[DeathsSilkyMist]

First off, thank you for the post!

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This sounds like you group with some poor tanks. I'm not going to do what you might expect and pull the elitist "only group with quality players" card. I'm a fan of making do with what you have. Having to make less-than-stellar groups work is a valid enough reason to appreciate having the Ogre racial. Heck, there are entire classes (hello, Paladin) that are at their best as the rest of the group performs worse.

Maybe I should clarify this a bit more, possibly in the guide as well. Even with a good tank, Torpor Shamans often take two responsibilities in groups: Slowing and Healing. From my experience, this puts me high on most mob's hate lists most of the time. Even with an experienced tank, it can be tough to keep up agro on multiple mobs when a Shaman needs to slow and heal. Doing 6+ Dragons is a great example here. I am usually on Rampage, even in a group of 6, due to slowing and healing. Torpor's range requires me to be in Rampage distance, so I am taking hits in the fight. I don't believe Bashes happen on rampage (I am usually not paying attention to that), so FSI probably doesn't apply to rampage hits. However, because I am second on the hate list, it isn't a large leap for the mob to occasionally turn to me, especially if I get a string of Slow resists and have to spam it. That is when FSI can still be useful. Also, I sometimes pull as a Shaman if there is no need to do crazy pulling shenanigans, because I am already going to be high on the hate list initially, when trying to land a slow.

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That being said, it's hard to argue that bash resistance isn't vastly more situational for groupers than it is in solo situations. With a quality tank around a Shaman will only rarely be hit, or sometimes not at all during an entire gameplay session. The Ogre racial becomes worthless in such situations.

I 100% agree here. I hope my guide didn't come across as FSI being amazing in group or raid situations. I was simply trying to show all situations in which the racials can benefit you. This is because some people like to claim FSI is never used in group or raid situations. That is obviously false, even if it is used less often. I did the same thing with all the other racials, in an attempt to strong man each one.

Again, maybe I should clarify this a bit more, but all racials tend to become largely useless in group and raid situations, especially when the group or raid is doing well. This includes Troll/Iksar Regeneration. If you are in a group that is destroying stuff, you are Regenerating even less than in solo situations. You can see how marginal the gains are for Troll/Iksar Regeneration in the solo experiences in my guide. Even if you are spamming high cost spells non stop, you can see how much mana is spent in 13 minutes in my Raid buffing example. I don't think I have ever spent more mana than that in a 13 minute period grouping. You still only save roughly 30 seconds of self healing in the end, which is basically useless in a group or raid situation anyway.

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The correct argument, I think, is that racials are even less important to a grouping level 60 than they are for the soloist (and you already admit they're not a big deal for the soloist) so you might just as well min-max for the solo aspect of the class where it might offer some small bonus. I don't know that I'd agree with that argument in all cases, but it'd apply to enough players for the purpose of your guide with the caveat that individual players should always consider their own specific needs first and no guide can be all things to all people.

I 100% agree here, and I can probably clarify that. And yes, no one guide is everything. I just know that all of these benefits can be quantified, and I haven't really seen anybody do that before. So hopefully my guide can provide clarity through real examples. Obviously EQ has a lot of situations, and you could always point to a very specific case and say x racial saved you there. But the idea of the "overall best race" is to determine which ability in general will give you the best bang for your buck, with the knowledge that sometimes other racials could have been better in very specific scenarios. It's simply an averages game.

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My only notable critique of the guide itself is that the title could perhaps be altered to something like "Shamwowi's Shaman Race Guide for min-maxers" to better convey its purpose.

I was considering that at first. The only reason why I kept the title general is because I do include the other situations in my guide. If you prefer fashion quest, you can skip the guide, and I say that in the Preface. I already have a Pre-Torpor Shaman section, describing why Troll/Iksar Regeneration is best before you get Torpor. I simply didn't think a larger explanation was needed, due to the communities general agreement on this point. If people want, I can certainly break down the racial abilities in the Pre-Torpor situation in a similar manner to Post-Torpor.

Thanks for the feedback!