New SHM to server... save for JBB?

[shuklak]

My wife plays a SHM and I see there is talk about basically a few items being class defining for a shaman. One of them is the JBB. She's almost 40 and I was wondering if it's wise to, say, put all of our eggs (plat) into the JBB basket? I never played endgame shaman in classic, but I am led to believe this item never gets replaced?

So, it seems like a good "investment" rather than spread out the coin on ac/hp/mana.


Thank you.

[thijslaheij]

I am playing a 57 epic owning Shaman. And I can tell you first hand a JBB is a must have item!! I remember the day i dinged 45 en the first time i could use it, it IS a game changing item.

[Bones]

Yes its worth it, its a mana free 250 dmg nuke you can click over and over. It's either get JBB or Ikky bp if you don't have that yet. Either one is worth getting more than spreading out on a bunch of minor ac/hp/mana upgrades in other slots.

[jarlerop]

It's basically a 200dmg/tick free dot. Imagine that! Will never sell mine, so get yours asap :)

[RDawg816]

I'm a torpor shaman and I've never had one. It's mainly a solo item. Saving up for a fungi would be a better investment in my opinion. That's good in all situations, group or solo.

[Troxx]

In the short term it will pay for itself and you can always resell it. It will help you level 45-50 much faster solo or duo.

[Issar]

In the short term it will pay for itself and you can always resell it. It will help you level 45-50 much faster solo or duo.

This. When the returns start to diminish or you simply don't use it enough to justify not putting the plat elsewhere, you can always resell it. The EC market value seems pretty steady on them.

[Issar]

You can resell it. But it's also not a high priority item for a new player. Saving for a fungi and your 51-60 spells would be far smarter.

I don't disagree about a the value of a fungi, but you don't collect any dividends or interest in EQ from plat sitting in the bank. The item holds its value, so any loss or gains on the resale are fairly negligible. If using a JBB speeds up your leveling process by 5-10% and it has relatively no depreciation, then you are effectively earning time. We all know that time is money, so the item is actually an asset. That being said, if one has saved up the plat and the sale of the JBB will close the purchase of the fungi, then I wouldn't hesitate.

I played a barb on live and an iksar on P99, so I clrearly value regen for leveling. That and master races ( in-game, not RL).

[loramin]

You can resell it. But it's also not a high priority item for a new player. Saving for a fungi and your 51-60 spells would be far smarter.

As a level 60 shaman who still uses EBolt and Plague and only just got a fungi (but has had a JBB since the 40's) I would strongly disagree. You can get most 51+ spells for cheap, and the ones that cost more than 1k really aren't necessary. All upgrading your offensive spells does is let you spend mana more inefficiently to kill a little faster, which isn't what you want when leveling because you don't care about the speed of killing one mob, you care about overall efficiency.

But a JBB, if you use it properly, will greatly increase your leveling speed. It's hard to compare, but in the 40's/early 50's I actually think the JBB might even improve your leveling rate more than a Fungi.

Now, none of this addresses the most important shaman item (unless you count Torpor as an item): your epic. That will make more of a difference (at least in some camps) than a JBB and a fungi combined.

[shuklak]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I did not consider the Ceremonial Iksar Chestplate. That seems pretty nice. Obviously it is not as good as a Fungi, but that's not really on my radar. I am playing a mage and my wife a shaman both from "scratch" so we have maybe 2-3k between us. I figure it will speed up now that we're approaching the 40's.

After looking at the https://wiki.project1999.com/Ceremonial_Iksar_Chestplate I wonder, is this an item that's going to be "campable" in an exp sense? I last played Kunark around 2001 so, yeah, my memory isn't fresh lol.

[Troxx]

I got my first JBB at 56 and never used it because it was such a bad use of my time. Time spent clicking was time better spent buffing, slowing, healing, canni dancing, or medding. It's not 'free' necessarily because the cast time is quite long. Chain clicking it into your 50s inevitably means you slack at one or more of your class defining roles. It's also been shown that at max level you actually LOSE damage compared to canni/torpor/pox/bane.

For 45-50 it's definitely worth it. Much past 50, whether duo or full group you'll generally be a lot more productive not clicking JBB.

Playing my other characters, I always hated grouping with JBB shamans who insisted on chain clicking their bracer and then mysteriously didn't have enough mana to the absolute basics like keep hastes up on melee, slow the mobs, and keep regen up on who would benefit from it. Chain clicking with little to no resists is about 30 dps.

Playing my shaman, using that JBB not only cost me a cannidance cycle's worth of mana - it occupied 8 seconds of my time per click. Duo/trio we would kill faster if I focused on slowing early, keeping buffs up, root CC'ing and maintaining mana so we could chain pull without downtime. If I had extra time and high mana and more dps was needed, a single cast of envenomed bolt at 1.3k damage was worth 42 seconds of chain clicking JBB. Usually I was busy enough keeping up with slow/buff/cc mana that there wasn't a ton of time for doing more.

[shuklak]

I've thought about that as well... just the, well, boringness of clicking something so long.

I am not sure what the game is like 50+, but I was in MM at 35 and basically chain casting as it were. In the back of my mind I'm hopeful they get some good group buffs in the coming levels... :o

[Troxx]

Shaman buffs get better and last longer. More importantly the shaman needs to know what people actually NEED rather than dropping a full wad of stat buffs on each person.

My triage in order of importance:
-sow to puller
-haste to melee
-regen to puller, tank, and anyone who routinely gets hit
-str buffs to melee
-dex to warrior
-hp buff to tank
-hp to the rest

Everything else comes after and only if needed.

[jarlerop]

JBB is a solo and sometimes duo item. I hope noone is using it in a full group :)

When your fighting really hard mobs solo at 60, and can barely keep up with torpor/canni is when i use it the most. Those fights my dmg comes from jbb, epic and pet. Sometimes a resist on pox or bane can really hurt, even more so when you have a small manapool like me.

[jarlerop]

I've thought about that as well... just the, well, boringness of clicking something so long.

I am not sure what the game is like 50+, but I was in MM at 35 and basically chain casting as it were. In the back of my mind I'm hopeful they get some good group buffs in the coming levels... :o

Tbh the group versions arent as strong and wont stack with fos. Only time i use them is to buff low level characters.

[Troxx]

Group stamina is totally worth it - nothing like not having to spend 900 mana and manage 6 timers when 350 mana gets you a buff 80% as good, lasts 88% as long and hits all 6 with 1 cast. For str and dex (for those who need beyond focus) I cast the single shot for stacking purposes.

[SirAlvarex]

Leveled my Shaman with a Fungi from day. Even had a Fungi Staff for a short while. Those helped tremendously.

But the day I dinged 45 everything changed. The regen from the Fungi is awesome and really speeds up leveling. The JBB, however, speeds up killing. The mobs you'll kill between 45 and 50 are all low enough where you can JBB them down and only worry about casting root. Yetis and Spectres all melt to the JBB so you can hold an entire camp and rocket yourself to 50+.

After level 50 it's the best "well the mob has 5% left...lets finish them off" choice. Even after having the epic I still find myself using the JBB to finish off spawns if I'm in a heavily camped area and can't find chain pulls (hello CoM).

In groups I barely use it. But there are times where it can be quite useful. Everyone buffed, I'm on secondary heals, and mobs don't last long enough for epic to matter? Throw in a couple nukes to make things a bit faster. In duo's tho the JBB can be an important DPS addition.

IMO it's the best item you can buy considering its cost. A Fungi will rocket you from 1-30. The JBB will finish it up from 45-53 . After that the epic is really the item that'll shine.

[loramin]

After looking at the https://wiki.project1999.com/Ceremonial_Iksar_Chestplate I wonder, is this an item that's going to be "campable" in an exp sense? I last played Kunark around 2001 so, yeah, my memory isn't fresh lol.

"Camping" the Chestplate is basically the same as "camping" the Sebilis key (all the mobs involved are in the same area of the Emerald Jungle). You'll need a tracker, ideally one who's good at running through the jungle looking for a track target while not picking up too many adds, but it's doable (and if you don't have a Seb key yet you can work on both at once).

[shuklak]

"Camping" the Chestplate is basically the same as "camping" the Sebilis key (all the mobs involved are in the same area of the Emerald Jungle). You'll need a tracker, ideally one who's good at running through the jungle looking for a track target while not picking up too many adds, but it's doable (and if you don't have a Seb key yet you can work on both at once).

Thanks... hah... haven't done a Seb key in 15 years I figure. Maybe I'll get lucky! Still 40 though.

[loramin]

Thanks... hah... haven't done a Seb key in 15 years I figure. Maybe I'll get lucky! Still 40 though.

Yeah I can't remember what level I was when I did it, 40 might be a little low (and low for the Ikky Chestplate). Might be doable though.

Whenever you do get to it the Seb key is pretty easy: you just need two mobs for it, the hunter and the forager, and if you're already running through the jungle looking for the Ikky Chestplate mob anyway it's trivial to look for them too.

[deadlycupcakez]

its actually required to look for them too because in order to spawn Zoglic, you have to kill any/all mobs that spawn on the Forager Cycle (only one mob from the forager cycle can be up at a time and luckily WILL ALWAYS be up due to the immediate nature of the respawn). I guess that excludes the Hunter cycle though :P
Good luck and enjoy the camp!