Shaman: Similar to druids, I think shaman need some adjustments to their cast/recast times to make their preferred spells more current. Especially in the group healing department the recast time on their group heals is pretty poor. The Focus line of buffs should be either better than or equal to the beastlord equivalent. Similar to the Skin line for druids it is a stable buff and should be best of kind, even if it is shared with another class. The Puma line of proc buffs needs a bit of a revamp. Ideally something that is less than 1s cast time so it doesn’t interrupt healing too much, and also increase the damage by about 3x. Currently the entire duration of the spell on a full and on task group will do about 350k damage. That is less than the damage of a single wizard nuke under burn. Currently the spell is hard to justify at 5800 DPS in a raid situation due to the healing load and the cast time. The intervention heal needs to have the heal values boosted, and the lower threshold raised. Currently the spell is almost useless as a group heal. Unless only 1 person really needs a heal cast and they are less than 50% it is very weak. Usually you still have to follow up with a group heal to top off the group. Shaman should get Improved Twincast! We have almost 0 AA abilities to increase personal dps outside of spires and veteran. I am completely fine with getting knockoffs of what other classes get. I would like to see our ice nuke cast time reduced and our spears do a bit more damage. I am fine with doing less damage than druids, but they can do at least double my numbers when I go full out. I’ve seen some pretty impressive druid parses, but I don’t think I have ever seen a shaman over 30K ever on anything. Dots in general need reworked. Heck, I could even go with shaman being the guinea pigs to decide on an appropriate way to address necro issues LOL. If I were reworking it, I would make most dots last ~18s base, and with all the AA/gear etc last around 30-40s. It would make a line-up of ~9-12 dots be a more effective max to the number of spells that can be maintained instead of the huge number that we can currently stack up. Either way, shaman dots could be doubled in base value and still not come close to the damage of “real” dps classes and easily less than half what necros do in a group environment.
Honestly, I'm mostly happy with the way shamans work atm. It is possible to hit 50k+ parses on events like the second one-off in Arx if that's your thing, and I get very good use out of most of the heals we're given. Some suggestions though: - An upgrade to Spirit of Bih`Li, with a buff duration equivalent to our other lines, a levitate component (if only so it overwrites Flight of Eagles), and a good deal more +attack - A beefier version of the Leopard line I'm totally down with. If I was to choose any two from shorter cast time, more dps or longer buff timer, I'd take shorter cast time and more dps hands down. - Solid upgrades to our Flock and Rain DDs, and just a normal upgrade to our rain heals. - Shorter cast times on our AA AE slows. - A further upgrade to hastened MGB. At the moment it's fairly close to being available once per event, but not always ... shaving a bit more time off it would be nice. - Just for fun, a massive upgrade to Rabid Bear. Like, off the charts DPS upgrade I expect most of the time we'll be busy doing other stuff, but on the odd occasion if we're just standing around waiting to heal someone or dot cool-downs or something, it would be nice to help tear up a mob for fun - A class specific weapon, please? I want to relive looting a Time's Antithesis type item once again! I'm not sure if the devs would be down with it, but throwing Leopard on the item as a clicky would be boss.
I don't know how much the devs will really listen to us on these things, but maybe if we get enough replies a dev will actually read it. A "hey, we've read this" reply from a dev would make me beyond happy. Even if nothing happens, at least I'd know that it was read lol. Shaman are in a pretty decent place, so I'm not asking for major, sweeping changes. - Leopard has been an issue for quite a while now. I don't have an issue with the duration. It has always been designed as something you have to pay attention to. But the long cast time is just unmanageable. Today's game is so fast paced that a massive spell cast time renders the spell unusable in almost all cases. - Recast timer on group heal is insane for the same reason as Leopard. The game is MUCH faster than it used to be. Even a recast timer of (I think) 15 seconds on Recourse is crippling. Paladins are almost better at healing a group than we are. We are still tops for single target just because we can spam a single target like no other class. I wouldn't mind a relatively weak group heal if I could spam it. Gives us another tool to use. - DoTs are pretty awful for the same reason. The game is MUCH faster now than it used to be. DoTs that take a while to cast and aren't all that powerful to begin with are completely worthless. More DoTs like our "fast" DoTs would be lovely. Or simply unlink the ones we have so we can stack a few of them at a time. We get a TON of new DoTs every expansion and in almost all cases, they aren't used. In groups, mobs generally die before I can stack more than 4 DoTs and they usually only get a few tics each. Darkark, I would love to see a shaman consistently pump out 50k DPS. I've never tried it in a raid setting when I might have a bard or enchanter to boost things, but on a combat dummy my top has been around 30k I think. If you're getting 50k, please tell me your spell line up. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. - I don't think our nukes have to be changed. We are not traditionally a nuking class, nor are we a DPS class. I personally don't mind that we don't have much personal DPS. - +attack buffs. We used to have a +attack buff with Bih'Li and Champion. Bih'Li never got upgraded and Champion has stacking issues now. It is downright stupid that we don't have an attack buff. I'd love to see something like Champion again. Short duration, group only massive stat buff. Maybe instead of adding straight STR/DEX, add STR/DEX overcap. It can be done because Ancestral Aid and Union of Spirits add overcap that stacks with Unity. I thought shaman were melee ADPS, but Leopard is almost useless and the only thing that can consistently add DPS is epic. Please give me a Champion line back! - Endurance heals! This was something that should have been added when stamina was changed to endurance. I'm not asking for something we can spam, but maybe an AA or something with a 10 min recast time. Endurance full heal on target. Let melee disc for longer. Could see this being critical on raids when warriors die. Endurance regen buff would be nice too.
I don't, I've honestly never taken the time to sit down and try to figure out the perfect spell set / cast order / etc to try and maximise it. It's just not my thing. But another sham in guild is really into it, and he's hit 50k several times. I just dug out my parse for him this week: Praetor Vitio in ? seconds, --- Other Sham 3359k@40467sdps (47307dps in (? - 12) seconds) I have to say it's been on my mind for a while now to see how far it can be taken, and I got curious again today while farming a clicky. Just an off the cuff spell line up and some AAs and I got: Chief Ry`Gorr in 43s, 4861k @113036sdps --- Caster Merc (Burn) 1280k@29757sdps (32808dps in 39s) --- Tank 1219k@28352sdps (28352dps in 43s) --- Darkark + pets 1205k@28022sdps (28022dps in 43s) --- Caster Merc (Burn) 1157k@26904sdps (33054dps in 35s) So unless I happened to pull an amazing spell set straight away, I don't think 30k should be too hard to breach. Fight time is going to be a factor too. When you're hitting 30k, how long are you parsing for? If I can stomach to sit down in front of a dummy this week I'll have a crack and I'll be happy to share what I find.
It's been a few months since I parsed it. I think it was over 5 minutes to get a constant parse and even out some spikes. I might try another parse later today.
As an FYI - I had PM'd a developer, and he said if we got all of our requests etc in a localized spot for each class he would read them over if they were linked to him. Not a guaranteed "I'll make those changes" but at least a was viewed and understood situation.
I can see 50k happening prior to rain nerf if you popped intensity and a glyph or something like that. I don't consider intensity to be sustained though. I haven't had as much free time today as I wanted. I'm going to try to parse again over the next few days. Just need to find a time when I'm not doing anything lol. Edit: 2 Boxing with my mage in Arx. Averaging about 16k DPS with a rotation of our 2 fast DoTs, Bite, Rain, Curse, Nectar, Garu, Bite, Rain, 2 fast DoTs. Depending on how crits go, sometimes I can get off another Bite, sometimes not.
Bump: Changed to all DoTs. Starting with our 2 fast DoTs, Curse, Nectar, Garu, Naga, Reef Crawler, 2 fast DoTs, Phase Spider, Spirespine's, Hoodoo, Naeya, Hex. Then repeat until mob is dead. Normal mobs die around the time I land Hoodo or Naeya. Arc Worker lived through 2 full rotations. Average time for the Arc Workers was 100 seconds. Other mobs were about 50 seconds. Used AAs n such on Arc Workers for longer parses. Some spikes were noticed. Like on one mob I hit 28k DPS without using any AAs. And another was 12k DPS. Average DPS with this line up is 19k. So slightly better than having those nukes in there. Added 1st spire and I'm up to 27k DPS. Added Glyph and I'm up to 30k, which is consistent with what I parsed on combat dummy a few months ago using pretty much the same set up.
Burned intensity and still topped out at 36k DPS on an arc worker. In an absolutely perfect scenario, I could see how 50k over a very short duration might be possible. So average DPS of around 19k at lvl 105 with a mix of COTF and TDS raid gear, max AA. Wonder how that compares to other classes?
Well good luck with that. You can find a few druid parses here : https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/druids-running-multiple-wraths.215685/
Just to let folks know I also (already) PM'd this, the druid link and the cleric link (and the priest class balance link) to Dzarn and Aristo since they're both handling spells/AA's.
Thanks Crystilla. Just in case the devs have a Spirit of Bih`Li upgrade in the pipeline ... please keep the Bih`Li name somehow. Its name has lived on for so long now, it would be a shame to finally see it disappear from the game. Talisman of Bih'Li or something perhaps?
Here are some AAs that look like they're supposed to help us increase our DPS/aDPS, but are so insignificant they aren't worth using. Languid Bite Buff lasts 7 minutes, recast timer is 10 minutes. It only procs off of slows, and does very minimal damage. It does 850 on non-crit, and 3842 on a crit. Maybe change it to something closer to cascade of decay (proc off DoTs/nukes), so it will proc more than once a fight (if I slow), or increase the damage to be much more substantial. It doesn't make sense for so many constrictions on a small proc. Rabid bear Seems to add about 425dps over our paltry 1225 melee dps (strictly meleeing, using Katargo, with self buffs and Hastening of Prokev). The HoT is nice though. Group Pact of the Wolf - I used to have this linked to my epic clicky thinking it was a melee buff until I looked at the effects. See Invisible (1), Increase Attack Speed by 75%, Ultravision, Increase Mana Pool by 1100 Increase Max Hitpoints by 1100. The Mana and HP overwrites buffs from mounts and familiars. The haste doesn't add anything when maxed with shaman/enchanter haste. Everyone with defiant or better has see invis and ultravision. It is only good for buffing lowbies and making friends grow hair in all the wrong places. Would like to see more activated AAs that increase our DPS & aDPS significantly (for non-dps class) for a short time. Also spells Sraskus' drowse and Ward of Regenration don't do much to help survival in SHTF moments that I thought they were intended for. Drowse grabs more agro, and Ward doesn't stack with Vie, and adds a small HoT that doesn't stack with Halycon Bluster (Bluster is bigger, lasts longer, and can be used on groupmates also). Ward and Drowse don't stack with each other. Between the two I would say Drowse is worth more, except it only protects 50% for a small amount of HP 16900 (or one hit from the mobs I would use it against).
Shaman AA Suggestions 1. Cascade of Decay 2. Invis to Undead AA 3. Snare DoT 4. Boost the healing and duration on ancestral aid also would be nice to add endurance regen to it. 5. Beneficial Only Dispell - will only remove beneficial spells from npc. 6. Clinging Root - roots more resistant to breaking 7. Cannibalization upgrade. Our last update was in Rain of Fear. (Should be something like 60k hp/35k mana) 8. Purified Spirits - Add corruption cure 9. AE Malo Totem that doesn't give aggro like Arcane Disjunction Aura 10. More Hastened Crippling Spirit so we can use it on every mob. 11. More DoT crit damage and frequency. 12 . Radiant Cure - Add corruption cure 13. Hate reduction AA - target mob and click and it lowers our aggro on that target. 14. Self-Only Evac Shaman Spell Suggestions 1. Increase resist adjusts on our DoT's. We shouldn't have to malo every single mob to get our spells to land. 2. Decrease cast time of DoT's and maybe even add a few instant cast spells. 3. Snare DoT (I would like to see our Breath of X disease line (ie. Breath of Hemocoraxius) get a snare effect added to it or a new magic based snare DoT.) 4. Increase duration of Slugishness buff. 5. Increase Damage and Duration of Talisman of the Leopard. Maybe make it an aura instead. 6. Add another magic DoT line with a recourse effect or add a recourse to curse line. 7. Spiritual Surge didn't get updated in TDS so could use an update now. 8. I would like to have a PBAE nuke, probably poison based. 9. Long duration pet buff that procs a heal on the mob's target.
It would be cool if we could do an over-heal that works like Growth does, to add HP temporarily. Or at least add Growth onto heals so it is easier to maintain?
I played a shaman from 1 - 105.... the class is amazing and you guys are bashing and trolling like SABU. Shaman if played right can outheal most classes. I played a TDS/CoTF raid SHM with almost max AA's. He was a beast. I outhealed most clerics and kept pace with WAR on melee dmg. Shm should always have up GRP HoT and supplement with Group heal. Reckless line should always be on cooldown and DoTs and whatnot unless soloing should be canned. SHM as is are awesome and what Daybreak/SoE has envisioned them as is spot on. They are OP as is. You guys want SHM NECRO WIZ UBERNESS! Not gonna happen. Your def playin the wrong game. But what do i know. I only have been playing since Vanilla and SHM all the way.
And that would be a great idea for post 105 spells Raccoo or wherever it should be applied... maybe 80's
I was really surprised to read #5 because I see a lot of useful personal DPS AA's and I just recently came back from departure in '08. Prime example is Quick Damage and Quicker Damage. I'm currently in level 97 and find that having both those maxed with Pack spell on me I will cast 2 quick DoTs, poison Bite, Languid-at the start with slow of course, then Rain, and our 2 Ice DD's, cycling back through when the cooldown is up. With Twincast I'm critting up to 44k, sometimes twice with Twincast every 1.4 secs. I may be naive for not being max level yet but I'm not seeing why we are even worrying about DoTs at this point. I am aware that the groups I am in are mainly running DH HAs and we move fast and hard and I'm not raiding again yet but I'm loving DD burns with fast DoTs and Rain right now and doing a lot more damage than running through a DoT cycle.
