Solo and group advice for a new shaman?
 

I just started playing P99 and rolled a barbarian shaman (currently lvl 14).

After reading a couple of posts, guides and watching some videos, I'm still unsure if I am going about this the right way.

Question: What is the most efficient way to solo and how do I best support a group at my level?

Solo: Do you root/rot or do you facetank(?) with slow?

Group: buff the group with dex/agi, slow the mobs and heal in between fights?

Also, I see people advocating for drowsy/inner fire (until you get heal) as they are more mana efficient?

P.S. Yes, I know the join date says "Jun 2015", but I dropped the game back then only to return now =)

Over under 20+ pages? I'm saying over.

I just started playing P99 and rolled a barbarian shaman (currently lvl 14).

After reading a couple of posts, guides and watching some videos, I'm still unsure if I am going about this the right way.

Question: What is the most efficient way to solo and how do I best support a group at my level? It depends on level. At low levels just save your mana for healing and nuking fleeing mobs. This changes as you get higher level and your dots become more efficient and slow spells become more neccessary, mobs at higher level hit a lot harder.

Solo: Do you root/rot or do you facetank(?) with slow? Both can be options at higher levels, not at your level.

Group: buff the group with dex/agi, slow the mobs and heal in between fights? The most important buffs at high level would be HP, AC, Haste, Regen, Sow. Not neccesarilly in that order. At low levels though I would stick cast sow on everyone and HP/AC if needed and thats it. Most level buffs don't last very long and do very little to improve performance. Just save mana for heals and occasional nukes.

Also, I see people advocating for drowsy/inner fire (until you get heal) as they are more mana efficient? Yep. Inner fire is your most efficient heal for awhile. Drowsy sucks. Don't bother with slow at low level.

For soloing:

If you have a good weapon like Poison Wind Censor and a cheap haste item, you should melee mobs until level 40 or so. Use slow to reduce the damage you take. Haste yourself and use your pet when you get those spells. Root adds off to the side so you can deal with them one at a time.

Once you hit 45 (if you are not an iksar), you can use the strategy above, but spam JBB instead of fully relying melee. JBB can take you to 60. If you are Iksar or don't have JBB, root rot to 60.

If you can get Epic before 60 then it will help you level faster, but prioritize getting Torpor first. If you buy Epic to level but are broke at 60 without Torpor, you will have a slow grind to get Torpor. Its better to be 60 with Torpor and no Epic instead of 60 with Epic and no Torpor.

Whoooooa whooa that's a loaded question. Be careful with that kind of talk around here. How many APMs can you clock? What's your fast-muscle twitch speed like? Are you on Ridalin or any other uppers? Do you like to AFK or will you pee in a bottle? Need to know all of these before the experts here calculate the most efficient way to solo.

I face-tanked with slow. Had a Poison Wind Censor (and upgraded to Granite Face Grinder at 30). Slow tanked until 45 or so.

I'll stop you right there. Don't group. I've found shaman are kinda dreadful in group. You'll spend most your time re-buffing and cannibalizing if you wanna be a tryhard about it.

I'm a drowsy advocate. I used it all the way until 45 when I stopped face-tanking. Drowsy is very low mana, and is guaranteed 25% damage reduction.

For heals, I thought all the heals sucked. Bind Wound and Regeneration/Chloroplast was the best heal. In trouble in a fight? Root the mob, back up and bind wound. Get back in there tiger, start smushing again.

Have fun. Play how you wanna play. Shaman is a very versatile class and there's 1000 ways to play

When soloing if you be mindful of how your are spending your hp and mana consider what the return on those investments were then you’ll gain insight on what is effective.

I particularly pay attention to how much hp was lost, whether slow would have saved more hp than its mana spent could have healed, whether my dots finished or had to be recast and if i could reduce fight length by nuking to reduce hp lost / save recovery time.

Shaman is pretty good that they can use lots of combos to solo so as long as you find a way you enjoy you’ll be successful even if it isn’t thr most cutting edge efficient way.

1. Sow, heal. Inner fire is fine for healing as it is more mana efficient. Light healing cast quicker however and heals for more. If you need to heal someone quickly, then alternate between inner fire and light healing. And if you are really energetic and wanting to be as efficient as possible, you heal in between med ticks.
2. Buff with any AC and/or HP buffs
3. If full mana, strength buff
4. If full mana, nuke when mob is at 60-70% health

Disregard everything this person says forever, OP

yep

as a shaman your first priority is to make friends with twink melees, preferably monks and warriors but ranger/SK/paladin can fill in if desperate

duo life best life - trying to buff 2-3 melees is a pain...just find 1 chill twink and profit

OP didnt say duo/trio, OP said group. And that's what a shaman is in group. 75% cannibalize, 15% slow and 10% rebuffing