Initial thoughts on the Shaman

[Brainiac4]

I've played the Shaman class to level 9 (almost 10) and am liking it so far. It's versatile and does a good job both soloing and in a party. I have not yet played a druid, so I can't rate it vs. that, but I did play Rogue to 12, Warrior to 14 and Warlock to 8 in the previous push.

The Shaman is supposed to be the Horde's answer to the Paladin, and I think that's pretty accurate. They're a combination of melee and spellcasting, with combat buffs, ranged damage spells and healing in their arsenal.

Shamans can wear both cloth and leather armor, which helps a lot vs. other spellcasting classes. I don't know if the opportunity to learn to wear Mail will present itself. If it does, I'll be tempted, since the Shaman spends a fair amount of time in melee. I'm also looking forward to learning to use a real shield instead of a buckler.

Shamans start out with the ability to use staves, maces and something else I forget. :) I have tried both staff and mace, and prefer mace at this point. Not only does it allow the use of a buckler, giving an armor boost and chance to block, but maces hit faster, and since one of the combat buffs is a +4 damage per hit, hitting more often results in greater DPS.

The spell selection is interesting. At this point, I have most of the available spells (I've bypassed a couple of the totems). I have:
- two ranged damage spells, one lightning and one fire
- a combat "instant" that does damage and disrupts spellcasters 75% of the time
- a "totem" I can cast that reduces damage to all in the party by 3 pts per hit
- a nice heal that restores about 20-25% of warrior health per cast
- a weapon buff that adds +4 damage per hit
- a "lightning shield" that causes anyone hitting me to take damage

My usual tactic when soloing is to cast the lightning shield, pick a spot, cast the totem, then fire off a couple of ranged damage spells while a mob is on the way in, then go toe-to-toe with it, firing off the instant as it recharges. I sometimes have to heal after combat, but usually only if I get three equal-level mobs or two one-up on me. I handled two L8 Durotar Tigers and a L8 Razortail in this way at level 8 without working up a sweat even though I only got to soften up the first one.

That's not to say I can tank very well -- if I get sandwiched between a couple of monsters, particularly ranged attackers, I can get into trouble really fast.

The Shaman reminds me a bit of the Assassin from D2 -- tactics are important. I suspect that as I add more totems the parallels will get even more pronounced.

Anyone else playing the Shaman have observations? I'm particularly interested in the higher-level play, as I'm not there yet.

[Bowa]

Hi! I also play a Shaman and just hit lvl 10 this morning. My strategy is very similar to yours. In addition, I like to keep the lightning shield (thorns) active at all time by refreshing it throughout the fight. I invested in the "slowing" totem (that is a great help when you don't want the mob to run and get help), and the "agro" totem - which will [hopefully] draw agro from you so you can run away. I've tried training daggers with the thought that faster hits = more dmg over time with the dmg add buff. But I found that I continuosly finished fights faster with a nice hammer instead. I recently upgraded the Lightning spell, which now does twice the damage for a much higher mana cost, and a fire dmg buff for my weapon which has a 20% chance of +30 fire dmg when it hits. Haven't really tested either yet.

My main source of downtime right now is my relatively-low mana supply. Especially after a tough fight. Water is not as easy to come by as food, unfortunately -- but I guess we're supposed to be in the desert, after all!

I noticed that there aren't many quests/things to do once you hit lvl9/10, so I'm open to ideas of where to go next, if anyone has any.

:)

BTW, I play Tick if anyone around my level wants to group!

[Nystul]

I noticed that there aren't many quests/things to do once you hit lvl9/10, so I'm open to ideas of where to go next, if anyone has any.

Level 9-10 is kind of on the borderline. If you have any quests left in your starting zone, you may want to tidy them up and get a couple more levels before you move on. Then you can go to the Barrens, work your way to the Crossroads, and you will not run out of quests again for a long, long time. My Tauren started quest in the Barrens around level 12, and at level 23 he is just now looking for other areas to quest in. Mind you, he isn't finished with everything available in the Barrens yet.

In the undead lands, Silverpine looks like it has some manageable quests for a character around level 11 or 12 as well.

[Brainiac4]

Thanks for the responses, Bowa and Nystul.

I spent a bit more time playing, including some time grouped. Party tactics for the Shaman are a little different from solo tactics. My party-mates don't tend to stay near my totems, so I find myself recasting those. Warriors seems to be particularly prone to charging off at enemies.

For the most part I have tried to contribute DPS to the team, with post-battle healing. The Shaman's lack of an instant heal makes it a challenge to be an in-melee healer, although I can do that if I stay out of the scrum. I'm coming to the conclusion that a Shaman is not a replacement for a priest or a mage, but if you have neither of those and can get only one teammate, a Shaman is a good choice. Which is not to say that they're second-class, just that they're not specialized. They really are the Horde's answer to paladins. :)

[Bowa]

As an aside, I pumped up my intelligence, stamina, and spirit to the max (using skill points) and wow what a difference that made! I can take more hits - which saves more mana for instas and totems mid-fight, as opposed to heals; my mana pool is much bigger now, allowing more nukes and instas during fights, and heals afterwards; and my regen rate is noticeably faster as well, cutting downtime even more. I highly recommend doing the same for all those soloing shammies out there!

[Drak'Tzul]

I'm taking good note Bowa. Do you aim to become more caster or more melee?

[Bowa]

From my limited experience, I don't think you can be anything but both at once.

You buff up, cast from range, then melee as they close in -- the whole time using insta nukes, refreshing your lightning shield and throwing totems. Pretty good mix of both. I like to hit things though :P.

[lemekim]

I have played a shaman for a while now, and I do have to say that during some levels (probably 12-16) one starts to wonder if shamans are lacking something. But after that, you gain some new spells and more powerful versions of old, and suddenly shamans can handle themselves pretty well again. For example, I think at level 16 you get the next version of earth shock, which jumps in damage from 30 to about 80. Sure it's a mana hog, but now at least you can do a lot of damage quickly.

Beyond that, I could give some insight into how shamans play out at higher levels. I find that at those levels totems are not as useful in solo, unless you are fighting two monsters or a relatively high level one. The benefit that they provide is simply not worth the mana that they cost to use in shorter battles. But if I do get into a longer battle, stoneskin + healing stream will allow you to live much longer, and searing totems provide you with good damage support for relatively low mana.

At lvl 28, my most used combo is now basically a combination of melee (I use a nice dagger with flametongue), lightning shield and flame shock, since they all are pretty good dps-wise. I also like to start of a battle with a lightning bolt, but at higher levels the casting time becomes so prohibitive (3.5 sec) that you cannot use it for anything beyond that. I find that this combo provides me with decent killing speed, while preserving my mana and not costing a lot of life. If needed, I can dish out a lot of damage fast with earth shock, and if they like to run away, I'd use frost shock.

With lesser healing wave becoming available at lvl 22 with a constant cast time of 1.5 secs, the original healing wave becomes obsolete. And now you can actually heal midbattle, sometimes you can get it off even while being interrupted by two guys. This is probably one of the main reasons why you can take on more then one monster and live without even drinking a potion.

At higher levels you also get a variety of utility spells that are quite useful. Cure Poison, Far Sight, Tremor Totem, Purge would not be used often, but when you will need them, you would be glad you had them.

I think that's about sums it up. I'll be glad to answer any other questions that you might have.

[Drak'Tzul]

I heard similar complains concerning the 12-16 level range. People in those levels tend to think the shaman is weaker, but once it ends, they usually discover that they are at least up to par with other classes.

The main issues with shamen are that some of the totems and spells see nearly no use, or are just not worth the mana cost. At least that's the complain I'm hearing the most often from testers, you probably know better. :)

From what you see right now in beta, does it seems obvious to you that they are holding the higher level spells at bay? From what I can read on various sites not all shaman spells are available, is that true? ^_^

[lemekim]

Shamans do get some spells that are not very useful to put it lightly. Forstbite, Chainlightning, Magma totem... There are a few other spells and totems that rarely see use. Some other ones need tweaking to be more useful (Astral Recall, Mana Fount totem, even IMO the higher level healing totems). Those I would like to see tweaked.

But on the other hand there are some spells that rarely see action, but in right situations are very useful. I don't think they need tweaking at all. Far sight and Cure Poison are quite good. Purge can be very useful (consider some mobs who cast holy shield on themselves; normally a huge pain, but purge removes it and makes them a piece of cake).

And I think you are right about some spells being unavailable. There is no Air Totem at level 30 as there are fire and water. You just get the stone and nothing else. And the only air totem that I know of is a sentry totem at lvl 34, so the Air Totem line is essentially not there. I also expect to see a spirit totem at higher levels (40+) as well, and there seem to be some spells missing at levels 32+.

To sum it up, the shamans feel not as refined and finished class as other classes are. They definately need some tweaks and additions of missing spells, but I see that as normal seeing that they were only available for one push.

P.S. Almost forgot. I really would love to see some kind of crowd control. Any kind really. The only thing he has is a stoneclaw totem, but that does not even last its full duration of whopping 15 seconds against monsters of your own level. It would be good to see either an improvement in this totem, or another spell that would give at least some kind of crowd control.