Shaman solo tactics?
 

I play on GMT so when I wake up in the morning my favorite grind spots tend to be empty. That's why I go solo when LFG and I tend to get pretty desperate. I leveled a Shammy through Blue back when it was still crowded 24/7 so finding Guk and Unrest FP groups was effortless even during offpeak. But on Teal I pretty much have to solo for half of my play time until everyone else logs on.

I have three questions:

A) What's the best Shaman solo rotation at 21?
1 - I start by buffing myself with Turtle Skin and Spirit Strength
2 - Malaise -> Root -> Disempower -> Affliction -> Walking Sleep -> Envenomed Breath (resist debuff, stat debuff, DoTs and slow)
3 - Then I Burst of Strength myself and go in for auto attacks until the blue con dies.
Is there something I could substitute or something I could add to kill things more efficiently? Because when I go for "dangerous" (high blue) cons I end up dead 7 times out of 10 and I lose more XP in a solo session than I gain due to this.

B) Is STR important to a Shaman? I have a +9 STR shield and a vendor Spear and don't know if it's worth to switch to a 2HB Bloodforge Hammer. I know melee becomes less important later on but at 21 my DoTs are so pathetic that beating things myself is my only option.

C) What are some fast solo spots that are good for a level 20 Shaman? Not interested in the outdoors since it's pretty slow, and Guk/Unrest are way too tightly packed for me. I'm looking for a Crushbone-like experience where there's a decent ZEM and mobs are far apart enough to be picked off one by one safely.
Not looking for money or anything because I can take care of that later and already bought most of my spells.

The level range you're in right now - the early 20s right before you get Canni, Regen, and an upgraded poison at 24 - is probably the absolute worst and most frustrating part of leveling a shaman. A group or duoing partner would go a long way toward making your life easier, but you asked about soloing, so I'll try my best to offer some suggestions. Just remember that these levels are rough no matter what and that it'll get much better at 24.

A) You're using too much mana on debuffs. You should be aiming for low to mid blues rather than mobs just under your level, and as such you shouldn't need a resistance debuff. Don't bother with Disempower, either; this line of spells is extremely niche and should only be used in a tiny number of situations at very high levels. It's not a good use of your mana right now. I suggest pulling with Affliction so it has the maximum time to tick. As the mob runs toward you, root it, then poison. At this point, you can either just sit and med in between recasting poison and root (i.e., "root and dot" tactics), or you can slow and then engage in melee. If you seem to do well meleeing, skip the root and just slow while the mob runs toward you, then poison while meleeing. Even while meleeing, be sure to renew poison when it drops, and don't be afraid to nuke if you're good on mana; shaman nukes aren't great, but they're still a better use of mana than Malise or Disempower in this situation.

B) Strength gives you attack rating, which helps you hit harder and miss less often, but Shamans don't benefit from it nearly as much as the pure melee classes. You generally want to choose whichever weapon has the best ratio. Your Bloodforge Hammer is very likely a better option than your vendor spear. Note also that slow weapons offer another benefit, which is that you can cast spells in between swings and thereby lose less melee damage from casting.

C) This is a tough question; I never found a solo spot in the low 20s that I loved. You do pretty much have to accept fighting outdoors to ensure solo pulls and space to rest. Fighting along a zone wall in East Karana, killing spiders and wolves and griffawns, was probably the best spot I found, but it was still rather slow and dull. Perhaps someone else knows a better place.

Amazing reply, thank you! You actually put me in the mood to play again.

This!

Also, check the Per-Level guide (it was originally made for Shaman; link in signature). I think I did Aviaks in Lake Rathe at that level, or possibly stuff in South Karana (it's easy to switch between them).

I'd root/rot them, one at a time, and it would take most of my mana so I'd kill one, afk a bit, then kill another. Took awhile but got me to 24 :)

I actually have been, since I first started playing EQ. It saved me countless hours of searching for XP spots on my alts, and seeing how vast the world of Norrath was helped me grow past the WoW player mentality of trying to speedrun every playthrough. I really can't praise the P99 community enough.

:D

You have Sow, they do not. DOT's do full damage to a moving mob. All the info I'm going to give you

I thought dots ticked less on moving mobs? Or is that a later patch thing?

They do full damage right now on Green/Teal, not sure when it gets patched.

Couple more months iirc.