As a L 95 Shaman, what would be the best / most widely used spell / AA for slowing mobs in a 6 person group? Also, does that selection apply to a raiding Shaman? Thanks for the help
It depends on your role in the group. If you're there for some DPS and minor splash healing, the Turgur's Swarm AA is probably the most heavily used. If you're the main healer, the Counterbias spell may be better. You can stack the recourse effect with a HoT and generally spot heal with little trouble. Raids are more situational, with the slow used depending upon what you're slowing. You might just use Turgur's Swarm, or you might need a disease slow (rare) or an AE slow (also rare).
Agree with Tordail here. The great part about the aa slow is the no cast timer. You can set up a macro to cast aa Malo , pause 11, cast aa slow, pause 15, cast feralisia. The mob is debuffed in 4 sec and you are on to other things. I used to use the counterbias until I did a study on how McG it actually heals. And it is less than one merc heal per fight. So I decided it was worth the time and mana to skip it. This is group only stuff, not talking about reading.
My counterbias (rkIII) currently heals a little over 4k per tick. Probably won't be worth anything with the new expansion (and no upgrade at this time, btw) but at 95 it adds about half a single hit from a mob. It runs in the background while you heal with other heals so it helps I feel. I also use my small HoT, unless I'm main healer, then I generally stick to my my big HoT and direct heals. Also, I have no idea why a shaman would ever be in a group to be dps. We are like the anti-dps.
If you're not there as the main healer, you can contribute much more than slows, buffs, and the occasional splash heal. We have two very nice short duration DoTs, as well as the Bite line, for short fights and a really nice arsenal of other DoTs for longer fights. Even when I main heal, I'm able to contribute some DPS.
I always start out with Turgurs AA Slow, if it won't stick first hand it's Malos AA plus Counterbias one, if more then one mob appears in the mix, i toggle back and forth between the two until everything is Turgur'd. I am no friend of Macro's, i am the old point-and-click type of Shaman. Specially in RoF territory most if not all resist both Slow lines even with Malo applied, and i have to rely on Dampen Resistance AA to get things landed. And well, SHM Epic is the reason why we are DPS for the group. Along with Snow Cougar and so on. And even without group when i am doing things with my Merc and Pet alone i wouldn't say i am not DPS. Not as great as Melees, but sure as heck good enough to be on par with every DRU or CLR out there - as long as it's not going vs. Undead regarding the latter.
