Magician or Shaman

[keithjinternet]

Who’s the better at soloing classic content?

[DMN]

Mage, but only if you can keep the fights 1 vs 1. So basically the answer is "it depends". That's a big caveat, especially if you plan to solo in any dungeons.

[keithjinternet]

Yeah, I was thinking for solo in dungeons.

[DMN]

While there might be few things a mage can theoretically kill in a dungeon that a shaman can't, there is going to be far more camps and such that a mage is just not going to be able to break and hence won't be able to maintain the 1 vs 1. Overall if you want to dungeon dive, you are probably better off with shaman, and certainly so once kunark arrive.

[keithjinternet]

I was also thinking the shaman’s pet isn’t that much worse than a magicians @ 49 when you factor in buffs and slow

[DMN]

Oh i wouldn't go that far, certainly not in vanilla time frame. Mages have hastes for their pets at least as good as anything the shaman will be doing, and often times better haste, and their pets can DW,. DW on 40+ mobs usually increases the damage about 60-70%. Mage pets are somewhee around 5 levels higher on average than the shaman pets, too, which has a big impact on your pets ability to land hits in the first place(and taunt). And mages don't get slow but they get a 24 point damage shield. Also generally the mage pets have more HP than the dog, too.

[Balimon]

The big issue with mages in dungeons is lack of root or CC. If you have root nets it opens up some possibilities. Shamans are better overall I'd say though.

[Tecmos Deception]

I'd side with shams too. They're far from overpowering in a solo dungeon sense though. Slow makes tanking (for pet or the sham) a lot easier, root and dots are nice, you have some mana regen through canni, you can handle a tough fight slowly with malo and dots and root and pet.

But you're still too straightforward to shine. It's hard to break camps of 3+. You can't reliably interrupt spellcasters. You rely on ivu pots for undead dungeons. You have to fight to get past stuff that sees invis. No mem blur besides root+camp. No long root until kunark.

You have a few tricks like a pet occupying 3 mobs while you throw roots, or pet eating a HT, or malo+root being pretty reliable, but you lack the finesse a chanter or necro has in tight spaces vs multi-mob pulls.

[Midoo]

High effort, micromanaging dots and multiple buffs/debuffs = Shaman

Send pet, sit down and watch it kill stuff = Magician

Also consider that all Shaman races are either evil or terribly isolated so unless you want to go on a tedious pilgrimage home every 4 levels I advise off Shaman. Shammy is best in groups but when it comes to solo you'll want to crush your own skull with a bat less often while playing Magician than a ghetto cleric/necromancer hybrid.

[loramin]

High effort, micromanaging dots and multiple buffs/debuffs = Shaman

Send pet, sit down and watch it kill stuff = Magician


It's more like send pet, then spam nukes ... unless you're killing very low blues or high greens.

As a Shaman player who now plays a Mage, I've been very disappointed with how the class isn't half as lazy as everyone else makes it out to be. I'm still enjoying it, and I can't say it's as hard as playing Shaman ... but it's definitely not as lazy as I'd hoped.

[Pozzey]

the class isn't half as lazy as everyone else makes it out to be...

Sounds like you are not a total shitbag and can play a mage properly. Thumbs up.

[Life617]

Play necro in classic, chanter in Kunark and shaman in Velious. This will result in the best solo experience for each expansion.

[supermonk]

The big issue with mages in dungeons is lack of root or CC. If you have root nets it opens up some possibilities. Shamans are better overall I'd say though.

mage can do wonders with a few root nets and a mallet

[Asteria]

Shamans are hard to kill if you don't drunk-play or aren't incredibly reckless/new to the game.

Successful dungeon soloing on the other hand with a mage will make you feel a lot more special or competitive if you do it without root nets and heals. A lazy mage is not going to be soloing many dungeons for exp...

These 2 make a pretty powerful duo if you find a good friend that plays the other class. ;)

[Xruptor]

I'd say go Mage if it's your first toon. Will be a bit easier and you can solo quite well. Can even farm stuff for other alts. Nukes can be kinda strong and combined with pet should keep things interesting. You won't be able to root so some camps will be challenging but not impossible. Keeps you on your toes at least. If you can grab some nets those will help.

[Kron]

Mage:

- Best summoned pet
- Better to do 1v1 adds just waste your mana
- Lack CC but can use earth pet for root just no control over it.
- Utility is summoning food/water/weps/bags
- Straight forward class and not a bad choice for new players
- General solo strategy is toss pets at the enemy till it dies

Shaman:

- SOW, Haste, Slow, Regen, HP buffs, Heal
- Get to do the canni dance to help with mana regen
- Generally play a Troll so natural regen
- Get a weak pet that is more like a DoT
- Can solo or group with no issues
- General solo strategy is to root/rot but can tank with good gear early on

Adding this since it's also a pet class option

Necromancer :

- Faint Death is great for when things do go wrong also for safe AFK
- Lich for mana and Lifetap for Health
- Great solo class and plat farming class
- Little to no gear required
- Strategy Root/rot..fear kitting.. and Lifetap tanking at earlier levels.

[Snaggles]

I'd go shaman. Played well (or even decent) you have tons of backup plans.

Mages are great but have the versatility of a casting rogue. A bag of root nets, mallet and jboots would make it less stressful but the shaman comes with all those tools in it's spell book.

[Gatorsmash]

High effort, micromanaging dots and multiple buffs/debuffs = Shaman

Send pet, sit down and watch it kill stuff = Magician

Also consider that all Shaman races are either evil or terribly isolated so unless you want to go on a tedious pilgrimage home every 4 levels I advise off Shaman. Shammy is best in groups but when it comes to solo you'll want to crush your own skull with a bat less often while playing Magician than a ghetto cleric/necromancer hybrid.

Yaaa ah mages have ZERO crowd control. ZERO. So unless your 10 levels higher post 30 your getting smashed at those classic lvl 50 camps with just a single extra caster mob

[IriBlair]

I was interested in starting a Mage to compliment my Necro (two sides of the same coin), but I'm kind of turned off by the gameplay if its what ya'll are saying it is. The wiki implies you'd nuke alongside your pet, not sit down and let it go ham.

[Asteria]

I was interested in starting a Mage to compliment my Necro (two sides of the same coin), but I'm kind of turned off by the gameplay if its what ya'll are saying it is. The wiki implies you'd nuke alongside your pet, not sit down and let it go ham.

It might not be super efficient into late 20s or early 30s, you can briefly tank for your pet with a DS on while nuking down an add if you get 2 mobs. AE them if you have 2 or 3 for extra fun. This works better with 55hp rings and high level hp buffs. You can can regen back your hp with the phantom armor hp regen line or pay someone for regen/buffs etc.

Level 44+, you can do wonders 1vs1 with chain summoning fire pet w focus torch(once SolRo is released). With torch, you can probably chain summon fire pet at 39 too. Make sure you specialize in conjuration and keep backing off the new pet or don't get aggro/attacked until the new fire pet casts it's self DS. You'll have to have a dead pet and nuke to get full exp if you're soloing. Duo as much as possible to not have to worry about nuking and get the best results. Group with a ranged dps class preferably or anybody who won't take aggro from your fire pet.

[IriBlair]

It might not be super efficient into late 20s or early 30s, you can briefly tank for your pet with a DS on while nuking down an add if you get 2 mobs. AE them if you have 2 or 3 for extra fun. This works better with 55hp rings and high level hp buffs. You can can regen back your hp with the phantom armor hp regen line or pay someone for regen/buffs etc.

Level 44+, you can do wonders 1vs1 with chain summoning fire pet w focus torch(once SolRo is released). With torch, you can probably chain summon fire pet at 39 too. Make sure you specialize in conjuration and keep backing off the new pet or don't get aggro/attacked until the new fire pet casts it's self DS. You'll have to have a dead pet and nuke to get full exp if you're soloing. Duo as much as possible to not have to worry about nuking and get the best results. Group with a ranged dps class preferably or anybody who won't take aggro from your fire pet.

Ohh, I might not have been clear but I actually was looking forward to nuking the mobs while my pet attacks them. ^^; Seems that's not at all how Magician plays.

[Wallicker]

Shaman is a much better soloer in classic and the gap only gets wider. Also if you roll Cazic Thule shaman you get. https://wiki.project1999.com/Initiate_Symbol_of_Cazic_Thule This silly item will let you interrupt any undead caster even if it’s rooted :)

[Gustoo]

Shaman is a significantly more versatile class.

Most importantly they can go into dungeons and mages basically cant.

[Bardp1999]

Shaman

[loramin]

Ohh, I might not have been clear but I actually was looking forward to nuking the mobs while my pet attacks them. ^^; Seems that's not at all how Magician plays.

You absolutely can (and even should) play that way, sometimes. Really I don't think any class (certainly not Mage or Shaman) plays the exact same way, most efficiently, against all different mob types at all levels.

For mages it comes down to things like "did you just get a new pet? are you fighting one mob every so often (eg. an SK spire) or clearing an area (eg. Shralok orcs)? are the mobs glass cannons (low HP/high damage) or tanks? etc."

You'll want to get a max level pet, buff and equip it, and then keep it, using it to kill as much as you can while throwing nukes in the middle ... some of the time. Say, when clearing an area with a fair number of not super-hard mobs, and you just got a new pet spell so it wrecks them.

But if you're doing harder stuff, or one mob every so often with time to med, or you're on your last level before getting a new pet, you'll probably instead want to chain. And then in general the higher level you get, chaining tends to be the more efficient option (although even then it varies).