Dr00d and ShamWOW

[MikeXG]

I've been dabbling with toons on my account I have not played, heck they are also stripped of gear. 42 Shaman and a 41 druid. priest is the 1 class I am not currently playing and I was thinking of gearing one out (cleric is not my style). Generally, which is easier/cheaper to gear and which is more viable for solo play. Keep in mind I will never have epic or torpor or any super high end gear on these toons. more for running around, helping friends, farming, AFK camps maybe?

Appreciate all your thoughts :-)

[loramin]

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

Generally, which is easier/cheaper to gear and which is more viable for solo play. Keep in mind I will never have epic or torpor or any super high end gear on these toons. more for running around, helping friends, farming, AFK camps maybe?

The whole "I'm not going to get an epic or Torpor" thing strongly makes me lean towards recommending Druid. However, Shaman are also a very viable choice. You do not need an epic to solo as a Shaman (it maybe speeds things up 10%? I haven't done the math, but it's really low damage compared to your two spell DoTs)

Even at 60 a Shaman without Torpor is still roughly equal in power to a level 60 Druid. The shaman can solo things that summon, while the Druid can solo animals and things that can be quad kited. Throw either one in the Permafrost bear pits and they'll both do fine. To put it another way, Torpor is like Shaman level 61: even if you never plan to make it to 61, your Torpor-less 60 Shaman won't be worse off than another class.

So yeah, both are viable, but there's a huge difference in how they solo, and I think that should be your key determinant. Go druid to quad (only requires 5k lumi staff) and animal charm (only requires 7k goblin ring), or go Shaman to root/rot (which you could do while wearing rags, but a 90k epic will speed things up a bit) or face tank.

And if you still can't decide, I guess go Druid, just so you don't feel bad about never getting to 61.

[Troxx]

Both are fairly cheap to gear. Druid is more potent solo prior to 60/torpor with animal charm and quad kiting along with ports for mobility. For groups/duo/trio or high end soloing shaman is far more effective.

[Pringles]

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

The whole "I'm not going to get an epic or Torpor" thing strongly makes me lean towards recommending Druid. However, Shaman are also a very viable choice. You do not need an epic to solo as a Shaman (it maybe speeds things up 10%? I haven't done the math, but it's really low damage compared to your two spell DoTs)

Even at 60 a Shaman without Torpor is still roughly equal in power to a level 60 Druid. The shaman can solo things that summon, while the Druid can solo animals and things that can be quad kited. Throw either one in the Permafrost bear pits and they'll both do fine. To put it another way, Torpor is like Shaman level 61: even if you never plan to make it to 61, your Torpor-less 60 Shaman won't be worse off than another class.

So yeah, both are viable, but there's a huge difference in how they solo, and I think that should be your key determinant. Go druid to quad (only requires 5k lumi staff) and animal charm (only requires 7k goblin ring), or go Shaman to root/rot (which you could do while wearing rags, but a 90k epic will speed things up a bit) or face tank.

And if you still can't decide, I guess go Druid, just so you don't feel bad about never getting to 61.

The bolded is utterly wrong. You will level up much, much faster with the mana free epic to the point of absurdity.

[Baler]

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

The whole "I'm not going to get an epic or Torpor" thing strongly makes me lean towards recommending Druid.

This, you'll get more milage out of a druid and can save up for ur shammy.

[loramin]

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

The bolded is utterly wrong. You will level up much, much faster with the mana free epic to the point of absurdity.

I have played a Shaman to 60 here on P99, and beyond that on live. On both I spent a significant amount of time soloing without my epic (I'm pretty sure I didn't even get it on live until mid-Luclin).

The epic is awesome and irreplaceable for certain things. Want to kill seven seafuries at once (albeit slowly), all while only spending mana on roots? You'll definitely need an epic for that. But killing lots of greens at once isn't a way to level quickly.

For normal (blue mob) solo XPing it really doesn't make that much of a difference. Plague does 22/tick and EBolt does 146/tick, for a total of 168/tick without epic. Epic adds 22/tick (on average; it has that weird sloping damage).

In other words, the epic adds about 1/7.6th more mana-free damage. That's is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and it does speed things up ... by about 15% ... but 15% faster is hardly "much faster to the point of absurdity".

[Danth]

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

Epic adds 22/tick (on average; it has that weird sloping damage).

?? I think you best get that epic into the shop for a tune-up. It's apparently running about 1/4 or less of what everyone else's does.

If you're going to have bad equipment (or not all the spells) forever, I have to assume the character isn't too likely to reach 60, either, or not spend long there before being retired if it even makes it. Anyone who's 60 for awhile can expect to eventually get the basics like Torpor. This means you should probably level the Druid if you've no preference between the two. A sub-60 Druid in mediocre gear has substantial utility in the form of ports, power-level, tracking, and whatnot. A Shaman in the same circumstance is a good group member or decent duo partner and not much else.


Danth

[Zabbix]

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

I have played a Shaman to 60 here on P99, and beyond that on live. On both I spent a significant amount of time soloing without my epic (I'm pretty sure I didn't even get it on live until mid-Luclin).

The epic is awesome and irreplaceable for certain things. Want to kill seven seafuries at once (albeit slowly), all while only spending mana on roots? You'll definitely need an epic for that. But killing lots of greens at once isn't a way to level quickly.

For normal (blue mob) solo XPing it really doesn't make that much of a difference. Plague does 22/tick and EBolt does 146/tick, for a total of 168/tick without epic. Epic adds 22/tick (on average; it has that weird sloping damage).

In other words, the epic adds about 1/7.6th more mana-free damage. That's is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and it does speed things up ... by about 15% ... but 15% faster is hardly "much faster to the point of absurdity".

Yeah Im not seeing where you are getting thoe numbers from. But anyways I can kill 7 mobs at a time with zero downtime with epic. A shaman without his epic cannot even come close to that amount of mobs killed per say hour. So yes an epic Shaman xping on blues is extremely efficient compared to one without.

[Troxx]

1425 dmg over 1.5 minutes (15 ticks) = 95dmg/tick average

It starts off slow but ramps up respectably

[MikeXG]

I think I am leaning towards druid. Like I said in the OP it is for solo play, if I am grouping I am usually on another toon. I feel solo for Shaman is either slow tanking or root rotting. Druid can kite, quad kite, charm animals, fear animals, root rot(not as well but still viable, or does that not continue in later levels?)

Thanks for all the replies :-)