'Befriend Animal' spell.

Is there any value in charming animals to tank, or should I just wait for my pet at 34? I realize that there's a level 24 maximum on that charm, but that'd be sufficient to kill some blues no?

[sykotic]

IMO don't bother... Pet wins.

[Estu]

I personally haven't charmed on my shaman, but I've charmed on my druid to great effect. Definitely try it out, though once you get your pet that is probably the better option (especially since shamans learn the same animal charm spells at later levels). The good thing about charming is that you can kill two mobs in one go for very little mana (if you charm a low dark blue, it tends to stick for full duration, so if you then get both mobs to low health and break charm, you get two kills).

[Ferok]

The good thing about charming is that you can kill two mobs in one go for very little mana (if you charm a low dark blue, it tends to stick for full duration, so if you then get both mobs to low health and break charm, you get two kills).

This was my thinking. I had an alt purchase the spell this morning, I'll see how it goes!

[Ferok]

I found some light blue bull elephants to charm. I am hopelessly irrelephant in terms of their DPS, and they stick around for several mob kills.

It's gotten to the point where I just melee/tank, as I know I'm not going to out-dps my pet, so I might as well just take the experience hit. I'd be getting straight up powerleveled without the xp hit.

[Estu]

I found some light blue bull elephants to charm. I am hopelessly irrelephant in terms of their DPS, and they stick around for several mob kills.

It's gotten to the point where I just melee/tank, as I know I'm not going to out-dps my pet, so I might as well just take the experience hit. I'd be getting straight up powerleveled without the xp hit.

You should try letting both your mob and the enemy mob get to low HP, then breaking charm via, for instance, invis to animals, and then killing both (the one you charmed first, so you get full exp on the other). You may find it much faster exp.