Shaman Soloing *tips & advice*

[NenshouStar]

Hey, playing on and off for a while as a level 40ish Shaman,
and up until this point I've been mostly experiencing it in a group setting.

wondering how y'all solo the mobs, root rotting doesn't seem to work so well atm.
it seems like if I get a resist, or root breaks too often. I'll run oom, and it just simply doesn't work.
I may just be going after dark blues that are too high. but I'm wondering your tactics.
is it better to slow/tank the mob with dots? if I'm root rotting, how can i do it most efficiently on the Shaman etc.

any tips or advice is appreciated. thanks all.

[brecon]

You can root rot but it's a bit annoying, the dots aren't that mana efficient and you'd have a lot of downtime. Root rotting really takes off once you get the epic.

I soloed CoM entrance and duo'd stables basically all the way to 50, with a little time trioing at the moat. From 40-50 you can still slow tank effectively if you have a rogue or a monk to deal damage for you. I am a Barbarian, so I would just rely on the procs from the Barb Spiritists Hammer and dog dog in addition to melee attacks when I soloed, and I saved the mana for slows, heals, regens and roots.

As a non-Barbarian I'm sure it's doable as well. At 45 you can click JBB and then root / nuke until 50.

[Estu]

I think at 40, unless you have quite good gear, root-dotting is probably the way to go. Root really should not be breaking that often if you're targeting low blue monsters. You can have your pet around for a little help with CC when pulling multiples before you get them rooted, and to contribute a little DPS and then back off and heal up. I would not bother buffing the pet at all.

[Velerin]

I've been leveling my shammy thru this period now and 44 atm. I've found the most important thing is to pick your targets. I'm geared AC, str, and HP (mixture of banded, totemic, hp rings, iksar scaled gloves). I do have a GFG but even a PWC isn't too far behind in dps. With str buff I have about 850 attack now and hit pretty consistently.
If I find low dark blues I can slow melee them and they don't even outdamage my regen (no fungi, just troll and spell regen). I usually canni during the fight also. If mana is good I toss in a poison dot. But by tanking you can also get continuous pet dps. If mana is running low I root the target, back off and med/regen while pet tanks a bit. Its basically non stop kills this way.
I also used Walking Sleep up to about 40. Only 60 mana for ~25%, where the next slow is 120 mana for like ~30% and same duration. I only switched to the 39 one recently for tougher mobs.
After the root break changes it really took a hit on root rotting. Even low blues have a tendency to break before full duration. The real key to the melee strategy is targeting those low blues.

[BlkCamel]

Hey, playing on and off for a while as a level 40ish Shaman,
and up until this point I've been mostly experiencing it in a group setting.

wondering how y'all solo the mobs, root rotting doesn't seem to work so well atm.
it seems like if I get a resist, or root breaks too often. I'll run oom, and it just simply doesn't work.
I may just be going after dark blues that are too high. but I'm wondering your tactics.
is it better to slow/tank the mob with dots? if I'm root rotting, how can i do it most efficiently on the Shaman etc.

any tips or advice is appreciated. thanks all.

If you are getting resist throw a level 29 malaisment down on the mob really helps. Also I was using the slow walking sleep at that level and letting dog do some melee backing him off when hes low health. You can bump up to the higher slow if you feel mob still hitting too fast but walking sleep works til 45ish if root rotting.:D

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

I find it's most helpful when the battle ends with my hp > theirs.

[loramin]

The way I see it, Shaman have several different modes of fighting to choose from:


battle mode: slow mob, possibly DoT mob, tank mob while pet flanks
pet mode: root mob, slow mob, DoT mob, let pet tank
root/rot mode: root mob, DoT, send in pet periodically then pull him out when he gets low


There's also a variation of #1 if you have a JBB:

JBB battle mode: slow mob, JBB mob while pet flanks


Ultimately, you want to adjust your style to what you're fighting and what level you are. In general, you want to do:

battle mode - if a mob doesn't hit that hard and you have a decent melee weapon OR if your pet does so much damage on his own (> 50%) that he's stealing XP
pet mode - if a mob doesn't hit that hard and you can still out-damage your pet with him tanking
root/rot mode - if a mob hits hard but has less hit points


If a mob hits really hard AND has a ton of hit points, it's time to find a different mob ;)

P.S. If your current hunting spot is full of high HP/hard-hitting mobs, you might want to look at the Per Level Hunting Guide (http://wiki.project1999.com/Per-Level_Hunting_Guide) for alternate places to hunt. Personally I killed a whole lot of Troll guards in Grobb at that level, and they were great, but if you're an Ogre/Troll you may want to look elsewhere.

[Koh]

I'm finding my solo tactics from way back in the day are working just as well at level 41.
- I fully buff my pet, except for regen, and leave the taunt on.
- I only take on blues. White cons aren't worth it.
- I send the pet in first so it gets initial aggro, and then I slow the mob. (if its a higher level blue I malo first)
- Once slow lands the mob will aggro on me, so I turn and run to a safe spot
- By the time I've reached a safe spot the pet sometimes has aggro back, but if he doesn't I just stand there while the mob gets chewed on by the pet. Eventually you can back up and the pet holds aggro. By that time the pet has generally regen back to full health.
- I sit down and med while the pet tanks. After a little bit I'll throw a poison dot on, and if I don't get aggro I sit down again. After a little more I'll throw a second poison dot on.
- Have the nuke loaded and get ready for the slow to wear off. Rather than throwing another slow on I'll hit with a nuke.
- If you've picked a mob that runs they will be turning right about now. Keep sitting and let the pet finish it off. By the time it's dead the pet will be full health and I am getting close to full mana.
.......
All this being said if you pick a mob that is too high of a level you will get too many resists, and your pet won't make it long. Root/rot is the only option for these, and I pull with the malo and don't even slow it. If spells aren't landing on a white con you are just going to have to bail and run.

[fishingme]

well this is pretty simple to chime in. It's a bitch until you get your epic. at most you will root/rot 2-3 mobs before you run out of mana, even when picking lower level dark blues. Easiest is duoing with a monk.

[Jimjam]

When I played my shaman on live I found if I was quick I could switch out my memmed spells whilst tanking a slowed mob if I was quick. This let me pour more DoTs into the mob.

Obviously you only want to do this when fighting weaker things and you are trying to level your defence or if you want your pet to be able to melee without it tanking. Most other times you want to avoid tanking.

If you are struggling with root in open zones you could try using flash of light instead.

[WarmagMithMarr]

Get a REIF (rune etched icewurm fang) which procs nukes (which can stun). Send pet in on the mob, slow it, dot it, then tank it and heal yourself as needed. With good armor you should be fine. I had a necro with amazing AC and regen equipment on live EQ that tanked up to 62 via taps so it should be possible to do so as a shaman using heals until 60. If not, slow, dot and have the pet tank the mob as you heal pet. At low levels I nuked and dotted and ran (far), medded, healed myself, ran again, dotted, repeat. At higher levels I used the pet more and tanked in tandem with pet. At even higher levels root rot was the key. Even today at level 105 on EQ live I use REIF whenever I jump in for melee action (the procs on your leopard line of spells fires off way more often on this fast acting weapon).

[Skinned]

I am level 40 now, almost level 41, have soloed 1-40. I root rot mostly, and have cruised through 39 and through most of 40 killing either Hill Giants in Rathe Mountains, or Spectres in Feerrott and Oasis. The Feerrott spectres spawn quickly and the front two are enough to keep me occupied. The spectres in Oasis are on a 16 minute timer, and I am able to work my way around the square and keep up. I keep up talisman, shifting shield, strength, SOW, cloroplast, quickness in case I need to melee at all (and get that stun proc from Howling Harpoon), and levitate in Oasis.

I have no issues with root, and my enstill usually lasts for the full duration. The reason it does is because I cast malaisement on the mobs before I enstill them. I also cast the low mana disease debuff. For each spectres I pull with malaise, use insideous fever (DR debuff), root, back away, VotS, Scourge, VotS, Scourge, VotS. Giants I let just flee until they drop, spectres in Oasis will not run and I melee them when they get very low (they can do some damage though), and I root the spectres in Oasis because they do flee, they flee into the cave toward the Fear portal, and if you're outside they flee into the zone borders and can die just out of range to loot.

For the record I have around 900 AC and an Ikky regen BP so I'm beefy, plus Iksar race, and I am constantly doing the canni dance. Be sure to sit for your mana tick and canni between ticks....and wait for that backtick in mana!