Quote:
Originally Posted by Messianic
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Shaman are a lot easier than any of the other classes. Having inner fire at low levels (your most mana-efficient heal until level 19) along with access to sow itself - not to mention having it at level 9 - is a massive safety valve. Shaman may not level quickly, but they level very safely.
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Without twink gear, Shaman is very difficult from around 6 until... well, well past 14 that's for sure. Root at 14 makes it easier, but things don't get better until level 24 when you get your next batch of DoTs and Cannibalize.
Your lower weapon skill caps (compared to real melee) starts to show around level 6 (where your skills, when capped, are as good as a level 5 warrior's and it starts to dove-tail from there). It's also at that level where your mana regen compared to your increasing mana pool is slower than molasses rolling downhill, but it gets so much better at 8 once you train Meditate.
Your spells mana:damage ratios aren't the greatest (Frost Rift, and then later Spirit Strike) are all 1:1 damage, and your DoTs Sicken (30 mana for 8 damage up front and 2 damage every 6 seconds) needs to last at least 1 min 6 seconds to meet the 1:1 damage:mana ratio while Tainted Breath (40 mana for 10 damage up front and 8 damage every 6 seconds) needs to last 24 seconds to be 1:1 damage:mana, and while it's better than Sicken, it's also very expensive when baseline you'll probably have ~300 mana untwinked at level 9.
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I would not recommend Shaman to a new player, unless they want something of Moderate difficulty, because it's definitely not easier than a Druid, Mage, or Necro as others have said. Your spells are inefficient, you are in melee range at all times until level 14 unless grouping when your skill caps are lower than real melee classes (It's 4*(Level+1), where as melee are 5*(Level+1)), IIRC, and it truly doesn't get better until level 24 when you get some really strong DoTs, and the inefficient spells can be offset with Cannibalizing (50 HP into 20 Mana doesn't sound great, but when you Canni-Dance it's friggin' fantastic, and you'll have better mana regen than any other Priest class).
But, yeah, to make a long story short, unless you're twinked, I wouldn't recommend Shaman to someone looking for an easy class to start with.
Edit: That isn't to say the class isn't enjoyable. I mained Shaman for my entire EQ "career" and loved every second of it, even when 1-24 was rough as hell. But I'm being as honest as I can be, when I say that if you're looking for an easy class to start with, stay the hell away from a Shaman. If you want to play a healer, Druid would be best out of the three since you have a lot of tools early (Snare @ 1, Root, Invis and Whirling Wind (spell interrupt) @ 5, super efficient DoTs @ 14) that make them better early game soloers than Shaman, and your ports at level 24 can start making you some money. You get SoW later than a Shaman (by 5 levels), but you have snare from level 1 to offset that whole issue, and you get root 5 levels earlier than them.
So I would have to agree with everyone else when they say Druid, Necro, or Mage.