110 Shaman needing advice

Discussion in 'Priests' started by InnerDruid, Jan 30, 2019.

  1. InnerDruid New Member

    I was a pretty heavy duty shaman up until about level 60 when I made a melee my main and the shaman got relegated to boxing slows and dots. He's level 110 now with about 25k AA and, having seen some amazing soloing and raid healing both from shaman's recently, I want to bring myself up to speed. Any place I can get a really good guide on doing that? I know the general stuff but really want to get into the nuts and bolts, like recommended spell hand AA combos and such. I have my epic 2.0 and a mix of EoK and RoS group gear.
    Skewert likes this.
  2. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    I can't speak for a raiding shaman but I can main heal through the entirety of group ROS and TBL. Missions, Named, etc.

    Depending on the setup/mission, even if we have a spot available for a merc I'd rather heal it myself because I don't trust mercs. I spend so much time distracted about whether or not the merc is going to heal the tank in time that it cuts into my DPS/ADPS. I'd just as soon main heal instead and pull out a DPS merc.

    Shaman HoTs are soooo much better than anything insta-cast that we get. With all your crit and duration AAs from prolonged salve, etc you can have a good 50k a tick healing going for 1+ minutes. This should be enough to keep a good tank up and then you spot heal with group heals, squall and spot heal with Reckless.

    After your done with your healing archtype AAs, max out Roar (progression), Cloud of Renewal, Ameliorating Counterbias and Synergy. Also make sure you've got Incapacity going all the time too. If things are going well and I don't have to insta-heal often I'll recast Cloud of Renewal even if its still running just to get Synergy to go off again since the counters work on taps. Let them heal themselves while I read a book. ;)

    You've also got your ward, BP click, 2 uh-oh buttons in Prehistoric Intervention and I've been known to use Union of Spirits as another if I've already used Ancestral Aid (Aid blocks Union so have to make sure your timer is gone before you try to use Union in an emergency)

    Maybe I'm lacking but I almost never use Spire 2 or Spiritual Blessing but that's mainly because I don't use as many instant heals.

    My main heal spell setup

    Reckless 110
    Casted Cann
    Reckless 105
    Savage Growth
    Frostbitten Gift
    Squall
    Combo Poison DoT
    Roar
    Group instant heal
    Incapacity
    Ameliorating Counterbias
    Prehistoric Intervention
    Cloud of Renewal
  3. BadPallyGuildLeader Augur

    Shaman healing is so effective I have a full EOK geared cleric with a lapsed sub because the shaman can handle virtually any situation and has added utility with DPS, buffs, and canna.
  4. Brohg Augur

    The heal over time portion of Incapacity doesn't stack with that of Counterbias. If you're assiduous about Turguring every mob, you can skip the Incap to get a spell gem back - if you like
  5. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    I agree, however I use Incapacity on everyone I can, even myself where as the healing portion of Counterbias only goes off on Target of Target.

    Honestly I wish they'd give us a better unity spell that combined pack, our hp buff, incapacity and Tala'Tak
  6. Moldar Augur

    I seem to raid more with a Shaman now than any class. It is very simple, but there is really no "set" way to play one, it isn't really like a DPS class where you just line up skills/spells and start firing off 1 macro to heal (it can be done that way of course, but I personally find that it leads to a bunch of unnecessary 'oh s---t' moments).

    Im not certain what content your expecting to heal, so I will have to cover both. I will go over Raid healing first, as that is generally more of what I tend to do with my shaman personally, but group healing is more or less the same, just more situational.

    -- Raid Healing --

    Raid healing on a Shaman can be easy, but it can also be frustrating. When your in a Raid situation your roles are as follows:
    1. Heal your Group (this is the first most important thing to do, and this will give you the reputation of either being the Shaman everyone wants, or the one that nobody wants).

      You do what you need to do to keep the members of your group alive, blow cooldowns, clicks, even if it comes down to spam healing them with single target heals individually, DO NOT let them die. Dead DPS deal no DPS

    2. Provide your Group with ADPS, every time it is up or it is needed

      What I mean is you click your Epic 2.0 every 3 minutes, Roar of the Lion (Or Dissident Roar depending on your previous ranks of Roar of the Lion) every 1 minute, and finally your Third Spire gets paired with every Epic click as close to every 7 minutes and 30 seconds are you are able.

      There are some exceptions to this, for example, if your raid leader says to burn at 50% then your using your epics BUT holding it after a certain point to make sure it is available for the burn. Your trying to play a miniature game of click your epic as many times as possible, but at the same time always making sure it is ready to go for the big burns.

      Also if folks in your group are tossing out secondary burns your looking to pair oddbal things like your Third Spire (which has a semi-short cooldown) with them as well as your group is going to get more mileage out of that, than waiting for 1 more minute for your epic.

      It really is a fine balancing act.

    3. Slow and Debuff EVERY Boss/Add, this has been made a lot easier since Turger's Diminishment is now bound to Turger's Swarm AA (your AA slow).

      Slow does have diminishing returns true but it still slows them down that much more, and Diminishment does not have any diminishing returns, and applying that to everything you can is going to make everyone's lives easier, especially your fellow clerics, and any tank actively tanking.

    4. Heal other tanks, assisting the clerics is NEVER a bad thing, even if it is not really needed, it is that much more healing coverage and all around good practice. Especially if your guild is smaller OR your fighting against a boss that is what I call a "super boss" (or a named raid NPC that can still 1-shot your tanks even under full disciplines -- and of course I'm talking about your geared tanks, not applicant tanks).

      However, DO NOT FORGET this is essentially your 4th role while raiding, you still have other steps to follow that are FAR MORE important to keep up on than tossing a few extra heals to a handful of tanks.

      Far too often do I see a lot of Shamans make the mistake of "tunnel healing" tanks and letting their group members die because of 1 or 2 extra heals that really didn't matter when your mostly over healing a tank that is somewhere between 80% - 100% HP and your not getting that much reward for casting that heal.

    5. Your 5th and final job is to help DPS with the raid. I am going to tell you I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I have been able to really do this while raiding, and speaking frank -- you should never really have the opportunity to do this.
    With that out of the way lets dive into what spells we are primarily going to be using to do our job in a raid.
    • Spiritual Squall
    • Cloud of Renewal
    • Frostbitten Gift
    • Reckless Rejuvenation
    • Reckless Regeneration
    • Reckless Restoration
    • Eyrzekla's Recourse
    • Prehistoric Intervention
    • Ancient Alliance
    • Roar of the Lion / Dissident Roar
    • Blood of Tevik (cure events this spell is needed)
    • Savage Growth
    • Incapacity
    You may need to change out spells as needed (aka Unity for rebuffs, etc)
    As far as Self Buffs go I run with Preincarnation, Group Pact of the Wolf Aura, Responsive Spirit, and Spirit of Emperor Ganak (the RoS progression click).
    Buffs from other classes don't matter that much, for example you may want to get Mana Regen from an Enchanter, but because we have Cannibalization every 2 minute you really do not need it.
    Crucial buffs from other classes I would say would be the Blessing line from Clerics to help you cast some of your slower spells (Spiritual Squall, Savage Growth, Incapacity, Cloud of Renewal, Blood of Tevik) that tiny bit faster.
    Buff otherwise anything that increase your HP / Passive Mana regen are always good buffs to get on your character.
    Your goal while raiding, like I mentioned above, Heal your group, provide ADPS, and debuff everything. Generally that is going to come in the form of Frostbitten Gift (while targeting the tank), then quickly switching targets to one of your group members (not necessarily a Ranger) and casting Spiritual Squall, in the meantime it is generally a good idea to cast AA slow because your spell gems will be locked out for a short while. The rest of the rotation is going to depend on what your group needs, but your looking at something like the following:
    Frostbitten Gift (targeting MT) >
    AA Malo/Slow Depending on coordination with Mages (targeting Boss) >
    Spiritual Squall (targeting a Melee group member) >
    AA Slow Boss (or next mob, again targeting Boss/add) >
    Roar of the Lion / Dissident Roar (always target a monster OR a group member, never target a tank, it will go to their group and your group will get nothing) >
    Epic 2.0 Click >
    Another Slow / AA Malo add >
    Cloud of Renewal and/or Reckless spam (either Group member or a Tank)
    At this point your goal is keeping Roar of the Lion / Dissident Roar on YOUR group as much as possible, Epic 2.0 as many times as you can fit them in an event, and Cloud of Renewal on both your group, and again depending on how AoE heavy the event is HoTs on the tank (or all the tank) groups. If it is a HEAVY AoE encounter fit as many Clouds of Renewal into your rotation as possible to have the synergy boost your direct heals.
    Your also looking to make sure to coordinate with your other Shaman team members a Rotation and Order for Ancient Alliance, Savage Growth and Incapacity. There is a ton for Shamans to do already on raids and buffing 9 tanks with 1 shaman, when rather a 3 shaman team can be responsible for 3 tanks each and allows the work to be more spread out and easier to manage in addition to all of the other tasks for shamans such as extra Healing/ADPS/debuffing/tank spot healing/DPS.
    You will also need to work out an TB/MGB rotation for Ancestral Aid, I recommend pairing Ancestral Aid with Epic 2.0 so that melee can benefit the most from the extra stats and stat cap increase. For an example rotation: MGB Order Shaman A, B and C, on the first Epic 2.0 click each shaman cast Epic 2.0 (say the 1 minute mark), Shaman A is also going to cast Ancestral Aid for the stat boost during epic for the entire raid. At the 4 Minute mark each Epic 2.0 fro meach shaman is available again, and once more each shaman will cast Epic 2.0, but now Shaman B will Cast Ancestral Aid. Also you will want to use TB before the raid pulls are started so that you can effectively TB the buff to the raid in the first 10 mins, and then later on after Ancestral Aid resets you can do a 2nd MGB chain.
    The rest is pretty simple, keep your group alive, click the ADPS buttons, debuff everything, and help heal the MT/ offtanks, and if that is covered feel free to DPS. As a Shaman you need to always be casting something, We have the tools to always cast and abuse our mana pool to a high extreme, but once your start playing with DoTs you will start to encounter mana problems without use of Mana-HP converstion AA Spirit Channeling
    -- Group Game --
    Group game is a bit different than the raid game, and with a well geared raid tank it is 100% possible to rarely cast anything other than a HoT with a Knight (a Warrior is going to require more direct heals), but with Knights they cast their own healing spells which cast use synergy charges and basically make themselves their own healer.
    This leaves a lot more free room for ADPS, Debuffing and for DPS opportunities even, but again you will find that option to be really mana intensive, SO i personally tend to go with more of a raid style healing approach, but at the same time When I running around with my box tank or any of the tanks from my raid they are not afraid to pull 3-7 mobs at 1 time and proceed to tank them all, so I essentially need the direct heals.
    Obviously though that is my case scenario for a 1 or 2 mob encounter and with a well geared tank HoT and DPs is completly viable, but I do not have experience really doing that, as when I am grouped with tanks they generally go a bit crazy.
    And a lot of playing a shaman is situational and it depends on what mission / raid / situation your doing, BUT Starting out HoTs are fantastic and spot heal with reckless or other heals, however once you start getting into harder and harder content the Heal over Times really have an issue keeping up with the damage that content produces (with the exception of Cloud of Renewal, but only because it provides synergy and is needed to help keep up against the damage.
    If you want feel free to send me a in-game tell or email ;tell xegony.Moldar or ;xegony.Niridak / send mail to xegony.Moldar / xegony.Niridak and I can attempt to answer any more specifics you might have about shamans
  7. Brohg Augur

    is well written, but I think you're passing over shm dps far too cavalierly. Fleeting Spirit & 4 spell casts (Chaotic Poison, Elkikatar's Pandemic, Erogo's Curse, Jinx) is fabulously cast time-efficient damage versus long-lived (2 minute) mobs. A raid effort overall does not care even one whit whether the damage needing to be dealt comes from wiz/ber or shm, 200kdps is 200kdps.
  8. BadPallyGuildLeader Augur

    At the start of EOK, my chardok box groups were propelled with SK tank and Shaman DPS\Heal. Mercs did some patch healing(about the only thing they are smart enough to do). When I want a challenge I will play without the shaman.
  9. Mehdisin Mahn Augur


    group instant heal? When i'm main healing I have the following loaded:
    Top Reckless Heal
    2nd Top Reckless Heal
    3rd Top Reckless Heal
    HoT
    Group Heal
    Intervention
    Gift Nuke
    Splash
    Roar
    The rest are situational, but usually consist of:
    Poison Combo Dot
    Jinx
    Curse
    + 1 buff -or- Disease Combo dot low dps groups or high hp named.
    When able to indiscriminately dps, I also keep Languid Bite on, and stay in melee range of the boss. that's 7 dot lines + nukes from roar (and gift if you do it right). rarely I swap out splash for the last disease DoT line.
    Unless I have a weak tank, I find counterbias a waste of time and just AA slow. but to each their own.
    that's grouping. for raids I keep all the heals and then the bottom 4 are situational but usually have single target unity and alliance + whatever else is needed/wanted.
  10. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    Its probably just a semantics thing. I meant Eyrzekla's Recourse.

    Its only recently that I added counterbias back in and a lot of it was based on AEs from TBL. If I could get a good 40-50k a tick HoT going on the tank then I could spend more time healing the DPS. This will probably come back off at some point in the near future as we replace the last of our ROS and TBL T1 gear with T2 and Secret Dawn. Other than EOK chase loot we probably have a dozen raid gear pieces from all expansions across the entire guild.
  11. InnerDruid New Member

    Since I posted this, I was able to get most of the gear vastly improved in the new content. Heh, guild group I was helping heal (ungrouped, I was just waiting for stuff they didn't want) wiped on a named and I got the solo kill. Whoosh. Being able to survive a named's AOE (barely) is helpful, but my biggest shock has been the dog. Back in the day he was a dot, little more. He's still not much of a damage doer but he's sending my tank merc into retirement, When did this happen? Also, anyone have a good lineup to share for modern solo root rotting?
  12. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    The shaman dog has gotten progressively better over the years as a tank. I won't use a tank merc @ all anymore.

    He'd better be useful after I spent 4.5k AAs on him. :eek:

    With companion's fortitude, IDA and aegis he is a legitimate pet tank nowadays. He's still only a bit above an SK pet and far behind the normal pet classes but I've had him tank T1 trash in TBL molo. Its work to keep him alive but he gets it done.

    Also with Roar going and some weapons he's not "bad" DPS but he isn't good DPS if that's what you're looking for.

    As for root/root I am probably completely inefficient with that as I generally don't do it unless I'm picking off PHs around the zone while guild groups are grinding for named.

    My spell set for it is very basic :

    Reckless 110
    Casted Cann
    2 magic dots
    prehistoric intervention
    cloud of renewal
    3 poison dots including fast
    4 disease dots including fast

    I cast the fast dots 1st because they're overwritten by the corresponding long dot. I click the fast dot then cast the others that don't overwrite and come back to the one that does because the fast is usually gone by then so @ least the fast is running the entire time I'm clicking.

    Make sure you have languid running and have a weapon to trade out that doesn't break root (i.e. doesn't proc a DD on casting other spells). I have a root/rot bandolier setting just for this. I always have pack going too. The pack dogs don't break root and a neat trick is that if you get an add more often than not the add will run to attack the pack dogs before coming after you. Gives you a few extra seconds to punt.

    Again I'm probably not the best @ this but its how I do it. I did probably 5-6k AAs in OT/Skyfire (Sarnaks) with this setup and the money is good too with the conflagrant tradeskill stuff.
  13. Dobbs New Member

    For root/rot in FM or the likes:
    AA's: VP/SR, Pact Unity, Languid Bite on
    Cloud, curse, curse, combo poison, everything else is really pretty much fluff/ named prep
    It's a fairly mana intensive line up but you can burn 3-5 at a time depending on your mana at the time. I typically put everything on passive. Pull punt and rot. I usually don't have to reapply dot but I will refresh Languid.
  14. Leigo You come here often?

    [IMG] [IMG]
    ^General Raid Set ^General Group Set
  15. Brohg Augur

    shuffling recourse renewal squall & roar when they're part of both sets is weird. Using Ice Shards at all is weird, too.
  16. Liin Edud (Tunare) Augur

    I will occasionally mem ice shards if I'm doing all of the CC in a mission like in Tyrant or in Fight Fire, but I only use it to break root for the next mob to fight. Virulent Paralysis or Spiritual Rebuke can hold forever sometimes and I don't like waiting on the recast for Mawmun's Bite.
  17. Leigo You come here often?

    they're shuffled due to where they are on my keybind. In a grp setting my shm is dpsing more and getting pact procs from dots/DDs. In raid He's more adps and healing so the bind is changed once again.
    I do not use macros for this stuff, keybinding is faster and can be stopped on the fly much more quickly then macros.

    I run my SK as my tank so the shm is just blowing things up after he debuffs the mobs.
    But as I said in the post, those are general spells sets, I have 8 saved spells sets depending on how I am playing the shm, boxing, solo, main healer raid/grp or pure dps.
  18. Brohg Augur

    oh I see. That's a big illustration then of why I advise folks not to make their keybind on the spell bar. If you keybind a hotbar instead then you can drag & drop spells as needed no problem.

    Does Pact not proc on Gift? I presumed it did but obviously I haven't checked.
  19. Mehdisin Mahn Augur

    I believe it does, but I've been wrong before.

    also, the recast on gift makes it a pain for using it to break roots though. I have a click ring (long cooldown) and shield from the anniversary raid (like 30s cooldown) to break mine and it still sometimes takes a hot minute.
  20. Raccoo Augur

    Pact of Mirtuk does proc on Gifts. The wolves even attack your target's target.