Shaman downtime

[Magevro]

For experienced Shaman soloists..

I looked through and didn't see anything regarding this(so plz no flame if I missed it). I'm curious whether or not the cannibalize line of spells makes a huge difference in downtime(like a noticeable one over other non-enchanter/buffed caster classes). Whether it makes it faster, or instead, you take the same amount of time casting it and healing yourself to regain mana instead of just sitting.

I like classes with low downtime like bard, enchanter perhaps, etc(I don't have the time or the mental fortitude to play a wizard) and wanted to know if Shaman fit this category. Let's just assume I don't have a pocket enchanter.

Thanks :)

[Urbanzkopf]

Um, I find that if you don't have a fungi canni makes it a tad faster, being that you regen health faster (your regen is essentially your clarity here) than you would just sitting for mana so it is pretty much turns your health into your "clarity bar".

Also if you are a troll/iksar you got hp regen too making it all that bit faster

[Pyrion]

Canni gives you 1 mana for 2 hp (not exactly, but stay with me). At 24 you get regenerate and canni. Regenerate gives you 5 HP per tick. Sitting gives you another 2 (or more) per tick. You can time canni such that you never miss a med tick. Means that even without being iksar or troll you basically have clarity (at level 29 clarity is 4/tick, getting better though). Once you get chloroplast you can canni more often or use higher level canni. What you should NOT do is canni down to like 20%. I often see shamans die because of it. It does not speed up mana generation at all. It just gives you a bit of mana at that time. Better stay at 70 or 80%, you will have the same mana regeneration.

[Hroth]

If you're OOM it is still going to take awhile to canni dance back to FM, but it is faster than others can just med from 0m to FM.

Your downtime depends on the mobs you're fighting. At level 50 killing seafury cyclops I'd have several minutes of downtime after each mob. Killing bloodgill goblins though I had virtually no downtime at all and was usually pulling the next as my pet was killing one that was fleeing from low health.

[Camulet]

With a spear of fate and JBB I have 0 down time, only use mana to root /grin

But when in groups Canni reduces downtime and keeps me in good mana to solo heal and slow quite well. Can even CC if non caster mobs. Its an invaluable spell line and helps alot )

I never canni less to less then 60% health.

Zartron

[gotrocks]

Once you hit 24 your downtime is drastically reduced.

As someone said above, its sort of like having clarity. My shaman is currently 24, and i will often canni dance to 50% hp (if im in a safe area where i can see the mobs, and never ever below that much) and find i have very little downtime (stacking dots on mobs i can confidently pull at 50%hp and expect to end the fight at around 70%hp because regen is always on.... and im an iksar so i get around 10hp a tick).
Furthermore, i can down blue mobs with less than full mana and not have to worry much. the occasional sticky situation does pop up, but when it does i can *always* root/cannidance/finish mob since i have the iksar regen. I would like to point out i played a 60 iksar shaman on live and have a ton of experience/confidence in my ability to do these kinds of things, but i doubt anyone else should have much trouble with it.

All this being said, if you do make a shaman go troll. dont believe the hype and go ogre. the troll/iksar regen stacked with everything else is simply insane, and even at 60 (though its effectiveness is reduced) it outweighs the frontal stun immunity. Dont go iksar unless you want a serious challenge. or if you just want to be an unbelievable badass (turn on the iksar luclin models to increase this effect)

Tl;dr: shaman mana downtime is short, go troll, unless youre cool and can deal with the poor itemization, in which case go iksar.

shamans are the best class imo. period

[Urbanzkopf]

I just picked ogre cause they look badass as a shammy, Troll looks cool too but i'm just not all that keen on the patchwork effect on the armor ;) but yes frontal stun immunity is overrated you will still be interrupted by hits and mobs pushing you.

P.S Klubba knows his stuff :P

[gotrocks]

iksar looks better than all the other if you have the iksar luclin models on. Its the only luclin model i ever have turned on :)

troll is a very close second w/ classic models. they look badass.

Also, iksar do get some nice perks and have decent stats for a shaman. the only problem is their low str/wis compared to a troll or ogre, but you can easily make that up by always fighting with your buffs on. I have no trouble soloing, and wont have any trouble group/solo all the way to 60

[quido]

Canny between med ticks.

[Sturgeon]

Didn't want to make a new thread about this but it sorta fits in here.

What should shaman choose for spec at lvl 30 for the one that goes above 51 skill points or whatever. It says if you solo to do conj and not solo the alteration but even if you solo you do alteration alot with canni and cholo/torpor etc. so was curious what the 50+ shamans have chosen and they feel works best or if they don't like what they picked and etc.


I also tried searching in priest forums but apparently only two threads contained the word specialization and it was for Druids so try not to troll me for asking...

[Ele]

Didn't want to make a new thread about this but it sorta fits in here.

What should shaman choose for spec at lvl 30 for the one that goes above 51 skill points or whatever. It says if you solo to do conj and not solo the alteration but even if you solo you do alteration alot with canni and cholo/torpor etc. so was curious what the 50+ shamans have chosen and they feel works best or if they don't like what they picked and etc.


I also tried searching in priest forums but apparently only two threads contained the word specialization and it was for Druids so try not to troll me for asking...

The wiki gives guidance depending on how you want to play solo or raid/group/buffmeister.

Shaman's have two real choices: Alteration and Conjuration.

Conjuration is mainly useful for Shaman's who solo or kite a lot. This is a good Specialization to take if you plan on soloing up until around level 35, or plan on using DoT's a lot.

Alteration is used for almost all of the Shaman's buffs, heals, regenerations and the like. These are used mainly in downtime, but you can save a great deal of mana with using this as your Specialization.

Alteration is a pretty safe bet, but if you attack more, and enhance less, then Conjuration is still worth considering.

[Hroth]

I'd still go alteration for solo. With roots/regen/heals/slow/malo/kragg/buffs and haste for pet, I think at worst alteration would be about even with conjuration. If you were going to solo but just root-rotting some easy con mob outdoors with no risk, conjuration would be better. But that just isn't how most shamans solo.

However if you ever group or raid at all, alteration>>>>>conjuration.

[gotrocks]

Alteration is really an all-around safe bet.

Conj. specialization is really only going to top Alteration for a very, very specific type of player, and even then its benefit is small at best.

I thought about this for a long time here and finally decided on Alteration, you really can't go wrong picking it.

All the cool kids spec divination tho.

[Elements]

At 60 sitting with max meditate you should regen 20 mana per tick.

At 60 with fungi, chloro, torpor, and doing the canni dance you can regen ~49 mana per tick.

So yea significantly less downtime.

[mazukon]

When soloing, half your spells are Alteration.
when grouping, all your spells are Alteration.

Also, you don't use real Dots once you have jbb/epic until 60 with Torpor (they cost wayyyyy too much mana). So Conj is pretty useless.