Monk & Cleric/Shaman Duo
 

Sorry, this will be long.
Hoping I can get constructive help on this one guys.

I originally leveled my Shaman to 41 a while back and quit the game for a time, recently returning with a friend and he fired a new Monk up so I did a Cleric with him and we have done the Duo thing from 1 to 41. Now I understand how god mode a Shaman/Monk is but I have some questions. The Monk/Cleric duo has actually worked out really well, never had any serious issues maintaining Mana and keeping buffs on the Monk. The Shaman on the other hand it seems like I am constantly having Mana issues with keeping the Monk fully buffed and maintaining Regen and Haste on the Monk as well while all the while keeping him healed with my crappy heals (compared to my Cleric).

The Cleric needs to maintain 3 core buffs and has great heals along with Rezz spells as I level they get better while the Shaman has like 8 core buffs plus Regen and haste and it just eats my mana up and I am finding it hard for him to keep constant pulls coming and have the mana to keep him alive with the Shaman where with the Cleric it is quite easy. Before it was easier due to I had a loner Manastone and a Fungi (Both loaned out to me which I no longer have) so before it was simple, just constant Mana Stone my Mana back up but Cani isnt no where close to Mana Stone lol. "Both the Cleric and the Shaman have high Wisdom and Mana Pools btw"

The Shaman and Cleric are both 41 now and we plan to continue on to 60 but we are not sure which will be better. As I said, we have had zero problems with the Cleric and Monk duo and I am wondering if I should just stay with the Cleric and keep on the journey to 60 as we currently are. Gongshow swears up and down Shaman is the way to go and I long ago learned to listen to my good friend, but I am not sure why, but I just feel better with the Cleric in the Duo. I feel comfortable with the Cleric even though the Shaman has SOOOOOOOOOOOO much more utility on a PvP server. End game though Clerics in groups are sick plus the Rezz's are going to come in handy with death's.

I could really use some help on this one guys. I understand the Red99 forums are the Devils work lol but I can't decide on this on my own and am hoping I can get some constructive thinking on this one.

TLDR

I'd say stick with the cleric. Later on you can expand your group and you already have pulls, dps and heals ready to go. You can always level the shaman up later.

You shouldn't need to keep up 8 buffs at a time while you are leveling. Just use 4-5 and the duration of those buffs should be going up soon for you.

No, but keeping all the buffs up make the Monk just that much better of a Monk.

essentially the damage mitigation from the shaman slow saves mana the cleric would spend healing, and monk truly only needs tali/str/sta/haste/regen.

But i just think clerics are cooler

obviously I must be thinking this too or I would not have made this thread lol

I would think some others would be needed also don't ya think?

The harder stuff gets the better the shaman will become relative to the cleric because of slow. Mobs see a big HP and damage increase when you go to Kunark. At 41 you're also at basically the pinnacle of cleric effectiveness because you have CH and the monk can probably kill at least one mob per cast. Shamans are stuck using greater healing until 53 so there is quite a bit of chain casting heals which leads to a lot less med time.

Basically, as you level up that won't be the case anymore. Plus buffs get longer duration so there will be less rebuffing, you get better cannibalizes and more effective slows. Your heals will never get more efficient than CH though, so aside from more HP on buffs slightly increasing the efficiency of CH your cleric will lose relative effectiveness to the shaman more and more each level.

Throw in epic/jbb/pet for free shaman damage, SoW, and the ability to make potions (it takes only moderate skill to make SoW and ITU pots) and I think that edges cleric rez for general utility as well. Typically as a duo you aren't going to be delving deep into dungeons or anything so your deaths should be very minimal or PVP related (no exp loss).

The final jump is the big one though at 60 when you get torpor. Also keep in mind how fast leveling is here. 41-50+ when you'll start to notice a big difference might only be 3-4 days of playing semi casually.

would much, much rather duo with a shaman at 60 than a cleric