Shaman Wearing Druid Gear?

[Zeonick]

Oh you are level 21? Well by all means you should go out to.ec and buy yourself a fungi, fbss, and a granite face grinder! This should only run about 130k or so. Then you can tank mobs no problem bro!

If you dont have 130k go ahead and grab some wis gear off your druid. Hp is important also but you need to find a balance. There is a debate about ac and how effective it is but honestly, unless you're twinked you wont be tanking mobs passed 40 or so.

[skorge]

the most important item to have as a 21 shaman is a good weapon...if you don't have a lot of plat to spend buy you a Poison Wind Censor. Having a high damage 2hb weapon will ding you to 50 easy...

just use totemic/jbb pieces, get a couple of 5 ac/55 hp rings, and a few wisdom pieces and you can solo up to 50 np...and btw the best way to solo is to use that 2hb weapon to melee, throw a slow, use pet as dot

ive leveled a shaman 1-60 on Red from scratch np

[skipdog]

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

Tanking in the 30s and 40s really isn't worth it IMO. Compare it to root-dotting and you'll see you get way more EXP per hour root-dotting. You might feel manlier tanking but it's straight up less efficient. Your dinky wisdom caster melee DPS is pretty lackluster, and the HP and mana you lose by slowing, tanking, and healing is too much to be worthwhile. There may be an exception if you have some really expensive high-end weapons, but even then I'd be skeptical.

I agree with Estu.

There is no good reason to 'tank' after 30 when soloing. AC can be useful in groups - mainly when slows resist and when things get chaotic. Most of the time, once the slow lands, most mobs will have trouble even getting through your regen and your AC doesn't get that much use. There is never really much of a reason to want to tank in a group. In almost any instance where you'd think to yourself 'I should off-tank that slowed mob' the better answer is just to root said mob and sit down/continue canni dancing.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

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

Oh my god.

List of incorrect statements:










You're a shaman now. Gear yourself with what you have and go play with it. See what happens. Change your gear to fit your play style or vice versa and see how your exp bar moves.

You'll find out that you're an aggro magnet, and you're going to get hit. You'll find out that cannibalize is annoying as hell to use constantly, but effective as hell when used constantly. You'll find out that, if grouping, people expect everything from you all the time - haste, regen, slow, buffs and god help you if you aren't dotting stuff too.

In your position, I'd keep the key druid items if you have 'em - eboots, wis jewelery, etc. - and work on optimizing your other slots. Difficult to say exactly what to do without a workup of your gear..."druid gear" doesn't tell me much other than it's probably leather-based and would fall apart when confronted with a stiff fart.

Mother fucking THIS.

So many strats for so many styles. Could gear for each of them.

Don't have money and hate soloing like I do? Find a melee. That warrior looking to zerk is gonna kill to have a pocket Shaman.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

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

I agree with Estu.

There is no good reason to 'tank' after 30 when soloing. AC can be useful in groups - mainly when slows resist and when things get chaotic. Most of the time, once the slow lands, most mobs will have trouble even getting through your regen and your AC doesn't get that much use. There is never really much of a reason to want to tank in a group. In almost any instance where you'd think to yourself 'I should off-tank that slowed mob' the better answer is just to root said mob and sit down/continue canni dancing.

Level 5 root is your best friend. That spell alone will help you mitigate nearly all your group damage if you use it correctly.

[Spitty]

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

you wont be tanking mobs passed 40 or so.

Why do people keep saying this?

Maybe if you group 100% of the time with a balanced set and wait until 80% to cast anything, and there's no adds and everyone's on point all the time.

Maybe.

Otherwise, you're going to take hits. A lot. You can make this work to your advantage by preparing for it and incorporating that into your play style. Or you can be the target of seriously dire ire from any co-healer in your groups, and ultimately bring your group down by gearing yourself for some ideal situation that doesn't actually exist in P99.

I tank juggs, reets, illis mobs and all of HS South on a regular basis. I don't do it for style points - I do it because of the way I play, which is to take on this stuff with one or two caster classes. The exp and loot is optimized because of low group member numbers, and we don't use a tank because I geared myself for that function.

Make sense? Back to point one, use what you have and pay attention to how you're playing and how your gear is working for or against your goals. Adjust accordingly.

[Spitty]

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

Level 5 root is your best friend. That spell alone will help you mitigate nearly all your group damage if you use it correctly.

Also this. Good point.

Beware at high levels though - it wears off like the cheapest of temporary tattoos.

[skipdog]

Sure, you can tank when doing special 'caster only groups with no other tanks'. And yeah, we can tank pretty much anything when that mob is slowed.

But for nearly all other normal full group situations where there is a tank, or solo situations, there is no good reason to want a mob to be hitting you in melee. That's all I'm trying to say. Too many shaman think they should be meleeing in groups/solo and they just shouldn't be so that is the reason I posted.

Also can you give me an example of the duos/trios you do where you want to be tanking? Am quite curious so please help me understand [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Spitty]

I melee when soloing all the time. Why wouldn't I want the chance for an extra 70 damage in between constant casting?

I don't do it in groups because I'm lazy and usually pretty high up on the aggro list, but the same concept would apply. Duo/trios, I'm maxing every iota of DPS so I'm up in the mob with auto-attack on.

Trying to get hit is a different thing than taking hits, and I'm not advocating a shaman get up in melee range just to get hit on. I'm saying that a fully-functional shaman should expect to take some hits in normal grouping scenarios. A prime example is getting adds - pull aggro with slow and park that sumbitch somewhere else and ghetto CC like a boss. You're gonna take some hits there.

Examples where I'm tanking duo/trios with full AC gear up -

Shm/Mag: all the time. Especially HS South/Juggs. Mag rolls a rogue pet so I'm taking care of positioning and push like a normal tank, and keeping the robe from getting rolled.

Shm/Mag/Enc: another good example. Enc usually has something charmed, so I maintain a high spot on the aggro list so if the pet breaks, the chanter doesn't get destroyed by the mob + the former pet. Mag usually with a rogue pet here, too.

Shm/Nec: With AC/HP gear on and regen running on the Nec, I'm usually between 70-90% HP with lich alone. I constant canni though, so realistically I'm torporing once every fight to offset canni damage and that covers for mob damage too.

[skorge]

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

Sure, you can tank when doing special 'caster only groups with no other tanks'. And yeah, we can tank pretty much anything when that mob is slowed.

But for nearly all other normal full group situations where there is a tank, or solo situations, there is no good reason to want a mob to be hitting you in melee. That's all I'm trying to say. Too many shaman think they should be meleeing in groups/solo and they just shouldn't be so that is the reason I posted.

Also can you give me an example of the duos/trios you do where you want to be tanking? Am quite curious so please help me understand [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It's not about tanking it's about doing DPS with a high damage 2hb weapon (Granite Face Grinder, Poison Wind Censor, Barbarian Spirits Hammer, etc)...this is solo of course. And this is up to low 50's...although I leveled 1-60 as a shaman and never relied on root rotting as a primary strategy.

I leveled 1-60 solo as an Ogre shaman, and I've played a troll shaman to 53 on blue, the troll's regen lowers the downtime by a large amount when factored in 1-60.

Also, you have to be smart about what mobs you choose to solo, avoid mobs that deal out insane damage or have high hps...