Re: The Soloist Shaman -- The Shaman Forum

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Date Posted: 11:52:12 11/08/99 Mon
Author: Jandana Wintersage (Bristlebane)
Subject: Re: The Soloist Shaman
In reply to: Rumbling Thundur (Innoruuk) 's message, "Re: The Soloist Shaman" on 03:54:16 09/23/99 Thu

I wholly agree with you. Tactics for the shaman are paramount. It seems like every level you get new spells you need to readjust your strategy for battling the baddies. I believe this is more the case for shaman than any other class out there. So the tactics mentioned here, while good for some levels are completely wrong for others, especially since at level 19 those level 9 and level 5 DOTs are USELESS! Some levels are better for soloing than others. I JUST got level 24 so I'm still learning how to use regenerate and cannibalize. I already see a big benefit in how much they decrease downtime and it's nice to be able to drop a regenerate on someone rather than wasting a lot of mana casting heal over and over.

When I solo I make use of the root/DOT/DD combination mentioned before. I dont normally keep the critter rooted though because root gets broken pretty quickly. I use root to get off the first barrage of necessary spells (the DOT for one) In my opinion the DOT is VERY important and I would always use it when soloing. The DOT does more damage than any one casting of your DD so it's CHEAP. I will cast it more than once if it's resisted because it almost always takes hold the second time when fighting a blue. If it doesnt take hold THEN then I'll resort to blasting it with the DD over and over... but the DDs are expensive in comparison and if it's important that I don't use up all my mana, then fighting with DDs is NOT the way to go. (unless you like staring at your spellbook for hours) I don't generally use the debuffs when fighting solo because they cost quite a bit in comparison with a single DD blast, so I would rather do damage to the monster than risk not having enough to finish him off.

I like to have an advantage when I get in close. If I start hurting though I might root again so I can back out for a bit. When you first get root it's almost hopeless because it gets resisted enough and fails enough times that the cost outweighs the benefits. I didn't solo much before level 21 (mostly because I had a good group and I was leveling very quickly) Before that, I soloed mostly blues in the Karanas like beetles or whatever I could find. Griffawns hit too doggone hard. I killed some of those at level 22 and had to kite them some in order to finish them off (OUCH). At lower levels your melee skills are more important than at higher levels I think, but even now I find that I can't kill anything without meleeing with it, those DD spells just aren't hefty enough for you to pretend to be a nuker.

I save the debuffs for groups where I have the luxury of more than one tank. They like being able to melee stuff dead so if I kill it fast they don't like that. Also, if I use my DD spell that makes it harder for the tanks to taunt. So instead rather than taking hits myself I fully buff my tanks, debuff the monster, maybe DOT it once and let them kill it while I sit back and meditate in peace, maybe occasionally throwing out a heal here or there (though probably not needed if the debuffs worked well)
That's the least mana intensive way to fight in a group with tanks.

In general if I died while soloing it was because my SOW picked a bad time to wear off.

> I am currently lvl 30 (made 31 for a bit) and I would
> say that tactics are far more important than AC. I
> have a few combat spells always memmed, and vary a
> couple others depending on what I'm fighting. I
> always use 1 dot, and the rest of my mana for dd, or
> heals, and kite as necessary. While not as whimpy as
> casters, we are still whimpy at melee. I doubt that a
> warrior could solo a white (or perhaps even blue)
> griffawn in melee. Root works good for some
> creatures, and wears off fast or is resisted for some.
> My general advice is to refresh sow often, and know
> when too split before it's too late. Abandoning a
> fight sucks, but dying sucks more!

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