A few things different on uthgard than live leave me unsure as to my role on shammy

1) Population/group size:
I play US eastern time. this means that the server isnt exactly at peak numbers. most likely if I do run in a group its going to be smallman.
in these cases im not sure where i should be positioned. i tend to hang way back and play like an aug/mend healer, basically forgoing interupts to concentrate on healing and prekiting back as needed. the downside here is that push tanks dont get endo, and we dont really get the total lockdown that we should have.

2) mana regen:
on live amna is a nonissue in fights. here it is a major factor. i carry power pots, and have mcl 2. but serenity is a tricky one. with disease and shears putting me in combat, serenity is almost worthless. in tough fights i find myself having to decide between throwing out cc or just kiting and attempting to regen a little more power. any ideas on what i can do to make power last longer? this goes true for the balance of heals vs interupts. if i am pushign on interupts, i am in combat all the time, so my power drops fast. if i pull abck and heal, im out of combat so it lasts a little longer.

3) no buffbots:
shears on live were incredibly powerful. here most people cant be sheared at all, or if grouped it isnt going to be as big of a nuisance. shears, like disease, put me in combat (see note 2). should i only concentrate on a few select shears? like str/con and str from charge tanks, and d/x off of stun and gun casters? or should I basically roll down every buff mid fight? howver, shears do interupt, and havea fairly short cast time on a shammy. so for single target lockdown they are a viable option.

-----------------
my spec (due to the smallman factor in note 1) is 42 aug, rest mend. any tips on what i should be doing in a group with only 1 other healer would be appreciated.

many disagree with me but i find ethereal bond much more powerful than serenity because it stacks with the % based effect of MCL. increasing the mana pool size makes MCL give you more mana back. for me it seems to give back more mana over time than serenity if im in combat a lot and mcl is used often.

Astealoth wrote:many disagree with me but i find ethereal bond much more powerful than serenity because it stacks with the % based effect of MCL. increasing the mana pool size makes MCL give you more mana back. for me it seems to give back more mana over time than serenity if im in combat a lot and mcl is used often.

1. You can't use mcl in combat.
2. Having EB4 and MCl2 would give you mana for 3-4 additional red spells such as disease or root over having just mcl2. EB is a waste of points.
3. Serenity is far superior for classes that are required to be in combat (mcl is only good for healers, clerics and druids). Even with slow ticks in combat you'll notice a big difference with higher serenity.
4. Get math lessons, many disagree with you for a reason

Netchel wrote:A few things different on uthgard than live leave me unsure as to my role on shammy

1) Population/group size:
I play US eastern time. this means that the server isnt exactly at peak numbers. most likely if I do run in a group its going to be smallman.
in these cases im not sure where i should be positioned. i tend to hang way back and play like an aug/mend healer, basically forgoing interupts to concentrate on healing and prekiting back as needed. the downside here is that push tanks dont get endo, and we dont really get the total lockdown that we should have.

2) mana regen:
on live amna is a nonissue in fights. here it is a major factor. i carry power pots, and have mcl 2. but serenity is a tricky one. with disease and shears putting me in combat, serenity is almost worthless. in tough fights i find myself having to decide between throwing out cc or just kiting and attempting to regen a little more power. any ideas on what i can do to make power last longer? this goes true for the balance of heals vs interupts. if i am pushign on interupts, i am in combat all the time, so my power drops fast. if i pull abck and heal, im out of combat so it lasts a little longer.

3) no buffbots:
shears on live were incredibly powerful. here most people cant be sheared at all, or if grouped it isnt going to be as big of a nuisance. shears, like disease, put me in combat (see note 2). should i only concentrate on a few select shears? like str/con and str from charge tanks, and d/x off of stun and gun casters? or should I basically roll down every buff mid fight? howver, shears do interupt, and havea fairly short cast time on a shammy. so for single target lockdown they are a viable option.

-----------------
my spec (due to the smallman factor in note 1) is 42 aug, rest mend. any tips on what i should be doing in a group with only 1 other healer would be appreciated.

1) In 8v8 shammies are key rupters. Assuming you have at least one Healer in your smallman you'll do more good getting those rupts in (shears/diseases). 28mend or whatever you have really won't cut it against spike dmg.

2) Yeah mana is a problem on a lotta classes. Having played sham on uth I feel your pain. I take high sere and mcl2 on most of my casting chars according to realm rank. If you got points go for more serenity, it definitely helps and sham doesn't really have to spec much outside of power and casting speed imo. Apart from that just try to spam those pots whenever you can, can't do much more than that. Though I have to say that if your opponents are leaving you so free that you can work through 2 mana bars very quick you could have won the fight for your grp on your own already.

3) Dunno why you'd say most people can't be sheared at all. Obviously clerics and druids or bard/warden bases can't be but apart from that. I myself mostly shear both specs on tanks and d/q and dex on casters. Most of the time I don't have time for more or got better things to do than shear stuff like base con. For single lockdown yeah you can strip em to the ground and then continue rupting with that low level root (takes next to no power).

My two cents:

1) Try to stay at the side of inc, if someone come in melee to interrupt you disease him and sprint (it work better with instant pbaoe disease at 27 in cave, but you can do it with normal disease too) - side position is good for endureg on tanks and you can see the inc better imho;
2) manapool is strange here, it seems little sometimes to me too, but with sere3 and pots (and 5L until we have it) you can afford 3/4 men inc, however imho let the healer heal and concentrate more on shears and disease (heals are very expensive for a shaman);
3) always try to shear str/con and str on tanks (+disease) and dex/qui and acu on casters, use single shears.

Have fun!

Celad wrote: dex/qui and acu on casters

Dex/qui and dex.

As a shaman your priorities imo are to disease, cure disease, root non-stoicism classes (warrior should snare det tanks), interrupt, shear, I supposed shell though I guess I haven't used shell enough on uthgard to know if its livelike, heal and keep everyone specced within range of end if you can.

Power conservation for me is making sure I hit my power pots early. That's the biggest thing I found I had control over, as soon as you use a power pot worth of power, if you hit your power pot, you are gonna have another pot open to you quite a bit soon than if you waited to be at 50% or lower power.


On the RA side, serenity here seems to give a % of power per level not a point which is how I remember it being on live, so taking serenity to 3 is key imo. Then its MCL1-2, maybe rp1 if youve got the points.

moc1 is a must on shamans for them shears. Also when shearing if your taget is at 100% hp shear s/c and con first.

Disdain wrote:

Celad wrote: dex/qui and acu on casters

Dex/qui and dex.

Yes sorry, was a mistake, confusion with buffs instead of shears.

Force wrote:root non-stoicism classes (warrior should snare det tanks).

Root immunity doesn't apply to snare styles. Shaman should always be rooting, especially alb tanks who run without matter resist buff.

Disdain wrote:Root immunity doesn't apply to snare styles.

Playing on uthgard is 90% learning to abuse its bugs. ^^

Yes ;p sadly.

rofl, good to know.