Shaman Wearing Druid Gear?

[Matthalas Winterheart]

Hey All,

I am fairly new to the Shaman class, level 21 atm. Was curious as to whether or not I'd be making a big mistake in doing a gear transfer from what my 37 druid is wearing over to the shaman here.

I was aiming for a higher Mana pool in doing this, but I realize that at 29 I would get cannibalize. I understand that Shaman's are the most Melee able of the "Priest" classes so It would make sense to me that while I may be boosting my WIS, I'm suffering a big hit to the AC and Durability as I'd be walking around in leather, and then Im probably facing restrictions due to the race size.....


Thoughts?

Thank's all.

[Tpar]

Well, I've not played a shaman, but as I understand it, cannibalize will refresh and add mana, but it won't increase your overall mana pool. Its not always convenient to have cani going anyway, since it decreases your HP and makes you easier to kill.

I don't think using the druid gear can hurt until you get up in levels, but I would slowly replace the leather with chain.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[blondeattk]

.......

I don't think using the druid gear can hurt until you get up in levels, but I would slowly replace the leather with chain.

Just my 2 cents worth.

thats wrong way round!

post 30 you will tank less. its harder to withstand a mobs dps in kunark and velious.

you tend to abrogate the tanking duties to a plate class(or monk/ranja).

if you are going to play melee its more likely to be under 30....infact its healthy to try it so you raise defense/dodge.

after 30 if you go down the grp path, then you are gonna need to push the mana pool up......or be constantly canni dancing.
A shm couls solo all the time, but imo most players grp alot of the time......

at 34 you will want to spend some quality time alone with fido.....learning the capabilites of the fluffy dot )

The ideal solution is items that have wis and high ac......but they dont come cheap!
Gives you a goal to aim at.....

weapon skill selection is a tricky one....ihb/poker/2hb hard to keep em all up!

[Hawala]

Are you kidding? I'm 47 and I tank on my shaman, and cannibalize between swings. Focus AC all the way.

[Conky]

wow a lot of bad advice, go HP and dont neglect AC your a shaman not a druid wis aint a huge deal when you can turn HP into mana and when you run out of HP you die unlike mana.

[BlkCamel]

wow a lot of bad advice, go HP and dont neglect AC your a shaman not a druid wis aint a huge deal when you can turn HP into mana and when you run out of HP you die unlike mana.

Raveen has got it right.:D

PS Look Below!

[Vermicelli]

I know you'll never hear me over the min-maxers, but in 2000, a Blood Stained Tunic was excellent gear at L21. The important thing is, you just gotta be fierce girrl.

http://i.imgur.com/iKMMj7e.gif

[fadetree]

Well, whats the alternative? If you have resources and can gear up in other ways, but you think all the +wis on the druid gear might be better than that, I think you are probably making a mistake. If you don't have resources, and your current gear sucks, then the druid gear might be a bonus for a while. Remember +wis doesn't really do a huge amount of mana per wis at lower levels. Around 30 or so you really need to start prioritizing hp and AC over +wis for most slots. Shamans in my experience run best with hp/ac over wis at end game. Even druids are better off with the cheap +55 hp rings over the +6 wis rings, for instance, so if you haven't gotten them you are failing.

Of course, regen trumps everything.

[fishingme]

It could be appropriate to take earrings, rings, headers, face, arms, and wrists off your druid. However if you have some spare platinum to spend, you can easily get some decent items for nearly all of your equipment spots. I ended up meleeing on my shaman intermittently with slime coated harpoon, the. Poison wind denser, and then epic(until I could click) after 34 it was very easily noticed that root rotting was the way to go. It's a bit tough and feels stretched out in the beginning but it gets a lot better. Definitely try to gear more for hitpoints mainly then armor count and wisdom as a secondary. I do not care about what these other fools say. Having a decent mana pool is always going to help because you'renot always going to be single pulling or have the time for canni.

[Hawala]

All of this gear is AC or melee:

Get some JBB gear -- Helm, Gauntlets, Boots and Vambraces -- these are cheap.

Get a 2h blunt -- Poison Wind Censor, Withered Totem of Widdershins, Granite Face Grinder

Quest your own totemic -- Greaves, Breastplate, Bracers, Helm

For jewelry, 55HP 5AC Rings, Gold Jasper all around, unless you can afford Forest Loops, and I use Targishin's Bone Mask for the face.

For a cape, get a Hooded Black Cloak, or a Molten Cloak.

As for belt, if you can afford a FBSS that's the way to go, or else get a Reed Belt.

I'm not even kidding, if you slow the mob, and and buff yourself up, along with haste and regeneration on you and your dog and you can seriously tank until 50 or higher. Even in groups you're gonna be taking a crap ton of damage if you slow, you gotta be able to mitigate it.

Having a huge mana pool or HP pool is essentially pointless. Mitigate the damage, or regenerate it.

[Conky]

All of this gear is AC or melee:

Get some JBB gear -- Helm, Gauntlets, Boots and Vambraces -- these are cheap.

Get a 2h blunt -- Poison Wind Censor, Withered Totem of Widdershins, Granite Face Grinder

Quest your own totemic -- Greaves, Breastplate, Bracers, Helm

For jewelry, 55HP 5AC Rings, Gold Jasper all around, unless you can afford Forest Loops, and I use Targishin's Bone Mask for the face.

For a cape, get a Hooded Black Cloak, or a Molten Cloak.

As for belt, if you can afford a FBSS that's the way to go, or else get a Reed Belt.

I'm not even kidding, if you slow the mob, and and buff yourself up, along with haste and regeneration on you and your dog and you can seriously tank until 50 or higher. Even in groups you're gonna be taking a crap ton of damage if you slow, you gotta be able to mitigate it.

Having a huge mana pool or HP pool is essentially pointless. Mitigate the damage, or regenerate it.

You need lots of HP, this is horrible advice...

[Hawala]

What do you need HP for? It's the same as mana. It doesn't regenerate faster because of gear, but you can mitigate damage to allow for you to cannibalize more.

[Tenlaar]

Being able to port for plats it should be easy to gear up a shaman, basic stuff isn't that expensive.

Use some of the good 5+ wis items to get to about 160-170 wis, then focus on HP/AC. Get a wind censer. Get a few wis/mana pieces you can swap in for group play when you're not taking many hits. Facetank to 50 like a man.

[Estu]

Tanking in the 30s and 40s really isn't worth it IMO. Compare it to root-dotting and you'll see you get way more EXP per hour root-dotting. You might feel manlier tanking but it's straight up less efficient. Your dinky wisdom caster melee DPS is pretty lackluster, and the HP and mana you lose by slowing, tanking, and healing is too much to be worthwhile. There may be an exception if you have some really expensive high-end weapons, but even then I'd be skeptical.

[Bronia]

Back in the day, I can remember facetanking well into the 50s when I wasn't grouping. Slow mob, slap three dots on, sic dogdog on it and then whale away while dogdog chewed its backside. If I was being really cocky, I cannibalised while beating on it. Shaman really really needs maxed defence and this is the best way to get it. HP/AC all the way :)

[baalzy]

Estu wasn't saying it isn't possible. He's saying from an xp/hour min-max standpoint face tanking is slower leveling.

[Bronia]

Perhaps a good compromise position should be that you should spend enough of every level facetanking to keep defence maxed, and that your AC/HP should be high enough to allow you to do this? :)

[Elements]

If you have a fungi, bit of haste, and a good melee weapon it is hands down faster to melee up to 40ish. You can sit at full hp while doing canni to replenish the mana for a slow and a dot and let your pet hit from the back. Pretty much zero down time if you can pull singles. Prior to the nerf, epic dotting multiples in CoM was arguably the best solo exp 46 up to 54ish maybe 55. Now Im not sure, maybe face tanking while jbb spamming 46-50 would be fastest.

Its really going to depend on your gear and if its close between melee and root rotting even then it may be worth your sanity to just face tank and not canni dance while root rotting for hours on end.

Either way Id focus gearing more for hp>ac>wis/stam while levelling. Mitigating damage and not dieing is more important than having a big tank of mana. This changes if you are trying to solo high level named. In that case your also going to wanta big tank but for levelling its really not needed.

[Doub]

fill your slots with whatever, grind on mobs til 60. shaman is easy.

[Spitty]

Oh my god.

List of incorrect statements:

Its not always convenient to have cani going anyway
post 30 you will tank less
A shm couls solo all the time, but imo most players grp alot of the time
Focus AC all the way
wis aint a huge deal when you can turn HP into mana and when you run out of HP you die unlike mana
As for belt, if you can afford a FBSS that's the way to go
Having a huge mana pool or HP pool is essentially pointless
What do you need HP for? It's the same as mana. It doesn't regenerate faster because of gear, but you can mitigate damage to allow for you to cannibalize more. (editor's note: this statement written by someone who has never played a shaman...ignore it/them entirely)

You're a shaman now. Gear yourself with what you have and go play with it. See what happens. Change your gear to fit your play style or vice versa and see how your exp bar moves.

You'll find out that you're an aggro magnet, and you're going to get hit. You'll find out that cannibalize is annoying as hell to use constantly, but effective as hell when used constantly. You'll find out that, if grouping, people expect everything from you all the time - haste, regen, slow, buffs and god help you if you aren't dotting stuff too.

In your position, I'd keep the key druid items if you have 'em - eboots, wis jewelery, etc. - and work on optimizing your other slots. Difficult to say exactly what to do without a workup of your gear..."druid gear" doesn't tell me much other than it's probably leather-based and would fall apart when confronted with a stiff fart.

[Zeonick]

Oh you are level 21? Well by all means you should go out to.ec and buy yourself a fungi, fbss, and a granite face grinder! This should only run about 130k or so. Then you can tank mobs no problem bro!

If you dont have 130k go ahead and grab some wis gear off your druid. Hp is important also but you need to find a balance. There is a debate about ac and how effective it is but honestly, unless you're twinked you wont be tanking mobs passed 40 or so.

[skorge]

the most important item to have as a 21 shaman is a good weapon...if you don't have a lot of plat to spend buy you a Poison Wind Censor. Having a high damage 2hb weapon will ding you to 50 easy...

just use totemic/jbb pieces, get a couple of 5 ac/55 hp rings, and a few wisdom pieces and you can solo up to 50 np...and btw the best way to solo is to use that 2hb weapon to melee, throw a slow, use pet as dot

ive leveled a shaman 1-60 on Red from scratch np

[skipdog]

Tanking in the 30s and 40s really isn't worth it IMO. Compare it to root-dotting and you'll see you get way more EXP per hour root-dotting. You might feel manlier tanking but it's straight up less efficient. Your dinky wisdom caster melee DPS is pretty lackluster, and the HP and mana you lose by slowing, tanking, and healing is too much to be worthwhile. There may be an exception if you have some really expensive high-end weapons, but even then I'd be skeptical.

I agree with Estu.

There is no good reason to 'tank' after 30 when soloing. AC can be useful in groups - mainly when slows resist and when things get chaotic. Most of the time, once the slow lands, most mobs will have trouble even getting through your regen and your AC doesn't get that much use. There is never really much of a reason to want to tank in a group. In almost any instance where you'd think to yourself 'I should off-tank that slowed mob' the better answer is just to root said mob and sit down/continue canni dancing.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Oh my god.

List of incorrect statements:










You're a shaman now. Gear yourself with what you have and go play with it. See what happens. Change your gear to fit your play style or vice versa and see how your exp bar moves.

You'll find out that you're an aggro magnet, and you're going to get hit. You'll find out that cannibalize is annoying as hell to use constantly, but effective as hell when used constantly. You'll find out that, if grouping, people expect everything from you all the time - haste, regen, slow, buffs and god help you if you aren't dotting stuff too.

In your position, I'd keep the key druid items if you have 'em - eboots, wis jewelery, etc. - and work on optimizing your other slots. Difficult to say exactly what to do without a workup of your gear..."druid gear" doesn't tell me much other than it's probably leather-based and would fall apart when confronted with a stiff fart.

Mother fucking THIS.

So many strats for so many styles. Could gear for each of them.

Don't have money and hate soloing like I do? Find a melee. That warrior looking to zerk is gonna kill to have a pocket Shaman.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I agree with Estu.

There is no good reason to 'tank' after 30 when soloing. AC can be useful in groups - mainly when slows resist and when things get chaotic. Most of the time, once the slow lands, most mobs will have trouble even getting through your regen and your AC doesn't get that much use. There is never really much of a reason to want to tank in a group. In almost any instance where you'd think to yourself 'I should off-tank that slowed mob' the better answer is just to root said mob and sit down/continue canni dancing.

Level 5 root is your best friend. That spell alone will help you mitigate nearly all your group damage if you use it correctly.

[Spitty]

you wont be tanking mobs passed 40 or so.

Why do people keep saying this?

Maybe if you group 100% of the time with a balanced set and wait until 80% to cast anything, and there's no adds and everyone's on point all the time.

Maybe.

Otherwise, you're going to take hits. A lot. You can make this work to your advantage by preparing for it and incorporating that into your play style. Or you can be the target of seriously dire ire from any co-healer in your groups, and ultimately bring your group down by gearing yourself for some ideal situation that doesn't actually exist in P99.

I tank juggs, reets, illis mobs and all of HS South on a regular basis. I don't do it for style points - I do it because of the way I play, which is to take on this stuff with one or two caster classes. The exp and loot is optimized because of low group member numbers, and we don't use a tank because I geared myself for that function.

Make sense? Back to point one, use what you have and pay attention to how you're playing and how your gear is working for or against your goals. Adjust accordingly.

[Spitty]

Level 5 root is your best friend. That spell alone will help you mitigate nearly all your group damage if you use it correctly.

Also this. Good point.

Beware at high levels though - it wears off like the cheapest of temporary tattoos.

[skipdog]

Sure, you can tank when doing special 'caster only groups with no other tanks'. And yeah, we can tank pretty much anything when that mob is slowed.

But for nearly all other normal full group situations where there is a tank, or solo situations, there is no good reason to want a mob to be hitting you in melee. That's all I'm trying to say. Too many shaman think they should be meleeing in groups/solo and they just shouldn't be so that is the reason I posted.

Also can you give me an example of the duos/trios you do where you want to be tanking? Am quite curious so please help me understand :)

[Spitty]

I melee when soloing all the time. Why wouldn't I want the chance for an extra 70 damage in between constant casting?

I don't do it in groups because I'm lazy and usually pretty high up on the aggro list, but the same concept would apply. Duo/trios, I'm maxing every iota of DPS so I'm up in the mob with auto-attack on.

Trying to get hit is a different thing than taking hits, and I'm not advocating a shaman get up in melee range just to get hit on. I'm saying that a fully-functional shaman should expect to take some hits in normal grouping scenarios. A prime example is getting adds - pull aggro with slow and park that sumbitch somewhere else and ghetto CC like a boss. You're gonna take some hits there.

Examples where I'm tanking duo/trios with full AC gear up -

Shm/Mag: all the time. Especially HS South/Juggs. Mag rolls a rogue pet so I'm taking care of positioning and push like a normal tank, and keeping the robe from getting rolled.

Shm/Mag/Enc: another good example. Enc usually has something charmed, so I maintain a high spot on the aggro list so if the pet breaks, the chanter doesn't get destroyed by the mob + the former pet. Mag usually with a rogue pet here, too.

Shm/Nec: With AC/HP gear on and regen running on the Nec, I'm usually between 70-90% HP with lich alone. I constant canni though, so realistically I'm torporing once every fight to offset canni damage and that covers for mob damage too.

[skorge]

Sure, you can tank when doing special 'caster only groups with no other tanks'. And yeah, we can tank pretty much anything when that mob is slowed.

But for nearly all other normal full group situations where there is a tank, or solo situations, there is no good reason to want a mob to be hitting you in melee. That's all I'm trying to say. Too many shaman think they should be meleeing in groups/solo and they just shouldn't be so that is the reason I posted.

Also can you give me an example of the duos/trios you do where you want to be tanking? Am quite curious so please help me understand :)

It's not about tanking it's about doing DPS with a high damage 2hb weapon (Granite Face Grinder, Poison Wind Censor, Barbarian Spirits Hammer, etc)...this is solo of course. And this is up to low 50's...although I leveled 1-60 as a shaman and never relied on root rotting as a primary strategy.

I leveled 1-60 solo as an Ogre shaman, and I've played a troll shaman to 53 on blue, the troll's regen lowers the downtime by a large amount when factored in 1-60.

Also, you have to be smart about what mobs you choose to solo, avoid mobs that deal out insane damage or have high hps...

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I melee when soloing all the time. Why wouldn't I want the chance for an extra 70 damage in between constant casting?

I don't do it in groups because I'm lazy and usually pretty high up on the aggro list, but the same concept would apply. Duo/trios, I'm maxing every iota of DPS so I'm up in the mob with auto-attack on.

Trying to get hit is a different thing than taking hits, and I'm not advocating a shaman get up in melee range just to get hit on. I'm saying that a fully-functional shaman should expect to take some hits in normal grouping scenarios. A prime example is getting adds - pull aggro with slow and park that sumbitch somewhere else and ghetto CC like a boss. You're gonna take some hits there.

Examples where I'm tanking duo/trios with full AC gear up -

Shm/Mag: all the time. Especially HS South/Juggs. Mag rolls a rogue pet so I'm taking care of positioning and push like a normal tank, and keeping the robe from getting rolled.

Shm/Mag/Enc: another good example. Enc usually has something charmed, so I maintain a high spot on the aggro list so if the pet breaks, the chanter doesn't get destroyed by the mob + the former pet. Mag usually with a rogue pet here, too.

Shm/Nec: With AC/HP gear on and regen running on the Nec, I'm usually between 70-90% HP with lich alone. I constant canni though, so realistically I'm torporing once every fight to offset canni damage and that covers for mob damage too.

I feel like melee in high level groups would really only help you efficiently with Torpor in that you wouldn't do enough DPS with a melee weapon to offset what you COULD do if you used that health to Canni into mana and cast a DoT.

With that said, tanking for rogue pets and others would really be the best way. Gotta say, tanking at 60 kinda impresses me.

[DrKvothe]

Kind of agree with yums. When you're taking hits and not medding, meleeing actually has a pretty severe mana cost. That might not be important with mana free epic dot and 200 mana cheal from torpor... But from 24 to 50 with cheap gear, you're probably best sitting in a corner.

I couldn't afford a pwc in the levels when it would have helped me most (20-34) and I imagine thats a common problem. Meleeing with a goblin parrying spear stops being exciting pretty quickly :P

Btw, if you're iksar or barbarian, consider taking a trip to KC to get some solid no-drop gear. Helm, gloves, and legs are especially strong.

[citizen1080]

Shaman Race X is better than Shaman Race Y

[scooter]

Shamans are imo - the most versatile class.
there are many wrong ways to play them but through all my adventures there isn't a single correct way to play them either.
If you are more reliant on grouping, worry more about your mana. If you like soloing, worry about HP/AC. Shamans can strategically cast spells in a group and never take a hit, or you can be super aggressive and take hits all the time.
Soloing can tank and melee, or root and rot.
the list goes on.
the point is - try out what works for you and what you enjoy the most.

[Spitty]

II'm pretty much constant canni'ing when meleeing. I have auto-attack on so I get in a melee round between cannibalize casts - there is a spell reset period between casts, you know.

I don't fucking stand there and bash on it like a dolt when I could be doing other things. That's 101, bros.

Tanking at 60 in risky spots - best done with a mage with CoH and a WC hat. If things go wrong, you will definitely want to have both handy. Tanking at NG is easy business.

[Wizerud]

You should go the melee route simply because it's way more fun that root rotting.

[webrunner5]

You should go the melee route simply because it's way more fun that root rotting.

What he said. Root Rotting works but is boring as hell and Necroish. :p:p