Fellow shaman on Green
 

I have been (slowly) leveling a shaman as of late, and couldn't help but to notice there are a LOT of us (even for project 1999 standards). Normally this doesn't bother me, but I wanted to ask all of you how difficult it is for you to find groups in higher levels? what about raid guilds, do they still want shaman?

I play shaman for the group aspect of it, I don't really care about the fact that they solo very well (which i assume is the reason they are so abundant).

How has this saturation affected you as a shaman who enjoys grouping? Is it something I should or should not worry about? Should I consider playing another class (or an official TLP) if I wish to spend most of my time in groups meeting new people? Thank you!

Its a good solo class, so even with a high number its still good. It could be trouble for groups maybe?

Shamans are far more overplayed here right out of the gate compared to classic because its known as one of the 4 OP classes which people didn't so much back then.

I've been in multiple groups levelling where there were 3-4 Shaman and it only proved how OP shaman could be lol.

Sometimes I played during euro hours where tanks were scarce and oddly even DPS was scarce but the class is so versatile we just slow-tanked everything.

I remember in a HK goblin group with 4 Shaman late at night + 2 DPS. I was pulling for a group and tanking+slowing, another Shaman buffing and offhealing, a primary healer Shaman, and then a DoT/Nuke Shaman. 3 Pets from what I remember. We had no problem getting all the way down to raider room.

The best thing is, you'd think this was just level 27-35... but no, I've tanked Nobles in the 40-50 range a few times too with 2 other shaman healing and a rogue pulling.

I personally don't see as many Shaman at the 45+ range right now. I think most of the Shaman started when the server came out, got to 50 already and just stopped really caring or quit because some of them realized it was so many button clicks compared to most classes.

And I mean, make friends and form semi-static groups and you won't have any trouble grouping.

Dunno about the raid demand, though.

Shamans are versatile, but most groups up to 40 your slows and DOTs aren’t needed, fights should be over long before they’re effective. If you’re in a trio the slows might be more useful, and 40+ they can be worthwhile. Otherwise, you’re just canni-dancing, healing, regen, malo (make enchanters life easier), and the oft-nuke.

Your DOTs, like necro’s, are going to be effective when soloing. Not much help in a well-rounded group.

A couple months ago there were more shamans than there are now. I usually only see 9-11% of online characters as shamans, compared to like 12-13% when the server was brand new.

It's my opinion that quite a few folks started shams thinking about how powerful they are at 60 with torpor and gear, and gave up on those shams when they realized how mediocre they are 1-33 or how they still can't faceroll stuff even at 50.

I played mostly solo to level up, but when I did want to group there was never a problem getting into one because they already had a sham. That a lot of shams DO solo helps the relatively high number of shams not be too many for the groups that are out there, I think. Shams do tend to be a bit of a red-headed step child in raids. Their buffs are great, malo is nice, slow is important, but you don't need 5 of them in a raid of 40. But, spot heals are still useful, so while a raid may prefer a cleric or a rogue or whatever instead of a 4th or 5th sham, you probably aren't going to be turned away from raids.

If you enjoy the class I wouldn't let the server population deter what you enjoy the most. When people say groups they always think about 6 man min max groups. With the versatility of your class you can make all kinds of groups. Don't over look they duo/trio and makeshift 4/5 man of hybrids and yourself going to random lower population areas. Id stick it out imo. Good luck with the shaman.

I played retail back in the 99-2001 days. Green is very reflective of how things were with some exceptions, there were more Rogues and Rangers and Shadow Knights back then. Back then it was more about playing an ideal than playing the most effective levelling machine which today's min/maxing have skewed the class diversity on. Less people were aware of the hybrid penalty when creating their characters, less people were aware of ZEM, etc.

This is mostly only because we didn't thoroughly understand the classes and their balance and their playstyles back then. I don't think many/any people knowingly picked an underpowered class because they liked the "ideal" of it. We picked classes based on what sounded cool, on what the developers and the flavor text seemed to intend the class for.

I don't think it's fair to say that being aware of game balance and mechanics is skewing things so much as straightening them out. It was skewed in the first place, with deceptive/incorrect information about the game being what people relied on to make their decisions.

Ideal has 2 definitions, Im using one, you are using another.

1. satisfying one's conception of what is perfect; most suitable.
2. existing only in the imagination; desirable or perfect but not likely to become a reality.

Im using 2, you are using 1.

So in my opinion a lot of people gravitated to Rogue, Ranger and Shadow Knight for the fantasy of playing those classes more than for the best, most min/maxed options, of the time. Today the most min/maxed options are heavily skewed as favorites.

I'd say, don't play a shaman. I'm a 50 shaman. But in no ideal group do you want a shaman. You're a poor man's healing option, a poor man's dps option.

Shaman's most min max best role in a group is prolly the tank. Drowsy spam for aggro, decent enough mitigation and a smaller XP penalty than Paly/SK/Ranger. Wars are teribad aggro.