Shaman - Choosing gear

[Nokio]

Hi all,

Question about gearing my Shaman. I have started to look at the Pre-Planar Gearing section of the shaman wiki page.

When there is multiple option for a specified slot. Do I take whatever I think is best? Or is there a general rule as to which is best?

For example, the face slot. I am not near the level required to be able to go get Polished Mithril Mask, which leave me to the 2 other choice( Platinum Ruby Veil, Bloodstone Eyepatch).
One give a lot of str and wis but no ac the other gives a 4 ac but less wis and some agi.

Sub question, How do I choose between more AC but less wis and vice versa or another stats?
for example, the chest piece says (Bloodstained Tunic, Foreman's Tunic, Totemic Breastplate)
totemic(when available) gives more AC but no wis.

Thanks for taking the time to instruct me!

[magnetaress]

go for easy to grab + mana stuf like hollowed bone bracers or + wis stuff like split paw hide gloves, then once u hit 45 - farm HGs or something and buy some decent velious +wis+mana items,

later on u can solo farm stuff like totemic if you want some AC for *hard* dungeon stuff

the only gear that seems to matter for a shaman is JBB, epic, and Torpor

[chevy79bu]

So for a shaman the soft cap for wis is 200. Early on raw mana helps more than wis but in the end you will want to try and get to 200. So when choosing the best option from the wiki when you have several to choose from you just need to consider where your at with stats. Also to note that HP and AC are also important to a shaman as you will use your hp to cannibalize into mana as well as needing hp and ac for tanking a few hits from time to time.

[dragoonJ]

Shamans are tough enough to take a few hits but won't be tanking a whole lot. Your spells are what will keep you alive (and rocking it)

imo wis > everything else until you hit 200 wis
(although at lower levels raw mana can be better than wis)

[loramin]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping_a_Shaman

Don't worry about stats, because they're all but meaningless. Instead, care about every non-stat effect an item can give you. Flowing thought, regeneration, procs, right-click abilities ... heck, even haste will do more for you than +5 Wisdom or whatever. Only care about stats for the slots that you can't (yet) fill with more meaningful items ... and even then don't actually buy such items, just fill those slots with things you pick up along the way, so you can save your plat to buy the meaningful stuff.

To anyone who disagrees: I challenge you to a competition.

You and me both go somewhere like Droga or Sebilis or Skyfire, and see how many goblins/frogs/dragons we can kill in an hour. You wear the absolute best stat gear a Shaman can possibly obtain ... but no Fungi, no JBB, no Epic, no mage focus item, no Goblin earring, etc. I'll wear only items that have a non-stat benefit, and leave myself entirely naked in any slot that I can't fill with such items.

20 plat says I kill more, because all your stat gear will do is let you go slightly longer initially without medding ... whereas my gear will be helping me kill many more mobs constantly throughout that hour :D

Stat gear (IMHO) is for raiding.

[Nokio]

Really interesting to read all of this.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer!!

Most of those item you speak of are for kunard and velious(I think). I am playing on green.
Since I don't really care about raiding, I could just pick what I find as I go and be successfull.
I was asking myself because I don't want to be a burden in group if I am not properly geared.
So far level 30 it has not yet been the case and did not want to become one.

Thanks a lot for the information!

[loramin]

Most of those item you speak of are for kunard and velious(I think). I am playing on green.

Well, Green will get them someday :) But yeah, I left out perhaps the most important rule of gear acquisition, on Blue or Green, which is: don't spend time on gear, because levels > gear.

For nearly every item in the game, the time it takes you to acquire the item > the time it will save you while XPing.

Really, pre-50 on Green I'd say the only item worthy of a Shaman's time is (ironically) a mage focus item. Anything else will just be meaningless stat gear: it certainly won't hurt to have it, but if you spend any time/effort to get it, that time/effort will be wasteful. You could have instead focused on XP, gotten to 50, and then gotten that item (or a better one) much faster overall.

In other words, just focus on XP and get to 50, if you want to be efficient. Go for gear if you're bored leveling and don't mind being less efficient ... although, again, I'd recommend saving your plat for future stuff that's worth spending it on (in classic that's mainly your future spells, but the JBB and more is coming).

P.S. In regards to:

I was asking myself because I don't want to be a burden in group if I am not properly geared.


Everything I said is actually way more true for grouping shaman than soloing shaman. Keep in mind, all stat gear does is give you more maximums ... but maximums aren't relevant over time. When you group, you decide when to cast, when to med, and when to cann, and it's that which determines whether you have enough mana to (say) slow and root when the puller screws up and brings five mobs at once in. It's not whether you start at 1000 hp/mana or 1200 hp/mana ... it's "did you keep enough while playing for the last half hour that when the shit hits the fan, you still can do your job?"

The only time stat gear would ever matter is if you started out at full mana/HP, the puller pulled a massive overpull ... but not so massive as to completely wipe you .... and you survived with less hp/mana than the tiny difference gear would have provided (and at low levels we're talking sub-100 of each). How many times can you remember where something bad happened, your group didn't just wipe, you started the incident at max, but when the smoke cleared you were at < 100hp? I'm guessing not a ton.

So really my point is, being a good shaman in a group has virtually nothing to do with gear, and everything to do with how you play them.

[Cen]

Its not a hard rule but on a lot of the gear sections they are A) best to slightly less best and B) in no particular order and even some missing some great options

I try to edit when I can but I don't want to make them too large either.

[Baler]

Look through this thread (11 pages)
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2208

I promise you won't be disappointed :)
Be sure to look things up on the P99 wiki

[turbosilk]

I have 2 sets. One places a premium on AC when I'm grouping because shaman get hit a lot doing CC.

The other set focuses on mana for raiding when I'm not as likely to be getting a lot of melee.

Solo gear as shaman? Dunno. Solo is for WoW people, grouping is for EQ people.

[Indecisive]

Solo is for WoW people, grouping is for EQ people.

The most played classes, by far, are solo-heavy classes. That's not a coincidence. EQ is for anyone who wants to play it, in any way they deem fun.

[magnetaress]

The most played classes, by far, are solo-heavy classes. That's not a coincidence. EQ is for anyone who wants to play it, in any way they deem fun.

ya i agree, ps u can solo a rogue but it requires creativeness beyond the 'snare root kite'

people who play necros, druids, shams, and mages are all gr8 nothing wrong with that, its a great place to start

there's no wrong way to adventure in eq

[Attos]

Really, pre-50 on Green I'd say the only item worthy of a Shaman's time is (ironically) a mage focus item.

Wat?

Also, I would say you're mostly right. For the most part I think casters don't really need gear. That being said, the better the gear you have the easier it will be to break camps when soloing. Sometimes being able to get one extra nuke/root/heal out can make the difference when breaking a camp.

[magnetaress]

get a good shield that extra ac really helps in that slot and only that slot really its like a permanent armor of faith buffins, unless u r uh, root jousting with a big hitter like gatorsmash

[dragoonJ]

get a good shield that extra ac really helps in that slot and only that slot really its like a permanent armor of faith buffins, unless u r uh, root jousting with a big hitter like gatorsmash

Is shield AC different than armor AC then? Or provides some other kind of non-AC benefit?

I've looked into that question before but haven't found a substantial answer.

[magnetaress]

Is shield AC different than armor AC then? Or provides some other kind of non-AC benefit?

I've looked into that question before but haven't found a substantial answer.

its been confirmed, and if you dig around in the very old bug/game mechanics section talking about ac that:

Shield AC is seperate from the armor cap. So it is not softcapped by class, so a wizard gets the same benifit from 15 ac on a shield that a warrior does.

This is really helpful pre-50 for 90% of classes in 70% of cases where you are going to get hit (casting slow, then root, on incoming)

I would argue on the whole, for most of the easy content, like under 40 dungeons, shields are really powerful and viable utility for most if you dont mind losing a little melee dps

good pullers in hate & fear 1.0 will put a shield on during the pull... there are MNK equipable shields )

my wizard has max int so she is using that shield from scryer that is 15ac and 20HP :D REALLY gud item for casters not shm usable, there's that poison shield off the spider, the resists on mistimoore shield are fantastic. and +9 wis shield from gnomes in sola

[Jimjam]

Stack AC. Maybe dabble in some MR if you’re having problems getting rooted or blinded.

The more AC you got the less damage spikes you take. The less damage taken the more spare regen you have to convert into mana. The more spare mana the more you can win at eq.

[loramin]

Wat?

Also, I would say you're mostly right. For the most part I think casters don't really need gear. That being said, the better the gear you have the easier it will be to break camps when soloing. Sometimes being able to get one extra nuke/root/heal out can make the difference when breaking a camp.

I'm not trying to say stat gear is worthless outside of raiding, just that it's more efficient to go for levels instead of gear while you're leveling.

If you're wearing twink gear, even just stat gear (no fungi/JBB), you absolutely will notice some differences vs. wearing looted armor from Blackburrow or wherever. I agree that you'll be better at breaking camps, and safer in general because you have more "buffer".

But when you're leveling you never need to break a super hard camp: there's always alternatives. If you take them you might not get quite as good loot, but you level just as fast, because "buffer" doesn't help you kill any quicker and thus doesn't increase XP gained.

But the mage focus item does. It adds a spell to your spell list, Reclaim Energy, which not only can save your life by converting your pet into a shot of mana in a pinch ... it also can give you a max level pet, which will do significantly more damage, and thus help you kill significantly faster.

Your pet is your best DoT, but its damage varies by level. With Reclaim Energy you can summon a pet, reclaim if it's not max level, and repeat until you get a max level pet. Then you can use that same pet for the next however many hours you want, killing faster that entire time because of it.

If you don't sit and grind for long periods of time it's less valuable, so I'm not even saying every Shaman should get it right away, but the differences in pet levels will absolutely affect your killing speed, and again, you'll keep using it even at 60, so unlike a +5 to stamina that you replace in 15 levels, this is an "investment" that lasts.

[utenan]

Get banded armor. Quest totemic when you can. Wear totemic for next 10 years. This is how I play anyways : )

[Vizax_Xaziv]

ya i agree, ps u can solo a rogue but it requires creativeness beyond the 'snare root kite'

people who play necros, druids, shams, and mages are all gr8 nothing wrong with that, its a great place to start

there's no wrong way to adventure in eq
Shaman is perfect for anyone who wants a class that's great for soloing and highly desirable for groups as well

1-24 is a bit of a slot. Soon as u get Canni everything changes and then again when u get your pet @ 34.

And again especially in Classic - those stat buffs are huge due to the lack of +stats gear

[turbosilk]

ya i agree, ps u can solo a rogue but it requires creativeness beyond the 'snare root kite'

people who play necros, druids, shams, and mages are all gr8 nothing wrong with that, its a great place to start

there's no wrong way to adventure in eq

I stand by my statement. If you are primarily a solo player I recommend other games. EQ is a grouping game that shines when forcing people to group for content and socialize. Try Red and a plethora of other games if you just want to solo. It'll be by far a better experience.

Solo mentality pushes for solo focus game play are what killed all of the modern MMOs including EQ.

[magnetaress]

I stand by my statement. If you are primarily a solo player I recommend other games. EQ is a grouping game that shines when forcing people to group for content and socialize. Try Red and a plethora of other games if you just want to solo. It'll be by far a better experience.

Solo mentality pushes for solo focus game play are what killed all of the modern MMOs including EQ.

That is 1 aspect of EQ, it is not the entire way to play the game bro

U are NOT wrong, ur in fact right, but your black and white bipolar thinking is really shading me

I personally like EQ rogues much more than wow rogues, for VARIOUS reasons

like, first of all there are zero dark elfs in wow, and pick pocket is a cool skill in EQ

It takes a clever mind to enjoy a rogue in EQ, in wow, rogues are only about dmg and kidney shotting in pvp, and less about adventure & mystery

weres my burnin rapier quest in wow with fire proc of doom??

what about POISON resist and farmin darkweeds? and legitimate use for pearl rings? not in wow

wow is cool i really enjoyed pvping on a 30 ish rogue in classic wow but it will never be EQ

[loramin]

I stand by my statement. If you are primarily a solo player I recommend other games. EQ is a grouping game that shines when forcing people to group for content and socialize. Try Red and a plethora of other games if you just want to solo. It'll be by far a better experience.

Solo mentality pushes for solo focus game play are what killed all of the modern MMOs including EQ.

Dude, you are so incredibly blind to the fact that there is more than one way to play a game besides the way you play it (especially a game like EQ).

[magnetaress]

case in point:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=354798

tattered and studded leather and the generosity of strangers, i didnt beg any of my gear i was just being chatty :3 and haggling a bit

[turbosilk]

Dude, you are so incredibly blind to the fact that there is more than one way to play a game besides the way you play it (especially a game like EQ).

Love all your good posts Loramin. Just keep in mind I'm on my socializing soap box to try to counter what I see as bias and emphasis towards soloing.

Yes there is more than one way to play. Let's keep it in the spirit of what made early EQ great and vanilla WoW and keep in mind things that lead to the downfall of EQ, WoW, etc.

[magnetaress]

Love all your good posts Loramin. Just keep in mind I'm on my socializing soap box to try to counter what I see as bias and emphasis towards soloing.

Yes there is more than one way to play. Let's keep it in the spirit of what made early EQ great and vanilla WoW and keep in mind things that lead to the downfall of EQ, WoW, etc.

That is great, totally agree, can't force socializing though. That is worse than not socializing. *says the asocial elf*

I believe the bias comes from a few things off the top of my head:


We were kids and everything was new and we wanted to explore the game and the best way to do that was together.
Now we are adults with busy lives we can't cater to other peoples in game needs as well
We all know the game and what we want to do, we have an agenda.
For health & sanity reasons most of us constantly get up and do something else IRL every 15~30~60 minutes this can be very random and doesn't fit into a grouping lifestyle.
Many of us are asocial and friendless both IRL and in game because this type of game attracts us and we can get by just fine independently. Doing things other than EXPing or killing dragons.


Soloing and being asocial on any class in this game isn't necessarily a negative or dark thing, sometimes its good for the server too. I can hang out and farm plat at an easy solo camp on my rogue, and buy Ice silks from a druid soloing worms in WW with charm pets. It's a win for both of us, especially if we can only dedicate a few minutes at a time to the game, most days.

That said I really love to socialize and have been accused of being a social butterfly, I spend most of my current socializing time on the forums because:


It is a non-linear form of communication, people can chatter in parallel, and I don't have to wait for anyone to respond and no one has to wait for me to respond and sometimes a simple F5 is a great way to discover a new and exciting thread. A lot of us are like, multicore now.

[magnetaress]

Soloers aren't going to kill EQ and always existed.

[magnetaress]

Plz don't solo shame.

[clacbec]

AC ... dont under estimate

[loramin]

Love all your good posts Loramin. Just keep in mind I'm on my socializing soap box to try to counter what I see as bias and emphasis towards soloing.

Yes there is more than one way to play. Let's keep it in the spirit of what made early EQ great and vanilla WoW and keep in mind things that lead to the downfall of EQ, WoW, etc.

Heh, I'm on a soapbox too, and look: we're both arguing elf sim philosophy here, so my last post didn't need to be so harsh. I do get what you're trying to say (I take it as "try to come out of your shell", which in general is a good message).

But at the same time ... I started Loramin (version 1.0) just as Velious was released on live, and the game was social to me from the start: the reason I made a Barbarian Shaman was because my real life friend made a Barbarian Warrior. I soon converted more real life friends and housemates (we had a mini-cyber cafe going in one room). I also made tons of friends in-game, like the Erudite Wizard concert promoter who had partied with Ozzy and warned me to "go see him now, he's barely there and can't have much time left" ... back in 2001 :D

I absolutely think the magic in EverQuest is in it's multiplayer nature ... and at the same time, both here and on live, I do/did a ton of soloing. I truly don't think those two facts are opposed in any way.

Even if you take the most anti-social person, they'll want to solo in a multiplayer world because such a world has more stakes than any non-MMO RPG. Even if they make a Necro and go from 1 to 60 without talking to another soul (no rezes, no ports, etc.) ... when they hit 60 they'll want gear. There's an upper limit to what they can solo, so they have to join groups/guilds to get better stuff.

So I say, play the game however you want: the game will "play you" toward eventually being social regardless, because that's the nature of a MMOG (or at least a good one like EQ).

[Jimjam]

It couldn’t have been much after 2001 that Ozzy died in that quad bike accident. So your friend wasn’t completely wrong. Don’t worry, the Prince of Darkness got better

[Vizax_Xaziv]

I stand by my statement. If you are primarily a solo player I recommend other games. EQ is a grouping game that shines when forcing people to group for content and socialize. Try Red and a plethora of other games if you just want to solo. It'll be by far a better experience.

Solo mentality pushes for solo focus game play are what killed all of the modern MMOs including EQ.
While I agree with much of this, EQ is also a game that caters to many different playstyles. Also playing on Red isn't really any kind of "EQ experience" at all due to the low population.

The Druid, for example, was designed for the self-sufficiency of a soloer's playstyle.

Also there's little worse in EQ than sitting around for two hours LFG on your Warrior or Rogue and getting almost nothing done. There's a reason why WOW made every class soloable to some extent

[Berendar]

I stand by my statement. If you are primarily a solo player I recommend other games. EQ is a grouping game that shines when forcing people to group for content and socialize. Try Red and a plethora of other games if you just want to solo. It'll be by far a better experience.

Solo mentality pushes for solo focus game play are what killed all of the modern MMOs including EQ.

Name a game that gives the same experience as dungeon crawling solo on an Enchanter or Necromancer, or hell even a Shaman when they get their Kunark tricks.

There isn't another single or multiplayer RPG that gives that experience or gameplay.

[turbosilk]

While I agree with much of this, EQ is also a game that caters to many different playstyles. Also playing on Red isn't really any kind of "EQ experience" at all due to the low population.

The Druid, for example, was designed for the self-sufficiency of a soloer's playstyle.

Also there's little worse in EQ than sitting around for two hours LFG on your Warrior or Rogue and getting almost nothing done. There's a reason why WOW made every class soloable to some extent

You'll find success starting a group instead of being passive expecting others to make your group for you. /who all [class] [level] is 100% for me starting groups regardless of the class I'm playing.

If you want auto grouping with total strangers constantly that you'll never meet again I recommend retail WoW.