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Post by Marsda on May 11, 2008 22:03:11 GMT -8
Unlike the SK iv only played the shaman for 2 years. but i have been told a few times im very good at it so heres a few pointers
First thing is Learn when to slow. Most the time slowing right when the mob gets there or right when you pull will bring too much agro. you dont want that unless your soloing.
Alot of people will say that a shaman soloing is a waste. Bah shamans are great soloers. learn to do it. get the AA nock back root V3 and you will be set for hours of soloing. But rember all the low lvl dots have DD on them and will brake root so always keep root spell up even when you got AA root.
Work on your Defence. in some areas you can tank for you pet. thats a good thing keep the pet at the mobs back and it wont have to worry about Parry doge and any other skills that can get in the way of an attack.
As far As AAs go im still learning that V3 and Canni are important they i would say are firsts to get. then work on the Dot crit AA and Defence. your a slower the best in the game the group needs you alive. Also Pet AAs will do wonders in saving you mana and killing mobs faster. probly should get them as well.
HP for a shaman is like mana. always try and get more of it. the more HP you got the more you can canni before healing yourself or Meding.
When more then one mob is pulled always find a way to slow every one even if it cost you your life because it may very well save your group.
Thats about it for now when i think of more ill post it. Good luck to you all and besafe
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Post by Uomanrotyr/Soman on May 12, 2008 9:33:04 GMT -8
Just a note, at lvl 59 iirc shamans get their first AE slow. Only 50% I think, but it helps alot until you can go through and cast a better slow on all the mobs, one by one. Here's the reason I don't pull w/ a bow on my SK, I box a shm. I pull w/ an agro spell or a snare, both generate loads of agro and my shaman will never get agro. Snare works great incase you end up having to split off a mob you didn't see or adds otw back to your camp. Anyways, on the shaman.... I was told I play mine like a "buff bot." but if people were to pay attention, I play all my toons in a very relaxed manner, saving the majority of my strength incase there's an "oh poop," moment. I generally play my shaman as a healer, or I guess a "buff bot," in an attempt to strengthen other people and increase their dps. Sublety AAs mean he can slow/heal w/o much agro. So far I haven't messed w/ dots as he generally ends up being a healer when I play him, so I maxed buff duration and started working on exceptional heals for his hots. A shamans hots, when an exceptional goes off, will heal for about as much as a non-exceptional regular shaman heal, and go off every six seconds. I realized this while grouping with my friend Cheafbudz, as he a lvl 73 shaman, and though he has over 600 aas, I picked out which ones I've noticed would help me the most for when I box him w/ my sk as a healer. I've also solo'd w/ my shaman, but I use a different tactic, rather than a druid style on. I'll slow and cripple the mob, cast puma/leopard line of spell on my and I, and then cast 1 dot, generally from the Curse line as they're the biggest hitting one. Slows and cripples allow me to cast a hot on myself and tank 1-2 mobs if I must and as my specialize is Alteration for when I have to heal and buff in a group this works out to be more effective for me. The biggest issue is w/ this, there's always the chance I land an AE slow on myself if I'm forced to cast it. Radiant Cure takes care of that though. My biggest suggestion to up-and-coming shamans is quickly max out buff duration, as this not only means you don't have to rebuff as often, but it means your hots lasts for more ticks per cast and you don't have to recast puma/leopard as often. My friend Cheafbudz has most of the aas for exceptional hots done and he has them fire off 4-5 times out of the 6 ticks the spell lasts, his lvl 73 hot is a little over 1200hp per tick, exceptionals for over 2400 per tick. Base heal on a shamans regular heals at that lvl is 2889 iirc. So what I've found is, chain cast the big heal, wasting alot of mana, or work the hot aas and cast that, using the big heals for patch healing.
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Post by tobus on Jun 8, 2008 12:19:56 GMT -8
I generally wait to slow until the mob is at 95% with a true tanks such as warrior, or even pally, or strong sk. Most other tanks like beast's,rangers,and even monks i dont slow until 90% I know alot of damage can be attained till then if you die as shaman then slows will not happen. On large pulls I will assist tank and use highest % slow on main target then ae on the others. I also keep up AE damage spell and cast it on main mob that tank is on. I use spirit of the leopard which is a damage proc spell which i cast on pet then main tank. I will never dot secondary mobs only dots on mob the tank is on or you will agro and split whole group of mobs causing havoc within your group. I agree with Soman your main job as a shaman is to buff the group and then slow the target. All others are just extra your damage isnt as high as mage's and wizzies. It is just added. Secondary I keep up my highest direct heal to spot heal when cleric is having troubles. If i am sole healer then I will cast my highest HOT initially on tank immeadiately after the first slow always slow first though. Then i will keep direct heal if needed. Slowing the target is as good as some of the best heals you can do. A true tank has the disc's to avert damage along with your slow you will find yourself saving an extreme amount of mana. Some additions to AA I would choose after what Soman mentioned is Spend points in Critical Affliction to increase your chance for your dots to land critical. That doubles the damge of your dot if it lands. My Curse of Sisilak lands for 538 if crit it does 1176 that is not a bad increase. I also spend points in Fury of Magic which will increase crits in direct damage also doubling the power. There is a requirement to spend 3 AA in a lesser direct damage crit but I forget the name is listed in explanation of Fury of Magic under requirement.
I know this is a little unorganize please forgive me only had a couple minutes to post it. I will add more later when I have more time. This all pretty tested I spend alot of time grouping with my real life brother Perone who is a truly well managed tank. I have learned all the previous tips by trial and error a lot of error LOL. Last I can't say enough slow slow slow that is the best way to be a true shammy. I leveled my shammy to the mid 40's soloing and using my pet geared and buffed. I slowed then dotted initially with single dot then when mob reached 50% i would hit it with highest direct damage until it was dead. LOL one last thing your ae reign of venom spells pull alot less agro than dots and direct damage spells when casted on the mob the tank has agro with. If you cast it on secondary mob your agro will increase improving your chances of gettting killed. Trust me on that i Have learned that alot. Last thing for real if you draw agro just walk directly back to the main tank taking the mob to them. Alot of times they will have alot of disc's up and wont be able to get to you in a speedy manner. That goes for all casters never run if you die so be it if you run you will die and mob will hit next caster upon its return spreading mobs all over and even the best tank can only hit area taunt only so often. I hope my jumble of info helps. Have a good one and go slow.
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Post by perone on Jun 9, 2008 6:42:38 GMT -8
nice stuff bro. I can't wait to see you write up some more stuff. I have no idea how you manage all that shammy crap you are doing behind me but i do know this. brother aside, i've never played with a better shammy in the game. I also know that when you are in my group, i don't have to worry about anyone else that may have joined us, cause i can keep pullin, tankin, and healing with the cleric bot and you will handle the rest. that's a good feeling as a tank. so thanks for that. so post some more, my daughter plays a shammy but i don't have advice for her and she's up in the 60s now and will need the help lol. so get on it uncle tobus
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Post by tobus on Jun 10, 2008 22:33:37 GMT -8
Thanks. I will sit down and go over some of the spells I used most leveling. I will sit down with her personally hopefully soon. Next time I will try not to make it not so messy.
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