Hey all, Was wondering what people think about shaman healers. I'll admit that while leveling in classic, a cleric was usually my first, second and third choice. Not so much for the better healing in a group, but a dungeon group wipe + rezzer = group recovered and kept at it, while dungeon group wipe + shaman/druid = group broke. I saw that druid and shaman got a few new lower level heals at some point during the last expansion, did they help out their group desirability? Thanks, ~Von
If your using you shammy as a healer, he won’t have a lot of mana to buff or haste/slow. Can’t do it all at the same time and still have mana depending on your group efficiency. The heals are ok, but not what they are known for. I would take a druid for heals first after cleric, just because they will not be as mana drained.
The movement of Superior Healing from Level 51 to Level 45 last November (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spellhistory.html?id=9&source=Test) should make a pretty big difference during Classic (since Clerics get the spell pre-Kunark we know Shamans, Druids, and Paladins won't have to deal with any TLP shenanigans with it). I think this will be particularly helpful on the group side of things (by level 50 non-cleric healers were just always abysmal in Classic) and the added healing on raids will be appreciated as well. The only <=50 healing spells (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spelllist.html?name=increase hitpoints by&type=shm&level=50&opt=And Lower&action=search) I'm aware of that you won't have access to are Spirit Salve and Kragg's Salve. I think they come in at... Kunark? (I'm assuming this is an Agnarr related question) Acen is right though, for shamans you're probably gonna be picking between healing and slowing; the mana regen isn't there to do both.
Honestly, I'd rather be slowing/buffing/dpsing, but IIRC, not much got slowed during classic grouping on Phinny and shaman weren't the first choice for DPS.
I totally forgot about this. I was just going to post something along the lines of "you'll want to gouge your eyes out as a shaman healer between 45 and 51". No need now.
so let's say I want to roll a 3-box team for RF/LJ... building around a warrior&shaman, what do you recommend would be the 3rd class? I want max efficiency in terms of buffs stacking, sufficient heals to do an open-world named mob, fast xp/leveling, & utility
The more DPS pet classes you have stacked in your group, the less it probably matters. The more undergeared melee you have, the more valuable it will be to have a single cleric and more DPS.
Versus slowable mobs, shaman healing is fine. Versus not slowable mobs, shaman healing is the worst. Versus one slowable mob, shaman healing is perfect. Versus many unslowable mobs, shaman healing is unacceptable and you'll wipe or evac In group content, shaman healing can be fine. In raid content, a shaman should only be healing casters or off tanks.
so, I have a new question: what is the group shaman's role in classic/RoK, Vel? It sounds like they aren't great at healing or dps... Are they in the same boat as druids? I leveled a bard during classic on Phinny and don't recall grouping with many shaman... not sure if it was due to a small shaman population or if they just tool second fiddle always.
I joined Phinny during Kunark, and it was pretty frequent to see people with level 50+ shaman OOG as a box, so I think a lot of people viewed them as a box class. With a shaman you can solo relatively well. Nothing quite like a necro can in classic, but well enough to not make you want to gouge your eyes out.
On Ragefire there was a shortage of healers for a bit when we were heading for level 50 and I as a paladin did all the healing for a bunch of the time on the path to 50 healing a nearly naked SK. Shamans can heal fine in most of the content its just stuff like the hole and a few other places where you "need" a cleric
65 cleric here too, on Phinigel. But I played shaman on live and druid on RF. Shamans can cut it just fine in a lot of group content, if they want to. The biggest problem is getting people to let them. I played druid on ragefire, and main healed most content when I needed to. But I had to build groups myself and I on a few occasions have even had people drop the group when they realised the druid was going to be healing. But I also had compliments saying I was better than some clerics they'd grouped with. But, it was hard to get groups as druid. I think the biggest thing against people wanting druid or shaman healing is lack of rez. A shaman still has slow and buffs, a druid's utility doesn't appeal to many groups. So, I went cleric when I restarted on Phinigel. And now I usually get groups a lot easier than as the druid. Having the spells earlier will help a lot - druid/shaman healing is only a bit behind cleric in level until level 39 (complete heal), then it starts falling massively behind. Although, complete heal isn't really that much use straight away. The gap between 39 and 51 was huge, now druids and shamans get superior heal earlier, that will have closed a bit, making them more viable. But in practice, probably not that much more desirable. I think people still want a cleric for most groups, even though it's massive overkill for some things, and a cleric doesn't bring a lot else to a group. But having a cleric is a safety net that most people don't want to part with.
Yep, all about that rez. I'm going to be playing a shaman on Agnar, but that's because I have a young child that will frequently cause me to drop everything for minutes at a time, so I need to be able to set up shop in places where I can solo and my afks won't stop 5 other people from getting xp.
Agree. I was in Tactics yesterday (first time in 15 years probably) with my 5 box group. My shaman was taxed healing, but I managed. I have a 65 cleric I could play instead of the shaman but I chose to replace him with group DPS. The cleric is a safety net, for sure. I would just rather have the DPS. In short: I agree with you.
Wait a second; I thought shaman were not really welcome on groups until Luclin/PoP when things start to 'need' to be slowed... do they still have a hard time? I recall on live when PoP came out and I mained a shaman it was relatively easy to find a group. (Or did I completely misunderstand your post?)
I have a 5-box group. I can play the shaman, the cleric, or both (different accounts). I chose to play the shaman but not the cleric this time, leaving the shaman as the only healer. I have no idea how accepted shamans are in the group setting for different expansions, sorry.
Far too many unknowns to give an answer. Generally if you have an Enc, even before Clarity (Breeze is direly needed in "classic") in the group as long as CC is done fairly well and the puller is not horrible dungeons can be done by Shm or Dru. No rez? Sheesh then don't die, it can be done.
If you have a Shaman healer, just make sure you have an Enchanter in the group. You can supplement healing with a Paladin tank too. Shaman healing is mana inefficient, but Shaman slows are extremely efficient. With a Chanter, you don't need a Cleric and if you have a Paladin tank, even better!
