Advice for my shaman? He's kinda gimpy!

[Saker]

I have a barb shaman, loved playing a troll shamn back-in-the-day and didn't feel he was gimpy, but the barb shaman I have now, definitely feelin gimpy.

here are his stats and items, advice on what's the problem. Know that high level purchases are out of the question. But I must have some serious weaknesses that I'm missing...

barb shaman level 18
his own buffs
HP 407
mana 433
end 411
ac 412
atk 383

chitin shell armor
bone legplates
banded mantle
banded boots
guard bracelet
large ringmail bracelet
cracked darkwood shield
ykeshan war club
banded cloak
banded mask
turtleshell helm
initiate symbol of the tribunal

[RDawg816]

Are you soloing? Grouping? In what way do you feel gimped?

It's a lot easier at 24, for obvious reasons. If you're having mana issues - downgrade your spells that you can (slow and root mainly) - use inner fire to heal unless it's an emergency heal.

[Saker]

He feels very squishy! Gets beaten up badly/easily.

[Seteris]

Try and get together 500p to buy a pair of Platinum Fire Wedding Rings - 5AC/55HP per ring, which will last you into your 50s easily. Also come in handy for canni later on.

[Pyrion]

Shamans get better with levels. Those early levels can feel frustrating.

[Nixtar]

Try and get together 500p to buy a pair of Platinum Fire Wedding Rings - 5AC/55HP per ring, which will last you into your 50s easily. Also come in handy for canni later on.

This and go farm bandit sashes. Good money and decent exp where you are now(mobs might green out but the sashes still give goodish exp). Other alternatives are farming orc belts(deathfists to sell in EC/Crushbone Belt/pads in Greater Faydark).

I'm sure there are other ways(like nybright sisters etc) but those are the ones I've stuck to.

Main thing here though, is to in addition to your hp rings, farm up money for a poison wind censer. It has a ratio of 20/28 and cost around 800ish plat and it make your life as a meleeing shaman so much easier. Used mine all the way up to my 40s when I then had made enough plat to exchange it for a Granite Face Grinder.

[EdTuBrutus]

If you can get your AC up to around 450 then you should be able to continue tank n spank levelling. The problems is it starts to take a lot longer as the mob HP rises and you have no manaless form of damage other than your melee till you get to your pet at L34.

You're only two levels from losing the damage cap so if you can get your AC up then get through 18 and 19 things will speed up again with a nice 2h but it will still be far from ideal by the mid 20s. You really do need to consider either Rotting (predominantly from L24 to L34) or grouping till you get to Charm Animals at L29 if you fancy some charm killing.

I've always felt 14 to 34 were particularly hard for Shaman, moreso than most classes. What your good at and what is efficient keeps changing with every spell level and as the mobs level up, you don't have key spells like your Pet and there's some huge gaps between key spells (like your DoTs) which make them regularly ineffective during the progression.

[Jimjam]

Has anyone toyed with befriend animal in the 29-34 gap?

[Seteris]

Has anyone toyed with befriend animal in the 29-34 gap?
The Snakes in Splitpaw are very nice to use this on...Also, charming a Grimalkin in LoIO and killing Sarnaks while tanking them yourself is nice exp up until 31/32.
In North Karana at 32/33 until 34 when you get your pet you could grab a level 23/24 griffenne for extra dps when killing guards, however griffennes can be 23-27 so might not always be able to grab one of appropriate level.

[EdTuBrutus]

One of the best places is Everfrost Peaks where there is generally a good supply of Woolly Mammoths, all inside the level cap. As long as you are killing your pet every combat, then the XP is very good, like any form of charm killing. The only downside is there aren't any other mobs you can fight, so its just mammoths and more mammoths and they can run out.

LoIO, as Seteris says, is very good and if there is no bard there and has the added bonus of lots of other mobs in the same level range so you can just set the pet on Goblin, Sarnak or Skell. LoIO is probably the best place to do this at least till L32 when its greening out.

TBH though, if your heading to LoIO you should be looking for a Giant Fort group in Frontier Mountains first and charm killing in LoIO as a fall back.

[gummab]

Shamans get better with levels. Those early levels can feel frustrating.

This all the way unless you are twinked.

I was rolling some cloth and cracked staff at level 18 it felt CLASSIC.

[Cillaz]

You are gimped til 24, less gimped til 34, then a beast 34+
That's how sham life is.
Just to reiterate what others have said - 5/55hp rings and a poison wind censor will help get you to 24 easier. But I had only full banded and a brell keg popper til 24 and it was fine. Just slow. 24-29 goes quicker than 20-24! Hold on you're almost there!

[vouss]

Unfortunately you wasted all your money on banded armor (it does nothing) and should have bought HP rings (it does something)

[fugazi]

Until you hit 34/39, try grouping up and riding that sweet grouped xp train. Failing that, use/abuse charm animal when you get it. I'd still try and find a duo buddy (druid or necro) tho if you go that route.

[Nixtar]

Unfortunately you wasted all your money on banded armor (it does nothing) and should have bought HP rings (it does something)

Plain false. Get out of the "AC DOES NOTHING" echo chamber. No longer true.

[EdTuBrutus]

Plain false. Get out of the "AC DOES NOTHING" echo chamber. No longer true.

I figure this is a rumour started by farmers to get morons to buy worthless stat gear. I can't see any other way it could come about because it's one of the most visible and easy to see mechanics in the entire game.

[Jimjam]

I figure this is a rumour started by farmers to get morons to buy worthless stat gear. I can't see any other way it could come about because it's one of the most visible and easy to see mechanics in the entire game.

Yea, get hit by mobs on a corpse run and then again with full gear and buffs. It's easy to see.

Example: When I pass through rivervale on my warrior I like to disarm the guards for their spears (product recall, don'tchaknow). If I am waiting on a rez pretty much every hit will be max. If I am passing through most hits will be much lower.

However, I think there is a grain of truth to the rumour; it seems to me some of the more difficult mobs ATK is too high compared to the AC caps by level. In other words it is impossible to accumulate sufficient AC to meaningfully mitigate the hits of some mobs. I remember on live people would talk about the AoW being unmitigatable due to his huge ATK, perhaps too many mobs are tuned similarly here?

[EdTuBrutus]

Yea, get hit by mobs on a corpse run and then again with full gear and buffs. It's easy to see.

Example: When I pass through rivervale on my warrior I like to disarm the guards for their spears (product recall, don'tchaknow). If I am waiting on a rez pretty much every hit will be max. If I am passing through most hits will be much lower.

However, I think there is a grain of truth to the rumour; it seems to me some of the more difficult mobs ATK is too high compared to the AC caps by level. In other words it is impossible to accumulate sufficient AC to meaningfully mitigate the hits of some mobs. I remember on live people would talk about the AoW being unmitigatable due to his huge ATK, perhaps too many mobs are tuned similarly here?

Disclaimer - I've only been back since August after 14 years.

However, from everything I have seen there is no apparent difference in the melee mechanics since Live. As always, Level is the primary factor in any encounter - hence the lack of mitigation with the top end L70+ Raid mobs, there is likely an AC level at which a L60 player can start mitigating the highest level mobs - its just not reachable. The same, generally applies to Str, Dex and Agi, utterly worthless in **almost** all situations and working on the same mechanic as Live.

So I don't think it is any specific tuning for P99 you are seeing with AoW or such, it is simply a realistic emulation (or indeed potentially exact copying) of the original Live code.