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#1 Oct 21 2004 at 12:01 AM Rating: Decent
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Are shamans any good at soloing? If so, what is the strategy when fighting?

Edited, Thu Oct 21 01:02:08 2004 by Flatzen
#2 Oct 27 2004 at 2:02 PM Rating: Default
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1,073 posts
Every class is good at soloing, and shaman are no exception. We can do it pretty darn well.

As to strategy, you should always have your weapon buff on. Lightning shield isn't very useful in groups, but soling it's GOLD. Our most efficient damage spell by far, and you can cast it before, between, or during fights. If I'm trying to mow through monsters, I pull with a lightning bolt, maybe another while he runs, follow with flame shock as they close with me, then melee. Keep flame shock DOT and lightning shield up. Don't try to heal during fights unless you're going to lose, try to heal between fights. If the enemy tries to run, frost shock to finish. All of that is if you're just trying to kill monsters quickly; it's not very efficient. When farming lower-level enemies, you're better off not using any damage spells. Just drop stoneskin totem, drop searing totem, and melee with a buffed weapon. You'll kill more slowly, but you'll rarely have to sit and drink.

For any dangerous fight, you should be dropping totems in addition to Lightning Shield and Flame Shock casts. Stoneskin is lovely, lovely, lovely for long fights or fights vs multiple opponents; if you even think you'll get an add stoneskin is gold. Searing Totem is VERY mana-efficient if you can get it to last its full duration, and is a good supplement to a long fight. Healing Stream totem is along the same lines: overkill for quick fights, very efficient for long ones.

Some shaman pick up the two-handed weapons talent. I believe this talent is more useful in groups. I know that whenever I used a two-handed weapon soloing I sorely missed the huge armor boost that comes from a shield. However, it's hard to argue with the damage a two-hander brings. For soloing, you're better off with a shield because you're your own tank, but in groups, grab the two-hander for the extra DPS.

Enemy casters are a special case. For them, Earth Shock and Grounding Totem are HUGE advantages for a shaman. Earth Shock is the second attack spell you learn, and while it's not very mana efficient it's front-loaded (deals its damage in one burst, as opposed to Flame Shock). After you start getting more shocks, you should probably use a less-powerful version of Earth Shock to save mana, since you only care about the interrupt anyway. Earth Shock interrupts enemy casters and prevents them from casting for two seconds. This is a huge advantage. Earth Shock also works on certain non-magic monsters whose abilities have a cast time. An example would be the spitting spiders in Stonetalon. Those guys don't use mana, but they have a nasty venom spit attack. BUT, you can interrupt the attack with Earth Shock. Wonderful, wonderful ability. Grounding totem is another key ability. Currently it's bugged, but it's useful even so.
#3 Nov 20 2004 at 10:34 PM Rating: Decent
Chah has covered it well, only gonna add to what he said.
In a group environ I have found myself in the tanking roll, sometimes it hard to keep aggro...earth shock also causes a lot of threat and can be used very well as a taunt type of skill.

Weapons are a very personal choice and closely linked to prefered weapon buff and your melee related talents. As I mentioned elsewhere I prefered a maxed flurry talent and windfury totem with a dagger or fist weapon...the fast attack speed led to a lot more crits which proc's flurry (+30% speed on next 3 attacks) and windfury has a 20% hit of doing 2 immediate extra attacks at increased power (this power is a higher bonues the rockbiter of same rank...but gotten later)..once again though with a 20% proc hitting more equals more chances...this template its not uncommon to see numbers doubled up and streaming over the head of you enemy, espcially with a flameshock DoT and a searing totem at your feet.


Also note: Seen a lot of moaning about Paladins vs Shamans, in PvP I consistently beat the daylights out of Paladins up to 3 levels higher then me and on more then one occasion beat ones even higher (at 36 took out a 41 Pali in plate for example...not that I would really recommend it as it boiled down to my flurry and windfury totems just happening to all proc right off and well timed use of earthshock)

Rockbiter seems in my experience to be the most prefered weapon buff...its a drastic increase in attack power and its stable, I would often use this going against mobs 5+ levels higher so my dmg was consistent in overcoming their armor.

Edited, Sat Nov 20 22:38:21 2004 by Yrdach
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