How to group with a shaman?
 

This is to all the greybeard Shamans out there.

I am a lvl 24 Ikky Shm and have solo'ed up to this point and for the first time I grouped in Mistmore. I tried to do everything and failed miserably and at one point let the tank die because I was too slow getting a heal off. (to be honest I dont think it would have helped in the long run). At first I was like a chicken with my head cut off. Buffing, slowing, regenning, Sow'ing, and healing. When I realized I had too many fires going I ended up throwing a couple of buffs, adding reg all the time and slowing the tough Mobs.

I am looking for advice on the following:

1. You just joing a full group what is the first thing you do? Buff or engage mobs as they come with slows?

2. What buffs do you give I started out with all of them and then found out that was unmanageable.

3. I rooted several charmed pets and pissed off my Enchanter pals, how do you tell them apart for the real mobs especially when spell effects arre masking vision.

4. When things are starting to go bad, what are the priorities?

Thanks for any advice

1. At 24 I wouldn't bother with slow at all. It's crappy at that point and mobs shouldn't be alive long enough for it to matter.

2. At 24 your buffs aren't all that huge either. I guess you can give str to melee, SoW as requested(a mage, for instance, doesn't need SoW), maybe AC/sta to the tank as well. You don't need to go nuts with buffing at this point.

3. Con the mobs. if it cons as indifferent, that means it's the enchanters pet. Turn down your spell effects in options if the are giving you a hard time.

4. This is kind of a hard question and depends; Keeping the tank/enc/cleric alive first are good ideas.

Edit: Also, if you haven't been already, get used to "canni-dancing". If you don't know what this is; Basically you wait till you see a meditate tick on your mana bar go off, get up, cast canni, then sit back down again before the next med tick. This way you don't lose out on mana regen from meditate and makes you more efficient in general.

you cheat....shrink them when you can.

one trick is to learn to say NO! to folks asking for buffs. Assuming your healing as well, otherwise you should have mana. Try and get the grp leader to recruit a enc or a clr if possible.....but often there are non free. Try to delegate where you can.

The real art of shamanism is to keep the grp chat flowing, bugger doing any work :)

When the chanter bitches ask him to give the pet a torch so you can easily tell it from the mobs being killed. When the chanter says he didn't bring any torches ask him "why not?" (stay simple, don't embellish.) When the chanter continues his bitching ignore it as best you can, especially avoid making any derogatory remarks to or about him even if he's doing his most outrageous whiny entitled little dramawhore routine, and continue to be a friendly and helpful contributor to the group. It'll all sort itself out in time.

sounds like you were trying to wear too many hats

shaman is flexible, you can do a bit from healing, cc, slowing, buffing

know what your group needs of you based on makeup

it sounds like group needed you for main heals, concentrate on that first and buffing as a lower priority, the enchanter should have been picking up slowing and cc

if a different group expects you to do all those things at the same time, make it clear your running out of time or mana

Buff people. STR/DEX/STA/AC on tanks. Haste is a luxury, cast if mana permits.
Cannibalize. Never be at full HP, if you aren't at full mana.
Heal people. If you're the main healer, devote your attention primarily to this.
Slow mobs. If you're having trouble healing or if you're the off healer, slow makes everything easy.

1. If the mobs are killed fast enough you don't need to slow. The mana used on slow can be used on a heal instead.

2. SoW and haste are the only needed buffs. Every other buff is as mana permits.

3. Con the mob if your unsure. If it has a torch, its a pet.

4. Keep the ench alive. Root CC if ench died. If you have a healer you can tab slow mobs so when root breaks they dont go ape shit. Since everyone has SoW, you can train to zone if its really bad.

Don't forget to canni as much as you can. Think the macro is

/stand
/cast 8 (or whatever spell slot you use)
/pause 20
/sit

Thanks you all for the great advice, it definitely helped as I employed the advice last night and did a good job as main healer in Mistmore. Said no when I had too (politely) and told jokes to keep grp banter going (made for a fun time among all).

Thanks for the Macro I will add that today.

BTW I never really understood what it meant to Canni Dance, I do now

At L24, your cadre of superbuffed twinks and charmed rogues will vaporize everything in 10-15 seconds, so slow is kind of pointless unless its a red con, in which case said red con will pulp you after resisting. If you were solo or duo it would be a different story.

The life of a shaman. Wait till you are on a raid and get 10 tells for str/sta/dex/agi/tali/regen/haste/sow.

#1 priority at your level should be sow, regen, and haste. If you have mana left over (because you have a cleric/druid in the group) then I'd put resist buffs on the MT and puller. Eventually your stat buffs will start lasting over an hour and things will get a lot better.

Well, it's better to stun, but I don't think a 48 second root on an enchanter pet is a terrible thing, and it makes it easier on the enchanter when he can just move backwards. Just tell the MT to move the next mob back over to the charmed pet. Also, make sure you cast malo on all charmed pets; it significantly reduces the number of breaks.

1. Root
2. Heal the enchanter

Then the Monk and Rogue whine and suggest you're lazy because you give them clicky strength due to not having the mana to fully buff twenty people all at once. Followed, of course, in later weeks by these same people wondering why their Shamans never seem to log on to raid.

Shaman: No weakness except having a tedious, thankless raid role.

Note that haste isn't actually a priority at level 24 because the Shaman doesn't get haste until level 29. In addition to gaining haste, 29 also gives you Greater Healing which significantly improves your ability to heal for groups. Main healing in Mistmoore with but a 90 HP heal spell is often going to be tough even with a functioning, cooperative group just because of the nature of that zone. Monsters deal quick damage, come in packs, with overpulls and trains being commonplace. If you can function there, you'll do fine later on in Nagafen's Lair and Karnor's.

Danth