Best Shaman Race?

[Lojik]

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

How about bash? is that needed at all? also snare neck seems a bit overrated lasting only 12secs with 6 sec cast.

Cazic worshippers can get a neck with undead fear, 2sec cast time 18 sec duration

[Clark]

Ogre is the best.

Troll is second best.

[eisley]

Do be aware that JBB/iksar armor & faction penalty, and slam all become complete non-factors in Velious, which is not too far off.

Soloing hard things early in Kunark undeniably came down to tenacity, as well as having Puppet Strings and other game-changing rechargable clickies, not race. That's not to say some races don't have an advantage (or clear disadvantage, in the case of our kilted brethren circa Velious), but that it is not going to stop someone from being successful.

If you aren't familiar with Velious you may wanna look into it before choosing your race, if it's an important decision for you.

[Clark]

Ya I agree. Not having access to the JBB is huge. Had a 65 Iksar Shaman on live, and suffered bigtime by not having one. Not to mention makes 45-60 much smoother, and mana free solid dps against bosses solo.

[Nikkanu]

1-59 Troll
60 Ogre

You will spend far more time @ 60 then you will 1-59.

JBB allows for quick leveling from 45-60 and also allows you to solo difficult mobs that would be much harder without the mana free damage it provides.

[eisley]

You think JBB is still relevant at 60? I was under the impression that the prevailing opinion was that Torpor makes clicking JBB a poor use of time. Perhaps it's more important than I thought it was. It was never even an option for me so I don't have first hand experience.

[Nikkanu]

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

You think JBB is still relevant at 60? I was under the impression that the prevailing opinion was that Torpor makes clicking JBB a poor use of time. Perhaps it's more important than I thought it was. It was never even an option for me so I don't have first hand experience.

I use it all the time at 60, especially when soloing summoning mobs or mobs with high MR/PR/DR or greens that I don't want to waste mana killing. Soloing/duoing would be much different and less efficient without JBB for sure, especially against certain mobs.

[Orruar]

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

I use it all the time at 60, especially when soloing summoning mobs or mobs with high MR/PR/DR or greens that I don't want to waste mana killing. Soloing/duoing would be much different and less efficient without JBB for sure, especially against certain mobs.

What high PR/DR mobs are you talking about? I solo'ed extensively in Kunark and old world and never met one that I wanted to use JBB on. About the only use I found was killing low green cons, but that's not a terribly common situation and Iksar aren't really missing out at 60.

One problem with JBB compared to dots + canni is interrupts. You waste vastly more time on push interrupts spamming JBB than you do with canni + dots. JBB cast time (8s) is equal to the delay of a slowed mob, so a mob is guaranteed to get 1 round of attacks in per JBB click. Dots are 6s, meaning you can cast them in between mob melee rounds. Even a 30% interrupt rate (pretty reasonable in my experience) leads to JBB spam being 1/2 the dps of dots + canni.

[Nikkanu]

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

What high PR/DR mobs are you talking about? I solo'ed extensively in Kunark and old world and never met one that I wanted to use JBB on. About the only use I found was killing low green cons, but that's not a terribly common situation and Iksar aren't really missing out at 60.

One problem with JBB compared to dots + canni is interrupts. You waste vastly more time on push interrupts spamming JBB than you do with canni + dots. JBB cast time (8s) is equal to the delay of a slowed mob, so a mob is guaranteed to get 1 round of attacks in per JBB click. Dots are 6s, meaning you can cast them in between mob melee rounds. Even a 30% interrupt rate (pretty reasonable in my experience) leads to JBB spam being 1/2 the dps of dots + canni.

Warlord Skarlon is one example I can think of. He likes to resist Pox / Bane ALOT even when Malosini'ed and he hits hard so it's good to get him dead quick. Over dozens of kills I experimented with different strategies and found that Epic + JBB spam lead to quicker kills overall and left me with alot more mana at the end of the fight and ensured I had more mana for torpors and re-slows.

I'm not telling anyone not to dot or just sit there spamming JBB and nothing else on every mob. It's all situational. There are often times that you can get extra JBBs in while dots are ticking when you don't need to canni. There are also times that you get unexpected adds and don't have the mana to dot... slow + epic + JBB is a nice option to have in those situations.

At the end of the day will JBB make or break a Shaman? Hell no. In fact once you get 60 and torpor it's not really that big of a deal. Shaman is one of the most powerful classes in the game with or without JBB. But with that said it's also a great tool that's very handy to have and one worth considering when making your character.

[Clark]

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

You think JBB is still relevant at 60? I was under the impression that the prevailing opinion was that Torpor makes clicking JBB a poor use of time. Perhaps it's more important than I thought it was. It was never even an option for me so I don't have first hand experience.

You use JBB all the time if pro.