Shamen Vs. Druids as Soloers

[Estu]

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

Shamans are KOS?

Ogres are.

[Darkath]

Hey everyone!

I've been following this and other discussions related to the Shaman as of late, and the class seems quite interesting to me. I wanted to know how realistic is to play the class as a melee class which could take in hits, dishes out damage with melee attacks and spells.

I had thought at first that probably the Sk or the Pally would suit this play style better, so I picked a Troll SK. I quickly found that is was simply impossible to keep up with the damage of mobs or that they just took to long to die, damaging me too much in the process.

My characters are measly geared (I've tried like 3 classes, none of them made it past lvl 14 :P) so I'm not really in a position to twink out a shammy. Give this situation, will I be able to play the shammy as I want to? Or does it really need to be very twinked for him to melee/cast mobs down?

[Skope]

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

Hey everyone!

I've been following this and other discussions related to the Shaman as of late, and the class seems quite interesting to me. I wanted to know how realistic is to play the class as a melee class which could take in hits, dishes out damage with melee attacks and spells.

I had thought at first that probably the Sk or the Pally would suit this play style better, so I picked a Troll SK. I quickly found that is was simply impossible to keep up with the damage of mobs or that they just took to long to die, damaging me too much in the process.

My characters are measly geared (I've tried like 3 classes, none of them made it past lvl 14 :P) so I'm not really in a position to twink out a shammy. Give this situation, will I be able to play the shammy as I want to? Or does it really need to be very twinked for him to melee/cast mobs down?

You'd probably need to be twinked well at early levels to melee down mobs. At lvl 39 you get togor's insects which helps mitigate the damage you take. As you get higher in level it gets progressively harder to tank mobs as a shaman if you aren't geared for it.

Is it possible? Absolutely. By the time you reach level 50 you will have time to farm some gear and perhaps pick up some rune etched and it will make your life incredibly easier.

[Lill-Leif]

Haha, I never knew the word cirkeljerk before I read this thread!

[Overcast]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_Jerks

[guineapig]

In a dungeon you are definitely better off being a shaman than a druid. Druids loose a ton of spells indoors and the things that make druids efficient don't work in dungeons for the most part. Sure we can root rot mobs but only if there are no casters around.

Outdoors, the druid is king. Harmony for splitting, being able to quad kite, and teleporting anywhere at any time. Not to mention their nukes are nothing to sneeze at either. Later on we even have a bit of mana regen. Sure a shaman can tank and spank the hell out of mobs but druids have more versatility in the open plains and hills of Norrath.

Shaman will (almost) always be more desirable in groups.
Exceptions to this rule include: AoE groups, groups with no melee (pet groups), when quick travel and evac are a must, or if you already have an enchanter.

I really feel like the 2 classes have always had a very good balance going.

[Estu]

Can't you start quad kiting at 14 by just snaring four mobs separately and then AOEing them, since you have SoW and can easily keep your distance from them?

[Tetrian]

Well, i assume you are referring to cascade of hail, which is a rain type spell and as such not really effecient for AE kiting.

Its the AE lightning spell line that really enables AE kiting for druids - and it starts out at 34 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Tallenn]

Actually, there is an AE DD lightning spell at 5.

The difficulty with quadding prior to level 34 is two-fold: First, the level 1 snare spell doesn't really last long enough to snare four mobs, round them up in a tight group, and then kill them before snare starts to wear off. Second, the level 5 spell doesn't really do that much damage, so it takes a considerable number of casts to kill anything.

The reason quadding isn't really viable for druids until 34 is that is when they get the next AE DD spell (there's no upgrade between 5 and 34), and when they also have the long-lasting ensnare spell, which they get at 29.

There's also another difficulty in quadding, even after 34: lack of suitable targets. There are a really limited number of suitable mobs for quadding in the old world (at least 4 mobs semi-close together of the same type, must be non-casting, and must be able to single kite them with lightning spell with at least 40% mana left over). Once Kunark is released, that issue almost gone, and with Velious, is completely gone (Velious has TONS of great quadding targets for all levels, 34-60).

[Skope]

Yes, actually. You just need to stack +mana gear instead of +wis and you'd be golden.

As i stated in this thread before, I've played a shaman on live and am playing one here, but when it comes to a first character you're almost certainly better off with a druid.

Shamans are incredibly versatile in group/solo situations, and even more so on raids, but they're also hard to master and play correctly. It's not a class for the lazy, and the player should be mashing more keys than a bard twisting 4 to truly use a shammy to its full potential.

I made the choice of going necro for my first char because they level incredibly quick and aren't very gear dependent (or at all, really). This allowed me to spend about 50k on the shaman before it even dinged level 2, which helped immensely. If you don't have that sort of funding you should expect somewhat of a struggle to level 34.

EDIT: if you're going for a solo shammy, i think ogre is absolutely the way to go. Stun immunity is critical when trying to land that timely torpor/root.