The guy gloating about mages being amazing has clearly never played a mage in kunark or velious, and most certainly didn't read the forums back on live. They were littered with people complaining about utility, DPS, and the overall fun-factor that quickly disappeared after classic for the much beloved class. I saw my friend play it for years and played his mage myself and can't help but to agree. It really does turn completely one-dimensional and the fun factor is leeched from the class.
Kunark and Velious bring us summoning mobs, and many of them are casters. Not a big deal right? Well, it is, because these tend to be the mobs that drop the great loot we all know and love. The only class that can solo these efficiently (or solo them at all really) is the shaman. This brings you the single rule to shaman solo/duos: If it can be slowed, it will die. Of course we're talking about duo here, so any sort of DPS (whether melee or DoT/DD) helps. Shammies aren't known for the speed at which they can drop a mob, but rather how efficiently and where/what that mob is. And this "WOW" factor that you see for mages in classic is really diminished during kunark/velious, and quickly replaced by shaman, bards, enchanters, and to a smaller extent necros as well.
If you're looking for efficiency and utility, with some speed leveling and killing involved i'd go druid/necro. Their DoTs don't bump heads and the druid snare/root/regen and necro DoTs/fear can quickly kill multiple mobs very, very quickly without taking too much time or mana.
Honestly, there's a lot of combinations out there that are very viable, it's just a matter of what you're looking for and how it is that you play them. One of my worries is that too many people will make shammies without a true love for the class and not quite know how to use them. I've seen way too many shamans with pearl kedge totems sitting in solb groups as the secondary healer. It just pisses me off...
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05-31-2010, 07:16 PM
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