Iksar shaman

[Brawk]

What is the primary drawback if I chose Iksar?

Don't care about frontal stun immunity.

[azeth]

cannot use the Jaundiced Bone Bracer

[Doors]

Must spend endless hours grinding faction.

[azeth]

too scaley to ride your wolf pet

[FAHall]

The primary drawback is that you'll be awesome.

[Brawk]

Faction grind is optional correct?

I started eq when pop was released. I don't recall ever focusing on faction much.

[azeth]

Faction grind is optional correct?

I started eq when pop was released. I don't recall ever focusing on faction much.

mmm optional in the sense that you'll obviously be able to invis through KoS cities. however, you're gonna need a bank outside of Cabilis eventually.

[Brawk]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info!

Time to google Iksar faction guides!

[Nytewind TP]

mmm optional in the sense that you'll obviously be able to invis through KoS cities. however, you're gonna need a bank outside of Cabilis eventually.

Aye, future banking days in Thurgadin ;)

[Skope]

the JBB is the big one. i played an iksar sham on live and regretted it the entire time.

Also bear in mind you can't wear planar armor until mid/late velious when hate is revamped.

[Messianic]

JBB is pretty huge from 45-on, diminishing with level and additional awesome loots (i.e. iksar regen bp, fungi tunic, etc). I'd think long and hard about forgoing it.

[azeth]

JBB is pretty huge from 45-on, diminishing with level and additional awesome loots (i.e. iksar regen bp, fungi tunic, etc). I'd think long and hard about forgoing it.

also, as if its never been mentioned before - *ogre shamans can solo WW dragons. theyre the only ones, the oonnnlyyy ones.

[Skope]

also, as if its never been mentioned before - *ogre shamans can solo WW dragons. theyre the only ones, the oonnnlyyy ones.

not true not true! you don't need to be an ogre. it certainly helps, but isn't necessary.

[azeth]

not true not true! you don't need to be an ogre. it certainly helps, but isn't necessary.

i believe you, but personally if someone dumped a 60 troll sham on me and told me to getr dun - i couldnt.

[Brawk]

Did some reading on the jbb and I'm ok with not having access to it.

I think this guy said it best.

"My lvl 54 Shaman never had a JBB, and shockingly was still able to progress, fight, and contribute to a team. I can cast an Ice nuke about 4x stronger than the JBB. Frankly, I'd rather meditate with the time I would have spent casting with this item (it's not a quick cast).

The Shaman is one of the more complex classes, we have lots of diffent abilities and our role varies depending on who we are grouped with. Sprinkling the MoB with snowflakes when you should be slowing it instead is not wise. Use your imagination, adapt to your circumstances. Try fighting Ice Gaints with a JBB, and you'll suddenly realize you may have negelected learning other strategies.

The JBB is a favorite for lvl 45-50 Shamen who like to solo. I don't like soloing, I think as a Shaman I am MUCH more effective in a group, and I really don't like the idea of lvl 45 Shamen depending on an item that drops in a lvl 55-60 dungeon. Like a lot of dropped items, by the time you can actually get it by hunting, you don't need it anymore. "

[Skope]

i believe you, but personally if someone dumped a 60 troll sham on me and told me to getr dun - i couldnt.

the stun is intermittent and not as frequent as you seem to think. The bigger stuns you worry about as a melee sham are the spell stuns, which suck ass.

if you want to play an iksar, go for it. my iksar sham was a lot of fun and i had a good time killing anything and everything in my sight. If you do go iksar, though, expect to have a rougher, bumpier and generally longer ride to 60 and subsequently harder fights at 60 (icewurm fang helps).

[Messianic]

"My lvl 54 Shaman never had a JBB, and shockingly was still able to progress, fight, and contribute to a team.

Ehh...no one's arguing viability or usefulness. We're arguing whether having the JBB is better than not having it.

I can cast an Ice nuke about 4x stronger than the JBB. Frankly, I'd rather meditate with the time I would have spent casting with this item (it's not a quick cast). "

Very true, and at level 60, you're almost better off not using the JBB from a purely mathematical standpoint - especially if you're a regen race.

[Skope]

^^ that depends heavily on gear.

During velious most shams will swap spear of fate + icewurm fang, which is a nifty little piercer. The 8 seconds casting JBB could be more useful doing something else, like cannibalize>torpor and building mana to drop a frost DD or poison DoT. This also depends on how much HP the mob has and just whether or not you're tanking and taking heavy damage.

The line of thought was: use fungi to 60 then swap for AC/HP and other stat gear. Cannibalize>torpor is incredible mana regen and the fungi +15 is negligible and barely helps (1 extra cannibalize?), whereas wearing a stat-BP would be better when melee'ing/soloing unless it's a non-summoning root/rot type of fight.

The JBB argument follows much the same logic. You may be better off regening mana/hp via torpor/can and casting heavier nukes/dots than spam-clicking that JEEBEEB. Of course if you're out of mana and it's an endurance fight where you're trying to stay tippy-top health and save mana for heals/debuffs then the jbb is fantastic (like dragons).

[Kanz]

If you're already taking the exp and faction hit you might as well take the extra ac and regen. JBB is quite blah.

[ukaking]

Got a lvl 51 Ikky warrior. Never had to faction anything. Play Iksar. Seek out the Harbingers of Thule for allies.

[Feachie]

Got a lvl 51 Ikky warrior. Never had to faction anything. Play Iksar. Seek out the Harbingers of Thule for allies.

^
i dunno who keeps saying that a lot of faction is needed for playing ikky here, because that's not the case. iksar faction is not quite right. with zero faction work i was able to walk into neriak at level 15 on my monk, to the bank, even peeked inside third gate.

not complaining, bad faction sucks, but it still shouldn't be like that because it's not classic.

[Nytewind TP]

^
i dunno who keeps saying that a lot of faction is needed for playing ikky here, because that's not the case. iksar faction is not quite right. with zero faction work i was able to walk into neriak at level 15 on my monk, to the bank, even peeked inside third gate.

not complaining, bad faction sucks, but it still shouldn't be like that because it's not classic.

Is something wrong with Iksar/DE Faction on P99? I remember playing my Iksar monk back on live and I'd aggro guards and the bridge, the zones near Neriak and the roaming near Lavastorm and never did anything to hurt DE faction. They never liked me.

[Extunarian]

In regards to the JBB - I also thought it wasn't that big of an item until I got one. That item alone allows me to solo safer, faster and with zero downtime.

Maybe at 60 or in Velious the jbb won't be so game-changing, but for now I wouldn't consider playing a race that couldn't use it.

[Messianic]

^
i dunno who keeps saying that a lot of faction is needed for playing ikky here, because that's not the case. iksar faction is not quite right. with zero faction work i was able to walk into neriak at level 15 on my monk, to the bank, even peeked inside third gate.

not complaining, bad faction sucks, but it still shouldn't be like that because it's not classic.

I have no evidence regarding whether it's correct or not - I never played iksar on live - but it was odd to me to kill like 5 gnolls outside qeynos and be glower to the regular qeynos guards (yet still glare to the corrupt qeynos guards).

[garyogburn]

In regards to the JBB - I also thought it wasn't that big of an item until I got one. That item alone allows me to solo safer, faster and with zero downtime.

Maybe at 60 or in Velious the jbb won't be so game-changing, but for now I wouldn't consider playing a race that couldn't use it.

I second this. I wasnt planning on using it (I bought into the whole "its a crutch bad shamans use" mantra) but when one fell into my lap, I saw just how perfect it compliments my playstyle.

Pretty much any damage a shaman does costs a TON of mana (except for our pet, which does like 20 dps) which means unless you wanna dump 300 mana for a dot, you have your pet and your pet alone to do damage.

The JBB just adds a ton of efficiency. While it does have an 8 sec cast time, it also ignores the 1 sec global timer, so you can throw in a canni in between casts to actually regen mana while doing damage.

In groups, its pretty marginal. But that goes for your nukes and dots anyway, you arent really there to do damage. But when you need to burn something and want to conserve mana for a heal or slow, the JBB gives you a completely secure way to still contribute.

Also, a fully buffed pet + poison dot + JBB adds up to quite a bit of damage.

[deakolt]

^
i dunno who keeps saying that a lot of faction is needed for playing ikky here, because that's not the case. iksar faction is not quite right. with zero faction work i was able to walk into neriak at level 15 on my monk, to the bank, even peeked inside third gate.

not complaining, bad faction sucks, but it still shouldn't be like that because it's not classic.

True. My Iksar Warrior was KOS everywhere in old world back on live-

[mwatt]

Also regarding the JBB...

There are many times in the life of a shaman (in fact, more often than not) when you will be low mana - despite the ability to cannibalize. At these times, both solo and grouped, the JBB can be a wonderful thing to have.

Is this the biggest drawback to choosing an Iksar? Hard to say. I think it depends upon the person. It is however a drawback, no matter how much some people would like to downplay it. Is a JBB gonna make or break game play? Absolutely not.

[Anger]

Also should be mentioned that much of the +wis gear in game now is not usable by iksar, including GEB's.

JBB is the big issue. Really alot of your "endgame" gear now comes from drops out of KC (until the planes revamps), which sucks.

[Slave]

I think the question should be, what are you giving up with an Iksar shaman over a Troll shaman? They both look pretty cool...

Advantages for Troll Shaman over Iksar:

1) ALL Jaundiced Bone armor. All those effects, not just the bracer. And other armors.
2) Major physical stat advantage.
3) Slam can be quite significant against casters.

Advantages for Iksar shaman over troll:

1) natural +12 AC (mitigated by their not being allowed to wear some armors)
2) Being smaller in outside zones. (but don't shrink potions work outside?)

For me the choice is fairly clear and I advised my buddy to go Troll Shaman. And he is a complete monster.

[Slave]

Aaaand Troll Shaman gets their choice of undead fear/animal fear or snare click. This fact alone imo puts them waaay over the top of Iksar.