How is the life of a shaman?

[bhatz01]

So I've become more interested in starting a shaman recently. They are sought after for groups and can also solo.


I've got a couple questions:

1.) Is group/solo play tedious? I've seen a few shamans express that you have to be constantly making moves, whether grouping or solo. Canni, buffs, heals, pet, etc. If the dog has to go out, might be hard to afk etc.

2.) How good are you at soloing? With no "Get out of jail free card" like feign death, can you still rock the solo game pretty well? What about someplace like lower guk? Can you break and hold camps well?

I appreciate any input I can get. I think it's a fascinating class, just looking for some information from those who know it best! :)

[Kutsumo]

Shams are very popular for good reason.

Group play: A good shaman will constantly be making moves just like a good "insert class here". Ok, maybe not wizards. A bad shaman will sit around "medding" and come back to cast buffs every once in a while. Guess it depends on which you want to be. People will still probably group with you even as a bad shaman, especially if you slow here and there.

Solo: Good solo class from low to 60. Can tank with slows, root/rot solo many named camps. One of the top solo classes for sure.

[Hailto]

Shams are very popular for good reason.

Group play: A good shaman will constantly be making moves just like a good "insert class here". Ok, maybe not wizards. A bad shaman will sit around "medding" and come back to cast buffs every once in a while. Guess it depends on which you want to be. People will still probably group with you even as a bad shaman, especially if you slow here and there.

Solo: Good solo class from low to 60. Can tank with slows, root/rot solo many named camps. One of the top solo classes for sure.

I agree with this besides the part where you say shamans are good solo at low levels. Shamans are in my opinion the best solo class in the game for tough targets at 60, along with enchanters. But they don't really shine until high levels, solo is really bad at low levels before you get your pet/canni/decent regen.

[pharmakos]

i'll put it this way -- every shaman i know is like "wtf, why does it take you warriors so long to level?"

[jijii]

How is the life of a shaman?

Well, it's basically living the EQ dream: making plat and fucking wood elves.

[webrunner5]

How is the life of a shaman?

Well, it's basically living the EQ dream: making plat and fucking wood elves.

OhKay :confused::confused: Smoke another one for me. :rolleyes:

There are a million Shaman's on here for a reason. But they are a lot of work to play well solo or grouped. And a Ton of plat to equip well at high levels. Fungi, Granate Face Grinder, Canni Spell, Torpor, JBB etc.

While a class like a Necro or Mage can be naked and make it.

[quido]

How is the life of a shaman?

Well, it's basically living the EQ dream: making plat and fucking wood elves.

[Aaron]

Shaman can solo, but there is a lot of downtime. Mages & Necros are a better solo class. Though they provide less utility to a group. If you wanna solo great AND be valuable to a group, then Bard may be your ticket.

[Tecmos Deception]

Shaman can solo, but there is a lot of downtime. Mages & Necros are a better solo class. Though they provide less utility to a group. If you wanna solo great AND be valuable to a group, then Bard may be your ticket.

:confused:

[HallygukRZ]

Yeah. Until 34 it is an uphill battle and really hard if you arent super twinked (hi fungi, hi gfg).
But once you reach 34 it will only get better every level!

If you have 2k to spend, buy a Poison Wind Censer.
It won't proc until lvl50 and is great for lvling up with melee.
Please don't be a druid shaman.

Get Armor and tank the stuff in the face :D

[Byrjun]

I agree with a lot of things here.

First of all, don't be an Iksar. They're a great race for lots of classes but shaman isn't one of them. JBB and the JB BP clickies are still very useful in Velious, and Iksar can't use those. You also don't get slam, and the lowest starting stamina. If you want regen go Troll, although I personally think Ogre is your best choice.

As far as the class itself, it's very weak for a long time. Shamans are not too great in classic (1-50). The things that make shamans good are:

1) Easy epic that you can theoretically complete at 46, which essentially power levels you to 60 with a 1300 point dot over 1.5 minutes. Root rot the world.

2) JBB is about 31 dps without the cost of mana.

3) 75% slow at level 51 and vendored, coupled with unresistable MR debuff at 60.

4) Great melee / defensive abilities.

5) Torpor is the best budget heal in the game. You get 1200-1500 hp for 200 mana. Coupled with an ability that exchanges your hp for mana, shamans also get the best mana regen in the game. The two problems with that are a) shaman spells are generally mana expensive, and b) it's not passive regen like FT or clarity, you have to constantly be casting these spells to keep up your regen. If there's a lot of things you need to do (lots of malos, slows, heals, buffs, etc.) then you're not getting the benefit of the super mana regen.

This means that once you're 60 with Torpor, if you want to play well you can't stop playing. This doesn't mean that you can't AFK like a normal person, but while you're actively playing you'll never sit and med again. You cast whatever you need to cast (debuffs/dps/buffs/heals) then start cannibalizing/torporing to regain that mana to cast more things. There's always something else you can be doing.

So, a shaman's powerful comes from the combination of great tanking ability (for a caster), an OP debuff (Turgur's Insects), an OP heal (Torpor), and manafree dps clickies (Epic/JBB). This makes you an excellent soloer once you get most/all of these things, but before that things aren't that great. You'll probably be reliant on groups until your low 50s at the least. You can solo, but it won't be as effective.

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

Just returned last week and I decided on a Shaman and he's up to 9 now. Having just returned obviously I don't have money to be buying the twink gear but it's been so long I don't even remember where I should be camping for it.

What places should I be looking at camping and for what items on the way up? Any info is appreciated, thanks!

[Lojik]

I think until level 10 isn't bad as shaman can melee reasonably well until then, and make sure to use inner fire to heal. 10-23 I think is the rough stretch. 29-34 is another tough stretch, but at level 39 solo life was easy for me, and 49+ you can solo with the best of them.

If you got the money get a fungi obviously, or at least a poison wind censer for level 20+ ( not sure how it is before 20)

If you decide to go troll I highly recommend going with cazic as god choice for clickie undead fear, as it will be super easy to solo slow moving undead like spectres, especially if you are like me and can't yet afford fungi/ epic mq/jbb.

[Danth]

Where do level 60 Shamans even find the time to use a jaundiced bone bracer? The wife doesn't have one (our characters are poor), but I don't see how she'd be able to effectively use it even if she did. She spends virtually every moment casting something as it is. It's probably the spammiest class in the game, even more so than a Bard.

As Webrunner said, it's a very expensive class. Even ignoring items, the high-level spells cost a great deal of platinum. Add items into the mix and it might be the most expensive class of all.

Shamans are almost unique in not having an actual bad choice for race--all four give good service. I wouldn't count the lack of Slam as a major disadvantage for Iksar. Slam is handy to have, sure, but ultimately it's not reliable enough to be counted as vital. The wolf pet probably interrupts monsters more often than Slam does. Most of the significant items an Iksar can't wear are expensive and therefore only relevant to the wealthier players.

I agree that the Shaman improves with every spell set. Even getting Walking Sleep at 14 helps since the upper teens is when monsters start to double attack. In a solo setting a shaman is more of a tank than the actual tank classes.

Note the level 39 slow seems to generate less hate than the 51 slow. This can be useful if you have a weak aggro class (Warrior or Monk) tanking for your group.

Danth

[Byrjun]

Just returned last week and I decided on a Shaman and he's up to 9 now. Having just returned obviously I don't have money to be buying the twink gear but it's been so long I don't even remember where I should be camping for it.

What places should I be looking at camping and for what items on the way up? Any info is appreciated, thanks!

The gear worth putting on a shaman is generally kinda expensive. Gatorscale leggings are respectable and soloable in your low 30s I think? Cloaked Dhampyre in MM is about the same, maybe a little higher, and drops the Hooded Black Cloak which will you last you awhile. There's some nice cheap things you can buy like Platinum Fire Wedding Rings (200-250pp) and Golden Jade Bracelets (50pp). In Karnors you can pick up Jarsath Scale Gauntlets and Legs for free. Dusty Rusted Vambraces are usually cheap (200) but people never loot them to sell usually since they're so heavy. If you're going to solo a lot though your money is probably better spent on a good melee weapon until you can finish your epic. Otherwise, save for expensive high end stuff (spells, JBB, fungi).

[Byrjun]

Where do level 60 Shamans even find the time to use a jaundiced bone bracer? The wife doesn't have one (our characters are poor), but I don't see how she'd be able to effectively use it even if she did. She spends virtually every moment casting something as it is. It's probably the spammiest class in the game, even more so than a Bard.

I'm not sure how to even answer this. It should be obvious the value of being able to do 31 dps without spending mana, so that it can be focused on healing/debuffing. This is especially useful when soloing.

Shamans are almost unique in not having an actual bad choice for race--all four give good service. I wouldn't count the lack of Slam as a major disadvantage for Iksar. Slam is handy to have, sure, but ultimately it's not reliable enough to be counted as vital. The wolf pet probably interrupts monsters more often than Slam does. Most of the significant items an Iksar can't wear are expensive and therefore only relevant to the wealthier players.

Sure, but what advantages do Iksars get? Regen, which Trolls also get. Trolls can also slam and use JBB/JBBP. Their starting stats are also much better. Slam is more reliable than you're giving it credit for, and it's controllable unlike pet bash.

Iksar is a bad choice, sorry.

[bhatz01]

Great insight guys.

Next question - as a shaman, particularly when soloing 50+, is it challenging to break camps?

Assuming you have something where there are 3-4 LB mobs. Do you root? A big part of soloing, especially the "Big Game" such as Frenzy, disco, efreeti etc (Which some of these may or may not be soloable by a shaman) is being able to break the camp alone.

Is this something a shaman can do well? Or are you looking at gating out half the time to retry?

[pharmakos]

I'm not sure how to even answer this. It should be obvious the value of being able to do 31 dps without spending mana, so that it can be focused on healing/debuffing. This is especially useful when soloing.

this.

my level 55 warrior averages only about 25dps and monk in my guild using a TStaff averages about 28dps on my parses (doesn't count his weapon procs)

[LiQuid]

The only thing that sucks about being a shaman is having to deal with the dozens of shaman twinks pushing up demand/price for shaman items and spells. Started Plush last year before this recent gold rush of people rolling one and I'm regretting not rushing to 60 and buying all my 55+ spells when I could have done it for half the price of what Torpor alone is going to eventually cost me now.

[Danth]

My opinion of slam is based on its effect in the content the wife and I do. She uses it a lot, but it misses more often than it hits and we certainly can't count on it as an interrupt. I agree that Iksar doesn't offer anything over Troll and could therefore be considered the worst Shaman race. However, dismissing it as a bad choice depends on your perspective. It's still a strong race in its own right-- it's not bad in the same sense that an Erudite Paladin is bad.

You call the jaundiced bone bracer more of a solo tool. Perhaps it is; I know little of high-end Shaman solo'ing. My perspective is from duo'ing with the wife, so perhaps the bracer shines in some situations but not in others. The wife is so busy most the time that I see no practical way she could sit there and spam an 8-second click item.

------------------------------------

Light blue mobs shouldn't hurt you too bad. High level root holds a very long time. Breaking camps of 3-4 light blues is therefore trivial. 6-7 such mobs is doable in some areas. Dark blues can become more problematic when resists and early root breaks come into play; you're not going to be solo'ing 4 sebilite juggernauts at a time.

On a different note, if you parse a level 55+ monk with a T-staff at 28 DPS, either you're counting time he isn't dealing damage (pulling, etc) or there's something wrong with your monk.

Danth

[Aaron]

Great insight guys.

Next question - as a shaman, particularly when soloing 50+, is it challenging to break camps?

Assuming you have something where there are 3-4 LB mobs. Do you root? A big part of soloing, especially the "Big Game" such as Frenzy, disco, efreeti etc (Which some of these may or may not be soloable by a shaman) is being able to break the camp alone.

Is this something a shaman can do well? Or are you looking at gating out half the time to retry?

Easiest way to break a camp like that is to send in a pet, have him get aggro, and start rooting mobs/pulling mobs off him one by one. The pet will die, but you can then take out the mobs individually, keeping them rooted and killing one at a time.

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

The gear worth putting on a shaman is generally kinda expensive. Gatorscale leggings are respectable and soloable in your low 30s I think? Cloaked Dhampyre in MM is about the same, maybe a little higher, and drops the Hooded Black Cloak which will you last you awhile. There's some nice cheap things you can buy like Platinum Fire Wedding Rings (200-250pp) and Golden Jade Bracelets (50pp). In Karnors you can pick up Jarsath Scale Gauntlets and Legs for free. Dusty Rusted Vambraces are usually cheap (200) but people never loot them to sell usually since they're so heavy. If you're going to solo a lot though your money is probably better spent on a good melee weapon until you can finish your epic. Otherwise, save for expensive high end stuff (spells, JBB, fungi).

Great info thanks. Right now I just bought my level 9 spells and I am completely broke so it will be a while before I can buy even the cheaper pieces, but as long as I know where to camp I don't mind trying to get the drops myself.

Thanks!

[Aaron]

In Karnors you can pick up Jarsath Scale Gauntlets and Legs for free.

Don't expect to wear these if you're Toll or Ogre though.

[pharmakos]

On a different note, if you parse a level 55+ monk with a T-staff at 28 DPS, either you're counting time he isn't dealing damage (pulling, etc) or there's something wrong with your monk.

Danth

*shrugs* that was the average of a couple hundred fights. on individual fights DPS ranged from ~16 to ~55.

might make a difference that the 55 monk from my guild is relatively new to the high level game. the TMO alt monk i grouped with in Disco the other night averaged 36dps.

using GameParse v1.0.3

[bluejam]

How is the life of a shaman?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9k3XzNKFqgk/S1GK53EQDFI/AAAAAAAAAyg/K_6bqIscAZQ/s400/dagobert_duck.jpg

[trinkets]

If you decide to go troll I highly recommend going with cazic as god choice for clickie undead fear, as it will be super easy to solo slow moving undead like spectres, especially if you are like me and can't yet afford fungi/ epic mq/jbb.

No, this is short sighted if you plan to level a troll shaman. Innoruuk and snare neck, it comes in handy WAY more often.

[bhatz01]

So I'm torn between iksar and ogre.

If I roll ogre, I'm going to insist on being shrunken at all times.

As I understand, shrink the spell is indoors only, but ant potion can be used anywhere correct?

Also, shrink lasts until you zone right?

[Elrood]

Something to consider regarding Trolls vs. Iksar: other than strength and stamina, the Iksar starts with better stats, including wisdom.

And you don't have to be a Troll.

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

Something to consider regarding Trolls vs. Iksar: other than strength and stamina, the Iksar starts with better stats, including wisdom.

And you don't have to be a Troll.

There is only Trolls. In the rare circumstance that someone might even consider that a Troll is not the race for them, then Ogre would be the only other option.

[VincentVolaju]

Iksars do get a nice passive AC bonus, and look much more bad ass =P. Plus starting location (FoB) and the next all right around you (WW, LOIO, FM, OT), are all amazing places to solo as a shaman 1-40, easily. Not to mention those zones, especially the ones for the first 1-30 levels, are usually not as camped/crowded as places like Unrest/Oasis/MM etc. I think if your starting off on the server, with no items, no money and no friends. Iksar and Kunark are a great place to start.

But for a twink, or min/maxer, Troll / Ogre 100%.

[Lune]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1723/classesi.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/classesi.jpg/)

Too many shamans

[Arterian]

When I /who all I don't typically see a disproportion of shamans.

[Tenlaar]

Right now, there are:

80 enchanters
78 necromancers
104 druids
77 shaman

[Mithas]

Great info thanks. Right now I just bought my level 9 spells and I am completely broke so it will be a while before I can buy even the cheaper pieces, but as long as I know where to camp I don't mind trying to get the drops myself.

Thanks!

I would recommend trying Crushbone at 9. Decent XP. Groups will like you and you can sell belts for 1pp and pads for 2pp all day. Doesn't sound like much but if you play through 14 here you should easily walk away with 50 belts and 10 pads. That's 70pp plus whatever loose change you pick up.

[webrunner5]

So I'm torn between iksar and ogre.

If I roll ogre, I'm going to insist on being shrunken at all times.

As I understand, shrink the spell is indoors only, but ant potion can be used anywhere correct?

Also, shrink lasts until you zone right?

The problem with ant potion is that it cost 25 plat a pop to buy it. 250 for 10. Not cheap. Shrink is indoors only. Yes if you die or zone poof.

[Byrjun]

Something to consider regarding Trolls vs. Iksar: other than strength and stamina, the Iksar starts with better stats

Barbarian starting stamina: 100
Troll starting stamina: 114
Ogre starting stamina: 127
Iksar starting stamina: 75


Yeah, no.

[Tenlaar]

Yeah, that should have been worded "other than two of the three stats that will matter in any way during your time playing a shaman..."

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

I would recommend trying Crushbone at 9. Decent XP. Groups will like you and you can sell belts for 1pp and pads for 2pp all day. Doesn't sound like much but if you play through 14 here you should easily walk away with 50 belts and 10 pads. That's 70pp plus whatever loose change you pick up.

I love CB, but if I remember correctly it hurts my Neriak faction. There are few enough places for me to go as is, I'd hate to narrow it further.

[Lojik]

No, this is short sighted if you plan to level a troll shaman. Innoruuk and snare neck, it comes in handy WAY more often.

I don't understand how this is short sighted if I've already used it thousands of times, unless you're telling me there's a need at 55+ for a garbage 6.0 second cast time snare. With all the tools a shaman has at 55+ I fail to see how it will be useful then, especially with the mixed reviews of it in this thread. 2.0 cast time fear means I can cast in between med ticks and easily spammable. But again, maybe the perspective is different if you got some pp to spend on other toys.

[Droog007]

... unless you're telling me there's a need at 55+ for a garbage 6.0 second cast time snare. With all the tools a shaman has at 55+ I fail to see how it will be useful then, especially with the mixed reviews of it in this thread.

The snare clicky (albeit slow to cast, short in duration, and minimal effect) is a wonderful tool to have for those "oh shit" moments. I hate doing it, but I can also be the snarer for a group in a pinch.

[trinkets]

I say in the long run the snare neck is better because it can save you big time. Say you are oom or near it and you'd rather have the mob run than root and tank, the snare neck will save your ass.

Both are good and have their uses, but you can only use the fear neck on undead, snare works on anything/everywhere and you can pull out the big saves every now and again.

[Splorf22]

A lot of great advice in this thread, but a few things popped into my head.

I think the best thing about being a shaman is if you like small groups you can duo with practically any class. Warriors, Monks, Rogues, Rangers, Shadowknights, Magicians, Necros, Enchanters are all great partners. And even stuff like a Bard, Paladin, or Druid could work OK.

I think Enchanters get better effective mana regeneration than shamans when taps come online at 51. Even if mana/tick is lower, we don't have may manahog spells: Rapture, Boltrans, and Rune are about it.

At high levels I don't see many necromancers or druids. These classes are both fantastic in classic but take a big hit in Kunark.

Pharmakos, someone is wrong with your monk, unless you never have haste or something. A tstaff monk should hit 50-60 dps easily on xp mobs depending on level. My iksar warrior actually will do 60 dps on xp mobs with his VP weapons.

Every time I hear about the JBB I wonder who the fuck itemized Kunark. Shamans get a 30 dps clicky, Magicians get a 24 dps clicky, Druids get a 15 dps aoe clicky, and Wizards get nothing till VP. It's just mind boggling. Giving wizards the JBB and Theft of Thought instead of Shamans and Enchanters respectively would do so so much to balance the classes in Kunark.

[Lojik]

I say in the long run the snare neck is better because it can save you big time. Say you are oom or near it and you'd rather have the mob run than root and tank, the snare neck will save your ass.

Both are good and have their uses, but you can only use the fear neck on undead, snare works on anything/everywhere and you can pull out the big saves every now and again.

And in the situation you described, 90% of the time i'd use root even if i had the neck. Why? I'm assuming that since you don't want the mob to run you're in a dungeon, and with 6.0 cast time (and short duration) it can be tough to get spells off in time before mobs turn corners. Not only that, I always found the snare neck to get resisted more than root spells, especially immobilize.

So basically the snare neck is of marginal use but in more situations, and also unreliable in said situations. I'd rather have something that is of great use in specific situations, especially if I can control what situations I put myself into. The fear neck alone has probably halved my solo exp time from 40-52, as if you look in the right spots you can find undead with fewer hp that you simply couldn't kill efficiently without it.

The snare clicky (albeit slow to cast, short in duration, and minimal effect)

So you'd recommend a deity choice because of an item with minimal effect, and say it's good for those "oh shit" moments with a 6.0 cast time vs. 2.0 with root and 1.75 with immobilize?

[Byrjun]

So you'd recommend a deity choice because of an item with minimal effect, and say it's good for those "oh shit" moments with a 6.0 cast time vs. 2.0 with root and 1.75 with immobilize?

Yes

[Mithas]

I love CB, but if I remember correctly it hurts my Neriak faction. There are few enough places for me to go as is, I'd hate to narrow it further.

Just the Indigo Brotherhood. As long as you don't go into their building you are fine.

[Lojik]

When I first came back to p99 and rolled my shaman I completely forgot about going inny for the snare neck, probably because it was hardly useful. Glad I went Cazic this time around. I'm guessing most of the posters in this thread haven't played a shaman that had the clicky fear. All I can say is that if you roll Cazic you won't regret your choice, as there are plenty of undead hunting opportunities in Norrath. If you're creative this neck piece is useful even 55+. Iksar shaman should try for it too, although I have no idea how painful faction hunting for it would be.

[Droog007]

When I first came back to p99 and rolled my shaman I completely forgot about going inny for the snare neck, probably because it was hardly useful.

It gets even more useful when root no longer overwrites sow (and yours, arguably, gets a little less useful)... Spook the Dead would be fun, and I freely admit that CT is a FAR cooler deity - but please don't act like my snare neck is worthless because you might be a little mad you forgot to consider it this time around...

[Lojik]

It gets even more useful when root no longer overwrites sow (and yours, arguably, gets a little less useful)... Spook the Dead would be fun, and I freely admit that CT is a FAR cooler deity - but please don't act like my snare neck is worthless because you might be a little mad you forgot to consider it this time around...

Who's mad? I'm merely giving people an alternative to going Innoruuk as a troll. I'm not going to convince anyone who is 30+ to reroll as cazic, nor do I want to. And why would spook the dead become less useful when root no longer overwrites snare?

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

For faction it seems to me that picking Cazic over Inny seemed to be an easier go. It could just be perception my part though.

[VincentVolaju]

How is the life of a shaman?

Well, it's basically living the EQ dream: making plat and fucking wood elves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCvFxf41cbU

[Droog007]

...why would spook the dead become less useful when root no longer overwrites snare?

To get sow off of an undead before fearing it, you'd have to actually dispel it. I recognize that not that many undead get buffed with sow, and maybe you don't care if your spooked undead scream away from you at sow speed ... hence "a little".

[Droog007]

For faction it seems to me that picking Cazic over Inny seemed to be an easier go. It could just be perception my part though.

I think it was definitely easier to get in good with Cabilis when I was a CT Troll. My Inny Troll is 200 stacks of bonechips closer to where I was then, but I still got a ways to go.

Other than that - I don't notice any difference. Still loved in Grobb, tolerated in Oggok, and I would presume I do slightly better in Neriak (where I end up sell/banking quite a bit).

[Arterian]

Is there a list of zones shamans can cast shrink in?

[Ephirith]

Is there a list of zones shamans can cast shrink in?

Would be the same as a list of indoor zones. I think in general if you can see the sky somewhere in the zone, you can't shrink.

*edit* fixed, thanks droog

[Droog007]

...in general if you can see the sky somewhere in the zone, you can't shrink.

Think this is what Ephirith meant to say.

Exceptions off the top of my head: Solb (Naggy has a skylight), and the Hole (self-explanatory)