Canni and mental health

[Bristlebaner]

Shaman question:

On a scale of 1 to "Carpal Tunnel", how annoying is canni?

My shaman just hit 24 and I guess it didn't sink in that cannis active mana regen - I'm so used to passive (C2/Lich).

Does it get better as you get higher level? Worse?

It seems like I now have 2 options: cast canni or cast another spell - no downtime.

[ocelli]

wait till you get up to the next couple levels of canni.. by the time you hit canni4 you will hate yourself... AND THEN once you get 60 and have torpor all you do will be canni+ torpor + canni canni canni canni... youll never get away from it, but you'll have huge finger muscles if your into that kinda stuff. <_<

[Jmcwrestling]

Could probably make a macro to cast it a couple times in a row.

/cast #
/pause (till gems would ungrey)
/cast #
and so forth

[EdTuBrutus]

Efficiently canni-ing between med ticks is genuinely soul destroying at times. It does have a pretty negative impact on enjoying the game making it a lot harder to join in casual conversation etc. As a mechanic, it really is a pain. But the upside is still pretty damn good.

[Fishbait]

Could probably make a macro to cast it a couple times in a row.

/cast #
/pause (till gems would ungrey)
/cast #
and so forth

This....would be the worst option a shaman could take, the delay until the gem ungrey's is way too long to be standing, you might get one canni off a tick and nearly be better served just medding.

I've read some people throwing together a macro that Canni dances for you, putting in sits/pauses/stands, but this relies on properly knowing the correct server tick and unsure if fizzles disrupts the macro, haven't tried it myself.

Light at the end of the tunnel though is if you get one of those clickies and dont mind being 'inefficient', you can canni spam in one go, get your health down to 50-60 pct, then just sit and regen/med like any regular ole mana user. Which is what I normally do to keep sane, i'll usually only proper canni dance in a fast paced full sized group when I need every bit of efficiency I can get.

[RDawg816]

I just have my hotkeys set up in a way that is easy on the fingers...so it's fine for me. I hit those buttons when I'm not playing my shaman, or when I'm on my shaman and don't need mana....just from habit/muscle memory.

[this user was banned]

Look at it this way, at least you aren't playing bard.

[Sajan]

I don't use macros for anything that might need to be changed on the fly. Cannibalize, Feign Death/Sneak, whatever. I much prefer to complete these actions manually. There are many different circumstances that would render such a macro a nuisance.

In the case of Cannibalize, I have it set to 3 and my instant clicky is 4 so using two fingers to just 343434343434 isn't too bad on the fingers in my opinion.

[Lojik]

At least canni iv has a longer cast time so it saves your wrist a bit when you upgrade from canni iii...probably why it's the only velious spell still worth a lot. Def worth the hassle getting 100mana/ tick on average.

Problem with macros for canni are lag and also fizzles are annoying.

[EdTuBrutus]

A basic stand canni sit macro does make things a little easier if your doing proper canni-dancing rather than canni-spamming.

/stand
/pause 14, /cast 1
/sit

[Baler]

A basic stand canni sit macro does make things a little easier if your doing proper canni-dancing rather than canni-spamming.

/stand
/pause 14, /cast 1
/sit

Bingo, You can adjust the /pause 14 length +/- 1 or 2 based on your latency.
I recommend setting /stand to /pause 1, /stand As it can help with latency issues.

(Meditate server ticks + Canni)
Watch your current mana #, when you see it go up click the hotkey for that macro. Repeat until you're good on mana. :cool:
I find this very effective if you're not in the heat of the moment and want to catch up on mana quickly.

(spam canni)
Have a clickie such as telescope, goblin earring, etc. Put it on a Hotkey.
Alt+1, Hotkey, wait 1-2 seconds, repeat
(Alt+1-8 are the default cast spell key(s), You can change it in the options if it helps)

So for me it was Thumb on Alt & middle finger on 1. I'd hold down Alt then hit 1, once I was done casting I'd take my thumb off Alt and hit my hotkey which I set to 1.

Could probably make a macro to cast it a couple times in a row.

/cast #
/pause (till gems would ungrey)
/cast #
and so forth
This is also valid for uber laziness. It sucks the macro only allows 5 lines,. 1 line short of 2 stand,cast,sit macros on 1 hotkey.
Not as effective as spamming canni or the Med+Canni

Does it get better as you get higher level? Worse?
No
It never gets better, in fact it gets worse the higher level you are. It's a part of playing shaman. If you hate canni you'll hate being a shaman. Or you'll suck at shaman.
A lot of shamans don't know how to Canni Dance. I don't know why they even bother playing the class.

There is a healthy medium a good shaman will maintain between their Health and Mana. If you are a shaman and are at full life you better have full mana.
Never canni below 40-50% unless it is a life or death emergency that you know you can save.

[RDawg816]

(spam canni)
Have a clickie such as telescope, goblin earring, etc. Put it on a Hotkey.
Alt+1, Hotkey, wait 1-2 seconds, repeat
(Alt+1-8 are the default cast spell key(s), You can change it in the options if it helps)

So for me it was Thumb on Alt & middle finger on 1. I'd hold down Alt then hit 1, once I was done casting I'd take my thumb off Alt and hit my hotkey which I set to 1.

I have my spells set up on the numpad, where spell 1 is /. I have my earring set to right arrow. I have sit/stand toggle set to `.

For me I just hit / with my middle finger, -> with my thumb and then ` with my left index finger. It's extremely comfortable and I can cast all my spells, look, attack, consider, etc. all without any stress on my hand. I have a separate ini file for my bard so he can use /stopsong macros instead of double-tapping.

People really need to break the mold and put buttons where it's comfortable for them....

[Swish]

Look at it this way, at least you aren't playing bard.

This really puts it in perspective.

As for canni-dancing... its not so hard. I never used a macro but as long as you wait for the meditate "tick" and do it just after you'll find its not too bad.

Never understood shamans that dont sit for the med tick while they're canni'ing, you're only making it worse for yourselves :p

[jarlerop]

With a clickie you can do two cannis and still get the med tick. It's like C4!

[Cillaz]

I canni danced til about 55ish, once I had Canni 3, Iksar regen and regrowth my hp was good enough that I just spam cannid til had enough mana then sat (or casted) and did a few Canni dance. Then once I got a fungi at 58 and was roughly getting 40hp a tick standing I didn't bother with Canni dance anymore as had enough hp to mostly be able to stand full time and Canni spam.
This may be very different for non racial regen sham with no fungi - they may sill need to Canni dance til torpor.
Once 60 and torpor I've never medded again, just Canni spam > torpor > repeat til full mana.
If you don't like constant Canni or Canni dance then you won't like shaman so much, unless you level at afk camps where you can med while semi afk (but then you may as well be a wiz/dru/Mage)

[NegaStoat]

The very moment a shaman hits 24, it should do whatever is necessary to do some travel armed with a few invis pots and a bribe ready for the Lower Guk side of getting this...

http://wiki.project1999.com/Star_of_Eyes

It's a wonderful feeling to burn a chain fire of canni off and then just sit and med like anyone else instead of doing that horrendous dance.

[EdTuBrutus]

The very moment a shaman hits 24, it should do whatever is necessary to do some travel armed with a few invis pots and a bribe ready for the Lower Guk side of getting this...

http://wiki.project1999.com/Star_of_Eyes

It's a wonderful feeling to burn a chain fire of canni off and then just sit and med like anyone else instead of doing that horrendous dance.

It may be a "wonderful feeling" (not sure why, it's not really) but it is also incredibly inefficient.

[AshurFoH]

Since torpor i stopped sitting at all except to swap spells.

[Mortiis]

A basic stand canni sit macro does make things a little easier if your doing proper canni-dancing rather than canni-spamming.

/stand
/pause 14, /cast 1 (whatever gem canni is set to)
/sit

This is exactly what I use. Canni II is still a better return than III. Like mentioned above, IV is less tedious.

[fastboy21]

The only time I really canni dance is if time is of the essence. In most exp grps most of the time, it isn't. So if you are only doing it rarely when it matters it isn't so bad.

That being said, there are some short cuts you can take. For me, I switched my ui on my shaman to one that displays the mana pool in a very large font so I can see it easily. The above above macro will cut down the rest. Only one key to push, easy to see the tick. Can sit back and let the magic happen tapping one key.

[PhazerX]

If you are like me and type slow, you can bind your canni macro to any of the F1 - F12 keys. That way you can continue doing your canni dance while typing in chat so you don't feel that you need to type between server ticks and you can take your time.

[fishingme]

Or you could just be that hardcore boss shaman type that is awesome and mysterious that others look up to because he is silent.

[Jimjam]

Gotta agree with fishingme. Stoicism is an important part of being a shaman.

[Pyrion]

Just do your cannis in bursts, even if it is not optimal. It's a game after all, not your job.

[mickmoranis]

40+ year olds playing this game, should allow macro keyboards or you're going to lose your core audience.

[Darkatar]

Shaman question:
It seems like I now have 2 options: cast canni or cast another spell - no downtime.

That's pretty much accurate.

You will replace medding with canni by the time you're 60 (or you'll be severely limiting yourself)

Example : Ayillish (30ksomething HP), doubles for 250s, AOEs for up to 250.

This fight takes nearly 30minutes solo, and you'll likely be casting 200+ canni for that fight alone. Attempting to do this fight without serious canni dancing would almost certainly OOM you before you even get the mob to half health.

Canni is the price of playing a shaman. You don't get to med.

That being said, You can certainly get away with canni dancing -less-. Just apply mana smartly and you can relax a little bit.

TL;DR Shaman life is canni dancing. Be glad you're only needed to dance when you spend mana. Poor bards have to twist for their supper year round!

As far as a canni macro, Get yourself some instant cast clicky item. (lets say This (http://wiki.project1999.com/Kromzek_Surveyor_Scope) or This (http://wiki.project1999.com/Star_of_Eyes))

We need a clickable item to resresh your top spell gem earlier than it would normally be available. This lets you overlap your 'spell cooldown" time with your "casting a spell" time. The timesaving benefit will be obvious when you do it.

Now, lets roll up a macro
===============
/pause 2
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1
===============

Next, we're going create a clickable "button" for the clicky item.

Equip the item, or place it in one of your 8 bag slots.
(yes, you must sacrifice a bag if you're not wearing the clicky)
Next, click-and-hold the item, and drag your mouse so you get a duplicate icon of the item. Place this button on a macro slot (lets say #1 keypress slot)

Next, Take that macro you made and put it on another hotbutton (lets say #2)

Now, #1 should use your clicky, and #2 should try to canni. We're getting close.

Finally, open up your options (alt+O) and go to "Keys" tab, then from the drop-down menu, select "hotbar 1" Change your keypress #2 (the clickable item) "alternate" key to "1".

Now, when you press 1, the following things will happen, in order

Item is clicked, refreshing spellgem #1
/pause 2
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1

Using this macro, you can spam canni very fast with just 1 keypress, (you can occasionally cast -too- fast, and the server tells you "NO!")

This also allows you to use "2" as a spell gem refresher. You can only "chain cast" the same spell off the #1 spell gem, but you can "chain cast" different spells (2-3-4, 4-3-5, etc) using this method as well to give you more free time in general.

An example : Mob is pulled to camp, cast malo, press 2, cast slow, press 2, cast root, press 2, cast a heal, press 2. This allows you to move from spell to spell with minimum waiting time between.

This will let you, as others have mentioned, "burst canni" to get your HP chipped down so you can get back to sitting sooner. This is a much saner alternative to watching for med tics.

You could modify that macro to automatically /sit off and /sit on with some longer duration pauses, however, I find that annoying, as I reflexively sit after casting anyway, and I'm not a fan of long-running macros.

Also, I hope you specialize in alteration, this is the school for canni (roughly 3/4 of shaman spells are alteration) and will save you loads of mana (HP) on fizzles

[PhazerX]

Thank you so much for posting this Darkatar! This is so much more relaxing than waiting for ticks. I didn't realize that the #1 casting gem behaves differently with clicky items than the other 7.

[planarity]

That's pretty much accurate.
Now, lets roll up a macro
===============
/pause 2
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1, /pause 1
/cast 1
===============


My understanding is that /pause commands need to go at the beginning of the line, though the pause actually occurs after the subsequent command. I believe the "/pause 1" commands in this macro won't even be parsed.

[Jimjam]

pause works in 10ths of a second and the countdown starts from the beginning of the command they proceed.

for semi auto dance I use
/pause 60, /cast 7
/pause 60, /cast 7
/pause 60, /cast 7
/pause 60, /cast 7
/cast 7

I manually toggle sit/stand between casts to land med ticks.

My AFK canni is

/pause 60, /cast 7
x4 times
then /sit


Note you could use a shorter pause than 60 for the afk canni if you wanted.

[EdTuBrutus]

Thank you so much for posting this Darkatar! This is so much more relaxing than waiting for ticks. I didn't realize that the #1 casting gem behaves differently with clicky items than the other 7.

If you are not Canni-dancing (timing canni between med ticks), or not L60 with Torpor and Cann 4 then Canni is barely more efficient than sitting and medding. The only time it is ever useful to canni-spam without Torp/Cann 4 is if you need mana without consideration of HP (i.e. in emergencies or if being healed externally).

Otherwise, canni-spamming without Torp and Cann 4 is basically pointless.

[Kelor]

How do you see which is a real tick? im seeing like 3 different ticks going on. I'm ok clicking it when mana drops by 1 but other times the ticks are all over place.

[Darkatar]

My understanding is that /pause commands need to go at the beginning of the line, though the pause actually occurs after the subsequent command. I believe the "/pause 1" commands in this macro won't even be parsed.

Close, pause commands are used at the end of the line, regardless of when in the line they come. That's why the first line doesnt have /cast in it. it needs to wait 2 while the clicky goes off. (IIRC, it's been a while, this may be inaccurate. this is the macro I use to canni, however, and I haven't touched [edited] it in years)

If you are not Canni-dancing (timing canni between med ticks), or not L60 with Torpor and Cann 4 then Canni is barely more efficient than sitting and medding. The only time it is ever useful to canni-spam without Torp/Cann 4 is if you need mana without consideration of HP (i.e. in emergencies or if being healed externally).

Otherwise, canni-spamming without Torp and Cann 4 is basically pointless.

This is true, however, I gave him this tip in the spirit of sanity, with a dash of efficiency. Since he can canni faster, he will miss less med tics (that he is not watching)

How do you see which is a real tick? im seeing like 3 different ticks going on. I'm ok clicking it when mana drops by 1 but other times the ticks are all over place.

Using gina (tutorials everywhere i'm sure) Set a short-term buff fade message (you put the telescope down) on a 6sec repeating timer. You now have a working med tic timer.

[fishingme]

If you are not Canni-dancing (timing canni between med ticks), or not L60 with Torpor and Cann 4 then Canni is barely more efficient than sitting and medding. The only time it is ever useful to canni-spam without Torp/Cann 4 is if you need mana without consideration of HP (i.e. in emergencies or if being healed externally).

Otherwise, canni-spamming without Torp and Cann 4 is basically pointless.

You ever play a shaman, bro?

[mickmoranis]

if this back pain comes from my cani dancing, im going to sue p99 for not letting me use a macro keyboard

[Skinned]

Get shrunken goblin skull earring and cast it between two different levels of canni. Just canni click canni over and over and you can drain your health pretty fast. Then just regen like normal.

[Yttrium]

This frightens me...

Just starting on a shaman. The primary reason I didn't play a bard was I didn't want to twist. Is it viable to shaman without this craziness (just a bit slower?). Would I be better off on a druid?

[AshurFoH]

You should just play a cleric or wizard if you actually enjoy meditating

[Skinned]

This frightens me...

Just starting on a shaman. The primary reason I didn't play a bard was I didn't want to twist. Is it viable to shaman without this craziness (just a bit slower?). Would I be better off on a druid?

You don't have to shorten downtime with in game mechanics of you don't want to. But you're going to be sitting at full health a lot with a regen on might as well make it mana.

Get a goblin skull earring so you can reset the universal spell timer and chain cast two different levels of canni. Once your health is regenning faster than your mana it will be helpful.

[Yttrium]

Alright fair points. It isn't that I like to sit and meditate, sometimes I am just lazy. Easier to sit and pop onto reddit for a bit!

[EdTuBrutus]

This frightens me...

Just starting on a shaman. The primary reason I didn't play a bard was I didn't want to twist. Is it viable to shaman without this craziness (just a bit slower?). Would I be better off on a druid?

You play a Shaman badly - stand up and canni-spam using a clickie (or not canni at all). You'll probably do ok. BUt you won't be getting the most from your shaman.

Played correctly a Shaman is just as active as a Bard - often more so. If you are not casting non-stop for hours on end, you aren't playing to your full potential. It pays off, at 60 when you stop having to time canni-dance to med ticks and can actually do canni-spam efficiently, you will be using your clickie as much to chain cast spells as to reactivate a new canni.

[Troxx]

Instaclick + canni chaingun then sit. Canni dancing nets more mana over time and is more important at lower levels but most of the time not worth the hassle.

These days I just canni4 a few times in a row and just sit and relax letting passive regens (racial gear and spell) do their magic.

[Danth]

Instaclick + canni chaingun then sit. Canni dancing nets more mana over time and is more important at lower levels but most of the time not worth the hassle.

I agree. There's no reason to stress oneself out maximizing efficiency in a game as loosely tuned as this. EQ isn't about constant difficulty so much as it's more a case of two minutes of terror separated by hours of relative tranquility. Do the canni dance in that 10% of situations which demand it; otherwise feel free to be more laid back and take it easy. Having a good time and not burning oneself out is more important than finishing a camp at 100% mana instead of sitting at 70%.

Danth