Compared to Necro, how well can Shamans solo?
 

I've often heard in class discussions, when folks are asking what the best class would be for someone that needs to solo a lot, needs to make frequent AFKs and such. And I hear necro and monk being mentioned most of the time due to their FD.

In other discussions I've heard of Shamans being one of the absolute best solo classes in the game as well, right up there with Enchanters, especially when they get Torpor.

I ask since I'm in a bind, trying to figure out what I want to play. I currently have decently geared characters on both Blue and Green; blue, a 31 mage, and green a 12 shaman. I want to play something evil because that's simply the way to go in this game and I'm debating between sticking it out with the Shaman, or whether someone like me should be playing a Necromancer instead, who does tend to solo a lot, does need to frequently AFK and wants the power to solo as much as he can.

This question has been answered a few times before, but..

It depends on what you mean by solo. If you mean as in solo during the leveling process necro wins hands down. Necros can mow down mobs very quickly and easily. Necros can handle a lot of named camps quite well too, but there will be some camps that they can't solo that a shaman can do. freeti and 6 neck dragons come to mind.

Shaman is a priest and doesn't have a lot of dps, so they can't kill mobs as fast as a necro and shamans rely a ton on gear. L1-30 isn't bad if you have a Granite Face Grinder or Poison Wind Censer, but things will slow down as you level and mobs begin to hit harder. Early 50s picks up a little bit with JBB and epic would help a ton. Shaman dots aren't great until L49 and the shaman pet sucks at dps, but for it's level can take a beating.

As as a shaman if you can slow it, you can kill it. Just keep in mind that it may take a long time to kill it.

In Velious with some raid gear a shaman can solo a Gwurm.
I've soloed ayilish on my troll shaman on blue.

Oh you mean leveling. Root rot your way to 51, Then duo with a melee/tank/hybrid to 60.

If you really have to afk alot, you should stick with necro. FD is insane value for those situations. In comparable situations you'd have to log out on your shaman. The value of FD is that you can re-apply it if say you FD's next to a spawn point and come back with the mob standing there.

Long Term,.. the server is floaded with shaman in a not classic way. Unless you expect yourself to hit 60 and get torpor, I'd avoid it.

End Game the necro can do some things the shaman cant. I don't have a raid necro but there are videos of solo kills or solo fear fighting etc. If you can play your iksar necro to the fullest you'll be wowing people.

You're in the right ballpark for min-max meta soloing,. Enchanter, Shaman, Necromancer.
They won't enable you to play well, just keep that in mind.

Necro unless you're going to the very end game and want to solo difficult mobs.

I agree with the necro call from reading your post. The ability to hold a camp and AFK almost 100% in safety is pretty difficult to beat if one intends to be AFK often. Also doesn't look like you have the resources to properly twink out shaman so you soloing is going to be in the mediocre range until 60... and then I hope you got the 80-100k for torpor.

Appreciate the answers everyone. Looks like Iksar Necro is my path. :)

Necro is far and away a better soloer, but with Torpor and Slow a shaman can take down certain more difficult mobs (named camps ect). Both are excellent, and the duo of a shaman and necro is one of my favorites. Shaman/Necro/Monk might be my most favorite group (of any size) in the entire game.

For further clarification - shamans are terrible soloers until they get thier epic (very mana intensive) - necromancers with Charm or even fear kiting are on an entire different level

Agree with this. I leveled my necro as a duo with my brother's shaman. Excellent synergy.

Shaman + Necro top tier buds.

Third'ed on Shaman + Necro power. Necro Heal-over-time keeps you topped up on Canni Fuel, and Shaman regen keeps them topped up on lich fuel. Dots plus pets plus fear in open areas or slow in closed areas is the general strategy. Toss in a JBB for additional nuke damage if you're spicy.

I've even been in groups as a shaman where me plus a necro kept the group healed without any issues. And shaman soloing isn't terrible with a JBB. Looking forward to experiencing how much better it gets with my epic, though!