What is a Shaman? Well, its not a Priest persea, nor is it a Hybrid. Shamans are a unique class unlike any other in the game. We do not specialize in any one particular discipline, instead, we are serviceable substitutes for just about any number of classes. And because of that, by grouping a shaman, you are able to kill several birds with one stone. Things That Shaman Can Do!: Reduce every Stat on a Mob, Increase Every Stat on a Player, Heal individauls directly and indirectly and heal Groups and Entire Raids Directly and indirectly. We can DPS, We can Crowd Control, we can even TANK in a pinch. We do all of these things in the top 50% of all classes, some of them in the top 25%. But we are not masters of anything except adjusting the stats on mobs and players. So, thats all fine and dandy, but how do I play one, or what AA lines should I work on, or what is our role in groups and in raids? The following post will attempt to put my thoughts on these topics. I started playing Nnewg in June of 2000, and although I took a break for about 4 years, I have been in two top end raiding guilds, been top ranked on a server (long time ago) and have been just a casual player as well. Note: There is NO perfect way to play a shaman, we are not a cleric, or a warrior or a wizzy, we are not one of the black and white "Pure" classes where the AA line is well defined and the playstyles minimalized due to the nature of the class. Playing a shaman is an ART FORM. Beware of owners of Pocket Shaman who think there are only 4 spells on our spell book. There is far more to playing a shaman than Lion/ Apathy/ Slow and Heals.
Developing the AA lines: Read each AA and figure out exactly what it does, some are PASSIVE (These are far more important than Activated ones) Understanding these will increase your knowledge of the class and how it all intertwines and works together. Each AA line is a baby step towards a bigger picture. There are no "Quick Wins" in AA's, but instead a culmination of work that when added up equals additional power. Foundation and the Passive Abilities: First, as for any class there are specific AA's that you need to start prior to anything else. These are not listed in any preference, just know they are a MUST! Your ability to survive and be efficient will do yourself, and your group and your guild far more good than any "Fancy" AA will accomplish. 1. Increase your stats! STA, AGI, WIS. Finish all AA lines that maximize these stats. And specializing in one of these three or a mix of them later in the game with your heroic stats on your AUGS will be a choice you will make later. 2. Increase your HP and MANA Totals. Finish all lines that maximize these stats. 3. Increase your HP and MANA Regeneration. Finish all lines of this 4. Mana Efficiency, Maximize all of your AA lines of this. Including the CANABILIZE line. 5. Defensive AA's, Spell Casting Subtlety, Spell Damage and Mellee Damage Mitigation. Although this is incredibly important coming up through the levels, the mellee damage mitigation is NOT a priority if you are power leveled. Once you are in the high end game with mercs and raiding you will rarely take mellee damage unless you are doing something terribly wrong.
Now I have the foundation AA's done, what do I need to concentrate on? The Shaman Lines: These AA's are a combination of Passive and Activated abilities. Some are "Mana Free" Spells, while others are specific abilities only available to Shaman. Tier I: First Prioroty Healing Efficiencies: 1. Look for all AA lines that increase the power of your heals especially heals over time (Not TWINHEAL however, thats not worth it for our direct heals and can be gotten much later), the efficiency of your heals, and the quickness in which you cast that heal. These will be in your Archtype and your Class specific AA pages Crowd Control: 1. Paralytic Spores 2. Virtual Paralysis 3. Crippling Apparition Mana Free Spells: 1. Turgurs 2. Malo 3. Pathosis Tier II: Second Priority DPS Output: Your First Priority in this line needs to be POISON BASED or Damage over Time based Lines 1. Anything that increased the damage output or decreases the time it takes to cast it, or reduces the mana cost in which to cast it. DO NOT bother with mana free dots (Naddox etc..), the time it takes to put enough AA into them you have outgrown them. Also DO NOT get under any circumstance get LANGUID BITE. Your ability to slow adds enough aggro, and in a multi pull situation you do NOT want a dot on a parked mob, it breaks Mez, It gets you summoned... just bad juju all the way around 2. Quickened Lines left over. You will see a ton of different AA's open up once you get your foundation completed. Hen Peck away at these as you move through the game, often times they have minimal return on the investment of AA it takes to move them along.
Now I want to RAID! So you have finally knocked all of these AA's down, and you meet the minimum requirements for Total AA and Level to be able to raid in the guild. What do I need to work on next? First, lets talk about the difference between a raid shaman and a group/solo shaman. Group Shaman should be debuffing mobs on inc, helping with crowd control, backup healing and when thats all done, adding in DPS. Which, as it turns out, is pretty much the same thing a raid shaman does, with a few differences. Priority for Raid Shamans: 1. Debuffing Mobs. Slow. Thats it. Yes, when time permits, and it rarely does, you can Cripple, Malo, Pathosis, Feral etc... But that rarely happens, you slow your mob, and move on to the next priority. 2. Foundation healing. Your Direct Healing Single Target Heal Spell Blows Chunks and unfortunately is what we will use the most. We steadily chain cast that on the Main Tanks in the Tanking Order (MT / TO). If you are casting this spell on your group, you are wasting time and mana. Period. However, we get several Group Target HEALS OVER TIME. Specifically Goticans Recourse (Your very best heal) and Wisp of Renewal (Best Foundation heal). Using these to balance out your RAID groups needs and putting them into your casting rotation (varys by raid) should keep a Shamans group alive and well. However, if someone in your group FAILS to do their job properly, or all the tanks are dead and your DPS is under attack... do the following 3. Panic Healing. We get two lines of direct and group "Oh " Heals called Reckless Remedy and Prognitors Intervention. These are great to use when things get "Sticky". If you rely on our direct heal Gotikans Mending, by the time it is done casting, everyone is dead anyway, even if it does hit twice (See Twin Heal and its utter uselessness) 4. Raid Assistance Abilities. Ok, these are going to require some AA lines you may not have yet. We will discuss those in a moment. 5. DPS. Yes, I said it... DPS. On SOME raids, in SOME circumstances, you may be able to mem 1 or 2 DPS spells, and SOME raids, you may be able to load up 6 or 7 ; ). We have the ability much like Necros to stack 2 Poison, 2 Disease, 2 Magic and Two "Quick" DOTS (1 Poison 1 Disease) Plus utilize a Poison Based and an Ice Based Direct Damage Spell. You can easily do 1.5 Million HP in Damage and parse out all but Rogues, Rangers, Zerkers, Necros and Wizzys on a boss mob fight that last 10 minutes. We are slow to get our train moving, but CHOO CHOO once its underway. However, notice this is the LAST on the priority list. So, what AA's am I going to need to get ready for raids? Well here they are. In order of preference: 1. Mass Group Buff and associated AA to make it repop faster 2. Tranquil Blessing 3. Ancestral Aid 4. Third Spire 5. Call of the Wild and Associated AA to make it repop faster 6. Group Pact of the Wolf 7. Second Spire 8. First Spire 9. Call of the Anicents 10. AE Slow
What about all of those other AA lines? There are lots of ... "Toy" lines out there, and then there are lines that are level specific and fail to be useful in the end game, while others are well, icing on the cake and offer little to no use in the end. These are the things you can work on when your boored after 10 years. Examples. 1. Anything having to do with your pet. 2. Anything that in the end offers less than a 5% chance of XYZ happening 3. Anything having anything to do with INT, DEX, STR 4. Anything having anything to do with your MELLEE OUTPUT... If you max all of your STR, DEX and Mellee output AA Lines, you still hit like a level 35 Ranger. So dont even bother. Why hit something for 10 mins when you can do the same amount of damage with a 2 second cast of a Poison DD that crits for 45K. 5. Anyting to do with resistances, with the exception of the ones that raise the max allowable, dont do the ones that add points to your totals. The gear in the end game gives you more than enough. 6. Group Lev, Group Run Speed etc... dont bother, to many other folks already have done it, dont waste your time with it. Besides, you have castable buffs that do that for you already. 7. Anything having to do with tradeskills. In the end, unless your a warrior wearing cultural, no tradeskill made item is worth a fart compared to top end group gear much less raid gear. If you MUST get into that part of the game, then do Alchemy, loose all of your money, stay completely broke, be hassled at all times by folks wanting free stuff, be constantly scrounging for materials, and at best, make potions for the guild. Or be a leach like the rest of them and suck off some other silly shaman who was silly enough to do alchemy (P.S. I have Alchemy Maxed)
Shaman Theory: (Spell lines are dated to last expansion, oh well) This is simply my "Style". It is not intended to be a guide book on how to play the class. I will give my spell lineup for a level 95 Shaman and a brief description of my thinking. Group Spell Lineup: AA Malo gets cast then Slow (varying on mobs pulled) 1. Stranglefangs 2. Giaborns 3. Bite of Grendalen 4. Hoodoo 5. Hexx 6. Ice Mass 7. Nectar of Scholoth 8. Apathy 9. Gotikans Recourse 10 Gotikans Mending 11. Phantom of Renewal 12. Lion I lead with Counterbiass on boss mobs, it puts a nice heal on the puller and or tank in the beggining to soften the initial flurry and allows the boored clerics time to wake up, I will follow with Gotikans Recourse and then Phantom of Renewal, if its NOT a named, I skip those two and go straight to the Mana free Malo, then work my way down 2-7, go back to 4 and the fight is typically over. If its a named, then I continue with the top. While all of this is going on, I keep a rotation of Lion, Epic, apathy and Third spire popping at all times. There are various and sundry clickys such as Circle of Life, Breast Plate clicky, Ancestral Aid, Call of the ancients etc.... that I run through as well on a rotational basis. Anything to make the last hour played and the next hour played as efficient for all the classes as possible. A great way to think of it is one click of ancestral aid is one less cast of a heal the cleric has to cast and one less minute he/she has to spend medding. Clicking Lion, Group Wolf, Epic and Spire may take time away from you casting a DPS spell, but trust me, the DPS you are adding to the group by doing these things is far greater than any DOT you can cast. I do not meddle Unfettered Growth to much (personal choice, but keep in mind this line is used regularly on raids, so keep it handy). I also do not mess with debuffs in a group setting, things die too fast and your better off using them in raids and solo situations. However do expect to use them for named. Raid Spell Lineup: Well, it depends on the raid, the number of other shamans in the raid, the type of group your in and other mitigating factors. Look for raid writeups and do your best to figure out what should be expected of you. However, look to the primary responsibilities of a shaman in a raid situations (Listed above) as a general guide for what to expect to have memorized. General Rules are Heals, Debuffs etc... But mostly, ask the questions in shaman channel if you are unsure. Any of us will be glad to help.
Ok, so lets talk about spell line up for RAIDS. For the current content I run the following spell gems from top to bottom. 1. Counterbias (When we have adds) or Banescale Venom (Short Duration Dot for bosses) 2. Malis or Fathlsop (Tough Bosses) or Elsrops Malody (Short Duration Dot for bosses) 3. Unity (Quick Rebuff of Warriors and Dead on the fly) 4. Steadfast (Regen Quick Rebuff of Warriors and Dead on the fly) 5. Frigid Gift (I love this spell, you cast it on warrior, it procs the chance of a double heal the next heal cast on him/her and does a secondary DD Ice based spell on its target) 6. Growth 7. Intervention 8. Fatigue 9. Blezons Recourse (Big front end heal with HoT on back end) 10. Blezons Mending (Big Direct Heal with slow cast time) 11. Wisp of Renewal (Smal front end heal with HoT on back end) 12. Snow Leopard
So now we have a spell lineup. Keep in mind at this point we also have the following things available via AA gems as well. Debuffs: 1. Malo 2. Slow 3. AE Slow 4. Crippling Spirit (Cripple) 5. Dampen Resistance (Reduces overall ability to resist spells) 6. Pathosis (Reduces Disease resistance) Heals: 1. Spirit Guardian 2. Union of Spirits 3. BP Clicky (Group Only) 4. Call of the Ancients (AE Effect Ward) 5. Ancestrial Aide (AE Effect HoT) 6. Second Spire (Enhances the amount your heals land for) Buffs: 1. Talisman of Celerity (used to buff the dead) 2. Third Spire (Enhances DPS output in your group) 3. Circle of Power (Clicky enhances DPS output in your group) 4. Epic (Clicky enhances DPS output in your group) 5. Group Pact of the Wolf (AA that enhances the DPS output in your group) Self Enhancing: (along with using short duration dots on raids, or any dmg based spells, this is a seldom used option but is there if needed) 1. Spirit Call (swarm pets) 2. Intensity of the resolute (Dmg enhancing self only) 3. Forcefull Rejuvination (Refreshes spell gems) 4. First Spire (Dmg Enhacing spell/dot damage for group) 5. Silent Casting (hate reducer pre cast)
Ok, so that's a lot to choose from isn't it. Well, we are a bit more complicated than most classes after all. Well, here is MY theory on what you should be doing with all of that during a raid. First off, we should never run out of mana. Use the big rods and Cana V as often as needed. Secondly, we have already revisited what our primary and secondary responsibilities on raids are above. So lets simply list what I do. Raid mob inc! 1. Upon countdown I hit Leopard, and Wisp of Renewal 2. Once in, I count to 10 and don't do DIDDLY! (Ramp is bad mmmkay) 3. Then I hit Blezons Recourse (Big HoT to buy time) 4. Debuff the Boss, Run down all the AA's, Slow, Malo, Dampen, Cripple, Pathosis etc... Ok, so now we are under way. Whats next. Constant Casting: Find the MT in the TO order on your extended window, and target him/her. Stay there. Everything you cast can be done with that TO targeted. There is no need to target anyone in your group EVER unless its to CoTW them or give them a direct heal (that only happens because they screwed up, or the warrior died unexpectedly and they caught hate list aggro, in which case they are already dead). Next, well this is fight dependent, but typically it involves the constant rotation of the following spells. In the case of heals, you may find (I do typically) that casting them as they become available via refreshed spell gem (INSTEAD OF WAITING TILL ITS NEEDED) is a far superior tactic than being reactionary in their use. I keep Recourse and Wisp on my group at all times. Period. In between I am rotating Snow Leopard and Epic (epic may need to be timed or held back if there is a required "Burn" at a certain point) and add in Wolf, Circle of Power Clicky (If you have it) and Spire on called burns. If I am not doing any of that, I am casting Blezons Mending on the TO/MT chain casting it combined with frigid gift. All the while ensuring Growth is maintained on one of the TO's and Fatigue is kept on ALL SK's, Pallies and Warriors. (Dont wait till the mob is at 3%, all the warriors and Pallies are dead and then wish you would have put that on the SK). As Needed: All of the other spells and AA's that I listed are available to me and get used on a regular basis. Typically my target is the MT/TO for the entire fight. I never swap targets unless its to refresh debuffs on the mob (or adds). I am able to heal my group indirectly by casting my group HoT's, and keep them in Leopard, Spire, Epic, CoP and Wolf even when I have the TO/MT Targeted. So utilize the other spells and abilities as required. But essentially, I am casting something at all times, and if a spell gem is refreshing I am casting an AA ability, If I have down time, then I FILL IT with SOMETHING. Everything counts. It is either proactive or required. If I am doing something "Reactionary" then it is because i am failing at my job, or someone else has failed at theres. The end result is this. If you are not currently casting something (dead air) while a raid force is engaged, then you need to revisit this thread often and figure out how to fill that dead air.
Ok. Now thats alot of SPAM. But I have been wanting to share my "Theories" for a while. I know everyone has a "Boxed" pocket shaman, and sometimes they make it their main. But like any class, when played properly it makes up for all the gear in the world. I have been playing a shaman and ONLY a shaman since June of 2000. I may not play it the way other shaman play it, but this is my style and it works for me. Any positive input is greatly appreciated that you think will help new shaman and returning shaman looking for assistance and writeups to break out the cobwebs. Glorys Path for life. (Bertoxx) Champions of Norrath till death. (Xegony)
Red Set is my Debuff Line, used on every pull, Just run right down the first 3 or 4 buttons on every pull before moving to spell set and my DPS spells or Heal spells depending on role. First Blue Set is for Raid use only, and the occasional bad pull/named in a group. Includes AA Group Heals and Wards and Hot Keys for Malo Slow Spammage. Includes Heal Spire to increase the heals in the group that land. Notice Circle Of Life III Clicky at bottom. Second Blue Set is for Self Defense, when I garner aggro due to weak tank/bad pull/ over aggro or whatever reason, I can quick click down this list and give myself the best shot at surviving. My Shrink clicky is at bottom. Green Set is for crowd control and for when I am going to DPS Burn. Includes our Spire that enhances our Damage over Time spells. Notice Circle of Mana III Clicky at bottom. Pink Set is for those paper thin DPS groups I am with on raids. When its time to burn or just general maintaining their DPS I run down part or all of this set. Includes Circle of Power I, Epic, Spire for Mellee DPS, The Lion Spell (Leopard at 100), and a Hot Key that also gives Group Wolf form and Group Shrink built in with a group message informing them they are clear to burn. One of the best things I like to do is the Button set below the target window, I can edit this pre raid for all of the tanks (SK, Pally Warrior) on the raid that night and it is a quick target set for getting the Apathy line out. Occasionally includes Mage Tanks and bards as well depending on raid and need. Apathy hot key informs shaman channel I have buffed the %t and cast the Apathy line (Fatigue at 100). I know alot of folks will find this very very busy, but Shaman are busy busy folks who need to switch gears from Debuffers, to Enhancers to Healers to DPS to self preservation. We rise up the Hate List quickly because we raise so many catagories of flags on that hate list. Anyway, Shaman enjoy my thoughts on a useable UI, everyone else show us how you manage your mess.
Thank you for this detailed right up. The EQ community needs more people like you. Reminds me of when the game first began. Now it seems these boards are full of nerf cries and development hate. /hats off to you sir.
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TIP: Only 12 spell slots can be quite limiting at times, so of course you will have several different sets of spell line-ups, i.e. a spellset named Dot1 that loads all your dots when you want to go out root-rotting, another named Heal1 when you need to assume the role of group healer that loads your healing spells, Hots etc. You can put these in a macro using /mem (/mem Dot1) and put that macro on a hotbutton bar with the other spellsets. So what if you have all your healing spells memmed but need to rebuff a newly rezzed ally and get him back into the fight? No time to open the spellbook and individually load each buff! He's dying out there for cryin out loud! Find the least used spell slots in current lineup (2 should do assuming you have the Talisman of Celerity AA on a hotbutton). Make a new spellset, lets name it Buff1, and in the same spot those 2 least used spells we can do without temporarily are, put Unity and Regrowth spells, leaving all other spell slots BLANK. Now when you hit the hotbutton marked Buff1 only those 2 spells will be memmed leaving all other spells intact and still ready to use. When you are through just hit the hotbutton of the original set to put the previous spells back in. You can use this method to swap in any regular needed spells without having to wait for an entire spell set to be memorized or hunting for them in spellbook. Just wanted to throw this out there as a time saver. Hope it helps!
The first 2 or 3 spell gems are my variables - my eye seems to be able to focus there first if I need to see at a glance what spells are there. The rest of my spellgems are reserved for heals and debuffs - they NEVER change for group or raid play. They may or may not change for solo play. The tip above about spellsets is a good one and it makes it a lot faster to load/unload buffs. Plan for spells with recast timers - they are not immediately available after you put them into the spellgem. The one piece of advice you overlooked: If you are going to raid, pick a long and/or hard to spell name. It will drastically cut down on the number of rebuff requests you get...
