Project 1999 - 53 Shaman dilemma: sell fungi for epic?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbparden (Post 3152636)

Add on question! If you made 60, had Torpor, and a JBB is it worth the expense to get epic (100k)? Am I missing out a lot on not having it?

I basically already answered this on page 2.

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Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist (Post 3149227)

Epic should be the last thing purchased on a Shaman, unless you are an Iksar, or very wealthy. Non-Iksars get JBB, which is more than good enough to power level yourself when combined with Fungi Staff, Fungi Tunic, and Black Fur Boots.

Epic is good for soloing with a Torpor Shaman. Even with Torpor, you still spend a ton of mana on spells. Casting Malo, Turgurs Insects, Insidious Decay, and Pox on a mob ONCE costs 1130 mana. In a 15 minute fight, such as WW Dragons, you need to cast Turgurs Insects 2 more times, Malo one more time, Insidious Decay one more time, and Pox 7 more times. This means you are spending 3960 additional mana after that, for a total of 5090 mana, assuming no resists or fizzles. My Shaman has a 3079 mana pool at the moment. This scenario assumes you are using Epic for your second DoT. If you are not, then you would need to use Bane of Nife. This means casting another 425 mana DoT 6 times to make up for that damage. Epic saves me at least 2550 mana in this fight, assuming no fizzles or resists.

Saving mana is good in fights when you need to face tank. This is because the act of face tanking destroys a LOT of HP that would normally be used for cannibalize. This means your mana regeneration also suffers quite a bit. On a tough mob, it is possible to run out of mana eventually, if the fight goes long enough, and they hit hard enough.

Epic is great when you need to farm lower level mobs as well, like orcs in Crystal Caverns for Velium Ore. Without Epic, that would be a much slower affair, due to how much mana you would spend on DoTs.

EDIT: The other benefit to Epic is the DoT is magic damage, rather than Cold/Poison/Disease. This means any mob that can be slowed can be DoTed with Epic, even if they are normally immune to some combination of Cold/Poison/Disease. Velious has quite a few cold immune mobs, which removes your direct damage spell from the equation.

Buy Torpor first once you hit 60, then work your way towards Epic. You can re-buy things like JBB, Fungi Tunic, and Fungi Staff along the way to help speed up your farming for Epic. Then sell them to hit 100k and buy epic. Then farm again for JBB. Fungi Staff and Fungi Tunic are optional at that point.

At the end you want Torpor, Epic, JBB, Malo, Pox, and Bane. That maximizes your solo damage potential. Fungi Tunic and Fungi Staff still have good situational use, but they will not help as much as Torpor, the damage clickies, and the damage spells.

EDIT: Forgot to include Malo as a spell for some silly reason.