Gimped not taking a Shaman with this setup?

Doing a 3 box with a SK and Bard for sure (bards are just too good to pass up right)?

I really find the druid more interesting than the Shaman with this setup. Question is....am I gimping myself too much not having the Shaman? I like the ideas of:
-More personal DPS
-Ports
-DS

Also interested in maybe boxing a ranged DPS like ranger or mage. I just dont know.
Should I just suck it up and do SK/sham/bard or are other things viable?

You should do whatever is most fun for you.

Shm + SK is stronger than whatever combo you post.

sk/brd/dru is fine. Shadowknights are so strong (and will probably always be very strong) that they can carry whatever DPS as a third if they've got a bard boosting them. You'd even be fine throwing a wizard in there.

You can swap the druid out for a mage or ranger. Druids and rangers suffer from mana deprivation issues, which the bard helps. People overrate slow, it's only an 18% decrease in swings IIRC.

Once you get a solid box team, adding/replacing characters is easy because of fellowship XP. Do sk/brd/dru for this expansion and through ToL, then next year swap the druid for a shaman, mage, necro, berserker, beastlord, paladin, whatever. It keeps things fresh when you change it up.


Note that damage shields and ports are not strong in live EQ and while druids can deal more burn damage, I don't think their sustain damage is higher than a shaman in a group with a bard/sk, and if it is, I can't imagine it's that much more.

You'll need shaman/beastlord buffs for your SK as well as slower for your group. BST is not the best match for SK, that leaves a shaman as the only viable choice to support SK.
So, in a combo SK/SHM + mercs a BRD is definitely a top choice.
So, back to everpresent SK+SHM+BRD trio.

Druid is an excellent swiss army knife character and their ports are incredibly helpful. You've got a bard for afk haste & slow if you want...the druid offers healing & better dps than the shaman (my 2.35 coppers)

Buffs yes, but can get those while being AFK.

As far as the slows, there's been an age long debate that Shaman slow and Druid attack debuff are about on equal footing. Shaman inches ahead a bit (according to reports on forums), but no one really knows. Slow vs attack debuff, he's got something to help him out so it's not a total wash.

Druid is fine, especially if you prefer it over the Shaman (I can't really get into Shamans myself sadly - I use a BST when needed).

Slows are over rated and buffs are a crutch, you don't NEED any of it.

It's nice to have the slow when you bother to cast it but saying you NEED it , nah.
i run SK, Cleric, Enchanter, Mage, Mage, Wizard

I am not a fan of using bard + shaman with a tank in a 3 box. I think it would be best to pick either the bard or shaman and add some more DPS. Much easier to box this setup and faster kills to boot.

Shaman has been the best partner for any melee character since Fippy was a pup.

As a representavive of my beastlord character I strongly disagree. A shaman gives almost nothing to a beastlord except 15K HP aura buff, which is not enough to substitute even a ranger in the group instead of a shaman.

Composite and Ruchu and Aid are pretty darned strong. Shm don't add a ton for bst in the way of buffs, but no one should choose any character for their buffs.

Better Buffs = more adps
Better Haste = more adps
Roar of the Lion = more adps
Kitty proc line = more adps
Shaman 2.0 = more adps

Every little bit helps. That's like saying the level 114 Mage DS doesn't really do anything for you because you have access to the level 45 Mage DS. Why bother getting augs? It's only 20 more HDex. It's insignificant at that amount. But multiple augs stacked on top of each other and over the course of X amount of hours, it adds up.

Same thing with Shaman buffs on a BST. Shamans are still melee's best friends.

lil homework, pls

I'll concede the Tobart = Kromrif, I never did look into the stats, just that Kromrif overwrote my Tobart (may have been a duration thing? I dunno)

But Shaman haste is 60% and BST is 50% is it not? So without raid belt, that's 7% (normal group gear belts still sit at 43, or is 45? Not sure if they increase, my ToV belt is saying 43 and I don't have CoV)

And yes, Roar overwrites Kitty proc, but Roar is only available once a minute, and unavailable until level 101, whereas Kitty proc comes into play a lot sooner and is available more. I guess it would have made more sense to combine them than give them their own limelight.

So stats come out the same
Shaman haste > BST haste
Shaman proc line
Ruchu

At what point do we go from "that's an insignificant increase" to "10 is bigger than 9" ?

There is a reason why people stop by the GH for shaman buffs ^^

bst haste is 53%, raid & ultrarare belts are 45%, summing to +98 of the 100 cap

Look bud, you sided with "shamans are better for melee dps than bards and beastlords" and then posted a bunch of disinformation. Take the L, learn from it and move on with some dignity.

Fixed that for you

Which spells/clickies are needed to get to 53? My Beastlords haste spell is only giving me 50% (just logged in to double check, and yeah, it's only 50% for me - granted I don't raid so I'm not sure if there's something gained from that to account for)

Taking this moment to turn it into a learning experience actually i hold both of yours and Szilents info in high regards. And to be fair, the only misinformation I posted was Kromrif > Tobart (which I admitted to)

Shaman haste > Bst haste (I really wanna know where BST other 3% comes from please!)
Kitty/Roar line is still beneficial
And every melee DPS wants Shaman 2.0

Exceptional Velocity, the group buff recourse of pet haste spells, is 53% from level 93. the level 88 spells are 52%, the 83 (so, Heroic) & lower ones are 50%

So can you really progress without a healer though?