Shaman Twink Gear

[Arislyn]

Hello All,

What is the best gear to buy for a shaman twink with ~ 4-5K budget. Keep in mind I already have a pair of 55 HP rings.

[Man0warr]

Poison Wind Censor
Tattered Mantle
Dusty Rusted Vambraces

Banded everywhere else.

[Arislyn]

Why the Poison Wind Censor? I thought shaman mostly root dot ...

[loramin]

Gear is meaningless for a shaman ... with that budget at least (if you had more money items like a fungal tunic and a JBB would be on the list). Like Man0warr said, just get banded (I'd even say get it for every slot) and then replace slots with better loot as you go.

For the main hand weapon Poison Wind Censor is great unless you're a Barbarian, in which case I'd get a Barbarian Spiritist's Hammer instead.

[loramin]

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

Why the Poison Wind Censor? I thought shaman mostly root dot ...

Root/rot is a very popular shaman strategy, but it's not the only one. Depending on your level, what mobs you're fighting, etc. it can actually make more sense to tank than to root/rot, and in those cases the PWC is a great affordable proccing weapon.

[Arislyn]

I guess I'm just confused about the play style. Why is the censor better than a harpoon with + mana and a shield with wis on it?

[loramin]

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

I guess I'm just confused about the play style. Why is the censor better than a harpoon with + mana and a shield with wis on it?

Proc damage. The harpoon might have better DPS (I'm not sure), but even if it does it won't make much difference. Let's imagine one weapon does 2.5 damage a second and the other has 3.0 damage per second (to make the math simple). That will only add up to 30 extra damage per minute. Now, if you proc just once in that minute for 30+ damage then the proccing weapon is clearly better.

This is why the PWC is so popular: it has good base DPS (20 dmg/28 delay) and a proc that does 100+ damage.

[Arislyn]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Poison_Wind_Censer

Is this saying the proc doesn't work until lvl 50 though?

[loramin]

Oh, for some reason I thought it procced much earlier, like the Barbarian Spiritist's Hammer. I guess you still might want to tank at level 50, but before then it doesn't seem to have much benefit over any other non-proccing weapon, so I'm not sure why it's so popular.

/shrug

[Velerin]

PWC is good before the proc. No one uses it once it starts proccing. The dps of PWC is much better than any 1 hander.
With decent AC gear (banded etc) and a PWC if you pick the right targets (low blues) you will kill a lot faster than using lower level dots. Shamans also go thru a lot of levels with crap for dots (ie. 19-24)
Walking sleep + poison dot + melee, repeat.