How is the life of a shaman?

[Byrjun]

I agree with a lot of things here.

First of all, don't be an Iksar. They're a great race for lots of classes but shaman isn't one of them. JBB and the JB BP clickies are still very useful in Velious, and Iksar can't use those. You also don't get slam, and the lowest starting stamina. If you want regen go Troll, although I personally think Ogre is your best choice.

As far as the class itself, it's very weak for a long time. Shamans are not too great in classic (1-50). The things that make shamans good are:

1) Easy epic that you can theoretically complete at 46, which essentially power levels you to 60 with a 1300 point dot over 1.5 minutes. Root rot the world.

2) JBB is about 31 dps without the cost of mana.

3) 75% slow at level 51 and vendored, coupled with unresistable MR debuff at 60.

4) Great melee / defensive abilities.

5) Torpor is the best budget heal in the game. You get 1200-1500 hp for 200 mana. Coupled with an ability that exchanges your hp for mana, shamans also get the best mana regen in the game. The two problems with that are a) shaman spells are generally mana expensive, and b) it's not passive regen like FT or clarity, you have to constantly be casting these spells to keep up your regen. If there's a lot of things you need to do (lots of malos, slows, heals, buffs, etc.) then you're not getting the benefit of the super mana regen.

This means that once you're 60 with Torpor, if you want to play well you can't stop playing. This doesn't mean that you can't AFK like a normal person, but while you're actively playing you'll never sit and med again. You cast whatever you need to cast (debuffs/dps/buffs/heals) then start cannibalizing/torporing to regain that mana to cast more things. There's always something else you can be doing.

So, a shaman's powerful comes from the combination of great tanking ability (for a caster), an OP debuff (Turgur's Insects), an OP heal (Torpor), and manafree dps clickies (Epic/JBB). This makes you an excellent soloer once you get most/all of these things, but before that things aren't that great. You'll probably be reliant on groups until your low 50s at the least. You can solo, but it won't be as effective.