Solo Barbarian Shaman Stat Allocation

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

You've shown that if you spend (something like) 200 days you can earn enough plat for Torpor. What you haven't shown is why, instead of spending that plat on Torpor, you'd want to spend it maxing out your Stamina.

But again ... even if you did ... you'd still spend 95+% of your career without hitting your caps. A brief period pre-Torpor, and then a brief period after Torpor (and after you've gotten the gear back to hit caps) before you quit doesn't change all the rest of the time you play your Shaman without hitting the caps.

I didn't spend money maxing out STA lol. I just had some extra money and bought mid-tier items to fill my slots. It's really not that hard to do.

Again, this is the "95% of a Shaman's life" black box which translates to "I am right and you are wrong". You still haven't defined it, so you have nothing to base your opinion on.

The strategy is to acquire Fungi Tunic + JBB + Fungi Staff for leveling before you are level 60 (you can't use Torpor before level 60). Then you can sell all three of them and buy Torpor when you reach 60 and have some XP padding. Torpor is better than all three of those combined, and you can re-buy them with the increased power of your farming capabilities with Torpor[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Having 100K+ or Torpor itself sitting in your bank while you are level 50 isn't helping you level lol. You might as well buy a Fungi Tunic, JBB, and Fungi Staff for leveling and then re-sell them. It isn't like those items tank in value relatively quickly. It's a pretty safe investment.

[Naethyn]

I started the server as iksar bros with my buddy's necromancer and me on shaman (wis shaman). We leveled to mid 50's until I found a reliable source of iksar bloods. From there I made an ec fat cat converting the iksar bloods into straight platinums using cultural blacksmithing. I saved up 140k and started my warrior (human) with a cloak of flames and a fungi. My buddy made a dwarf cleric. Then we did it all again but this time with human smithing and dwarf smithing. I had to go fishing a lot but I've never made as much in my life as I have off fishing and ec fattcatting them profits off it.

Zero bad decisions were made.

[Naethyn]

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[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

I started the server as iksar bros with my buddy's necromancer and me on shaman (wis shaman). We leveled to mid 50's until I found a reliable source of iksar bloods. From there I made an ec fat cat converting the iksar bloods into straight platinums using cultural blacksmithing. I saved up 140k and started my warrior (human) with a cloak of flames and a fungi. My buddy made a dwarf cleric. Then we did it all again but this time with human smithing and dwarf smithing. I had to go fishing a lot but I've never made as much in my life as I have off fishing and ec fattcatting them profits off it.

Zero bad decisions were made.

That's awesome! Yeah it's really not that difficult to save up platinum if you plan on playing P99 for a while. As I said, even just 2 hours a day can easily translate to at least 500pp per day. You could definitely do better than that I am sure, especially if you have a static group of friends who can help hold money camps while XPing.

[loramin]

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

I didn't spend money maxing out STA lol. I just had some extra money and bought mid-tier items to fill my slots. It's really not that hard to do.

Again, this is the "95% of a Shaman's life" black box which translates to "I am right and you are wrong". You still haven't defined it, so you have nothing to base your opinion on.

The strategy is to acquire Fungi Tunic + JBB + Fungi Staff for leveling before you are level 60 (you can't use Torpor before level 60). Then you can sell all three of them and buy Torpor when you reach 60 and have some XP padding. Torpor is better than all three of those combined, and you can re-buy them with the increased power of your farming capabilities with Torpor[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Having 100K+ or Torpor itself sitting in your bank while you are level 50 isn't helping you level lol. You might as well buy a Fungi Tunic, JBB, and Fungi Staff for leveling and then re-sell them. It isn't like those items tank in value relatively quickly. It's a pretty safe investment.

So let's flip this around: what % of a Shaman's life would you say is spent at caps?

Because it seems to me even if we took all your arguments, in 20+ pages of this thread, and accepted all of them, you'd show that ... instead of 95+%, only 93+% is spent at caps [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] And that changes nothing fundamental about my central argument.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

So let's flip this around: what % of a Shaman's life would you say is spent at caps?

Because it seems to me even if we took all your arguments, in 20+ pages of this thread, and accepted all of them, you'd show that ... instead of 95+%, only 93+% is spent at caps [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It honestly depends on the player. A casual player could easily spend 50% or more at caps. I did. Most of my play time was level 50-60, or 60 itself. For reference, I got my Shawl 7 at level 52 lol. I just had fun doing the quest, and had a 60 druid help me with the SG stuff. Leveling from 1-50 wasn't that long, because I could gain good XP and money at the same time.

Again, you just have no evidence for your 95% number, and you refuse to explain it. So please stop using it, as it has no bearing on this discussion.

[loramin]

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

It honestly depends on the player. A casual player could easily spend 50% or more at caps. I did. Most of my play time was level 50-60, or 60 itself. For reference, I got my Shawl 7 at level 52 lol. I just had fun doing the quest, and had a 60 druid help me with the SG stuff. Leveling from 1-50 wasn't that long, because I could gain good XP and money at the same time.

Again, you just have no evidence for your 95% number, and you refuse to explain it. So please stop using it, as it has no bearing on this discussion.

There, we finally have it: you think people spend only half their Shaman time leveling up and acquiring enough gear (again, going for what gear is good, not what gives the most Stamina) to hit the Stamina cap. Then you think they spend the other half still playing despite already having gear that hits Stamina caps.

I'm 100% happy to end the discussion right there, and let anyone insane enough to still be reading this thread decide for themselves who seems to have the more accurate guess.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

There, we finally have it: you think people spend only half their Shaman time leveling up and acquiring enough gear (again, going for what gear is good, not what gives the most Stamina) to hit the Stamina cap. Then you think they spend the other half still playing despite already having gear that hits Stamina caps.

I'm 100% happy to end the discussion right there, and let anyone insane enough to still be reading this thread decide for themselves who seems to have the more accurate guess.

And you end the discussion without ever explaining your "95% of Shaman's life" blackbox[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] This means you have no foundation for your thesis in this discussion.

Reposting the relevant information that isn't based on a blackbox, to save users some time:

1. WIS is harder to cap during the Velious era than STA generally speaking. This is WITHOUT RAID GEAR. Usually the best starting stat is the primary stat that is hardest to cap, because a capped stat isn't helping you. This means 25 WIS / 5 STA is generally the better way to go (or 25 WIS / 5 AGI for Ogres). If you don't believe me, you can create Magelos with various gear and see how the stats shake out. Remember that you also get a +50 STA buff, but only a +10 WIS buff that is an illusion, which means it falls off more often due to zoning. You can also drink a +STA potion that you can craft yourself.

2. The only reason why you would want to put 25 into STA instead is if you are planning out your gear/strategies ahead of time, and want to save a buff slot in the long run. This is because if you can cap STA without needing Riotous Health / Primal Essence, you end up freeing up a buff slot, because you do not need to cast Riotous Health on yourself. Freeing up a buff slot can be difficult to do, so this can be more important than just raw stats.

3. Starting stats will NOT really help you during the leveling process, because stats scale by level. You will need to be around level 40 before you start noticing a difference. Generally speaking if you are concerned about starting stats, you are looking towards the end game, where those points end up giving you the most returns.

4. 25 STA gives you 75HP at level 60. It gives you something like 30 HP at level 30. Neither 75HP nor 30HP will save your life a significant amount of times. If this wasn't true, everybody would be running two HP earrings instead of a stat earring + Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring. They would be getting https://wiki.project1999.com/Star_of_Eyes instead. Generally speaking Shamans do not do this, because the stat penalty from putting on Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring is insignificant. Having another inventory slot open for a bag is better, and Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring is easier to use because it does not require a target. If losing 35 HP or more on your earring doesn't change how often you die, why do you think the 25 STA will make a difference? Having a Hammered Golden Hoop instead of the Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring would give you that 75HP plus 8 more STA, and yet people wear Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring instead.

5. Shamans can in fact run out of mana before dying, which is why the +25 WIS can give you a small chance to survive a bad encounter. Similar to the +25 STA, this chance is very small. The usual culprit for this both Pre-Torpor and Post-Torpor are strings of resists and/or root breaks. Shaman spells are expensive, which means fizzling, resists, and root breaks can really add up quick if you are not careful. Here is a video of me fighting Bravatar: https://youtu.be/igpbLuNe0ls?t=1244 . As you can see at that timestamp, I am low on both HP and Mana. If he had given me one or two more unlucky resists, I would be completely out of Mana. If I was at 2% mana and 40% health, I would probably gate for safety because a double attack from Bravatar would get me very close to dying. Remember, this is me fighting Bravatar in mid-tier raid gear, so a lesser geared Shaman would be even lower on Mana.

[Crede]

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

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Ugh, I wish my shaman was an iksar

[Danth]

Note that Loramin can cap his stamina out any time he likes. He reaches 250 by using a single cheap stat potion and hits cap if he exchanges his goblin ear for stat ear and star of eyes, no other changes needed. He might not care enough to bother doing that, but the option's always present. Without knowing his equipment--can he increase/cap his mana just as easily if he so chooses?

I'm generally somewhere in the middle on this one, but I think Loramin's "95%" stat could use a disclaimer: That's mainly true of the people who level up a character then more or less retire it shortly after hitting level cap. That applies to a lot of players, to be sure. Some players continue heavily playing characters past that point, for whom the consideration changes. As always, a player should build a character for his own needs rather than trying to follow a one-size-fits-all guide. Suggestions such as in this thread are by necessity of a general nature only and can't always encompass all circumstances.

Danth