Hey Guys,

ive been playing my shaman in wilton and in thidranki for a while (38+ aug, 27 cave). I enjoy it a lot, even though i feel, that i don´t influence the outcome of the fight as much as a healer or a bersi. I´d like to get a better player though.

what i´ve learned so far:
- rooting fulltanks is awesome.
- dont use the short ae-root in the beginning,
- avoid being slammed by a tank, disease or root and run...
- staying alive is most important (so my group keeps buffs and endu)

questions:
- when and how do u use instant disease? all the time?
- disease and shears dont break mezz, do they?
- what do you do first on inc?
- what is good positioning for the shaman? where am i supposed to stand? try to spread out a bit and stay in healing range?
- how do you guys use buffshears? Which targets do you shear first? Which attributes du you shear first?
--> I´d guess it would be ideal to shear speccs and str/dex if u are defending and constitution on the targets that get attacked. Supporters, casters or tanks first?
- how do you guys set up your quickbar? which spells do you use most often? single disease?
- does ichor of the deep clear immunity in a way that i can root the enemy again right after? (so root, ichor, root would work?)
- what is the best spell to rupt? ae-disease?
- what is the most important thing to keep track of during the fight. I try to keep an overview, but sometimes its hard
- what can i do to annoy casters? root doesnt do much. just Rupt? how important is disease?

so, what is there to learn?
what else makes a good shaman?

Thank you so much!
- G

grisha wrote:questions:
- when and how do u use instant disease? all the time?
- disease and shears dont break mezz, do they?
- what do you do first on inc?
- what is good positioning for the shaman? where am i supposed to stand? try to spread out a bit and stay in healing range?
- how do you guys use buffshears? Which targets do you shear first? Which attributes du you shear first?
--> I´d guess it would be ideal to shear speccs and str/dex if u are defending and constitution on the targets that get attacked. Supporters, casters or tanks first?
- how do you guys set up your quickbar? which spells do you use most often? single disease?
- does ichor of the deep clear immunity in a way that i can root the enemy again right after? (so root, ichor, root would work?)
- what is the best spell to rupt? ae-disease?
- what is the most important thing to keep track of during the fight. I try to keep an overview, but sometimes its hard
- what can i do to annoy casters? root doesnt do much. just Rupt? how important is disease?

- insta disease -only- when you have to. Like when you're nearsighted and have to run into close range, it's a handy tool. It's great for prekiting tanks, basically if they don't charge a good shaman never gets hit by melee
- both disease and shears break mezz
- depends on what kind of inc it is, if they're blanketmezzed don't aoe disease, if they're not try to disease the assist leader's target and disease/root enemy tanks or casters if they're kiting.
- flanking position
- don't use shears too often, keep everything diseased as much as possible, it's way too powerful since there's no group cure disease here
- ichor is bugged here and doesn't clear immunity
- buffshears are best for rupting, or lowbie aoe root, disease costs too much power. Aoe buffshear has 1/3 the power cost aoe disease has
- the most important thing to keep track of is your power pool, and keeping every enemy diseased
- dex/dq shear them.

hey thanks, that makes quite a few things clear.

any other beginner/intermediate advice?


TY

be sure to hit the tank train (usually your healer wont get AoE mezz on 'em) with AoE disease and AoE root. root and disease do crazy things to tank trains when they're trying to peel YOUR tanks off THEIR healers.

as for rupting, i'd say hit em with dq shear and dex shear.

and as for "who to shear":

i'd say against hibs, i hit their bards, they are INCREDIBLY vital, similar to sham for mids

against albs, i hit their sorc then theurg, then cab, then ofc cleric.

grisha wrote:questions:

- ichor is bugged here and doesn't clear immunity

yes it does.

EDIT: im stupid. my bad, it doesn't.

grisha wrote:Hey Guys,

ive been playing my shaman in wilton and in thidranki for a while (38+ aug, 27 cave). I enjoy it a lot, even though i feel, that i don´t influence the outcome of the fight as much as a healer or a bersi. I´d like to get a better player though.

what i´ve learned so far:
- rooting fulltanks is awesome.
- dont use the short ae-root in the beginning,
- avoid being slammed by a tank, disease or root and run...
- staying alive is most important (so my group keeps buffs and endu)

questions:
- when and how do u use instant disease? all the time?

use instant disease if you are kiting, repositioning, and every time u have a melee in range that isnt diseased yet. i.e. If you are going to rupt a supp, just run by the enemy tanks on the way to a good position and disease them on the run.

- disease and shears dont break mezz, do they?

disease and shears break mezz, but they dont break root. A good tactic is: root and shear / disease after

- what do you do first on inc?

depends on the enemy setup:
enemy castergroup = push and rupt their casters.
enemy tankgroup = root their tanks, and if they charge before you got them with root, shear them of s/c + s + disease

- what is good positioning for the shaman? where am i supposed to stand? try to spread out a bit and stay in healing range?

try to get into a place where you are away from their tanks, in endrange of your tanks, and i a position where you can rupt, but cant be rupted yourself. that is ~1499 units away from your focused target.
being a good shaman is 95% about good positioning

- how do you guys use buffshears? Which targets do you shear first? Which attributes du you shear first?
--> I´d guess it would be ideal to shear speccs and str/dex if u are defending and constitution on the targets that get attacked. Supporters, casters or tanks first?

depends on situation
if you want to see a target dead, knowing it will get trained soon, do s/c + c shear. This + disease will kinda kill everything with a good casters as support (i love to do that on a reaver =P)
If you want to keep your group alive vs tankgroups. use s/c + s shear.
If you play vs caster group and they are allready disease use d/q shear to rupt once but then go back to rupt with disease (400 radius) or ae root (350 radius)
I never use piety shear - use ae shears instead of single target, because of they higher lvl and lesser resists. the radius is tiny (150), so dont fear to break CC with it.

- how do you guys set up your quickbar? which spells do you use most often? single disease?

2xqbinds for single root, pbae disease
qbar: single disease, ae disease, assist, ae root, cure disease, all shears, more assist macros

- does ichor of the deep clear immunity in a way that i can root the enemy again right after? (so root, ichor, root would work?)

no

- what is the best spell to rupt? ae-disease?

start with single root, than ae root (lowest manacost)
ae disease if you need the 400 radius, but it is pretty expensive

- what is the most important thing to keep track of during the fight. I try to keep an overview, but sometimes its hard

positioning, positioning, positioning, positioning, positioning, positioning, try to keep every enemy diseased. Watch out for cure disease and rebuff spell effects, so you can shear / disease them again. Its a war between you and the enemy supports. ... Everything is important

- what can i do to annoy casters? root doesnt do much. just Rupt? how important is disease?

disease them, so they cant kite, shear d/q, root is nice too, because they cant prekite + run away from your rupts

so, what is there to learn?
what else makes a good shaman?

did i allready say positioning?
if you are familiar with all this, try to use spirit shell (but only if no other way will keep a vital target alive - it will drain all your mana, and you will need that later.
watch your groups mana to use RR5 the right time.
try to keep manapots on timer - i use my 1st at ~75% mana.
rebuff sheared ppl infight.
allways stay in end range of every group member (not possible, but still try it)
assist the skald with disease / all tanks who are getting kited (for this task you will need all the assist macros in your qbar)

My spec is: 46 aug, 27cave, 8 mend

basic RA's: MOC, Purge 3,...

I enjoy it a lot, even though i feel, that i don´t influence the outcome of the fight as much as a healer or a bersi.

That's not true.
Healer + shaman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> zerker

Thank you so much!
- G

your welcome - hope i could help abit

<edit: added basic RAs; spelling>

Xantham wrote:

grisha wrote:questions:

- ichor is bugged here and doesn't clear immunity

yes it does.

Noooooooo it doesn't. Tested it myself about a month ago.

just keep yourself busy

you can't realy do too much wrong. disease/root/rupt/shear all is effective

A well played shaman is annoying as hell to fight against

well, you guys gave me a lot to think about. Thanks a lot!

Maybe one more question: Does any of you know about a video, where you can see a shaman play well? Or where you can learn about good good positoning?

DJTiesto's Shaman video is the quintessential, "how do I play a shaman" video. I can't find a copy online, but I know its out there some where. I have all his videos on an old hard drive if I can find it.


He did the daoc fundamentals video too.


EDIT: Found it; http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uttymjj2ztx


its from the Caerleon cluster, so probably 4 years old or so, maybe 5, and there is TOA and NF, but still shows how to play a shaman really well.

Shamans are great interupters if you are good at positioning yourself. you can pray on bad positioned support, like caster + heal class that stand next to each other.

On inc I will ichor if there is no SoS and mez is not won. I will typically ichor the support as the tanks charge in. Disease the tanks and flank behind their support, sometimes standing on top of them pbae disease/Ae disease/shearing specs. I will even bust out my hammer if pbae instant disease and down and i get amnesiad or something.

Positioning is your best friend really. Play like you are a wet paper towel at the start of the fight and then flank to a good position and chainge rupt support. If you can re-apply disease to any tanks still alive do it. Chain rupting support will tax their heals and make it pretty difficult to clear disease.

If a tank even looks at you sidways, kite. Kite, Kite, Kite and root them out of the fight. High Det tanks will not be rooted long, but with disease on them away from the fight, they are pretty much screwed :p

Also, pay attention to your combat log. If you can't root a tank, they are either immune or charged. Don't waste your mana.

Carry power barrels and PoM barrels.

For RAs, I always start like this.

MCL1, Purge 1, MoC 1, Ichor 1, Aug Dex 2

From there I would say the path is wide open. I have yet to have a need for purge 2 (good healers).

Good luck.

Brooms wrote:For RAs, I always start like this.

MCL1, Purge 1, MoC 1, Ichor 1, Aug Dex 2

From there I would say the path is wide open. I have yet to have a need for purge 2 (good healers).

Good luck.

I would go purge 3. Not to cure mezz (good healers!) - it is ment to cure NS or root. Both will happen to you often, if the enemys really knows how to play.

<edit: spelling>

SirTorian wrote:

Brooms wrote:For RAs, I always start like this.

MCL1, Purge 1, MoC 1, Ichor 1, Aug Dex 2

From there I would say the path is wide open. I have yet to have a need for purge 2 (good healers).

Good luck.

I would go purge 3. Not to curse mezz (good healers!) - it is ment to cure NS or root. Both will happen to you, if the enemys know how to play.

I've yet to need anything more than purge 1 :>

I think I've been rooted once. The only thing I use purge for is cure ns, or stealth adds

Force wrote:DJTiesto's Shaman video is the quintessential, "how do I play a shaman" video. I can't find a copy online, but I know its out there some where. I have all his videos on an old hard drive if I can find it.


He did the daoc fundamentals video too.


EDIT: Found it; http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uttymjj2ztx


its from the Caerleon cluster, so probably 4 years old or so, maybe 5, and there is TOA and NF, but still shows how to play a shaman really well.

I am afraid that this video really can not help anyone to improve on the current settings that is on Uthgard.

Over 90% of the spells he is using is shears. He even uses shears when he should be using root or disease in surten situations, and ae root when he should be using single root.
He also have 357 dex, 10% cast speed and 2.0 sec shears, while here a normal shaman have 314 dex, 0% cast speed and 3.0 sec shears.

Try look at his power-bar in this video
That amount of power would not even be in the dreams of shamans here

Brooms wrote:I've yet to need anything more than purge 1 :>

I think I've been rooted once. The only thing I use purge for is cure ns, or stealth adds

I guess you have not played all that much here yet then.

Later on you will notice how valuable Purge 3 really is.

However that does really depend if Hib and Alb actually make working groups or not. vs a totally random pug I would understand that Purge 1 seems sufficient.

I don't know about you, but I really don't watch a video looking for tips specifically on just which spells to cast on whom, but how to improve positioning, camera control, and see how someone uses the tools available to the class. On uthgard you may not get as many shears off as tiesto is in the video, but that doesn't mean you aren't going to need to position roughly the same to shear, and need to pre kite in much the same way.


if you've got some video demonstrating better fundamentals on the class ive love to see it.