I think people are generally undervaluing shaman melee in this thread. I've been leveling a shaman recently on green and my melee was still parsing for around 40% of my total solo damage well into my 40s (it was about 40% melee, 40% pet, and 20% from a dot to make sure I was > 50% damage).

The whole pet exp issue hasn't been mentioned yet either even though that's also a pretty big factor while you're leveling. Even with a PWC my 34 pet was often exceeding my damage without a dot, which was why I was parsing in the first place to monitor the whole situation and make sure my pet wasn't nerfing my exp.

The SCHW are pretty good value. If your melee makes up about 40% of your total damage, then the SCHW will increase your total dps by about... 9-10%? In other words, every mob you kill dies about 9-10% faster. That's honestly a lot of free damage every single fight for only 1500 plat.

I started camping ice giants at 44 with banded armor and a PWC. It was doable but some of the fights were way too close for my liking. That's when I bought my SCHW and the results were very noticeable; I was ending each IG fight in a much more comfortable position. These are the kinds of upgrades that let you do camps a bit earlier and you can't get that from a bit of wisdom or HP (although you'll want that stuff eventually since it all adds up).

Now on the topic of root rotting, there's a few problems for shamans:

1) If you don't use your pet you're abandoning most of your dps. This means that you need a way to efficiently root rot multiple enemies at once (aka your epic).

2) If you are using your pet you'll likely need to cast slow anyways so it can survive, unless you're still fighting low level enemies.

3) If you're using the pet then you're still unlikely to out-damage it with your dots alone. You could send the pet in and out while using a parser to make sure it stays just below 50% of your damage, but that's a lot of micromanagement (especially without dot damage reporting).

4) All of your dots (until you get epic) have a root-breaking DD component on cast.

This is why root rotting never feels great to me. At least at 34+ you're almost always better off just face tanking the mob while you either melee it or JBB it.

There are some exceptions but they're rare. One example would be solb imps and elementals in the high 50s. Great spot to root rot for exp, but as I mentioned before you'll need your epic.

Some tools came later that made root rotting more effective for shamans (Virulent Paralysis!) but those won't ever be on P99 unfortunately.

I have SCHW and Poison Wind Censor on my blue shammy, smashing gators in Oasis like it ain't no thang. Slow, plus maybe a DoT if I have the mana for training the skill up its a very pleasurable experience.

Now grab a Rune Etched Icewurm Fang and a Seahorse Belt and go to town!

These are both solid if you're on a budget.

Try and save up 14-18k and get a Fungi Covered Great Staff. Can start clicking at 35.

Then at 40, upgrade your weapon to a Granite Face Grindr.

Actually this is probably the way to go

Rune Etched Icewurm Fang sadly has a lower ratio than both Poison Wind Censor and Granite Face Grinder. It's really only good for levels 1-19, when a priest's damage cap is 12. Once you hit level 20 the damage cap is 20, which makes Poison Wind Censor the perfect weapon hehe. When you hit level 30, Granite Face Grinder becomes slightly superior due to it having better stats and a very minor ratio improvement. Poison Wind Censor is 20/28 = 0.714, and GFG is 26 (level 30 damage cap) / 36 = 0.722.

Rune Etched Icewurm Fang is 12/19 = 0.631. I'd be curious to know if the proc makes up for the lower ratio once you hit level 35, but I kind of doubt it.

Priest classes cap lifts at 40

I am talking about levels 1-39. Once you hit 40 the damage cap becomes 40, so https://wiki.project1999.com/Herbalist%27s_Spade becomes the best weapon you can get (besides like a primal 2hb). Unfortunately level 40+ is when Shaman melee really starts to suck, and you get JBB at 45.

At 30 get a Barbarian Spiritist's Hammer if you're a barb. Decent ratio 2hb with 263 dmg proc (same as jbb). If you're troll or ogre (or barb) you can use Blight, Hammer of the Scourge which procs a 500+ dmg dot+dd. Both are 2-3k.

If you're using Blight, once it procs, switch to a granite face grinder (29/36)/brawl stick (up to 32/36) or herbalist's spade (39/43!).