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

[Tunabros]

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

Can someone tell me why people talk about shamans tanking all the time?

Like, I don't see any stats that make a shaman more of a tank than a cleric.

they can torpor themselves and good agro with their dots and poison dd

[Danth]

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

Can someone tell me why people talk about shamans tanking all the time?

Like, I don't see any stats that make a shaman more of a tank than a cleric.

It's not so much that the shaman is a better theoretical tank than the cleric but rather the shaman's more self-contained for the offtank role (the shaman brings its own slow) and there's usually more of a reason for the shaman to want to do it. Clerics can do it too when circumstances require, just those circumstances tend to be less common.

Danth

[Vaarsuvius]

Like Tunasbors said:

Torpor,
75% slow,
Debuffs,
Hasted & buffed pet,
Pox, Bane & epic DoT,
Home made 30ish DS pots,

This might be some of the reasons shamans can tank better than other priest classes

[Gustoo]

I'm talking about Pre Torpor sorry for the confusion.

[Tunabros]

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

I'm talking about Pre Torpor sorry for the confusion.

dont really need torpor to be a good tank

just need a cleric

[Gozuk]

I leveled my Shaman to 50 using primarily melee. It was fun and I felt like it was pretty efficient especially once I got pet and haste spell. He's an Iksar. Not majorly twinked but I had 21% worn haste, a PWC till around level 25 or 30 and then 30/36 Velium brawlstick after that. Iksar regen BP. Really enjoyed leveling him up!

[mattydef]

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

I leveled my Shaman to 50 using primarily melee. It was fun and I felt like it was pretty efficient especially once I got pet and haste spell. He's an Iksar. Not majorly twinked but I had 21% worn haste, a PWC till around level 25 or 30 and then 30/36 Velium brawlstick after that. Iksar regen BP. Really enjoyed leveling him up!

[ScottBerta]

Shamans can slow and can regenerate themselves.. pretty good tanking combination. Throw in a pet and haste that’s not bad at all. My main is 60 Ogre Shaman and I did plenty of face tanking. GFG is a good lower level weapon for that. However if you get epic you will want to root/rot or just Duo with like a monk. For super tough solo fights lvl 60... you will absolutely be face tanking. Malo, Slow, Cripple, and start tanking it. However often times I won’t even attack when I do but rather stay non stop cannabilizing, torping, and DoTing. But lower lvls like 30-40s can work real well.

Also to Danth’s point, shaman can tank and mana regenerate at same time with canni, however clerics cannot so they really need to be medding if they are not casting.

[greenspectre]

As a shaman I ended up tanking a lot in groups until about 30 or so. But that was more based on my armor than my weapon, which was garbage. Green was just short on tanks at the beginning was all.

[Jimjam]

Class 	BRD	CLR	DRU	ENC	MAG	MNK	NEC	PAL	RNG	ROG	SHM	SK	WAR	WIZ
Defense	215	175	200	145	145	252	145	230	200	252	200	230	252	145

According to this resource, for at least part of classic, shaman had better defence skill caps than cleric too. Fair enough, Cleric could wear plate to offset this, but let's be honest - all priests wore a lot of leather and chain during this period (gatorscale, bloodstained tunic, etc) so the plate advantage wasn't maximised by clerics.

I'm not sure if P1999 has these skill caps actually programmed in during the timeline, so this oddity may not be pertinent to our server. The era these are given seems late Kunark, early Velious.