Another Shaman Gear Thread

[greatdane]

First of all, screw wisdom. It does you almost no good, especially in the early levels where you're pretty much always just medding up just enough to kill the next mob. Your mana pool is irrelevant when you're fluctuating between 0 and 50% mana at all times. It doesn't make you level faster, it doesn't make you kill things faster, and it doesn't make you take less damage. These are the only things that matter while leveling.

Secondly, you're going to be meleeing a lot if you intend to solo. You could go the group route and sit on your fat ass casting your lackluster low-level shaman spells in Oasis, but that has been scientifically proven to induce fatal boredom and I discourage it. You're a melee class until level 20 or even a bit beyond. Get AC/HP gear, maybe a bit of strength if it doesn't cost you too much (money and AC/HP-wise) and then get a nice spear. A low-level shaman is more like a paladin with SoW.

Forget about ikky bp. It's really nice, but it's also insanely overpriced and most people want 30k for theirs. With a bit of luck and several days to spend just WTBing, you can maybe find one closer to 25k. You only have 20k for your whole outfit, so it's out of the question. Here's what I'd get:

Ears: Diamondine Earring x2 (nice to have around anyway in case you try a lot of classes) can be had for 750ish each with a little patience
Neck: Glowing Bone Collar (500p)
Face: I dunno, whatever, I used a Sarnak Hide Mask (few hundred pp), don't use those 0AC veils
Head: Jaundiced Bone Helm (500p)

Rings: 55/5 all the way (you probably have some)
Wrists: I'd like to say Totemic for the AC/look, but they've gone extinct, you can spend weeks trying to find them for sale and not succeed. Just get something.
Arms: Jaundiced Bone Vambraces (500p)
Hands: Jaundiced Bone Gauntlets (500p)

Shoulders: Not much can be had on a low budget, so go with a Bloodstained Mantle (50-100p?). Resists are nice for leveling, caster mobs are rapists.
Back: Hooded Black Cloak (3k)
Chest: If you can find it for sale at a reasonable price, Froglok Scale Breastplate is nice, otherwise Treeweave (1k).
Waist: There's several good shaman belts at around 2k or so, but hell, I went with a 10AC Straw-Spun Belt costing 30p. Great budget item.
Legs: Again I'd say Totemic, but I've been looking for Totemic legs/wrists for a week with no luck. Maybe try Sebilite Scale Leggings or something.
Feet: Jaundiced Bone Boots (500p)

Primary: Slime-Coated Harpoon (1500ish)
Secondary: Clay Guardian Shield (2500p, I have one for sale)
Range: Howling Harpoon if you care, I didn't bother buying a ranged slot item because you can pretty much only get wis/mana here and it doesn't make a difference. You can get a wisdom deity for practically no money if you insist on filling every slot.

That's what I'd do with your budget. You'll be able to melee adequately up to level 20 or so, and you'll be a pretty sturdy tank. People don't expect the twink shaman to tank better than the warrior in banded/bronze standing next to him, but in the lower levels, that's pretty much true. You can tank for groups 1-20 if you like, hold aggro with Drowsy for added mitigation, and get used to having really crappy spells until level 24. The class really comes into its own at level 29, and then at 34 you get a pet and become a really decent soloer.

Oh, and here's some shamanly advice for you: don't use Light Healing. It's a shit spell. Until level 19, Inner Fire is a much more efficient heal. It's one of those buffs that also heal the target for the amount they're buffed for, and it heals for 20 at 10 mana while Light Healing heals for 29 at 25 mana. Almost twice as efficient, and you'll be able to single-handedly heal groups just fine in those awful teen levels. It's even more efficient than the level 29 Healing, but I can't recommend using a 20HP heal at that level if you want to stay sane.

[Huddaan]

I think I might give it a few more days for the Iky, I have more then 20k to put in, I just didn't want to lol. Thank you all for your suggestions.

[Kevlar]

First of all, screw wisdom. It does you almost no good, especially in the early levels where you're pretty much always just medding up just enough to kill the next mob. Your mana pool is irrelevant when you're fluctuating between 0 and 50% mana at all times. It doesn't make you level faster, it doesn't make you kill things faster, and it doesn't make you take less damage. These are the only things that matter while leveling.

Err, having a bigger mana pool helps all the time. If you get adds its nice to have that extra cushion to be able to kill 2 monsters at once.

I also would not recommend soloing as a caster. Downtime is terrible. If you have a melee or pet class with you to take the hits you can med while your dots go to work and pretty much constant pull. Caster melee is pathetic anyway, and even moreso considering you would be doing 100/tick damage with just your envenomed breath/scourge active. Ignoring wis and going for hp/ac will not help you level faster, and will probably result in more deaths.

[greatdane]

I'm talking about the levels 1-20. Of course you won't want to melee in your 40s and beyond (unless you're just tanking a slowed mob anyway, or are using a BSH). Trying to play shaman like a caster in the lower levels will just yield frustration as your arsenal of spells is pitiful until 19+, or more like 24+. If you can buy a set of AC gear like jaundiced pieces and such, you're much better off meleeing until you get proper dots, canni/regen etc. You don't even get root until level 14. Shamans can solo just fine with a bit of gear, and if you can pour 20k into one, you melee almost as well as any fighter class in the early levels. There's not much of a difference until post-20 where fighter classes get all their combat skills and get them high enough to where they make a difference. The guy is trying out all the classes, so I don't think he needs high-level gearing/playstyle advice.

[Huddaan]

This is what I currently have for my ogre Shaman:

Ears -Have- Forest Loopx2
Fingers - Have- Platinum Fire Wedding Ring x2
Neck - Want- Glowing Bone Collar
Head - Want- Totemic Helm
Face - Have- Platinum Ruby Veil
Chest -want- Ceremonial Iksar Chestplate
Arms - Have- Jaundiced bone vambraces
Back - Have- Hooded Black Cloak
Waist - Have- Flayed Turmoilskin Belt
Shoulders - Have- Tattered Mantle
Wrists - Have- Runed Mithril Bracerx2
Legs - Have- Gatorscale Leggings
Hands - Have- Jaundiced Bone Gaunts
Feet - Have- Jaundiced Bone Boots
Primary - Have- Slime Coated Harpoon
Secondary -Have- Paw of Opolla
Range - Have- Howling Harpoons

I'm just going to invest all the plat I need to get all the rest. I should have decent hp, mana, and AC. Then when I start getting into my higher lvls, I'll sell the Iky Bp and go for a JBB.

[greatdane]

That'll do fine, but you'd still get more out of maximizing your AC. Look at it like this:

Mana pool doesn't increase your DPS, regen, mitigation, or anything else that makes you level faster. It just lets you cast more spells before going OOM if you were FM to start with. While leveling, you should never be FM, and certainly will never need to be. A big mana pool becomes relevant once you start doing highly challenging things, like healing a tank through a boss fight or soloing a really tough named. When killing orcs in Oasis, it matters fuck-all whether your maximum mana is 500 or 700 and you'll probably never be FM anyway.

AC reduces the damage you take. This not only equates more or less directly into regen (and, by extension, mana regen, since you save mana you'd have had to spend on healing yourself) but also determines what caliber of mobs you can take on. Sustainability is the #1 factor in leveling quickly, and shaman is the sustainability class. This is also why mana pool doesn't matter nearly as much for a shaman as it does for classes that revolve around dumping a huge amount of raw power into a mob and blowing it to pieces, or kiting with no real risk of getting hit and thus little benefit from increasing raw survivability.

That's what really impacts your leveling pace. A big mana pool just means your med breaks are longer. If you actually get into situations where you need more than your natural mana pool while leveling up in the lower/mid-levels, you're either making mistakes or you're dead anyway. A couple hundred extra mana won't make a difference. Taking less damage makes a significant one, and since the shaman is the only caster class that can get away with routinely taking damage - and often has to in order to kill things - boosting your raw survivability, and thus your grinding sustainability, is what affects your leveling pace the most.

Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing shamans with +6wis rings, platinum armbands and things like that (unless they're just newbies with shit gear). It's the sign of a player who doesn't know how to take full advantage of the class and just plays it like a druid. These are the shamans who get mauled to 50% health whenever they take aggro from slowing, or are limited purely to root-rotting when soloing. This class has no snare and no CC besides root, has huge aggro spells, and sacrifices health for mana. If you set your shaman up correctly, you have a powerhouse character. If you don't, you just have a weaker necro.

[bonzojon]

Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing shamans with +6wis rings, platinum armbands and things like that (unless they're just newbies with shit gear). It's the sign of a player who doesn't know how to take full advantage of the class and just plays it like a druid. These are the shamans who get mauled to 50% health whenever they take aggro from slowing, or are limited purely to root-rotting when soloing. This class has no snare and no CC besides root, has huge aggro spells, and sacrifices health for mana. If you set your shaman up correctly, you have a powerhouse character. If you don't, you just have a weaker necro.

+1

[bonzojon]

Also -- If you're just starting out you might want to look at making a Troll follower of Cazic-Thule. It takes a druid wolf forming you for faction, but you can get the Initiate Symbol of Cazic Thule from Paineel that has 2 second cast clicky undead fear at level 1. While situational this makes outdoor undead fear kiting super quick and easy exp. Good luck on your sham!

[Messianic]

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

Also -- If you're just starting out you might want to look at making a Troll follower of Cazic-Thule. It takes a druid wolf forming you for faction, but you can get the Initiate Symbol of Cazic Thule from Paineel that has 2 second cast clicky undead fear at level 1. While situational this makes outdoor undead fear kiting super quick and easy exp. Good luck on your sham!

::mind blown::

How did I never know about that :P

I dunno tho, clinging darkness via the regent symbol of innoruuk (requires innoruuk diety I think) might be a better choice overall.

[Slave]

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

::mind blown::

How did I never know about that :P

I dunno tho, clinging darkness via the regent symbol of innoruuk (requires innoruuk diety I think) might be a better choice overall.

It certainly is. It covers one of the three main spell lines that the Shaman lacks. The other two being AOE and ports.

Shamans... just aren't fair.