SW or Shaman?

[Ziorah]

Hello everyone,

my last question about the classes.

I play a SW and it's a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I actually like the chaos side more, mainly for visual reasons. The shaman would actually be my class. Yes, I've asked before, but unfortunately I didn't really get an answer. I would prefer to play as a DD. Shouldn't be a problem until I'm not taken as a DD on a high RvR at some point.

Or can I also play the shaman as a healer from the start, in the instanced pvp and do some damage at the same time? if I play it solo in the pve, do I also do damage as a healer to do the quests, or do I always have to switch between DD and healer either way?

[anstalt]

In healer-spec and gear, a shaman won't be doing much damage. You'll do slightly more than a sword'n'board tank because you do magic damage, rather than physical. But its still really slow.

The advantage is that you can heal a lot, and therefore survive. If you're doing scenarios as a healer to level up, you absolutely can do PvE questing whilst you wait. Its just slow, and boring.


As a damage dealer, you're mostly single target, which is why you're not really wanted in dungeons, warbands or scenarios. Things are a little bit better after the rework, but not much. A lot of our damage comes from our DoTs, so in a dungeon or warband, enemies just die too quickly for our DoTs to be effective. Additionally, our damage is quite gear dependent (much like tanks) so you're not gonna be very good until near endgame.

Scenarios....thats a slightly different matter. A DPS shaman in a scenario can be really good as part of an organised group. You can really burn down targets, you can kite well, and you've got some backup healing in a pinch. But, if you queue solo, the game thinks you're a healer and so the chances of you getting a group that can support you properly is slim. And then you get the moaning from your teammates for not healing properly.


If I were going to recommend a leveling path for shaman, based on my own experiences:


1) Go cultivation / apothecary for crafting. You don't wanna be grinding enemies at any point to level crafting. Even as DPS, it sucks. Cultivation is your friend!

2) Go heal spec to start with, up until 25ish. You'll be invaluable in scenarios and T1 RvR, which will be the majority of your gametime.

3) At 25, start transitioning to DPS gear (devastator?). Its worth trying out DPS spec whilst leveling, just so u know how it feels. Step into RvR as DPS and blob surf. You'll be ranged DPS with some self healing, and by sticking near to the blob you'll have some safety. This will teach you the basics of DPS play and start earning you decent renown and crests.

4) At 35, go back to heal spec (annihilator or equivalent). The 35/39 healset will make you a near unkillable healing god for the last 5 levels of mid-tier scenarios. It's also suitable gear for doing Gunbad.

5) At 40, do the PvE grind. If you've got crests to spare, buy conqueror so you can skip Gunbad, otherwide do Gunbad first. Do the 5 beastlord quests too. Bilerot Burrows and Hunters Vale will get you some really good healing gear (5 HV / 3 Sent is awesome!), then tackle Bastion Stair. BS will give you a DPS set.

6) After BS, you'll have decent DPS gear and will start doing some proper damage. Get the LotD cloak and jewel to combine with BS set. This is really the point at which DPS shaman becomes viable for solo roaming and small scale stuff. Be warned: you'll still be real squishy! You're gonna die a lot as you learn how to kite properly, how to react to WHs etc.

7) Get to endgame!

[Sever1n]

Depends on what u want to do. In ror healers specs usually used for small-scale pvp, or solo roam. Only exeption when u can be taken into org warband is 1 spot for dps rp/zeal. In other situations dps healers lack tools that pure dps classes have. So for solo or duo dps sham is good, for 6man i would say suboptimal (but im not sure after rework), for warband useless. But shams not alone in this magus/engi suffer same. Key part of dps heals that they do low burst, usually dot based, but have build in sustaine, with is OP in solo situations coz game hard based on ability recover yourself. If u ok with this then create shammie, if not squig is basically boosted copy of sw.

[Battlefield]

Shaman cause shaman may cleanse d