Barbarian Shaman
 

So I have a level 41 shaman I am thinking about dusting off. I made him before I had funds on my account so he is rocking a full set of totemic, a PWC, 5/55s and a few wis pieces to fill in gaps. So I either dust him off and invest in some new gear for him (really interested in barb spirit hammer) or I re roll (leaning towards troll for the regen and the clicky snare neck)

Thoughts?


P.S. I like playing melee characters but realize that solo I am much better off as a caster. How far into their career can a shaman melee/toe to toe mobs in addition to root rotting? Might help swap me to sticking with barb since they get some nice barb specific gear

One school of thought is that once you're 60 with raid gear and torpor race doesn't matter.
Another is that racial regen Iksar/Troll is invaluable because you'll be canni dancing.
Yet another thinks ogre is a viable class for anything other than warrior.

In short,.. ask yourself how far you want to take that character.
Going to stick it out to 60 and get torp? Stay barb (you only have 19 levels left)
Plan to be sub 60 forever and have no idea how to get a torp? maybe consider iksar/troll.
note that i'm not saying these races are bad, this is very specific to OPs question.

ps. Barb Spirit hammer isn't great,. granite face grinder is better or Rune Etched Icewurm Fang.

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inny clickie snare is situational at best and it's the lowest necro snare which means it doesn't last long. And given the cast time on it you'll find yourself not using it often.
Is it unique and special,. sure but not game changing.

I'd second this. I used a BSH before the proc nerf, and even back then it wasn't all that great. Now (after the proc nerf) it's still fun, but not a meaningful source of damage overall.

As for what to do with your toon, maybe I'm a little biased as a two-time (once on live, once here) Barbarian Shaman, but I didn't miss regen or FSI at all. Also, being able to use "good" towns is convenient, and while I wasn't conscious of it I'm sure the much lower XP penalty helped me get to 60 faster.

If I was making a third shaman I might start with an Ogre or Troll just to do something different, but I certainly wouldn't re-roll a toon to become one.

Barbarians get a racial that no other Shaman race can duplicate: Polar Bear Form.

Never forget this, and it rationalizes barbarian forever

The troll is strong in Cen !

Any shaman will do the job as Long slow land

I would personally not have it in me to give up 41 levels. Ogre and troll have an exp penalty that is 15% more than barb. Iksar 10% more. That’s not trivial. 8 standing 11 sitting regen basically stops mattering once you’ve scribed Torpor (and that’s not hyperbole). So if you aim to get to 60 and activate god-mode (okay that is slightly hyperbolic) then I would say troll and iksar doesn’t make a real difference from barb. FSI I imagine is amazing. I’m a barb and sometimes wish I had rolled ogre to begin with. But then I remember how they look and I’m at peace :p

People always say torpor this torpor that. How much % of your playtime have you spent on any character at lvl 60? I wouldn't base my racial choice on one single super expensive level 60 spell.

Just really wondering why use it as an argument like it's super common that you'll hit 60 and then spend close to 150k on one spell?

Play what you like to look at anyway I think

Honestly, EQ is like three different games: soloing, grouping, and raiding (plus "mini-games" like tradeskilling). If all you plan to do is solo or group, then yeah the game mostly stops at 60. You can still acquire loot after you get 60 (and get Torpor), but there's only so much loot a non-raider can get. So, if you go that route you're correct: you'll only have Torpor for maybe 5-10% of your character's life.

But, if you do play the raid game, that game doesn't even start (seriously) until you get level 60. This means that if you're a raider, level 60/Torpor is only about the halfway point ... and so racial powers, which only matter for the first half of the game, are less relevant.

I’ve personally spent many, many hours on my lvl 60 char(s). I would never not consider what a class is like at 60 when creating it. But that’s me. Incidentally torpor is more like 90k now. Also I think you’ll find most are arguing that race doesn’t matter once you get torpor.

Nothing wrong with barb. Troll and Ogre too big and clunky. Iksar blegh.