Thoughts about the active shammy.

[Marcus75]

I always have loved playing a shammy - I like the offensive seer that can survive well thanks to chain and buffs.

Well I started out with Bluerock as a pure cave-shammy and it was really amazing fun...aoe-dots with a good crit in keep fighting really made it all worth while...bolts was really nice on casters and even the DD could be put to good use.

As times passed I decided to go down the utility line and go a little lower in cave to get decent resists and buffs. 38 aug for yellow resists and 37 cave for pbaoe disease seemed good and I took that route - I really liked the utility I got...with perma-sprint and good single-target dot I managed to solo quite well as well as being very usefull in a group. Aoe-dots was no more tho since crits on them had changed...where a crit before affected everyone the aoe-spell hit it now did seperate calculations for each Alb and Hib so that, together with heal-fonts, killed that spell more or less.

Now comes aoe-buffs, focus-shield and buff-shearing in the aug line - it makes me wonder...will I have to lower cave even further to compete at the same level now? I already miss my lvl41 bolt and dd and this will force me down even further...I will also loose a pbaoe-disease to make a decent template. Sure I can stay the way I am now but if everyone "has" to go higher aug then I wonder what use the cave-line has? Group cure .disease has made the shammy diseases less good and heal fonts almost overwrite dots unless you get a crit in.

The reason for this post was just to start a discussion in general. Im gonna finish off with a question:

Has Mythic now forced the realm buffbots into action? I wouldnt be suprised if the role as a shammy now entierly goes into support class and we could see people dragging their bots around just with that focus-thing on one of the healers...at least if I have understood how all this works correctly...

uke:

 

[Redrummy]

Since being an active cave shaman i love em =) but only thing thats a shaman down is its root, sure its good at stopping melee's but not gonna stop them mezzing you...

I know it'll never happen but i think styles should be put into place, meaning more shamans be active, less bb's perhaps? an aug + style combo or cave + style combo... *the ultimate fighter*

Mythic def. made shammies more active anyway (even if bb) cos you gotta stick with em for end etc... dunno if i heard somewhere that this might become the same for all shaman buffs? not really a big follower in whats in store for shammies =)

 

[Thrildif]

I think it's kinda sad, but I stopped enjoying playing my shaman in anything but pve.

Seems like i'm usually first to eat dirt in RvR, or interrupted and all I can do is run about like a headless chicken. My dot damage is overwritten easily by heal fonts and resists have knocked my bolt and dd damage down to 200 or so. I'm specced 39 cave, 37 aug, 4 mend.. the utility is nice, but that's about all.

I'll carry on playing him when my guild needs an active shammy, but i've rolled a runie in the mean time and he's loads more fun..

 

[Aldrick]

I think it's kinda sad, but I stopped enjoying playing my shaman in anything but pve.

Seems like i'm usually first to eat dirt in RvR, or interrupted and all I can do is run about like a headless chicken. My dot damage is overwritten easily by heal fonts and resists have knocked my bolt and dd damage down to 200 or so. I'm specced 39 cave, 37 aug, 4 mend.. the utility is nice, but that's about all.

I'll carry on playing him when my guild needs an active shammy, but i've rolled a runie in the mean time and he's loads more fun..

Tbh, if u rolled a shammy to do lots of damage and kill ppl all the time u rolled wrong char, u are better off with runie or something then. Main role a shaman has is to interrupt, make them pesky healers and casters not being able to do shit and for the enemy tanks to have a hard time reaching your support and chasing them etc.

 

[Minn]

have to agree with Aldrick on this one.....
But again, it still depends on how u are gonna play your shaman ; in grp, solo, keepdefence/keeptake etc...
If u are planing on being grp-shaman, Aldrick is right....
Ae root owns at interrupting casters/healers (grey ae root works as well... i know that from my druid on hibb/excal), I got blue ae root on my shaman though (39 cave).
Ae disease (base line) IS very important, especially when u meet a hibbgrp... it is SO nice for interrupting.. but then again, if u go lower in cave and go higher in aug, u willl still have that ability, but if u would like to go lower in cave to get higher aug, still keep ae root imo (get grey one).. u get that on 22 cave.
I think grey is as good as blue one since u are only using it for interrupt....(most tanks got DET anyway) and if u absolutly wanna root someone, use baseline single root (I use that too in RvR).

Ofc ae DOT, single DOT etc are nice, but then again.... u have to think about when to use it etc.
If u are grp-shaman, I would suggest that u are really careful with this. TBH I never use ae dot, if I am in a grp.
ONLY use that in keepdefence/keeptake imo.
Why? because healers cant CC if u just DOT'ted a person.. that is kinda important
I use single DOT sometimes... if u are running a caster grp, single DOT is better.... since spiritmasters are nuking them anyway (supp speced).
But my advice is still...... be really careful with DOT's, if u are grp-shaman.
Roll a sm or rm if u wanna do dgm, as Aldrick said

Hmmmm, if u wanna go higher aug, then only thing u are losing that is good, is instant ae disease.. but again, think u can live without that one.
Everything else in cave spec, u can live without..... just make sure, u spec some in cave, so u get grey ae root.... its nice
u will always have baseline ae disease and single root....

I am just wondering about something here....
Buff Shear (Dex/Qui), u get on speccing 50 in aug, is kinda nice....just make sure to make a macro for it, since it on groundtarget.. and u dont have time in a grp to make a groundtarget every time, hehe...
But if u spec 50 aug, u wont get grey ae root, which is on 22 cave...
ae disease (baseline) works same way as ae root, so maybe u dont need it... grey ae root just take less power...
and u still got your single root.

So if u need to spec 50 aug and rest cave or 49 cave and 22 cave, I am not sure of
But I would like to test it myself on my shaman... if I do, I'll write it here
later

And if someone is trying out new spec, let me know

 

[Appendix]

I am just wondering about something here....
Buff Shear (Dex/Qui), u get on speccing 50 in aug, is kinda nice....just make sure to make a macro for it, since it on groundtarget.. and u dont have time in a grp to make a groundtarget every time, hehe...

I didn't actually test the level 50 ae dex/qui buff shear but the other ae buff shears(str, con, dex, acu) that I have access to on my buffbot are not groundtargeted. They were regular ae spells with a 1500 range, 150 radius and 3.0s cast speed (2.0s cast speed for single target shears). Also I noticed that buff shears will inflict some damage on the target if it rips a buff from it with the exception of con and str/con shears for some reason.

Anyway, our shaman was speced 38 aug, 26 mend, 27 cave before and yesterday we tied him up, put him in a sack and dragged him screaming and kicking to the shaman trainer and respeced him to 44 aug, 15 mend, 27 cave.

This way we get ae con, dex and acuity buff shears and still keep pbae disease and 30% ress. And best of all, 24% heat resist

 

[Belomar]

Aoe-dots was no more tho since crits on them had changed...where a crit before affected everyone the aoe-spell hit it now did seperate calculations for each Alb and Hib so that, together with heal-fonts, killed that spell more or less.

As far as I remember, this was never the case, crits have always been calculated on a per-monster basis, i.e. not the same crit for everyone the AoE hits. At least this is the way it has been ever since DoTs got some loving (6 ticks on AoE DoTs instead of 4, and the baseline and spec DoTs stacking for matter Cabalists).

 

[Animus]

3 macros
/groundset 200
/groundset 500
/groundset 1000

If first one doesnt seem right, pop next one

 

[paldius]

never understood why basline dot and spec area dot dont stack, there diff kind of magic damage.
As far i remember bd dots stack aswel
Shamie's could use some love, but lets see who fun it is to debuff (unbuff)people now

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

<snip>
with the exception of con and str/con shears for some reason.
<snip>

That's probably because you already get extra health when having a con buff.... try ripping off a grey con buff and see if hp get's lost then. if so it's just that the damage gets lost in the lowering of hp due to losing that extra constitution

 

[Marcus75]

As far as I remember, this was never the case, crits have always been calculated on a per-monster basis, i.e. not the same crit for everyone the AoE hits. At least this is the way it has been ever since DoTs got some loving (6 ticks on AoE DoTs instead of 4, and the baseline and spec DoTs stacking for matter Cabalists).

I got a picture somewhere of Bluerock hitting several albs with a dot that ticked for 150-200 per tick thanks to a crit so they have changed/fixed it.
---------------
On a sidenote...I never played/play shammy to do mad damage...it was the fact that you could do so much that made me like the class.

 

[remi]

AE rip aint gtaoe, its like usual AE!

 

[Tuppe]

personally wonder only why shaman dont benefit aquity buff, would be nice.
this keep shammy poorest main dotter in 3 realms in my eyes.

ba bone´s dots stacks but still those stacked dots do lower dmg what shammys dots, what somehow gimp whole purpose.

tryed, and still have, ba specced bone in thidrak, aedot what stacked whit shammys aedot, tick ~24dmg per tick, dont remember shammys numbers.

 

[Demrog]

I didn't actually test the level 50 ae dex/qui buff shear but the other ae buff shears(str, con, dex, acu) that I have access to on my buffbot are not groundtargeted. They were regular ae spells with a 1500 range, 150 radius and 3.0s cast speed (2.0s cast speed for single target shears). Also I noticed that buff shears will inflict some damage on the target if it rips a buff from it with the exception of con and str/con shears for some reason.

Anyway, our shaman was speced 38 aug, 26 mend, 27 cave before and yesterday we tied him up, put him in a sack and dragged him screaming and kicking to the shaman trainer and respeced him to 44 aug, 15 mend, 27 cave.

This way we get ae con, dex and acuity buff shears and still keep pbae disease and 30% ress. And best of all, 24% heat resist

I am thinking of 46 Aug 27 Cave and 8 mend. Shaman mend is only good for cure disease and cure poison anyway... (imo obviously)

 

[Belomar]

personally wonder only why shaman dont benefit aquity buff, would be nice.

Yes, but those are the breaks for being a chain-wearing hybrid/healer type class. The other two DoT classes are both cloth casters and thus carry with them the associated advantages and disadvantages of wearing cloth.

this keep shammy poorest main dotter in 3 realms in my eyes.

The realms are different; on the flip side, Shamans have heals, cure poison/disease (all very handy when you are doing keeping warfare and get hit by enemy DoTs), purple AoE disease, a long-range bolt, a crappy DD, and his own spec buffs. The Cabalist is undoubtedly the strongest DoT class (cloth caster with spec and base DoTs in the same line), but also has by far the least utility of the three DoTters.

 

[Killerbee]

Marcus, I think it's Mythic's personal vendetta against me. I had a smiter, they made the line pointless, I had a shaman as well, so they thought "WTF, look THAT guy is happy with his char!!!"

Tho it's different case than with my smiter, cause with shammy I probably will respec.

 

[svartalf]

Marcus, I think it's Mythic's personal vendetta against me. I had a smiter, they made the line pointless, I had a shaman as well, so they thought "WTF, look THAT guy is happy with his char!!!"

Tho it's different case than with my smiter, cause with shammy I probably will respec.

I think shammy will get interesting stuff in Aug line when WoW gets released , bye bye buffs...

 

[mercury]

Perfecter

Shaman mend is only good for cure disease and cure poison

....and ML1 in Perfecter line is Group Disease Cure anyway.

[I know, because I WAS that Shammy....]