For the shamans out there..

[Duze]

Hi, I usually play excal/alb but a friend and I started characters on mid/pryd. I've made a shaman and I've been trying to work out on the catacombs character builder some kinda template. What I'd like is advice to what I've picked from any active shamans.

I've picked
15 mend (for 30% rezz - since 10% sucks, ok a rezz is a rezz but it barely gives u enough health to walk)
42 Aug (get last end regen in there but have to drop the heat resist to yellow con)
30 cave (had to drop AOE root to lvl 22 one and lose the 31 but does a shammy ever use this other than to root grey con pets? and how often does a lvl 31 one get resisted anyway?)

I dunno if thats a totally gimped spec and I was unsure of giving up the red con resist for a 30% rezz - not entirely sure which is more group friendly
But hopefully that makes me pve and rvr friendly. Ofc the spec buffs are blue instead of yellow but then if I specced a lot in aug I'd be nothing more than a mobile buffbot and unable to actually help the group in ANY way other than buff them. This spec just gives more utility to the group.

If thats crappy then please say so and give me some ideas for making a good rvr/pve shammy since I've no experience of actually playing one

 

[Moriath]

37 aug 39 cave 4tehwin second last of everything ... most ppl get longwind one for perma sprint anyhow

 

[emma]

greatly depends on what you plan on being.

a buffbot, or rvr shammy ;p

as a bb, its probably worth getting a decent level in mending in which case.

47 aug, 26 mend is good, although with the recent introduction of ToA its possible to cap you buffs with yellow specs so.

37 aug, 35 mend is worthwhile.

As for rvr shammy specs i wouldn`t have a clue. cant stand any support class's in RvR which is why out of the 11 chars ive leveled to 50 all have been either tanks or offensive casters ;p

 

[Zapsi]

Hi, I usually play excal/alb but a friend and I started characters on mid/pryd. I've made a shaman and I've been trying to work out on the catacombs character builder some kinda template. What I'd like is advice to what I've picked from any active shamans.

I've picked
15 mend (for 30% rezz - since 10% sucks, ok a rezz is a rezz but it barely gives u enough health to walk)
42 Aug (get last end regen in there but have to drop the heat resist to yellow con)
30 cave (had to drop AOE root to lvl 22 one and lose the 31 but does a shammy ever use this other than to root grey con pets? and how often does a lvl 31 one get resisted anyway?)

I dunno if thats a totally gimped spec and I was unsure of giving up the red con resist for a 30% rezz - not entirely sure which is more group friendly
But hopefully that makes me pve and rvr friendly. Ofc the spec buffs are blue instead of yellow but then if I specced a lot in aug I'd be nothing more than a mobile buffbot and unable to actually help the group in ANY way other than buff them. This spec just gives more utility to the group.

If thats crappy then please say so and give me some ideas for making a good rvr/pve shammy since I've no experience of actually playing one

Not the way people spec ATM but may be the way to go soon.

 

[Brunore]

37 aug 39 cave 4tehwin second last of everything ... most ppl get longwind one for perma sprint anyhow

Tru dat

 

[Profion]

I use 39cave 36aug 9mend

You can have 39cave 37aug 4mend

When the debuff comes to shaman i dont know what specc that can be good alot in aug maby.

 

[Borand]

Above 38 aug is useless unless you're a buffbot. 39, 40 and 41 aug you get no new spells at all so that's a lot of spec points that can be better used in the cave line. End 5 as someone already said isn't worth speccing for since nearly everyone that RvR's in a group will have LW1 anyway which gives perma sprint combined with End 4 (32 aug). My favourite spec personally was :

38 aug 37 cave 9 mend - This was my shammy's spec for most of his rvr and the best all-round spec imo 38 aug gives you yellow con spec buffs which you can get pretty close to cap level with 25% buffing equipment (you'll just be a few points short) and all yellow resists which are very useful. In hindsight, might not have been worth going 38 aug just for the matter resist but I did a lot of keep RvR so it helped a lot against dot's. Also get end 4 which is perma sprint providing you have LW1 and tanks you're grouped with shouldn't have any complaints about running ooe while fighting.

37 cave is a really nice amount to have. You'll have yellow pbae disease which lasts 30 secs longer than the 27 pbae disease and is less likely to get resisted (think it's 10% more likely to stick than the blue con version). You'll have yellow bolt + dd - if you can get these 2 spells off on a enemy cloth wearer with a dot on top, they'll be pretty close to dead (if you do these spells on a solo cloth wearer they will be dead more often than not!) . Not really that devestating on tanks (bolting a shield tank is kinda pointless) but you can still make a dent in them albeit a small one. You will also have the second best ae dot although it is very situational, only to be used at mg standoffs or at keeps. Might only do 70 ish per tick on an enemy with capped resists but get a few levels of wild arcana and this can go above 200 (managed to do 479 per tick after a crit and body debuff by a dark specced sm once). You'll have the second best damage shield which isn't something to cast in RvR but it can be very nice to cast on tanks in PvE espescially against high level epic mobs. Only problem I had with 37 cave is you have to make do with a green ae root which seems to get resisted loads and was only a couple of seconds in duration against high det tanks so you either have to spam the spell, or stick to using single target root.

Not much to say about 9 mend except you'll have both cure disease and poison (found these really useful at keeps) and the most basic friggs available (not an rvr tool but ok for using on low lvl alts without stealing xp). You'll typically heal for 200-350 though I have healed for over 700 with toa healing bonuses and a wild healing crit.

Other specs you can try are :

39 cave 37 aug 4 mend - Differences with above spec are you have blue con ae root, will stick more often than not and last a bit longer. Won't have the yellow con matter resist but it's probably no huge loss. Won't have cure poison/disease or friggs.

41 cave 32 aug 14 mend - Quite a fun spec if you know you're definitely gonna have bb's for your group and don't plan on solo'ing that much. Pink bolt alone can take off around 40-50% of a cloth wearers max hp and you also get the pink dd. Can't say I missed them that much when I respecced down to 37 cave though. 32 aug gives you blue con resists, end 4 but only blue con specs which sucks if you don't have bb's with you. 14 mend..your heals will still be crap, you'll just have a slightly better friggs for pve purposes.

46 cave 28 aug 4 mend - Not something I'd recommend post-toa...only reason for speccing this highly in cave before was the best ae dot but with heal fields, your potential for making much impact at keeps will be severely reduced now.

Cave/Aug is gonna remain the way to go until 1.69 when those buff shearing spells + focus shield gets added to the aug line. Most shammys will probably put the majority of their points to aug then. Hope that all helped a bit :wub:

 

[Duze]

woah thanks
and yeah, its all helped loads

Still undecided about the 30% rezz tho - sometimes u gotta rezz and run and a 10% rezz doesn't really allow u to do that - I know that as a shammy I'm not the primary rezzer anyway so I dunno since it would mean losing something essential from the aug/cave line.

 

[Roteca]

atm im 37/4/39. will go to 44/4/31 when 1.69 comes out thou. seems like the most all-in-one specc for me.

 

[Damon_D]

greatly depends on what you plan on being.

a buffbot, or rvr shammy ;p

as a bb, its probably worth getting a decent level in mending in which case.

47 aug, 26 mend is good, although with the recent introduction of ToA its possible to cap you buffs with yellow specs so.

Aye but in the NEW RA list I dont see Mota any where..thats gonna fuck up that idea for good
Had planed to spec Damon out of his 47/26 spec and play him semi active again.. but no Mota no respec....

 

[Archeon]

My Shaman uses

42aug:
its always nice to bring End5 to a group, and you can always count on one person not having LW1. The yellow con buffs also mean I don't have to add much +buff bonus to my SC template, leaving valuble slots free for important stuff like melee resists.
Also the 16% resist buffs are always welcome

27cave - mainly for the PBAE, even if it does have a relativly high resist rate its reasonably reliable. Typically i'll land it on 2-3 tanks chasing after me which weakens most /assist trains to the point where I can be kept alive with good Healer backup.
In any case i'm not usually the first person targetted (get Griffon's Imp. Pelt - Every Shaman should!) so I can use the baseline AE disease instead which is rarly resisted, though thats likley to change with the Perf. 1 ability (Group Cure Disease)

20mend. - Res, Friggs. General utility, I don't think i'd go Higher - Group friggs would be nice, but I wouldn't give up End5 or PBAE for it.


Thats a solid spec imo. Before that I was 46cave, 28aug, 4mend. Can't say I miss it much, the Mana drain from the cave spells was a joke and with only End3 I kept getting forcably removed from RvR groups

Hope that helped in any case.

 

[eogren]

37aug 39cave...shamys do root that's what we do

 

[eogren]

oh..welcome mate

 

[Baduska]

in 1.69 you'll want 50 aug for buff shears

will be 50 aug 20 mend or something then i guess

 

[Ormorof]

in 1.69 you'll want 50 aug for buff shears

will be 50 aug 20 mend or something then i guess

50 aug on an actively played shammy? wheres the fun in that?

 

[Wij]

Depends whether buff shearing is more valuable than root I suppose

 

[Jakus Morgan]

Before that I was 46cave, 28aug, 4mend. Can't say I miss it much, the Mana drain from the cave spells was a joke and with only End3 I kept getting forcably removed from RvR groups

I've got a shammy on the way & was hoping to make him 47 cave/22 Aug. I like the idea of maybe doing a little soloing (& poison is fun ) so fancied full cave.
Is that at all viable?
I'd also like to be able to get groups. I already have a BB so low buffs aren't really a problem. I was hoping that the 'End 3 is better than nothing argument' would see me OK.
Am I deluding myself here? I don't really want to be a RvR outcast.

 

[Ormorof]

wouldnt worry too much about it jakus, people seem to want shammy's in their caster groups for healing, adding abit to the pbaoe and well end3 for the guard bot is just an added bonus!

 

[Mordur]

off topic, but still shammie related:



BOOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

come back hun

 

[Archeon]

I've got a shammy on the way & was hoping to make him 47 cave/22 Aug. I like the idea of maybe doing a little soloing (& poison is fun ) so fancied full cave.
Is that at all viable?
I'd also like to be able to get groups. I already have a BB so low buffs aren't really a problem. I was hoping that the 'End 3 is better than nothing argument' would see me OK.
Am I deluding myself here? I don't really want to be a RvR outcast.

Well I play Mid-Excal, so i'm unsure about grouping on Pryd. But on Excal anything below End4 and you can expect one of two things..

1. GL is an asshole and boots you.
2. GL is nice, but group members leave.

(this only applies to random groups, I don't think a guild group would kick you for not being 'rightly' specced)


I can solo perfectly well with my 27+SC+RR bonuses, maybe even better than a full Cave shaman because I can use Friggs to heal myself. The only think I miss about being full cave is the AE Dot, that was great fun - especially when coupled with disease it took a lot of time for the support to get rid of it all which gave your tanks more time to wtfpwn. Though with Perfector1 being group cure disease i'm unsure...

If you go full cave your likley to become a one-trick pony. Log in a keep, and AE DOT when people attack it. And of course, theres the mana drain of the higher spells. At 27cave I can get off my Bolt and my DD off for roughly the same mana cost of 1 of the high specline equivilents.

I'm not saying don't go cave, hell despite its failing I had great fun playing that way. All i'm saying is that when the funs over you'll find yourself with disturbingly little in the way of utility, and in things like High-Lvl PvE your likley to get bored stupid because theres practically nothing you can do.

 

[Gibberish]

Hello m8

This post has nothing to do with any answers to your shaman questions unfortunately. I am just interested in knowing if the mate you have started playing with has a zerker called Aelic (or something). If it is I was talking to him Tues night about some zerker issues and he seems a really nice bloke. Anyway, welcome to you both and I hope you guys stay on in Mid.

 

[Jakus Morgan]

Hmmm, i'm unsure now.
He's lev 38 atm, but due some more pleving at the weekend..

Can't see me doing much PvE with a Cave Shammy, more likely to use Warrior/Bot. Though with BB on 3rd account the Cave Shammy's poison might come in handy. (Bot's single dot is already useful)

So if he's going to do a lot of RvR I guess a group friendly spec would be more useful. I quite like the idea of 41 Cave/32 Aug. That would give me pretty decent Cave & that all important (it seems) End 4. with LW 1 I'd even be able to perma sprint solo.
Plus I've also been wondering how useful ae dot, at keep takes etc, will be now with some of the ML abilities around.

BB could cover the high Shammy specs.
Only things I'd really miss would be the last ae dot & pbae disease.
Real bummer to have to loose those just to go up 10 levels in Aug for End 4 though.

Orm, I like your idea of a Cave Shammy in a SM pbae group, that could work really well. But those groups (random at least) aren't that common. I really don't like the idea of being booted from RvR groups.

 

[Ormorof]

the 41 cave 32 aug works very well, the ae dot isnt that bad and it can be compensated by with high Wild Arcana (which is a must for all dot classes! )

 

[Jakus Morgan]

the 41 cave 32 aug works very well, the ae dot isnt that bad and it can be compensated by with high Wild Arcana (which is a must for all dot classes! )

Damn your fast Orm. by the time I read through my post & edited it you had already replied!

My thoughts exactly re the spec. Still a shame to have to loose cave stuff for 32 Aug though. Better than lfg all the time I guess.