Shaman race debate

[loramin]

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

I know this might be hidden in the forums somewhere, and trust me I tried to find a thread dedicated to it, but failed. So here goes:

What race is the best choice for shammy? Obviously good and evil both have implications to difficulty level in travel, banking, etc. But based on stats alone, which will give me the biggest leg up.

Stats are the worst (from a power-gaming perspective) way to pick a race. Racial abilities are far more relevant ...

• Ogre is the best race if you get to level 60 and get Torpor. Torpor basically negates the benefits of Troll/Iksar regen, so at this (very late) stage of the game Ogre has the only racial that matters (and no one cares about XP penalties at level 60)
• Iksar are the next best at 60, because regeneration is awesome until you get Torpor, and because Iksar have an AC bonus that is still useful at 60. Iksar can't use the Jaundiced Bone Bracer, which is a very useful item from 45-59, but by the time you get 60 it's not so relevant
• Trolls are basically same as Iksar, except with no AC bonus and they can use the Jaundiced Bone Bracer (and they need slightly less faction work). This makes Trolls slightly worse than Iksar at 60 (because of no AC bonus) but better up until then because of the JBB
• Barbarians have the lowest XP penalty and don't need faction work, so they'll level the fastest. But once they get to 60 they have no cool racials.

So basically, IF you want the most powerful race, and if you're in it for the long haul it's hard to argue against Ogre; it is the best race once you have level 60/Torpor. If you don't think you'll ever save up 100k for Torpor, maybe consider Iksar (better at 60) or Troll (almost as good at 60, and will have an easier time getting there). Only pick Barbarian if you really hate fixing faction or are in a hurry to level up (or, like me, you're just a masochist who loves Barbarian Shaman).

[Samoht]

ogre racial only slightly matters. you still get interrupted by push when channeling fails. it only prevents you from getting stunned from frontal cone, so a bash from the rear or side will still stun/interrupt.

ogre is only more beneficial when you intend to solo a lot at max level and can take full advantage of the stun immunity.

[loramin]

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

ogre racial only slightly matters. you still get interrupted by push when channeling fails. it only prevents you from getting stunned from frontal cone, so a bash from the rear or side will still stun/interrupt.

ogre is only more beneficial when you intend to solo a lot at max level and can take full advantage of the stun immunity.

That's true, the Ogre frontal stun immunity is not a HUGE ability. Certainly other races can be perfectly viable Shaman, and can even solo Velious mobs without it. And yeah, if you're the rare Shaman who plans to never solo at level 60, then it's really not that great.

But the point is, when you compare it to other race's abilities, at level 60/with Torpor no one else has anything better. Iksar/Troll regen just doesn't matter much when you can heal yourself so easily with Torpor. Iksar have a few more points of AC, but the difference those few points make in practice is extremely minimal (and perhaps completely meaningless for a raid Shaman who can get enough AC to hit the cap?). And the Barbarian's faction/low XP penalty is also completely meaningless at 60.

So it's not that the Ogre's racial is anything that great, it's just better than everything else (at 60/with Torpor).

[maskedmelon]

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

But the point is, when you compare it to other race's abilities, at level 60/with Torpor no one else has anything better.

So it's not that the Ogre's racial is anything that great, it's just better than everything else (at 60/with Torpor).

This is the most important point. Aside from the facials that Loras pointed out, racial choice doesn't matter.

The only other important consideration is vanity. Barbarians are the only non-ugly shaman race and even they struggle in that regard :/

[loramin]

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

The only other important consideration is vanity. Barbarians are the only non-ugly shaman race and even some of them struggle in that regard :/

FTFY.

Big beautiful bear hat for the win!

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

Cool people play barbarians.

[Sage Truthbearer]

Here's another thing to consider on the vanity side of things, the Velious spell Form of the Great Bear.

Trolls and Iksars get a black kodiak bear.
Barbarians get a white polar bear.
Ogres get a rather dull looking brown bear.

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[Rararboker]

I always just pick ogre because its my favorite race. My first char on live was ogre and I have continued that proud tradition here.

[Itap]

Never played an Ogre. So ugly. Not fun to roleplay either, imo.

[DevGrousis]

If it helps, I do plan to solo most of my way to 60, but then again i've never played a shammy before, its just been something i've always wanted to do.

I do think that being KOS everywhere in the world would get really annoying, especially with banking, but I've never really played an evil toon, so you guys tell me: is it that big of a bummer?

I wouldn't play an Ogre because they're too ugly for me. So I guess my choice is between Barbarian and Iksar

[Rararboker]

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

If it helps, I do plan to solo most of my way to 60, but then again i've never played a shammy before, its just been something i've always wanted to do.

I do think that being KOS everywhere in the world would get really annoying, especially with banking, but I've never really played an evil toon, so you guys tell me: is it that big of a bummer?

I wouldn't play an Ogre because they're too ugly for me. So I guess my choice is between Barbarian and Iksar

I only play evil characters myself and never really noticed banking to be an issue. I guess it might seem like that if your used to being good since you probably stick close to good aligned cities? As an evil race you do the opposite, you try to stick close to evil cities. For me I do 1-5 Nektulos, 5-10 EC, 10-15 befallen, 15-30Uguk. From there it changes daily but it is usually CoM, Lguk, SolB or something like that.