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captnamazing
02-27-2013, 07:39 PM
Hi there, I'm rolling a shaman to level alongside my buddy who is rolling a monk once he gets a fungi. I'm led to believe shaman/monk is an OP duo, and theoretically it makes sense. Anyway, I'm pretty torn about what race to do. If he chooses human, it would make most sense for me to roll a barbarian, but barbarians seem the least cool of all the shaman choices.

Can any shamans report about their experiences levelling as a barbarian, troll, ogre, or iksar? I'd say i'm probably leaning between troll and iksar...

Thanks!

Calypso
02-27-2013, 08:58 PM
I'm sure someone would be willing to port you. It's nice to have a human friend as an evil race. He can do all the vendoring for you.

I played troll, choose Innoruk if you want the snare neck. Troll regen is nice if you are grouped often, but if you tend to play more solo then a stun immune Ogre is probably the way to go.

Ephirith
02-27-2013, 10:20 PM
I played iksar because I absolutely love iksar. They are slightly worse at solo content than other races though, especially in Kunark. They can't use jaundiced bone bracers... ever. That may frustrate you later. Many of their stats are significantly lower than the other shaman races, and they miss out on ogre fontal stun immunity.

Leveling an Iksar shaman to 55, I never once regretted my choice of race. The way I see it, if being iksar means I can't solo things an ogre can, that's fine. At least I'm not a fucking ogre.

Play what you enjoy. If you enjoy "optimizing" your race and class, take that into consideration.

Byrjun
02-28-2013, 03:58 AM
Well, since you mentioned "leveling experience," Barbarians and Iksars get the best newbie zones out of the options. The Feerrott and Innothule kinda suck. Some people hate Everfrost, but I think it's kinda nice, and you can do a quest for free patchwork armor. Also, you have the Initiate Tribunal quest for a free neck and magic weapon, and you can run the first stage of that quest over and over for the first few levels if you prefer to do that instead of kill things.

But you also start next to Qeynos with the OP gnoll fang and rabid pelt quests, which will net you a lot of exp and money until you get SoW. Then you can travel anywhere and do whatever normal leveling route as anyone else.

Field of Bone has the curscale quest along with many others, and it's also one of the best if not the best place(s) to start in, and there's some really nice natural progression up to Kurn's and other Kunark leveling spots.

As far as the race itself, as always play what you think is the most fun. Ogres have the best stats and are melee stun immune from the front which is really nice, so they're most likely the best option. Trolls have second best stats and regen. Iksar have the worst stats and can't use plate, however they're actually a bit nicer leveling up since they have access to some gear that large races don't (sebilite scale and kylong for example). This stuff tends to be very cheap for how nice it is. But yeah, no JB BP or JBB clickies, ever. This will always be a hindrance but slightly less so in Velious.

Scratch&Sniff
02-28-2013, 09:06 AM
I'm sure someone would be willing to port you. It's nice to have a human friend as an evil race. He can do all the vendoring for you.

I played troll, choose INNORUK if you want the snare neck. Troll regen is nice if you are grouped often, but if you tend to play more solo then a stun immune Ogre is probably the way to go.

fixed

Estu
02-28-2013, 10:29 AM
The Feerrott and Innothule kinda suck.

The Feerrott is one of the best newbie zones in the game. Lizardmen and frogloks drop the most money any newbie is going to find in the form of armor and coin loot, and you can stack up huge amounts of lizard meat to turn in for XP and more money (in the form of a rusty two-hander to sell) to the ogre SK or warrior guilds. You'll find yourself having a lot of plat for spells and basic equipment by the time you're level 5 or 6.

Tenlaar
03-01-2013, 07:08 PM
I think FoB beats Feerrott as far as starting money. When I started my iksar shaman he made enough just killing newbie mobs there to afford all of his spells through level 9, eight large sewing kits, and had some left over...by level 4. The skeletons drop tons of weapons that sell for 2-3 gold each, the occasional shields that sell for over 1p, and bone chips you can turn in without even leaving the zone.

Tippett
03-02-2013, 04:46 AM
considering you can pull a spectre with the snare, then undead fear it (extremely low mana cost) the snare neck is awesome for that alone in reference to your clr and has many, many uses by people who are smart

also i thought u wrote on eqmac forums u were quitting p99

Fuzzhead93
03-02-2013, 12:58 PM
I play a barbarian and am level 17 currently. I love Halas, but almost immediately went to Crushbone, then Unrest. At this point, still happy I'm a barbarian and glad i'm not super ugly when I zoom out the camera view.

Tippett
03-02-2013, 05:41 PM
ghouls are specifically MR resistant

u bad at eq dog

SamwiseRed
03-02-2013, 05:56 PM
no offense but i am not impressed with snare neck. clinging darkness sucks. yes its a snare but barely. I remember leveling my necro and thinking wow clinging darkness is a piece of shit. its not til the next snare line where you can really count on it as a snare.

liveitup1216
03-02-2013, 10:27 PM
Iksar shamans look the best and you won't be fat.

Swish
03-03-2013, 02:48 AM
no offense but i am not impressed with snare neck. clinging darkness sucks. yes its a snare but barely.

Agree with Sam here. I don't mind the ~6 ticks it has on it, but the cast time is very long for not much action. If you're fear kiting with a partner without snare its possibly worthwhile but you'll be losing 1.5 or 2 ticks of med time just to get the snare off.

...and it doesnt overwrite root (or didn't last I tried), so if you nuke a mob to 18% and root then breaks, its going to have some legs on it and be running for a while before you can lock it down.

Not saying its bad, but it has its limits... probably not good for an area with corners that a mob will path around if fleeing :p

Something'Witty
03-10-2013, 03:47 PM
I recently started on P99 red and have a level 10 troll shaman, but it seems like I am getting stunned 2-3 times a fight soloing, which is a lot more then I remember on Live even in classic. I am serious considering re-rolling as a ogre. My decision is based on the following cost benefit analysis:

Troll Pros:
Increased Regen
Snare Neck

Troll Cons:
Low FR
5% Higher XP Penalty


Ogre Pros:
Stun Resistance
More Sta

Ogre Cons:
Fatter Ass


So I have two questions.
1) Stun resistance is nice, but does it make a huge difference, especially in PvP? (Never played an ogre on VZ back in the day).

2) Are the baseline health regen rates for an ogre the same as human? I found the following info about Iksar vs Human necros, and figure it works the same for Troll vs Ogre shm:

Levels 1-19:
Regen Rate (Human): 2 sitting, 1 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 4 sitting, 2 standing

Levels 20-49:
Regen Rate (Human): 3 sitting, 1 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 6 sitting, 2 standing

Level 50:
Regen Rate (Human): 4 sitting, 1 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 8 sitting, 2 standing

Levels 51-55:
Regen Rate (Human): 5 sitting, 2 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 12 sitting, 6 standing

Levels 56-59:
Regen Rate (Human): 6 sitting, 3 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 16 sitting, 10 standing

Level 60:
Regen Rate (Human): 7 sitting, 4 standing
Regen Rate (Iksar): 18 sitting, 12 standing

If the above info is the same for comparing Ogre vs Troll regen rates, then my decision comes down to this: is stun immunity worth trading 50% more health and the ability to snare mobs in a pinch...

Thanks in advance for any constructive input.

Swish
03-10-2013, 09:22 PM
It really is a coinflip - for PvP the stun immunity is useful, chances are as soon as you get Regen/Chloroplast you'll have that on you for extra regen anyway.

Snare necklace? Well, I don't know many fear kiting shammies, and not to quote myself but its a long cast time for not much of a duration (root/rot suits shamans a lot more right?).

PvE I'd say go with your preference, PvP I'd go with the ogre :)

Lune
03-10-2013, 10:31 PM
If you're a min/maxer go Ogre, particularly if your min/max plans include 60 and velious.

Torpor diminishes the relative value of racial regeneration, and the benefits of regen just don't measure up to how useful stun resistance can be when you're tanking tough mobs.

Trolls will be slightly more efficient at 60, but I don't think that kind of efficiency is usually the limiting factor behind soloing really tough mobs/camps.

That said, I play an iksar because fuck you

Gylen
03-11-2013, 01:33 PM
On a PvP server, I always had found regen to be invaluable. Of course, this is from a melee perspective so it's quite possible that it may be different when you actually have good regen already.

Swish
03-11-2013, 03:20 PM
I play an iksar because fuck you

Did they fix the missing alchemy vendor in Cabilis yet?

Lune
03-11-2013, 03:46 PM
Did they fix the missing alchemy vendor in Cabilis yet?

Not yet. I've searched long and hard for some kind of evidence regarding when those vendors came about, but I've found nothing conclusive.

Something'Witty
03-12-2013, 01:38 AM
For the record, I rerolled as an Ogre and so far do not regret the decision. Not getting stunned during a fight > decreased down time because of regen. Just my opinion, play what you like.

Lojik
03-18-2013, 11:38 AM
Have to disagree with all here who say to go innoruuk as troll. Fear undead clickie has been invaluable for kiting specs, and great for duoing undead in bw if you have partner who can snare.

liveitup1216
03-18-2013, 05:21 PM
Loving my iksar so far, sure no jbb is a disadvantage but shams are way fun/strong without it

Growlers
03-18-2013, 11:41 PM
I used snare neck and blind (before the mob hits you) to fear kite on my sham, it was fun.

Lojik
03-20-2013, 01:18 PM
I used snare neck and blind (before the mob hits you) to fear kite on my sham, it was fun.

Yet it is essentially the same thing as root rotting, just more inefficient.

snwbrdr642
03-20-2013, 01:21 PM
Iksar for both u guys, u are already near the best leveling zones. And you have a nearby city near the best leveling zones that no one else but iksars can use.

Iksar monks and shamans are strong. Jaundiced Bone Bracer is awesome, but not the biggest deal to miss out on. If you're always grouping Iksar shaman is the way to go.

brandonkr
07-23-2013, 11:34 PM
So if I were to roll a Barbarian Shaman, how would you suggest placing the starting stats?

Lurgort/Sseri
08-11-2013, 12:05 AM
So if I were to roll a Barbarian Shaman, how would you suggest placing the starting stats?

Dump like 15 points into wis, maybe bring dex/agi up to 75 if it's lower than 75, otherwise 15 to wis, 10 (15?) to Stam.

VincentVolaju
08-11-2013, 04:42 AM
So if I were to roll a Barbarian Shaman, how would you suggest placing the starting stats?

Id actually go 85 into Agi, because at some point youll probably be rocking a Fungi which is -10 agi, and you want to make sure you always have at least 75 agi.... but then again, youre a shaman with all stat buffs so, who cares what you put starting points in =)

Zyn
08-11-2013, 10:31 AM
I'm a barbarian shaman, because we look sexy as fk ^_^

gotrocks
08-11-2013, 05:50 PM
iksar strongest race for every class come velious. including shaman. dont have to believe me, just watch what happens when it drops.

alarti knows what im talking about.

Arterian
08-11-2013, 06:03 PM
Shrunken ogres are bossy.

Norathorr
08-11-2013, 09:11 PM
I would say if you are new roll troll or iksar. I play as a troll and its great as your starting city is close to guk and you are are near feerrott also where you can amass a ton of spiderling silks (you can also do this as an iksar) which you can sell to tradeskillers in the tunnel to get some nice newbie starting money which you can turn over a few times to build funds. Leveling up on antonica Guk plays a big part of that and having a home city nearby to vendor and pick up food is great. This also helps if your friend is an iksar monk as you can get provisions for him and vendor for him.

I think if you are new troll/iksar regen is better than ogre stun immunity which does not really come into its own till higher level. The regen will help you keep your mana reserves up in groups so as a racial innate that most aids leveling I think thats the one. Ogre stun immunity is perhaps more useful if you are a high end solo artist taking on big mobs like Lodi. Certainly when you get torpor I think ogre is best, but going from 1-60 with no twink gear is hard work and I think its in your best interest to go with the race that will help the leveling curve the most!