What classes are most improved by top raid gear compared to group gear? I’m mostly trying to figure out shaman and bard. I'm considering the classic-oow time frame. For bard, I assume raid gear brings more mana but I can’t think of any improvements past that. For shaman, I figure the improved mana, hp, and ac of top-notch raid gear allows them to more easily heal and support a group without other priests, as well as solo harder mobs. So I’m thinking if I am going to raid heavily, the shaman will become more powerful due to good gear than the bard. Am I missing something?
For a bard the better your gear it just helps your survivability as it would for any class and increase your DPS although you aren't really a solid DPS class to begin with. Mana really doesn't matter as a bard. As far as shaman goes increasing your mana pool is a huge deal. The more mana you have the easier it is to keep up with debuffs, healing, buffing your group throwing DoTs on the mobs as mana permits ect.
I'd say your better off raiding the shaman if you're just looking for which character will have increased power as a result. They'll both get increased AC/HP/MP, but honestly on the bard you don't really need it, whereas on the shaman it might come in handy. Shamans often "ghetto mez" by throwing their slow on a target and just tanking, so having that survivability will pay off in those situations. Also, if you get real lucky raiding in sky, you can get the Shaman Canni ring - which is OP and useful forever. Both of them are pretty masochistic to raid in my opinion...but for opposite reasons.
Shamans gets a handful of very good items to improve their game through Raiding. If course, you should always aim for upgrades. If you like to Solo grind quests etc. a lot outside raids and exp groups, I would say AC is king. Classic: FD Ring from Plane of Sky quests. Kunark: Hammer of the Dragonborn, drops off Silverwing in VP. Primal Essence buff clicky. Velious: Shield that drops from Vulak is a huge boost to AC. Shamanistic Shenanigan Boots quest in Plane of Mischief is pretty OP in era as well with 45AC. Luclin: A of funny clickies in Vex Thal. Circle of Smoke from Cursed in Ssra, gives you a Gate Clicky. Talisman of Vah Kerrath - You can keep that until Tacvi in Gates of Discord. Planes of Power: Time's Antithesis. Drops off Saryrn in Plane of Time, basically one of the best clickies in game. The 2hb from Rallos Zek is a nice weapon too. LDoN: Anomalous Rock of Alteration from Hidden Vale Raid. GoD: BiC Quests, Nuff said. You'll use this Aug basically the next 10 expansions or so.Assistant Researchers Symbol quest will Replace your Talisman of Vah Kerrath. OoW: Epic 2.0
Shamans are the most OP class in this game. Huge dots/root/slow/heals/ pet to eat some hits they are by far an amazing class. They are gear dependent though much more so than a bard. Bards will mainly kite and charm/kill as far as I know a shaman can sit there slow then eat the hits with the pet beating on a mob but the greater mana/hp/ac the better for a shaman even in raids expect to tank some esp on trash mobs.
As a shaman, increasing your hp is more important than anything else. More mana is great, but hp gives you survivability and mana - both. A shaman played to the best of their abilities almost never stops casting.
