Here is my two cents on the matter.
As an Ogre Shaman, I leveled to 60 without Epic. I had:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Fungus_Covered_Scale_Tunic
https://wiki.project1999.com/Fungi_Covered_Great_Staff
https://wiki.project1999.com/Black_Fur_Boots
https://wiki.project1999.com/Jaundiced_Bone_Bracer
JBB is useful up to level 60. Don't think it has run out of steam. I was able to do PoM Rat Maze with this setup, and I was getting 1 blue per hour there at level 59.
The trick to using JBB is you need your pet up for DPS, and you need to focus on one mob at a time. The nice thing about JBB is it does more damage per second than Epic, so it can focus fire mobs down faster.
It has been a while since I was under 60, but here is what I remember for the strategy:
If you have 1 mob, this is the strat:
1. Slow the mob
2. Root the mob
3. Sic your pet on the mob
4. DoT the mob with your best disease spell
5. Spam JBB at the mob
6. Re-root as needed
If you have multiple mobs:
1. Use the strategy above on one mob at a time
2. Root and slow the other mobs
3. If you can, DoT those mobs with your best disease spell
I purposely avoided Malo and poison spells to save mana. There are plenty of mobs out there that don't really need to be Maloed. Until you hit 60, your slow spell has the same chance of landing as your Malo line of spells.
I personally disagree with buying Epic first. This is because Torpor is way better than Epic. You will spend all your money on Epic, get to 60, and be a sad, broke panda for a long time. Instead, you can spend 12k on fungi staff now, and then sell Fungi Staff and Fungi Tunic for Torpor the second you hit 60. Torpor will give you way more bang for your buck than epic.
EDIT: I also hasted my pet with the best haste spell. Do not use Spirit Quickening, it is garbage. Also be sure to get your 55 pet when you get to that level. It is a beast. It can tank almost any mob under 60 when that mob is slowed, and the DPS is pretty good when hasted.
EDIT: I think I actually let my pet build up agro on the mob first. This allowed me to spam JBB without needed to re-root the mobs too much. You root the mob initially, because the slow/disease DoT will set you high on the agro list initially. After a little while, the pet should take over as the top agro. This allows you to spam JBB safely, without re-rooting the mob all the time. This also saved mana. Then you just heal your pet as needed.