New old eq player - shaman starting questions

[Vicatin]

Ogre is a no-brainer at end game. The regen just doesnt make much diff towards the end. Frontal stun immunity is one of those features you feel u cant live without once u have had it.

[Elements]

Originally Posted by Aaron [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is SO overrated.

If I were to start a shaman now, I'd go Iksar. Second choice would be Troll.

Leveling up, regen is so much better than frontal stun immunity.

It can be hard to appreciate how awesome frontal stun immunity really is particularly in solo and small group play when you will be getting hit. Its impossible to count the number of times a sticky situation or incredibly annoying corpse run was avoided because you werent stunned while casting that critical slow/root/heal/gate.

Ask yourself how many annoying corpse runs make up for a bit of extra regen but more xp needed to level to 60.

Shrink fixes size issues in dungeons.

[thieros]

Rolled iksar, love it, but dang, frontal stun immunity would be amazing. I heart my regen and between regen and racial regen at 26 i feel im unstoppable. Makes slow tanking a mob with a decent weapon a viable option even when up against yellows(twinkage clearly helpful here esp. fungi) but one thing twinking a iksar cant fix is frontal stun immunities. Channeling through a bunch of mobs is difficult at a low level, making rooting through multiple agros tough. This compounded by bashes and kicks makes it tough.

That being said, iksar is infinitely more cooler then the fatties of the world. Roll ikky and dont look back about the negtives:

Cons: No Bash, No Frontal Stun Immunity, Faction(who really cares though? plenty of indifferent merchants out there), no plate armor, no jbb, no barb spiritist hammer, no planar

Pros: FashionQuest, Regen(Its important for 1-60 till you get torpor, this should not be ignored), AC Bonus(like anyone cares on broken AC server), leveling path(who cares, we are all dumb and going to MM or south karana anyway)

Ogres are cool, but f that, roll ikky.

[DrKvothe]

Ya know what, I've had a few hours to think about what I wrote, and I want to recant my previous statement. Iksar is cool, regen is awesome, but barbarians have many benefits as well:

1) Leveling speed: It takes an ogre 11% more kills and iksar/troll 14.3% more kills when solo.
2) 1-24 leveling: People say iksar have the best leveling path, but I whole-heartily disagree. 1-4 killing goblins/skellies for rusty weapons and such to buy bags and polar bear cubs for HQ bear pets (I got 3 by lvl 5), then lvl 5-8 or so in qeynos hills slaughtering rabid wolves, then 8-24 (yeah, I said 24 =P) on gnolls/gnoll-fangs.
3) Banking: I seriously screwed as many factions as I could on my way to 50+, and I still can bank near EC (never did halfling guards). If you're not a dick, preserving FP bank is totally possible.

[Nekkojakk]

Well I started my ogre shaman. Wave if you see me [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rompus - Ogre Shaman

[Zeonick]

Originally Posted by Nekkojakk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well I started my ogre shaman. Wave if you see me [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rompus - Ogre Shaman

Good choice! I wish I went ogre..

[Nekkojakk]

Its been great so far. Hit level 10 last night and will probably stay at orc1 till I hit 12. Gonna try to follow the evil shaman leveling guide. Met alot of really nice people in EC.

[Tann]

Originally Posted by DrKvothe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

1) Leveling speed: It takes an ogre 11% more kills and iksar/troll 14.3% more kills when solo.

Troll/Iksar regen is right out of the gate twice as fast as barb/ogre, later on getting to almost 3 times as fast.. would that not making leveling faster? same reason for the threads on caster forum about iksar being best race for necro.. faster leveling via regen.

[Potus]

I can't say for Shaman, but I've leveled 2 Gnome Necros and now 2 Iksar Necros and the Iksar Necro is way, way, way faster. I don't even recognize an exp penalty on the Iksar, and you're non-stop killing things.

[DrKvothe]

A 51+ shaman with epic and JBB won't be sitting much at all. While standing, from 51-60, regen difference between troll/iksar and ogre/barb is just 3 health per tick. While that regen's not nothing, I doubt any 50+ barb/ogre would trade their JBB for 3 health per tick.

For a min/maxer with funds for twinking and/or PLvling, ogre might win out handily, but if you're brand new and untwinked:

Barbarian: levels 3x faster than anyone else thanks mostly to incredible turn-in quests. This is my opinion, but after trying the other prominent newbie-lowbie leveling paths, I've decided to level all of my non-kos alts through these quests, and they largely deter me from evil races (my cleric is a gnome instead of DE for this reason). You're non-kos in most places you'll want to go, so fewer random patrolling kos guards that new players frequently fail to avoid.

Iksar: regen + very rich leveling zones + monopoly on priest group role in these zones. Won't be able to afford JBB til 55-60 range, and at 60 you'll feel overpowered even without JBB.