What class will you roll first on a fresh server?

[real_sauga_yoot]

Enchanter or necro.

Rolled wizard on blue when it opened, yuge mistake. Luckily made a shaman alt early, so i bounced between the two while i played.

Wizard is a literal joke class outside of 32k raiding and while it gets better with epic+rend robe, the people getting those items will likely have proper alts to farm with and play in groups.

Made a subjective/objective "ranking" of classes for myself. High rating means good for the category, low means bad. Hodor.

[greatdane]

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

Made a subjective/objective "ranking" of classes for myself. High rating means good for the category, low means bad. Hodor.

I would put shaman at 4 soloability unless you're specifically talking about endgame play with epic, JBB, etc. Until you have the key components that make shamans great soloers, the class really doesn't belong in the same bracket as enchanter and necromancer. It's a 5 at level 60 with all the clickies and spells, but at like level 40, it really isn't any better than druid. Root-rotting with no snare and DoTs that break root is a mediocre ordeal.

[MrOizo]

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

I would put shaman at 4 soloability unless you're specifically talking about endgame play with epic, JBB, etc. Until you have the key components that make shamans great soloers, the class really doesn't belong in the same bracket as enchanter and necromancer. It's a 5 at level 60 with all the clickies and spells, but at like level 40, it really isn't any better than druid. Root-rotting with no snare and DoTs that break root is a mediocre ordeal.

I have a shaman on Green and have been playing him since before Kunark. Sure, it was a pain in the ass previous to Kunark, but not because of JBB or Epic, but because of the spells. It's not till Kunark that we get the juicy spells. Imagine a lvl50 Shaman casting a lvl24 Cannibalize spell over and over non-stop. I still have nightmares about that, plus 20+ guys in raids sending me tells asking for 5 to more than 10 types (Stats, sow/shrink, regens & resists) of different buffs each. Most I get asked for nowadays is Shrink & FoS/STA.

Still, once Kunark comes out, he sure shares the soloing capability of an enchanter, although before that, I was hunting guards at freeport or clearing Ishva camp at a respectable pace. The shaman is a more stable soloer than an enchanter. Like I always say, the shaman path is a SLOW one. Heck, I've been soloing mobs in Velious that no enchanter would ever be able to solo (Royal Scribe and Huntsman, for instance).

That said, the shaman will kill at a much slower rate than a necro or an enchanter. But at the same time, their pros and cons is what make shaman + necro or shaman + enchanter such awesome duos.

[greatdane]

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

I have a shaman on Green and have been playing him since before Kunark. Sure, it was a pain in the ass previous to Kunark, but not because of JBB or Epic, but because of the spells. It's not till Kunark that we get the juicy spells. Imagine a lvl50 Shaman casting a lvl24 Cannibalize spell over and over non-stop. I still have nightmares about that, plus 20+ guys in raids sending me tells asking for 5 to more than 10 types (Stats, sow/shrink, regens & resists) of different buffs each. Most I get asked for nowadays is Shrink & FoS/STA.

Still, once Kunark comes out, he sure shares the soloing capability of an enchanter, although before that, I was hunting guards at freeport or clearing Ishva camp at a respectable pace. The shaman is a more stable soloer than an enchanter. Like I always say, the shaman path is a SLOW one. Heck, I've been soloing mobs in Velious that no enchanter would ever be able to solo (Royal Scribe and Huntsman, for instance).

That said, the shaman will kill at a much slower rate than a necro or an enchanter. But at the same time, their pros and cons is what make shaman + necro or shaman + enchanter such awesome duos.

Killing slowly is a big part of what makes it a sub-optimal soloing class, until you get to the point where you can maintain a never-ending sequence of killing and/or root-rot multiple mobs at a time. Until then, shaman definitely doesn't belong on the same tier as enchanter and necromancer.

And in classic, nearly all relevant content is located deep inside endgame dungeons where shamans just don't really have the means to do it. Enchanters and necros can crush it in SolB and LGuk. What's the limit of shaman soloing in classic? Ishva? Ghoul sage? By no means is it a top tier soloist pre-Kunark.

[MrOizo]

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

Killing slowly is a big part of what makes it a sub-optimal soloing class, until you get to the point where you can maintain a never-ending sequence of killing and/or root-rot multiple mobs at a time. Until then, shaman definitely doesn't belong on the same tier as enchanter and necromancer.

And in classic, nearly all relevant content is located deep inside endgame dungeons where shamans just don't really have the means to do it. Enchanters and necros can crush it in SolB and LGuk. What's the limit of shaman soloing in classic? Ishva? Ghoul sage? By no means is it a top tier soloist pre-Kunark.

If killing slowly is a big part of making it suboptimal, then the enchanter is also suboptimal since they have no way to heal themselves other than assuming Troll Form for a measly 2hp regen and sit down for a long time. So, with that in Mind, I guess pre-kunark and possibly post-kunark, necro beats both shaman and chanter's ass soloing.

Just grab an enchanter, or a shaman, and duo with a friend who's the other class and no camp will be too much for the both of you. And if you add a necro...