I started a Shaman recently myself. A friendly wood elf pointed out that if you collect the Wooly Fungus off spiderlings, you can turn them in for level 5 spells (8 fungus per spell) from an NPC just outside the Shaman guild.
(Edit) One of the reward spells is your first DoT - Sicken, which saves you a run into the higher level area of the zone, making it a much safer way to acquire that spells. Hope this helps and have fun!
http://wiki.project1999.com/Wooly_Fungus_Quest