[Shaman] DPS - What's Making The Difference?

[anstalt]

Hi folks,

So, my shaman is now rr78 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I mostly solo or small scale, so I come up against DPS AMs a lot!

Against other classes, the outcome of a 1v1 is usually pretty consistent. Tanks? Got them, nearly always win. Slayers? Nearly always win. WH's and WLs? If I can escape their initial openers and get into kite range, I'll win, otherwise I lose. Ranged DPS? Usually win unless they get some great burst off.


When it comes to DPS AMs, my results are totally inconsistent. Sometimes I spank them, sometimes they spank me, and everything inbetween, including the occasional stalemate. I've checked out killboard armory, and we're basically all in the same gear: 5 warlord, 3/4 victorious, BL weapon. Minor differences in jewellery. Intelligence talis all round.


So, what I'm here to ask is: what is making the difference?

Is it that final victorious jewel? Being able to reduce my int by 130 whilst increasing their init by 130 doesn't sound like it would make that much difference, but maybe it does?

Is it spec? I haven't really landed on a "perfect" DPS spec post-rework and haven't seen many opinions by other shamans on what they think works best now. This is what im currently running. The fourth tactic (whazat behind you) is something i switch around a lot. Sometimes I use RUN AWAY! for better kiting, sometimes Burst of Waaagh! for some big crits.

What about renown points? I always go FS2 + Impetus 2 to get me below 0% chance to be crit. I go full Deft Defender, then Full Acumen. Remaining few points into vigor. I've experimented with dropping some acumen and picking up parry, but it didn't really help when fighting melee dps. I've experimented with dropping acumen so I could pick up more crit, and was undecided. What's your opinion?


Finally, I've got to assume player skill is a big part. Shamans and AMs have so many options of what skills to use and when. With most other classes, I can follow a similar gameplan: DoT DoT DoT, HoT, Shield, Heal Debuff, FotG whilst kiting. Burst of Waaagh / Bunch of Waaagh if I can be stationary. Youz Squishy / Gork'll Fix it as needed. 'Scuse me in there somewhere too for the debuff.

Fighting a healer, especially AM, is very different. As they can cleanse 2 of our DoTs, we lose a lot of damage. as we're both ranged, we're not kiting so I can use more skills. I still prioritise DoTs and the heal debuff, but perhaps I should stop using the DoTs as much and focus more on direct damage? I also try to get my silence in early. I have found this can make a big difference - if I can get my silence in first, that 5seconds of pure damage puts them on the backfoot so they then have to focus on healing, rather than killing me.



So yeh, thats me. Let me know what advice you have, where I can improve, and how you tackle AMs in particular.


Thanks in advance!

-Scabrous Finga

[Ruin]

The difference IMO is the cleanses, am can cleanse shammy while shammy can't cleans am.
I believe it's the remnant of inicial game idea of faction pairings only.

[vanbuinen77]

Its cleanse, detaunt and silence usage

[Changobuster]

I think its because you have that mentality of " i will win against all of them" and this is not that kind of game, you will loose, you cant expect to always win. Ofc skill>counterclass but this is not the game for that.