Iksar Shammy - pre-twink

[OuterChimp]

So, I've never played a shaman and was thinking about maybe starting one when Kunark comes out.

I may start setting some gear aside now.

Any thoughts or recommendations to get started right?

Thanks,

[loramin]

So, I'm one of the least min/max people here: I fully encourage people to make Human Monks, Barbarian Shaman, etc.

But ... I also think people should at least be aware that there are trade-offs to different races, and as such I just want to warn you that Iksar are (IMHO) the worst Shaman race, for one simple reason: they have all the pros/cons of Trolls, except that instead of suffering from large size they lose the ability to wear Jaundiced Bone Armor (and other plate armor) ... and that armor (the Jaundiced Bone Bracer in particular) is really good.

To be clear, I AM NOT SAYING YOU SHOULDN'T MAKE AN IKSAR SHAMAN! I'm just saying, if you haven't even looked at http://wiki.project1999.com/Shaman#Picking_the_Right_Race yet ... you should. Then, if you still want to, by all means go roll an Iksar :) But maybe once you weigh the pros and cons, you might not even want to wait for Kunark, and you may wish instead to roll an Ogre/Troll/Barbarian Shaman today!

[Blingy]

Assuming you do go the route of the Iksar I'd recommend getting a pair of 5/55 or 6/65 rings. After that get what you can out of this list: http://wiki.project1999.com/Shaman#Gearing

[loramin]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Shaman#Gearing

Or, the better (IMHO) ... http://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping%20a%20Shaman

It has everything that first link has, plus the total stats of every major shaman suit of armor, plus a hand-curated list of items that matter because of procs/clicks/regen ... eg. the JBB ;)

[OuterChimp]

All very interesting. I thank you all for posting.

[Blingy]

Or, the better (IMHO) ... http://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping%20a%20Shaman

It has everything that first link has, plus the total stats of every major shaman suit of armor, plus a hand-curated list of items that matter because of procs/clicks/regen ... eg. the JBB ;)

Never knew that page existed. Thanks!

[Baler]

@OP short and sweet. Get to level 60 as fast as possible, Get torpor. Enjoy your new life as a shaman with torp. No other gear or spell compares to what a game changer torp is for the shaman class.

Never knew that page existed. Thanks!

Loramin has been working on a few projects in the background, here is another
https://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping%20a%20Necromancer

:D He does great work on the wiki

edit ps. It's linked on the shaman page
https://wiki.project1999.com/Shaman#Gearing

[loramin]

@OP short and sweet. Get to level 60 as fast as possible, Get torpor. Enjoy your new life as a shaman with torp. No other gear or spell compares to what a game changer torp is for the shaman class.



Loramin has been working on a few projects in the background, here is another
https://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping%20a%20Necromancer

:D He does great work on the wiki

edit ps. It's linked on the shaman page
https://wiki.project1999.com/Shaman#Gearing

/blush

My goal is to someday build up a page for every class, because I think every class has "notable" items: they either have a meaningful click, proc, or other effect (pet focus effects, HP/Mana regeneration, haste, etc.) ... or, for weapons, they could just have a good damage/delay ratio for how attainable they are.

The problem is, I don't know every class's items the way I know Shaman: a lot of that Necro page came from a thread someone started about key Necro items. My hope is that other people will run with the idea, and add items to existing pages, or create new ones for their class.

[Blingy]

I'm semi-torn between making my own thread and hijacking this one so.....

Many years ago I made a barb shammy back on Saryrn server. Somewhere around level 3 or 4 frustrations got the best of me and the delete button was used. A little while later my wife did the same. She ended up making an iksar shaman and levelled it to 90 something, lots of fun.

Fast forward to me playing on p99. Barbarian rogue, leveled to 4 or 5 then met the delete button. Barb warrior didn't even make it to level 2.

Barb newbie area in Everfrost just plain sucks. Even Nek forest and Toxx are better. Any tips to surviving EF until a swarm of yellow and red con's don't have it out for me? Am I just lazy/spoiled with Field of Bone, Steamfont and Misty Thicket?

[loramin]

I'm semi-torn between making my own thread and hijacking this one so.....

Many years ago I made a barb shammy back on Saryrn server. Somewhere around level 3 or 4 frustrations got the best of me and the delete button was used. A little while later my wife did the same. She ended up making an iksar shaman and levelled it to 90 something, lots of fun.

Fast forward to me playing on p99. Barbarian rogue, leveled to 4 or 5 then met the delete button. Barb warrior didn't even make it to level 2.

Barb newbie area in Everfrost just plain sucks. Even Nek forest and Toxx are better. Any tips to surviving EF until a swarm of yellow and red con's don't have it out for me? Am I just lazy/spoiled with Field of Bone, Steamfont and Misty Thicket?

The first character I ever made on live was a Barbarian, so to me it's just a typical EQ newbie area. I think the really key things are to ALWAYS keep track of where you are (those white walls make it difficult, but you can learn the area), and try to pull mobs out of the "stream" of mobs, to the side where you can't get adds.

Also, run like hell from any skeleton model you see until you can confirm that it's not a Vengeful :) Within a few levels you'll be able to head to Qeynos if you really dislike EF that much.

[Blingy]

So had a bit of time to kill. About an hour ago a shinny new barb shaman came into being. Hand in my note to get the guild tunic then off to EF.

Con a mob, yellow. Next one, yellow. Next one yellow....rinse and repeat.

I tried to take one on since that's all that was available....yep, LOADING......

Next a friendly druid hit me with skin like rock, sow and strength of earth. Decided to try another yellow con. Luckily I made it back to the guards. Just as SoE an SLR were wearing off an even con showed up. Kill it, loot the rusty mace and head back to town.

Finally with burst of flame in my arsenal here's hoping things turn around. Well, nope. I've spent more time training mobs back to the guards than I have actually fighting. Now an hour after character creation I've managed to find and kill three even con's plus nearly 50 yellow con's have been taken out by the guards.

No other newbie zone has this ratio of yellow to even/blue con's. Only Steamfont has this ratio of aggressive to passive mobs but even there the aggressive mobs can be easily avoided. I'll give it a bit more time and effort but something seems off here.

[loramin]

So had a bit of time to kill. About an hour ago a shinny new barb shaman came into being. Hand in my note to get the guild tunic then off to EF.

Con a mob, yellow. Next one, yellow. Next one yellow....rinse and repeat.

I tried to take one on since that's all that was available....yep, LOADING......

Next a friendly druid hit me with skin like rock, sow and strength of earth. Decided to try another yellow con. Luckily I made it back to the guards. Just as SoE an SLR were wearing off an even con showed up. Kill it, loot the rusty mace and head back to town.

Finally with burst of flame in my arsenal here's hoping things turn around. Well, nope. I've spent more time training mobs back to the guards than I have actually fighting. Now an hour after character creation I've managed to find and kill three even con's plus nearly 50 yellow con's have been taken out by the guards.

No other newbie zone has this ratio of yellow to even/blue con's. Only Steamfont has this ratio of aggressive to passive mobs but even there the aggressive mobs can be easily avoided. I'll give it a bit more time and effort but something seems off here.

Are you fighting in that area directly in front of the Halas canyon? Like any newbie area I remember it having a mix of level 1-3 mobs, but certainly there should be some 1s in there. If not that almost sounds like a bug.

Also it's been awhile, but I'd think a level one, with the newbie weapon and burst of fire, starting at full health/mana, should be able to take a level 2 warrior mob (at least most of the time) ... no?

[Blingy]

Yep, right in front of where the two guards are.

Anyway, a very kind druid ran past me.....level 50 druid buffs put me into god mode. One burst of flame and the mobs died to the DS. It takes very few yellow con mobs to ding level 2. Short time later level 3. I'm now level 4 and hunting goblins in a little out of the way culdesac while doing laundry.

[loramin]

Yep, right in front of where the two guards are.

Anyway, a very kind druid ran past me.....level 50 druid buffs put me into god mode. One burst of flame and the mobs died to the DS. It takes very few yellow con mobs to ding level 2. Short time later level 3. I'm now level 4 and hunting goblins in a little out of the way culdesac while doing laundry.

Awesome :) I swear though, many Barbarians (myself included) have made it from level 1 to level 2 without level 50 Druid buffs! It is possible ... I think maybe you just got some bad luck with the RNG or something.

Or again, it could be a bug (maybe when they altered the spawn rates for Green they broke something?) If other starting Barbarians observe something similar someone should file a bug.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Here is a list of Shaman races, best to worst. This assumes you want to Min/Max, you have no serious problems with a race's character model, and your goal is to reach level 60, gain Torpor, and gain your epic.

1. Ogre
Benefits: Slam, Frontal Stun immunity, can use Jaundiced Bone Bracer.
Explanation: At level 60 with Torpor, an extra 8 standing HP regen from Trolls/Iksars is not very effective. The reason is simple. Torpor gives you 300 HP regen per tick. An additional 8 HP is not a large percentage of 300. I am not saying extra HP regen isn't useful (it still is), but it will not be the huge advantage it is pre-Torpor. You can easily see proof of this, if you do not believe my word alone. It is fairly rare to see level 60 Torpor Shamans with a Fungus Covered Scale Tunic plastered to their chest. It can still be useful, in certain situations, but most Shamans go for a Chestplate of Vindication instead. If 13 HP regen is worth losing due to Torpor, 8 HP regen is worth losing as well. Frontal Stun Immunity cannot be obtained via gear, and it allows you to land Torpors and slows more often. A bad string of Torpor/Slow interrupts can spell big trouble when you are fighting a tough monster.

2. Troll
Benefits: Slam, Regeneration, can use Jaundiced Bone Bracer, can use Regent Symbol of Innoruuk for snares (Shamans do not have any snare spells).
Explanation: Extra regeneration is still a great racial ability, even with Torpor. Trolls can still use Jaundiced Bone Bracer, and they also get Regent Symbol of Innoruuk, which allows them to snare targets that are running away. The necklace isn't amazing, however. It only lasts 6 ticks, and the snare is so bad the monster needs to be at 10% health to stop running, instead of the usual 20.

3. Barbarian
Benefits: Slam, Can use Jaundiced Bone Bracer, can use Barbarian Spiritist's Hammer, has the best XP bonus when leveling to 60.
Explanation: I personally put Barbarians over Iksar's in this case. JBB is more useful than 8 HP regen at 60 with Torpor, in my opinion. Shaman spells cost a LOT of mana, and having a free nuke is a great way to save mana in certain situations. The 8 HP regen isn't going to save you more mana than a JBB. 8 HP regen per hour means 4800 HP per hour, or 2400 canni'd mana per hour. This means you only get 16 casts of your DD per hour for free. I have certainly used JBB more than 16 times per hour, even at 60. You also need to waste a spell slot, which is premium on Shamans. A Torpor shaman will always have Canni 4 and Torpor on Bar. They will also almost always have Malo and Slow on bar. This means you only have 4 spell slots to spare. If you want to have gate up for an emergency, that number goes down to 3. Saving spell slots is a huge deal.

4. Iksar
Explanation: Regeneration, Racial AC bonus, Forage
Reason: Forage is a useful skill if you are planning on doing a lot of crafting. There are quite a few items in the game that are forage only, and needed for tradeskills. This means Iksars will have an easier time doing Shawl 7 quest, and leveling up tailoring to master levels. Iksars do get an innate AC bonus, but the mitigation you gain is not worth losing a spell slot on a DD. There are no other tangible benefits to being an Iksar, other than fashion quest. If you want regeneration, Trolls have way more benefits.

[OuterChimp]

I took all of the advice you guys offered. I also looked at all the links.

I decided to roll an ogre shamman. I've never played an ogre so newb'ing it in Feerott is new to me too.

thanks guys!