For a Shaman who wants to melee level, do I need to be Ogre/Troll?

[Snaggles]

I didn't read all the past entries so excuse me if I'm missing one of your points.

A "Melee shaman" certainly depends on what you are killing and your gear. Early spells are horrid so you do a lot of plunking. Later your spells get better but the mobs hit harder. I found a spot where I only needed to kill 2 guards every 6 mins so affliction/tainted rotting with an occasional DD or two was the ideal way to keep them down. Mind you, I had horrible gear so every hit I took I considered a 50% mana drain in my mid 30's. At least it taught root management.

Now take that same scenario, give the player unlimited mobs to pull and a fungi with real haste and a GFG (or whatever) and the outcome changes dramatically. Some players will even burn DS pots so the window for meleeing stuff even up to 50 can be quite efficient. You do end up face-clicking/tanking mobs at times into the high 50's and torp solo killers live in this zone but mainly based on how amazing torp/slow work compared to root.

I don't think with the current state of the game any sham is unable to do this based on race. There is an argument even with the current state of FSI that an ogre is 1/3rd more efficient. That said, with the way procs work and how JBB clicks won't impact that ratio so long as the melee button is flashing I think the best JBB weapon is likely a Barbarian mallet. The higher the mob you are fighting the less likely you will hit with your dismal melee stats or at least for a decent amount of white damage. Meanwhile a 260dd or whatever proc is very solid extra damage; its basically a double JBB click.

All this to said, I will not die on a hill for any of these opinions [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. My sham has been perpetually 59, Lol.