Leveled too fast...

[Jandoleer]

[Sebekiz]

You can purchase the runes needed for level 66 to 68 spells in the bazaar. The prices have come down somewhat, but you're still looking at 10 to 20k each, depending on the level (for some reason level 66 and 67 runes seem more expensive than 68 on 7th Hammer, not sure if this is the case on other servers). You can also try getting groups to fight the 1-group named bosses for runes. Noble's Causeway, Wall of Slaughter and Muramite Proving Grounds are the most popular, in order of dificulty and level of runes you are most likely to have a chance at.

For level 69 and 70 runes, you'll need to group in Muramite Proving Grounds or Riftseeker's Sanctum. If you have some friends who raid a bit, you might try doing the group trials in MPG. The ones I've done have had a level 69 or 70 rune over half the time, though others report the drop rate to be lower for them.

You turn in the runes to a NPC in Dranik's Scar, not too far from the point where the Priests of Discord will port you into the zone. With Invis, you can easily reach him and turn in any runes you've won or purchased. The spells are rewarded in a set order for each type of rune (Minor Muramite Runes for level 66, Lesser for 67, Muramite Runes for 68, Greater for 69 and Glowing for level 70 spells).

You can also win runes in the new expansion that can be turned in for Omens spells. I haven't spent much time in DoD other than on raids, so I can't really tell you as much about where you can win them and who to turn them in to. I'm sure there are others who can fill in more info on those.

[Trevalen]

This should not be a very big difficulty for you. You can recover fairly easily and be back on track.

First thing to do is get your spells for level 66-68. Buy them in the bazaar if you need to, or take groups in WoS or MPG if you don't have the money. The difference between a shaman with all of these spells and none is very significant. The post above told you most of what you need to know, with the exception of the fact that the DoD runes are called Shadowspine (e.g. "Lesser Shadowspine Rune"). Use Allakhazam's or a similar webpage if you want more information on this.

I don't think you're ready for RSS until you have the 66-68 spells, but once you have those, you can group in RSS for 69 and 70 runs. 69s rot frequently, 70s are usually contested.

As for learning zones, download maps from mapfiend, load up invis and go exploring. Once you start hunting in some of these areas you will learn the ropes and things will start to fall into place.

[Samanna]

Boarmaster, you did fine - you just have some catch up to do. Most of my advice in http://crucible.samanna.net/viewtopic.php?t=1094 should apply to you. You should be able to solo that guy for runes (and runes to sell) if you're not flush enough to buy your spells. XP in NC at 70 won't be great, but you really want your single Wunshi and Fortitude spells at least before you seek groups in WoS or MPG.

If you're LFG and they ask you in, by all means accept, but tell them you lack some spells. Most groups who will invite you at 70 will want you to have Wunshi and Fortitude; it would be best to have your new Slow, 820 HoT, single Sense, and 60/tic Regen as well. But they won't care how you slow mobs, they just want the mobs slowed and the toons to have Wunshi and Fortitude; all else is nice to have, not need to have.

[Brohg]

[Boleslav]

[Jandoleer]

To all you Elders, thank you.

To remind everyone, some time back, I was faced with a situation where I had leveled too quickly, and did not have the skills, spells or abilities sufficient to proceed in the zones that were most appropriate for me. I came to you, my Elders, and was provided some very sage advice, which I took to heart and tried as best I could to employ.

I have spent considerable time in WoS, NC and doing DoN missions and am starting to become somewhat comfortable with my abilities. I have managed to obtain all of the 66-68 spells and have increased my AAs to 430 as of last night.

Now the tough question. If you examine my magelo (see the link below) you can see where I have spent my AAs. I've have tried to focus my AAs on the healing arts, and have just about reached the end of those. I found a spreadsheet here in one of the posts on the message board that provided considerable guidance. In fact I have pretty much followed that spreadsheet to the letter with the exception of several AAs I wanted for other things.

Now its time to start looking at AAs other than those providing me with improved healing abilities. I have reviewed Samanna's recommendations several times, but would like to know if someone might have alternative opinions on where my AA growth might be focused now.

Any suggestions from you will certainly be considered. I just want to be the best shaman I can and don't want to waste my time on AAs that many of you feel are not worth the effort.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide. And thank you again for your advise in the past.

"BoarMaster" - EQ Forums

By the way - If you ever decide to open a RP message area for those of us that enjoy writing little stories, I'll be more than happy to share some I've written with you, the shaman community. Jandoleer has been a busy guy and has much to share with others.

[Macnair]

There is a transitional moment in perspective that you have perhaps reached now, which you may have skipped because you were dong MMs.

This is the point at which dying no longer seems like that big a deal.

Think of a major league ballplayer, bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, standing at the plate. Swing hard, whiff, strike three, game over, you lost. The major league ballplayer is disappointed. But he knows it's only one game, one day. He knows that nobody hits a home run every at-bat. And he knows that tomorrow he will be a little better, he won't get suckered by that slider quite as easily next time: and so he will have the chance to hit that home run, and win the game.

For most of us, somewhere in our 60s was where we clumsied and bruised our way through that transitional moment, from "omg another CR, I hate this game" to "hmm, run back or summon?"

You may have MM'ed past the spot where you would have most naturally encountered that transition. So as you progress into harder content, you will need to develop the mindset of expecting to die pretty often, and not getting flustered by it. (Some people playing in WoS have learned this, some have not.)

It is only by trying zones and mobs you can't beat yet -- which in this game means you die -- that you will develop the skills you need so that you can overcome them.

[wsbsteven]

Ya need to get you some better gear Jand. You can use the magelo to help you some. All my stuff is bazaar, solo, or groupable. Just ignore the stuff 150hp & lower and especially the sub 100hp stuff that is in dire need of replacing.

[Kerberuz]

Your most important spell is probably the first 69 spell you get. Like it was said before 69 runes rot a lot in RSS, so park yourself in the zone until someone /ooc that one is rotting go loot and get your SLOW. This spell is very important for groups survival.

List of Spells:
http://crucible.samanna.net/viewtopic.php?t=1643

[Macnair]

As to aa: one of your defensive lines is missing: combat stability, I think. That will show good return in mitigation per aa spent.

There has been a bug which may or may not have been resolved, in the interaction of Abundant Healing and Gift of Mana. They have had a tendency to block each other. Gift of Mana is much better: if it triggers on a heal you just cast on someone, you can cast another heal on that same person which will be much beefier than the Heal-over-time that Abundant Healing would have provided; or you can nuke or dot or heal a different person; and it can trigger off more than heals. Gift of Mana is a very strong, very flexible ability. But you have already started Abundant Healing. I don't know if the blocking issue has truly been fixed, so it might be very frustrating to invest a stack of aa in GoM and have it not accomplishing anything.

The dps aa will make a difference, once you work them up a little.

If mostly what you do is group in places with fast kills, you might want to think about emphasizing the nuke lines: they do not do as much damage, and they are not as mana-efficient, but they do the damage Right Now. Your dots create more damage, and they do it more efficiently: but if the mob is dead before the dots stop runnning, it doesn't really matter that you efficiently keep on killing it for 3 more ticks.

If you solo some of the time, if you raid some of the time, if you fairly often are fighting mobs that take a minute or more to kill instead of being dead in 30 40 seconds: then invest heavily in dot-strengthening aa.

[Henora]

if you're looking for AA advice - stop now and never spend anymore on innate stats (like wisdom or strength) until you have like 1200 aa. Get Combat Stability and Innate Defense AA's they are great returns on investment. Stop getting abundant healing, it's not very good and it conflicts with gift of mana. If you want to get AA from DOD tab, get gift of mana - it's good.