Shaman's Race

[Saerdna]

I've started a shaman without really doing anything on it yet. It is something that I want to level for the sake of power leveling friends I make along the way, however it was recommended that I go Troll for Regen-sake after I had rolled a Barb.

I know that Barb's are the only good race capable of being Shamans, but I don't want to eliminate the possibility of other races. I did do some digging in the wiki and didn't really manage to find any concrete information on how long/how much I would have to kill to get faction good enough to be welcome in good cities. Also if 'fixing' my faction with good cities would ruin my faction with the home town.

Just one of many things I ponder while poking at my low level HIE CLR wishing it wouldn't take 30k/+ per attempt at Cultural Armor for it.

[Vlak]

Lots of people will tell you Ogre for frontal stun immunity, there's a lot of argument on how that makes them best in the end game. Troll (innoruuk) gets access to the snare necklace from neriak cleric guild. Iksar have regen and higher ac, but can't use JBB so they have to nuke normally. Barbs are good-aligned and don't fill doorways.

Pick which you like best, they're all pretty even, IMO.

[Saerdna]

Thanks, I did read about all those, but I wasn't sure how they weighed in with experienced players. I did decide against Iksar a while back though, if only because one of the draws of Shaman is Alchemy... and apparently the worldly hatred for Iksar makes it kind of difficult to directly purchase ingredients.

[skorge]

this topic gets brought up like once a week lol...just search the forums...ive played an ogre shaman 1-60 on red, a troll shaman on blue 1-52, and have a 60 barb shaman

troll > ogre > barb > iksar

i prefer the trolls' always in effect regen vs frontal stun immunity hardly ever being put to use...i also like the snare necklace too they can get

iksars i rank last due to lack of jbb

regardless of the race you pick, all shamans are strong

[lecompte]

I rank em a little diff.
Ogre > Iksar > troll > Barb

Mostly cause I don't care about JBB.

[loramin]

There are already some great threads about this in the Priests forum, so I highly recommend viewing them. In short, all the races are great, you can't really go wrong, so my advice (as a Barbarian Shaman) is to pick the one that appeals to you conceptually.

That being said ...

Barbarians: Level fastest, don't need any faction repair work
Ogres and Trolls: Need faction work and have XP penalties, but have a few friendly cities. Ogre's racial is the best one ... at level 60 with Torpor; the Troll/Iksar racial is better until then.
Iksar: Same regen as Troll, but huge faction issues and they can't use the JBB. They do get a small AC bonus other races don't get though, and with Velious they'll have equal equipment options (though still no JBB).

If you don't want to work on faction, pick a Barbarian ... or pick any other race, and just stick to your area (an Iksar could stay in Kunark until 60 if they wanted). If you don't want to save every last shekel you earn until 45, and don't have a friend with plat, don't worry about the JBB; it will be too expensive until you get to 60 (and then you won't really need it). Barbarian will get you to 60 quickest ... but once you get there you won't have regen or stun immunity, and the other shaman who took longer to get there will.

You could simplify it as: Barbarians are the best to level with, followed by Troll (regen rocks when leveling, but they have the XP penalty), followed by Iksar (same as Troll minus JBB), followed by Ogre (XP penalty and stun immunity isn't that helpful when leveling). At 60, with all your spells, especially come Velious, its reversed: Ogre is the best, followed by Iksar (AC > JBB at 60, and Velious doesn't have normal faction), followed by Troll, followed by Barbarian.

But that's a bit oversimplifying ... like I said, you really should just play whichever race appeals to you. Remember, you'll be staring at the model for the life of the character; in my mind, liking what you see is at least as important as the in-game factors.

[loramin]

P.S. One last thing that rarely gets mentioned: there are other JB* items besides the JBB. None of them are as good as the JBB, but the cheap ones are handy for raid buffing at lower levels, and the (not at all cheap) chest piece can cast a damage shield. Iksar can't use any of these.

[loramin]

P.P.S. Just noticed this:

It is something that I want to level for the sake of power leveling friends I make along the way

Shaman are NOT good power levels. They're better than many classes, but Druids are much better at lower levels (regen + damage shield) and Bards/feign death classes are better at higher levels (Bards swarm kite and you just sit and get XP vs. FDers who bring a mob down to 1%, then FD and let you finish it).

But if you really just meant "support friends" and not "power level", Shaman ARE great contributors to groups.