Sol A a good solo spot for 21 Shammy?

[Lorian]

Howdy!

My Shammy is at the age of 21 looking for new hunting grounds, getting bored of Perma entrance even though the loot sometimes can be really nice (blocks of HQ ore). Plus the safe to pull mobs are turning green (somewhat negated by the very nice ZEM).

I am pondering locating to Sol A after reading the wiki, although I have not been there since EQMac a few years ago and never as a shammy. Would there be a good spot there for a shaman at this level, or do I need to grind a level or two/three and get the new spells before heading there?

Or any other decent solo spot you would suggest?

Thankful for any advice!!

[DrKvothe]

Honestly, solo is really over-rated til higher levels and I would try to duo at your level. Mobs haven't scaled way past melees at 21; a warrior/SK/pal/monk/ranger with a 200pp weapon or any pet class naked + you will level a lot faster in a dungeon than you by yourself, unless you're rocking a GFG + fungi + haste item. Soloing in dungeons with a shitty, unreliable root and no canni isn't fun, but that root is all the cc you really need in a duo/trio.

Try Uguk or unrest for dungeons. If you can get a group wolf form you'll be indifferent to the undead in unrest iirc, which makes pulls easy enough. You could also get some people (ench, necro, mage, druid are best) for some LoIO fear kiting action, which is real fun. Could solo yellow cons on my druid there by charming a dark blue tiger and fear kiting the grimalkins. More people just makes the kills faster.

[loramin]

The Per-Level Hunting Guide (http://wiki.project1999.com/Per-Level_Hunting_Guide) doesn't have any Sol A hunting spots until 32, but that doesn't mean too much (just that no one has reported such a spot yet). However, if you wind up wanting to go somewhere besides Sol A the guide has lots of ideas for other zones to consider (twelve in fact, at your level).

[DrKvothe]

Specifically about SolA, a lot of the casters see invis, so you won't be able to get deep into the dungeon solo without killing your way through or some very lucky root camping. Or some help, i suppose. But if you're doing this on your own, just try your way in one mob at a time and see how it feels.

[Lorian]

Thanks for the advice! I mainly solo on weekdays, that way I can go afk if the missus gets needy/cook dinner/feed guinea pig. Plus I get to keep all the loot and I want to save up for good gear! :) But grouping in Guk or Unrest sounds like something cool rediscover this weekend if I manage to reach 24 and get my better spells!

Goblins in Perma are mostly paired, so current tactic in is very unsophisticated; I root one goblin, the next one aggroes. I hit, bash and nuke that one and hope he is dead before the root poofs on the other one. I then hope there is enough mana to do the same nuke/melee procedure on the last goblin.

I dont even bother using slow because they die so quickly that I rather use the mana for another nuke. Although, after killing 2 goblins my mana is close todepleted and I need to med for 5 minutes unless the mobs were dark green.

Would I be able to apply this tactic in Sol A? The reason I was looking at Sol A is that the goblins there also drop the same valuable ore, but starts out a few levels higher than the ice goblins in Perma and I was hoping to be able to pull safely around the entrance just like I currently do?

I have decent gear for my level (as soon as i've grinded 3-400 plat in a session I head to EC to look for bargains, its addictive!); Keg Popper, 122 WIS, full banded with the odd piece of cheapo Jaundiced and Totemic bits, but I would love to increase my mana pool a bit. What you recommend that will not break the bank?

Sorry for the additional questions :)

[DrKvothe]

I'm actually very uncertain about optimal killing methods as a lowbie shaman. I vaguely remember having trouble killing two dark blues at those levels. I definitely remember I root/rotted, and I now have doubts as to the actual leveling efficiency of this strategy. Yes, I preserve most of my mana by the end of the fight, but relying on dots as sole dps means the kills take too long and I end up wasting some mana on re-rooting. Looking at wiki, the lowest level mob in SolA has 600 hp, meaning I'd need to keep affliction up for 8.5 minutes to kill it! Infectious cloud cuts that down a lot, but if you're camping a static spawn, you're effectively lengthening its spawn cycle by root/rotting. 6 minute spawn + 5 min kill is an 11 min cycle.

I'm currently leveling a shaman on Red, and he's lvl 14 atm so I'll be figuring this stuff out soon. I'm using http://wiki.project1999.com/Withered_Totem_of_Widdershins and I'm interested in trying to joust with mobs for med ticks. Against a rooted mob, step up and swing, then step back and sit in time with mana ticks. My effective delay will go from 42 to 60, but the mob's effective delay will go from 30 to 60. So a 30% melee dps loss for me, 50% for the mob. At lvl 20, hitting every med tick is another 100 mana per minute. That mana can be used to heal after the fight or spent on a nuke after root breaks but before reapplication.

If you expect a fight to last longer than 1 minute, affliction gives you better returns than using that mana on another spirit strike. I didn't use infectious cloud when I was leveling, but it looks to be pretty OP against two mobs. Root them somewhat close together, infectious cloud one and affliction them both, then finish the fight with your preferred method (some balance of nukes, sitting on your butt, meleeing).

24 changes things quite a bit. Canni effectively means that every 50 damage you take just cost you 20 mana. If you've got a fungi and GFG or something, you can just ignore this inefficiency, but for us mere mortals, simply not getting hit is likely more efficient than jousting or tanking. You also get a strong new poison dot, so your dps doesn't actually suck too badly when root/rotting.

Then there's 29. You get a new slow, gheal, quickness, lvl 24 max animal charm, and no new dps spells. I remember that I just sucked it up and sat in a group as healer/buffer til 34 (and hated it). This time I think I'm going to head to LoIO, charm a lvl 24 grimalkin near windmill, and kill sarnaks with pet + rot until it stops giving decent exp. I'll have to play around with quickness and tagars to see if they can be useful, but I think this will be a blast.

Shit starts to normalize out at 34, though, with fewer wild swings in our effectiveness.

[Velerin]

Yeah, I tried sol A on my shammy around then (maybe a bit higher) and just ended up having to zone out too often. Casters will eat you up, roots will break, mobs have high agro, etc. If you're doing the EC haggling try and get yourself a poison wind censor, maybe 1-1.5k and will make a huge difference for melee damage.

[Lorian]

Wind Censer tip noted! Might need to save for two levels to afford it though. Also the charm animal idea sounds very interesting! I wonder if this will work in Velious, charming Ulthorks to kill Ry'Gorr orcs and frost giants?

[loramin]

Is there some kind of funky Shaman/Druid hybrid I'm not aware of? Sounds interesting.

Shaman have always had (low-level) animal charms, they were just widely regarded to be useless on live. They're mostly un-used here too, but a few Shaman (mostly former Druids I'd imagine) do take advantage of them for the few levels they're available.

[DrKvothe]

Shaman have always had (low-level) animal charms, they were just widely regarded to be useless on live. They're mostly un-used here too, but a few Shaman (mostly former Druids I'd imagine) do take advantage of them for the few levels they're available.

This. I just leveled a druid to 39 on red before starting my new sham. I felt OP with a charmed grimalkin with a torch on the druid, I can't imagine how crazy it'll be with dots and canni + regen.

29 to 34 was my least favorite stretch on Winga. Solo, the 19 and 24 dots aren't very impressive at 33. When grouping, the sudden access to regen, haste, better slow, and greater heal meant groups always wanted 5x more from me than my mana bar could give. It was frustrating. I'm hoping for a different experience this time.

[Velerin]

There's a sweet spot from 29-33 before you get your real pet where the charmed pets are good for a shammy. I'd get a bull elephant in SK and fight treants. Slow poison, melee, let pet melee from behind, easy.

[Life617]

21 shaman here, as a solo player as well there doesnt seem to be an efficient way to level. I basically pull with one dot, run to a safe location, cast second dot and then melee. Some fights are good I don't lose too much hp, others are not so well. It's very grueling at this level, way less efficient then say a necro or mage, but a little more efficient then a pure melee, or hybrid.

[Lorian]

21 shaman here, as a solo player as well there doesnt seem to be an efficient way to level. I basically pull with one dot, run to a safe location, cast second dot and then melee. Some fights are good I don't lose too much hp, others are not so well. It's very grueling at this level, way less efficient then say a necro or mage, but a little more efficient then a pure melee, or hybrid.

Actually at this stage a twinked hybrid seems far more efficient than a Shaman. The other day I was looking with awe at this Ranger in Perma with a badass staff (looked like a tree trunk) and he had basically no downtime killing the mobs while rooting the adds. Literally he whacked them in seconds using almost no mana. Made me feel quite inadequate.. :(

[DrKvothe]

Velerin, you were dead right about bull elephants when soloing that camp, tyvm!

Life, I just leveled another shaman up through the 20s, so here's my take on it. That med-dancing strat I outlined earlier in this thread works really well. Get yourself a runewood great staff or higher damage 2hb, pull with affliction, hit mob when it gets to you, cast root, take another swing and back off and sit down. Then stand up and whack it after each med tick. Nuke when it saves you from having to cast another root. Things get better for you at 24 with regen and a higher dps dot/nuke.

To Lorian:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Woodsman%27s_Staff maybe?

The result you saw wasn't a hybrid thing, it's a twinking thing. Probably had decent haste and a fungi. At that level a shaman could achieve the same or better results with a GFG or PWC, haste and fungi as well. At that level the ranger's only real advantages afaik is double attack; it's not til 35+ when he gets riposte and 40+ when your combat skills cap and his keep going. Defenses cap at 200 for both. Meanwhile shaman gets regen at 24 and spell haste at 29.

[loramin]

I basically pull with one dot, run to a safe location
This is less than optimal, because when the mob is chasing you your DoT is not going to be doing its full damage (check the damage messages and you'll see what I mean). If you pull with slow you won't have that problem.

[BlkCamel]

This is less than optimal, because when the mob is chasing you your DoT is not going to be doing its full damage (check the damage messages and you'll see what I mean). If you pull with slow you won't have that problem.

Pull with Sicken it is only 2dmg and cheap, who cares if lose 1 dmg a tick while pulling!:D As you level you can use the higher level disease dots to pull, they last soo long its rare a mob lives to end so you are not wasting those ticks.:D


P.S. of-course can always pull with Malo line (expensive at low levels) or Walking sleep (til around 40 then switch to level 29 slow) but slow duration isn't long.

[DrKvothe]

Wouldn't bother with sicken, it's a waste of a spell slot imo. The same logic works for affliction pull tho. Affliction only does 6 dmg a tick and lasts like 20ish ticks, so losing 2 dmg for 2 of the ticks also won't make much of a difference. Since I med-joust, slow was just a waste of mana. When I hit 24 and got envenomed breath, which only lasts 7 ticks according to wiki, I started just pulling with a nuke if I planned to drag the mob along behind me for a couple of ticks. I stopped using affliction, because I've found that dragging out a fight for 2 minutes is less efficient than just spending some mana to speed the fight up.