I had a post on the newbie forums and got some great info, but I was wondering if ya'll may be able to give me some advice from personal exp. I want to group, but I understand that due to my play time, groups are not always available. I am not looking to be the best solo/moloer. I am just wondering if I can kill stuff between 80 and 100. I am on a silver account. I am mainly looking to just AA but killing an occasion named would be icing on the cake. I am currently a low level and doing awesomely with my tank merc when I can't find a group. I just don't want to hit a point where it is group or play an alt. Can anyone tell me how bad it is 80+ for a solo/molo shaman? (PS I don't box other characters)
easy, depending of your skill , shaman got a " uber" root ( aa virulent paralysis root ) and other kind of root spells once maxed ( aa root ) your mob will be rooted for 3 min and refersh is 30 sec. once you got one rooted and doted with 5 + of your best dots you can bring another one ( rince and repeat ) , reapply dots on 1st one if needed . you just need to know what can be rooted or not. just have to be carefull on undeads since our aa root is disease based and undeads mobs could resist it or get lower duration of that aa root. , but having another type of root spell memed help there. btw we get a very good root spell at level 97 ( shackle ) fast cast and refresh. and at lv 91 if i remember right aa cheetah run speed , we can outrun mobs easily so it s even easier to "solo ". being on silver account with a " weak " tank merc vs nameds you will see fast enough if you can keep him alive or not. ps : you don't need or want a merc while killing mobs once rooted..
Put your merc away and root rot as I'm sure others have told you about. Why share the xp with a merc when they aren't really going to bring anything to the group. Your dots will continue to get more powerful as you level and you have one of the best roots in the game. Plus it can be rather relaxing to pull a mob, root him, dot him up, and just watch him die. If you use a tank merc you'll be going crazy mashing buttons to keep him alive.
I agree that with only 1000 AAs (unless you buy more) and a weak merc, root/dotting will be your best bet. Make sure to optimize your AA path to get all the DOT crit AAs -- they make a great deal of difference. Maxed Virulent Paralysis is also a must. Other AAs that I would prioritize: Spell Casting Mastery -- less mana used Malo AA -- frees up a spell gem Canni AA -- lots more mana Spell Casting Reinforcement gives you longer buffs, which is nice, but not essential if you are just root/dotting. The invisibility AA is also convenient. Totem is good to abort bad pulls. Oh, one more thing. Low level Shaman DOTs tend to break root because they have a DD component. This problem goes away some time after level 60-70. That said, root/dotting is not for everyone. Some people find it boring, others enjoy it.
If you find your play time/style conflicting with your ability to group and you are on a silver account then just box another silver account and have fun with it. You will not be able to kill any current level names solo/molo on a shammy. You cannot take the beating if you decide to tank/dps and you wont be able to have the dps if Moloing a tank merc and dedicate everything to healing.
how good is the AA root Virulent Paralysis. Does it break before the cooldown is up as much as the spell root? also (i've posted this in another thread but figured i'd ask hear too)... is healing as frantic and button spammy as it is in other mmos in just exp groups?
I think I read a recommendation on Samanna's to get VP level 2. Check there. I think it was so that duration is longer than the refresh. If you lead with a disease debuff, VP will almost always go full duration unless something happens to break it. DD's will break it - yours or if the mob casts a spell that has a DD recourse (wizards have a few of these spells.) I think mobs casting lifetaps on you will break it - I used to have issues with the undead in cooling chamber unless I left the mobs out of their casting range. I guess they might have been wizards - I don't know. I never tried but I would imagine a necro casting a lifetap on a mob would break VP. Melee will break it (don't forget to put dogdog on hold or he will die fast but probably not before he breaks your VP so you can die too.) I'm pretty sure damage shields will break it - click yours off if you're in tight quarters. The enchanter knockback will overwrite VP which moves the mob but then leaves it without the root and coming at you because you piled on all those DoTs. Weapon procs will break it. If you box a ranger, make sure his bow does not have a DD proc. I never boxed a mage but I assume their fire pet needs to be on hold. As you get into the more recent expansions "go and get another" will not happen. Our DoTs have not kept up with mob hitpoints and you'll find yourself constantly refreshing DoTs and/or trying to squeeze in canni's. If you let a mob sit without all your DoTs running, your DPS falls and you risk having VP not last til the mob dies. Our DoTs just aren't big enough - you need a lot of them and cast time comes into play when trying to keep them all running. One thing that can help is the potion to extend detrimental spells - I forget the name. It can add a tick to all but the fast DoTs. They can be expensive but I think they last 4 hours and due to the way focus degradation is calculated on them, you don't have to use the most recent one. Check Samanna's - there was a post explaining the math - I think it rounds up so if you get any benefit no matter how small, you get the extra tic. At low levels or silver with limited AA's, you probably won't have VP maxxed and you'll probably find yourself refreshing VP on mobs before they die.
VP rarely breaks unless one of the scenarios Potionless mentions happens. I use my shaman as crowd control all the time in my box set up. The root lasts longer than mezzing a mob.
