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Old 01-06-2014, 07:38 PM
Estu Estu is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,994
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For root-dotting, you should compute each DoT's efficiency (total damage per mana) to determine whether it's worth casting (well, this is one of the factors you should consider, anyhow). Here are the DoTs you have currently sorted by efficiency:
1) Envenomed Breath (2.19 DPM)
2) Affliction (2.08 DPM)
3) Sicken (1.67 DPM)
4) Tainted Breath (1.65 DPM)
5) Infectious Cloud (1.60 DPM)

As a shaman you have to ask yourself which of these stack and to what extent they're worth using. If one spell is way more efficent than another, the less efficient spell will make you pay more mana for each point of damage; however, the flip-side to that is if they stack, then you can kill the mob faster, which means you don't have to root it as many times. So you're juggling the mana cost of root versus the efficiency difference in spells. There's also the issue that DoTs can cause root to break, which causes you to reroot and possibly take damage, so that's also something to take into account - for instance, Sicken may not be worth casting because it doesn't do very much damage and is not very efficient, and it may break root when you cast it.

Anyhow, you can analyze it carefully or you can just experiment and work with whatever seems most effective. One good way to test a strategy is to start with 100% HP and mana, start a timer, kill a monster, and then see how long it takes you to get back up to 100% HP and mana - this length of time (from right as the battle starts to when you are at full HP/mana again) is really what you're trying to minimize on average, because this length of time is directly proportional to how much time it will take you to level.

In terms of what spells to keep memorized, at level 24 I'd probably go something like this:
1) Heal
2) Nuke (should be used very sparingly, but may be useful in emergencies or against casters; honestly, this may not be worth keeping memorized)
3) Root
4) Canni
5) Regen
6) Gate
7, 8) DoT(s), extra buff slot (always wanna have SoW up, can also help to have HP/STA buffs if you're getting into tricky situations where your HP actually gets low)

Also, of course, you should always be targeting low dark blue con mobs. Light blues will give much less EXP, and high dark blue cons or higher con mobs will resist stuff too often to be worthwhile.
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Estuk Flamebringer - 60 Gnomish Wizard | Kaam Armnibbler - 55 Ogre Shaman | Aftadae Roaminfingers - 54 Halfling Rogue
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Last edited by Estu; 01-06-2014 at 07:46 PM..