Barbarian Shaman/Warrior Duo Question

[Cyph]

Hi all! I play my Barbarian Shaman exclusively when my friend is on with their Barbarian Warrior. Currently we have been hitting BlackBurrow but after turning in our latest fang haul, we're both level 17 (woot!). Personally I want to stick around the general area a bit longer and reach 19 so I can buy those spells (money is still tight) before deciding to venture out further.

So, a couple of questions;
1) where else nearby could we use to level (other than some more fangs from BlackBurrow). Something that would drop fine steel or bronze would be good so we could make some plat
2) in terms of our play style, I find that the moment I DoT a mob I draw insta agro and it is quite difficult for the Warrior to taunt it off. Am I better off just keeping the Warrior buffed and healed, letting him do the work? At our level, are debuff spells such as Disempower or Walking Sleep worth the mana cost?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated :)

[Estu]

I would recommend rooting the monster if aggro is an issue (and if you think the mana is worth it). Warriors are terrible at aggro generation. Don't bother with slows or debuffs until later on in your career - they are very weak at this point relative to their mana cost (when considering your small mana pool at that level). Later on, slows are the really important thing, not so much disempower-type stuff, though the Malo line can be very useful as well.

What you can try is keeping the warrior between around 20%-40% health to have him berserking for much better DPS. This will also mean he'll be better at holding aggro. It can be risky, though, so if you find you're getting your head handed to you a lot with this method, either try it only going after lower-level monsters (dark blue only, and specifically the lower part of dark blue if you know the level ranges) or just go back to what you were doing. Lower-level monsters are also easier to keep rooted.

[Cyph]

Thank you for the replies. I was thinking of trying the bandits in the Karanas (west) but were uncertain of their level range (currently at work, otherwise I would simply check).

I'm surprised Warriors are terrible at agro generation, isn't that the purpose of their taunts?

I think I'll try out my new line of spells with the bandits and see how it goes, especially now that I have root. I like to get in and melee mobs along with the Warrior as at these early levels I am still able to do a decent amount of damage. Also, with the aid of dual wield, which the Warrior has just gained, it will help with the agro issue.

[susvain0362]

At level 17 use drowsy, not walking sleep. It's so little mana at 17 and makes quite the difference IMO. it should be about 4% of your mana which isnt much at all for a single fight.

[Intrinsic]

I'm surprised Warriors are terrible at agro generation, isn't that the purpose of their taunts?

Agro mechanics on p99 are unfortunately nothing like live and buggy as anything. You can expect a mob to flip agro onto you casting at almost any time esp on slows which are hella agro, rooting is the safest way to keep agro on the warrior while you med/slow the mob, when the root breaks though it can still easily switch agro onto you.
Slows are great though and will save you a boat load of mana in the long run(less heals), i still tend to use Walking Sleep even in my mid 40s 95% of the time due to the low mana cost and big returns on mana efficiency.

[Cyph]

Thanks guys for the suggestions! I might try using drowsy instead of walking sleep for now and see how it goes !

[Estu]

Yeah, warriors are bad at aggro generation. I don't think it's necessarily an issue with P1999 being bugged; I think it's a class design issue. Taunt only works on monsters lower level than the warrior, and warriors often find themselves having to tank higher level monsters. Also, taunt only raises the warrior's aggro to one point above the highest aggro person, so if that person does something else to raise their aggro again, the monster will go right back to them. Warriors need good weapons to hold aggro - at low levels, this means weapons with good DPS, and at mid-high levels, this means levels with a combination of DPS and good aggro procs.

Also, I would recommend sitting and meditating instead of meleeing practically regardless of the situation, unless you have a really good weapon. At your level, you can probably do more DPS meditating and then casting a nuke or a DoT than meleeing and missing out on that extra mana.

[DrKvothe]

Edit: Addressing Estu's observation about dps. If you cast anything on a mob you two are fighting, you will be tanking it, and if you're tanking it you can't med. It gets pretty damn mana expensive to have to root everything on top of casting mana inefficient nukes or time inefficient (for duoing, anyways) dots. At your lvl, I found it much more efficient to save mana for rebuffs and heals and to just melee dps/tank/offtank. You can pull with drowsy. If you're both meleeing, at your lvl you shouldn't be much worse of a tank than the warrior against dark blue single pulls. Once you hit 24 and get a dot actually worth casting, more mana intensive buffs (regeneration), and canni to capitalize on sitting hp regen for mana, you shouldn't be standing when you're not actually casting =D.

Sisters camp in LFay is still good at 17, i think. It's sort of hard to solo as an untwinked shaman, I duo'd there. Unfortunately it's super camped.

Erud's Crossing killing wisps they should all be LB at 17, I think. Some might be green, but the greater lightstone turnin quest gives exp and a 10pp item for each stone. The two of you could probably survive any number of adds there pretty easily if you draw one or two onto you.

Get a goblin parrying spear or equivalent ratio weapon to help you poke things.

Upper Guk and Unrest might be options? I didn't spend much time in either, so I can't really elaborate.

I'm not sure about WK bandit sash quest? You might be past the sweet spot for that, but its decent cash. Mobs spawn in tightly clustered groups of 4 or 5, so you'll probably need to root 1-2 and/or offtank one while you both quickly dps down the warrior's target. I believe they backstab...

If you're just going to duo, you want the warrior taking slow damage so that you can use inner fire to heal. It's much better hp per mana than light healing or healing, but if you're taking even moderately fast damage, it'll be too slow.

You COULD just run around slaughtering gnolls in blackburrow. At your lvl, it should take about 30 fangs to lvl. If it's not too crowded, that's like an hour of mass murdering green con gnolls.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Pull with slow - any of the slow spells tend to spike the agro. When I was duoing with warriors they could pull the mob off while it was charging me. A big benefit to this is that you essentially go 0 rounds with an unslowed mob - super helpful when your zerking the warrior.

[NegaStoat]

Keep in mind that distance plays a huge part on aggro generated from spell casting when a tank is nearby hitting the target. I'll see a lot of people in different camps (Oasis, etc) that have the casters like all of 9 feet away from where things are being fought. Monsters will naturally be more inclined to turn and whack someone casting something in that situation.

At near max casting range, it's completely different. You can be far more loose with spell timing and keeping the target on the tank.

For Bronze weapons in the teens, Sister Camp in Lesser Fay is great but perma camped. Don't expect to ever see it not camped unless it's like 4:00 a.m. pacific time or something. From the patch notes, Karanas bandits now are coded to properly spawn in with bronze weapon chances. I'm going to check that out and report back here.

Before, those bastards spawned in with nothing and a lot of the time druid casters would be mixed in with them. Not worth doing before, but we'll see about now.

[Estu]

I've done WK bandits previously on my bard, and the druid ones were fairly rare and easy to avoid (i.e. predictably placed). After I got killed a couple of times due to druids rooting me mid-kite I managed to avoid pulling more druids.

[Stinkum]

If you are level 17 and have no gear then I would let the warrior tank, use Drowsy when a mob's at ~75% (shouldn't draw aggro, especially since you're not sitting after casting) and continue helping melee. Take a med break while the warrior fights when mana is needed for heals. Never DoT when duoing. Don't bother with debuffs like Disempower. Don't bother with most stat buffs for this level bracket. Your mana will be refreshing SoW and healing, and you can pepper in a cold nuke if mana is good. I believe Inner Fire is a more efficient heal than your pre-19 healing spell.

Once you get a higher level,l things will change. A shaman is always changing their playstyle as they progress in levels. Sometimes our new spell lines make more sense for us to play like we're a Druid, or Necro, or a Warrior. It all depends on your level and gear. Things will make a lot more sense as far as your role when you get your 24 Shaman spell line for both of you.

[Orruar]

Go to permafrost for xp. You will have to root to cc on some pulls, but that should be no problem. You could do until the mid/late 20s there. Mobs drop bronze weapons as well.

[Cyph]

Thanks all! Some great information here :)

[Cyph]

Both myself and my warrior friend hit 20 last night through BB fangs. We're probably too high now for the bandits in Karanas, I wonder what else is around there?

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

Both myself and my warrior friend hit 20 last night through BB fangs. We're probably too high now for the bandits in Karanas, I wonder what else is around there?

You could probably do Orcs in highpass - good chance for a shralok pack or a divine aura clicky.

[Cyph]

I was just actually looking at places to go, and the Shralok pack would be nice. Highpass Keep as well... one problem, the Corrupt Qeynos Guards hate us, so would the guards there hate us too?

Was also thinking of Gorge of King Xorbb (for the Labyrinth Talisman and Polished Bone Bracelet) but I don't know how many people are there, I've never adventured there myself and charming evil eyes sounds horribly dangerous.

--update--
Are any of these places good for loot/pp? I'm currently sitting at 20pp and I know my level 24 spells are going to be 100pp+ :(

[Estu]

I was just actually looking at places to go, and the Shralok pack would be nice. Highpass Keep as well... one problem, the Corrupt Qeynos Guards hate us, so would the guards there hate us too?

Was also thinking of Gorge of King Xorbb (for the Labyrinth Talisman and Polished Bone Bracelet) but I don't know how many people are there, I've never adventured there myself and charming evil eyes sounds horribly dangerous.

--update--
Are any of these places good for loot/pp? I'm currently sitting at 20pp and I know my level 24 spells are going to be 100pp+ :(

Gorge is a ghost town, if you have a reason to go there then go for it. Highpass is definitely a good choice. Loot-wise I dunno, I've never really done either of those zones. At 20 I head to Unrest, which is good for loot and EXP, plus it's good for being social and grouping with more than just two people. But even if you're committed to only duoing, you could probably hack it in Unrest if it wasn't too crowded.

[Cyph]

Only for those two items, but I don't think the risk is worth it. The bosses are higher level than us, and with charm, well, yeah...

I might check out Highpass, no harm in doing so. Unrest is great, it's where I did my leveling back in the day, I was just trying to go for something different. Any other suggestions/information/tips would be appreciated :)

[DrKvothe]

My druid, Hairyporter, is lvl 20. I'd love to do high pass orcs with y'all. Add Hairyporter and Winga and we'll make it happen.

[Cyph]

Hi Hairyporter. We'll be happy to group with you when you're online. I'll send you a tell next time we're on. Both Wulframm and I are there now after the trek from Qeynos.

[Motec]

Whats char names? I reckon I could have something to help with aggro etc if I stopped by your neck of the woods.

[Cyph]

Venexia is the name of my Shaman, my friend plays Wulframm (Warrior). When Wulframm is not online I'm playing as Lafael the Druid.

Our playing hours are generally off-peak due to being Australian :( Though sometimes I'm on during peak times, just depends on how work is that day.