I can hear the 500wpm counter post from across the planet

The amount of Shamans who have a bio orb is probably greater than the amount of Shamans who actually solo in Hate on a regular basis. It is a very strange argument to complain about the cost of bio orb, while seemingly claiming that soloing in Hate is something a normal Shaman does, especially one who can't afford a bio orb.

An out of class spell line is irrelevant if it doesn't help you in a significant way. Please name an undead/animal mob you think needs to be feared to kill on a Shaman.

You can also root/camp mobs just fine. I get that you think the fast cast time of the clickies helps you here, but you forget that a fleeing mob can bring more friends. I am not saying this strategy can never work, but having a bunch of feared mobs running around a place like hate is a gamble too lol. I have used the fear line of spells a lot, as I have a 60 SK. I understand the idea of using fear to help you survive.

One more note on Hate. It is a raid zone, so fearing mobs in a panic to save yourself can lead to accidentally killing a raid force or tracker. You may not notice players coming into the zone. If you are guilded this is going to be a problem for your whole guild, not just yourself. Most people are guilded.

This is one major reason why fearing to save yourself isn't always a great strategy. This game is an MMO, which means you need to be considerate of other players.

If a 60 shaman found a use for blinding luminance they would probably just cast it instead of buying a bio orb, right? I know the spell slot hurts, but so does the orb's cast time.

Yes, you can certainly cast the spell youself. I killed sirens for the Shawl Quest this way when I was level 51 or so. Great way to prevent them from casting their Enchanter spells. On trash mobs it usually doesn't get resisted.

If you want to keep a higher level mob like a Cliff Golem constantly blinded to prevent it from summoning you, that requires a lot of casting. You get resists more often, for example. That is when bio orb would be useful. Saves a spell slot and reduces how often you need to Torpor/Cannibalize.

In the words of John Pinette ... "Oh nay nay!" :p

Troll shaman is best shaman so sayeth me. If not troll shaman then yes iksar shaman is best shaman.

FSI is overrated.

It isn't. It's quite easy to math out why FSI is better than Troll/Iksar Regen once you are at level 60 with Torpor. The guide in my signature does as much!

Before 60 Regen is better, so it just depends what you prefer. A better early game with a worse end game, or a better end game with a worse early game.

If you plan on Min/Maxing and getting to the end game, FSI wins handily.

Oh nay nay!

Regen is just flatly superior at all levels of gameplay.

As far as I know the most accomplished shaman solo artist was a barbarian. So going from evidence, barbarians are the best solo shaman race.

This is factually false at 60 with Torpor.

Regen is very easy to calculate how much you get. Trolls/Iksars get +8 standing Regen over other races. 8 x 10 x 60 = 4800 HP per hour. That's the equivalent of 3-4 Torpors per hour, assuming you are never at 100% HP, which a Torpor Shaman often is.

3-4 Torpors per hour is not really significant on a Torpor Shaman. At best it saves you 2 minutes per hour on recovery, but in reality it's probably half that (or less) due to being at full HP/Mana often.

FSI increases your chance of survival before the initial slow on any difficult fight, which can actually be the difference between success and failure. This is the most dangerous part of a fight. Increasing your chances of surviving a difficult fight will always trump a small boost in recovery time on a class that can already do a full recovery in 3 minutes or less https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjZxMlJSCDc .