Shaman Questions

[Drakul]

Here's a jumble of questions about Shamans for anyone that wants to chime in on some of this:

Allakhazam says Drowsy only lasts for 3 ticks at level 5 and duration increases with level, but the spell description in game says something like 3:00 without mentioning any level restrictions. Which is correct for these sorts of spells?

Do slow spells stack, for example should I cast both drowsy and walking sleep at level 14?

Does anyone bother casting the fleeting fury type 18 second line of spells while they are solo meleeing?

Is it possible to make a macro that targets youself, casts a heal, then retargets a mob you are fighting on it's own?

Will I continue to tank and melee while soloing or will I eventually have to stop doing this and act like a caster because the mobs start hitting too hard?

If I have a weapon without procs are dexterity buffs useful to me at all?

Whats the limit on the to hit cap? I miss a lot, so will increasing agility cut down significantly on misses?

How important is wisdom vs stamina, hit points, strength, dex, agil to a shaman? What balance or ratio should I be shooting for?

Does the class take off and have super uber level ranges? I like to solo, and I had a pretty easy time up to level 8, but now its gotten tougher. It also seems the level 9 spells kind of stink other than SoW, and I still won't have any DoTs to kite with. What level does the Shaman really take flight?

Does SoW stack with spirit of bear or can only one be active at a time?

Thanks in advance.

[utenan]

Slow spells slow the mob for a duration of time, usually around 3 mins, they do not tick.

Slow spells, to my knowledge, do not stack, the best one cast is the one that will effect the mob.

I use to cast the fleeting fury stuff on myself when I was solo meleeing, but that was in my teens. Since then mobs hit really hard, and I never tank anything when i solo, although i hear of people doing this.

You can make a macro to target yourself and heal, but I don't think there is a way to then target the mob you are fighting. clicking it isn't that big of a problem, but even if such a macro existed, chances are you'd get interrupted, or fizzle or something, just kind of seems like a pita

I stopped tanking while soloing a long time ago, but opinions should differ on some of this stuff, then you get a pet at 34.

Dex effects proc rates, so they wont help you unless you have a proc weapon

"whats the limit on the to hit cap" I am not really sure what you mean...I guess miss rate. I still miss a lot with 140 piercing skill, it seems as though we will always miss alot, agility increases AC / avoidance, so it wont help your melee at all

Wisdom increases mana pool, which is helpful of course, hp and sta become more important later on for canni, the more hp you have the more you can canni and regain mana, so I guess this is another opinion question : D all other stats are pretty non important. The soft cap for wis is around 200 I think, so at that point youd want + mana gear or more +hp gear, but until then you cant go wrong with mostly + wis, and some + hp stuff ( stamina doesnt give much hp till around max lvl tbh )

I liked my shaman a lot more once I got my pet at 34, so id say that that is the " take off level " at that point you generally have 1 type of all the useful spells you will have. Other notable levels are 24 - canni and regen. 29 - haste and greater healing. 34 - pet and fury. BTW dot / dmg spells are sold in a diff location, not at your trainer, so if you are missing these, that is why. if you are a barb they are sold in everfrost, innothule for trolls / ogres.

all of the "spirit of" spells stack

for everyone else, feel free to correct anything i have said that may be wrong, I answered these pretty fast. feel free to ask anything else : D

[Gorroth]

Inner fire rocks as a healing tool at low levels. Screw the dumb minor/light healing. Just make a macro, you'll need one for canni anyway.

Life gets better once you get chloro and canni (24? 29?). It gets better once more when you get your pet at 34.

When soloing or grouping, you won't be tanking mobs anyway. Much more efficient to root + DoT + med. When farming stuff and raiding, you'll get hit much more.

Stack wisdom and mana if you're a sissy druman or AC/HP/STA if you want to feel like a man. More AC means less HP lost when getting hit which means more HP to canni. Also, I never died due to lack of mana.

[Bossco]

One crucial spell that many young shams forget to use is the frenzy line of spells, which you get starting at 34.

The description says, "Sends you into a frenzy, increasing your strength, dexterity and armor class for up to xx:xx."

While it does bump your stats, it also bumps your hp regen significantly. when using the 49 version of this spell and chlorophlast our regen is high enough to nearly cancel out cannibalize damage. you should never be low on hp because of canni, even if you dont have a single hp/stam item.

[utenan]

Wow, I had no idea that they increased our regen, ive never heard someone say that until now, and its not in the spell description lol

[Friday]

Drakul did you play an SK on live EQ ?

[liveitup1216]

for future reference take everything off alla with a grain of salt, it reflects the way things are currently on live, so lots of stuff doesnt apply to this server

as far as stats go...

wisdom affects your mana pool, you get better returns the more you have, and the higher level you are, til around 200, then +mana items are better

stamina adds hp, scales with level/class type, decent stat for us because we turn our hp into mana at higher levels

agi affects ac, dodge, and mob miss chance when hitting you, not worth it

dex affects procs off weapons, hit/crit with ranged weapons, dont bother with it.

int is for other caster types, ignore it.

strength obviously affects melee damage and how much weight you can carry, again dont bother.

charisma affects effectiveness of charm abilities (befriend animal line) and affects merchant pricing, higher cha means you can buy stuff cheaper, and sell stuff for more, dont bother with it, but DO pick up the buff that you get for it, cast it on yourself when buying/selling at vendors.

at 9 you get a new poison, Tainted Breath, but life gets much easier at 14 when you get root, keeps a mob in place so you can dot and med. at 19 you get a much stronger disease you'll use for a while, 24 you get regen and your first hp to mana spell called cannibalize. by the late teens you should neeeeever be meleeing, we lack the proper tools to melee something within our level range.

as far as buffs go, everything stacks except with itself is a general rule, meaning strength buffs dont stack with other strength buffs, a slow wont stack with another slow. in these cases, whichever has the stronger affect OR lasts longer (happens sometimes) will overwrite the previous iteration. the only caveat to this is DoT's, where you can have 1 application of a spell line per user, IE 3 shamans can all safely disease the same mob, and all will stick and damage said mob. I dont believe however you can cast multiple versions of diseases and have them land, the highest one takes precedence (sicken wont stack with affliction, and so on.)

[VictoryARC]

Correction Kagren. DoTs in the same line DO stack with each other. I use sicken with affliction and scourge even now at 47. Try it. You can burn down mobs pretty fast

[utenan]

I think different level dots of the same type stack with each other, could be wrong though. At least i know you can have diff types of disease on a target, like affliction and scourge

[Gratal]

I had a druid on live that could stack every single version of his magic dot...other druids told me it was impossible, maybe I was special...also, shaman inner flame buff has a better mana-hp ratio than minor/lesser healing. So just use it if you're out of combat...helps save mana since med is level 8

[Skope]

Here's a jumble of questions about Shamans for anyone that wants to chime in on some of this:

Allakhazam says Drowsy only lasts for 3 ticks at level 5 and duration increases with level, but the spell description in game says something like 3:00 without mentioning any level restrictions. Which is correct for these sorts of spells?

Do slow spells stack, for example should I cast both drowsy and walking sleep at level 14?

Does anyone bother casting the fleeting fury type 18 second line of spells while they are solo meleeing?

Is it possible to make a macro that targets youself, casts a heal, then retargets a mob you are fighting on it's own?

Will I continue to tank and melee while soloing or will I eventually have to stop doing this and act like a caster because the mobs start hitting too hard?

If I have a weapon without procs are dexterity buffs useful to me at all?

Whats the limit on the to hit cap? I miss a lot, so will increasing agility cut down significantly on misses?

How important is wisdom vs stamina, hit points, strength, dex, agil to a shaman? What balance or ratio should I be shooting for?

Does the class take off and have super uber level ranges? I like to solo, and I had a pretty easy time up to level 8, but now its gotten tougher. It also seems the level 9 spells kind of stink other than SoW, and I still won't have any DoTs to kite with. What level does the Shaman really take flight?

Does SoW stack with spirit of bear or can only one be active at a time?

Thanks in advance.

The issue with some of the timers on spells may have something to do with your spells file in EQ folder, make sure to keep that up to date. Not sure about drowsy specifically, though.

Slow spells do not stack.

The fury line is awesome for the melee shaman, i tend to cast it a lot.

Think the macro question has been answered already :P

You can choose to tank or root/rot and even aggro-kite. Certain mobs hit too hard (planar?) though I've tanked those as well. With a set of full rune-etched and melee gear I cap out at 870 AC, which is equal to a semi-planar geared paladin or SK. Short answer is yes, you can tank pretty much anything in classic short of planar mobs/FGs if you plan to solo.

Dexterity won't be useful without a proc weapon, no. You would be better off stacking hp/mana/wis/stam.

Agility will only help with your AC, pretty much. Shaman damage doesn't come from melee unless it's a proc weapon, you're there only to take hits until the thing dies from DoTs/pet damage.

It all depends on how you choose to play it. Shamans are known to have multiple sets of gear (melee/resist/wisdom and sometimes even +hp gear). You'll see more shammies stacking wisdom in classic than you will in kunark/velious due to torpor and gear (fungi staff/tunic and regrowth spell) where your health regen is essentially your mana regen, thus you have an endless manapool as long as you have health. In classic it's a toss-up really, you can choose to go wisdom, +hp, and a mix of both. If you decide to melee with a proc weapon, then stack hp/dex/ac. The magic number floating around the shaman forums on live was around 175wisdom, which allowed for more than enough mana to land slows/DoTs and debuffs and gave plenty of room gear-wise to boost your other stats.

Shammy solo really doesn't take flight until lvl 34 when you get your first puppy. They're not known to be an incredibly efficient solo class (they can be, sure) but certain other classes -- mages and necros -- will always level faster and more efficiently.

Spirit of bear is a stamina buff line, it stacks with SoW. Not sure why this question was even asked...

[Dersk]

The issue with some of the timers on spells may have something to do with your spells file in EQ folder, make sure to keep that up to date. Not sure about drowsy specifically, though.

The eq spell file has nothing to do with this issue, as the in-game information does not list the variable durations, only a spell's maximum duration. The lucy/alla information is correct (ignoring any issues with level caps) in that the spell lasts three ticks when it is first available, and the in-game information is as correct as it ever will be.

As to DoT stacking, this was changed between the releases of luclin and pop. Originally spells of the same line, or the same spell from different casters, would not stack with each other. This was changed so that unless a spell had a secondary effect, such as a snare or resistance debuff, then it would stack with other spells in the same line or with another caster's application. DoT stacking isn't classic.

[mgellan]

It also seems the level 9 spells kind of stink other than SoW, and I still won't have any DoTs to kite with.

Not sure what you mean by this, yet get Sicken at 5 and Tainted Breath at 9, both available from Starn Bearhumper (or something :) near Megan's Tower in EF Tundra...

IMHO any Shammy should be meleeing as much as possible/feasible to max skills so when you're at high levels getting the snot beaten out of you by the mob you just slowed, you don't get beaten up too badly... STA should be a starting stat since you can get lots of WIS items but not a lot of STA. AC is pretty important at higher levels as well since you need to survive getting beaten on til the tank taunts the mob off.

Regards,
Mg

[Enderenter]

Correction Kagren. DoTs in the same line DO stack with each other. I use sicken with affliction and scourge even now at 47. Try it. You can burn down mobs pretty fast

Just out of curiosity, why do you still use Sicken at 47? (I know all the dots stack.)

I had a druid on live that could stack every single version of his magic dot...other druids told me it was impossible, maybe I was special...also, shaman inner flame buff has a better mana-hp ratio than minor/lesser healing. So just use it if you're out of combat...helps save mana since med is level 8

Every druid DoT stacks... if someone told you it was impossible that was probably very early in EQ when some people may not have known.

Not sure what you mean by this, yet get Sicken at 5 and Tainted Breath at 9, both available from Starn Bearhumper (or something :) near Megan's Tower in EF Tundra...

For Trolls/Ogres: you can buy the DoTs on a vendor standing on a large hand near the middle-top of Innothule. It's a small dot on the map.

[Maurk]

once your targeting a mob pressing TAB will then target you, then TAB again switches back to mob.

I use this all the time with my pally, healing in between strikes.
You only have to have yourself targeted for a sec once you cast, then you can just tab again and finish casting on yourself while targeting the mob.

[glydor]

wow, I didnt know that fury added regen...

[Gris]

I don't think it does.

[Sckrilla]

The Frenzy/Fury/Rage self-only buffs do in fact add to HP regen, scaling up with each spell.