Quick shaman SoD writeup

[Glauri]

I am a shaman, and I'd prefer a druid in the group to me with this SoD stuff incoming. I am not a happy camper at all.

[Fenier]

[Maztrak]

I didn't use logic, I stated fact. Regardless of why its done has no baring on the original point of the post which is gear distinction. A major part that I should of touched on is the major difference between the foci system on EQ items and general stat increases on WoW gear which is probably the biggest reason why there is very little distinction of gear but I'm not going to get into it now as the servers are due up any minute according to last word.

[Fenier]

No, actually what you said was - "People in EQ don't min-max like WoW because no one can tell you the best armor set" That's exactly how it came across. Which isn't fact, it's fuzzy logic. EQ players because of how EQ is designed can -not- do that, because there is no way to verify what they are doing mathematically due to the fact EQ doesn't tell you very much in terms of raw numbers when it comes to taking stats off gear to improve character performance.

EQ players however, do very much min - max, esp those people such as Tanks who put 25+ AC augments in every Slot. I'm not saying that's bad in any way shape or form, but you can't pretend EQ doesn't have that simply because people don't post exact gear for slots. The only reason people in WoW can do it and get away with it is because they can switch out a piece of armor and see the exact dps increase or mitigation increase often down to the second decimal point. You simply do not get that kind of precision in EQ when it comes to gear conversions.

Example - When running Shadow Labs on my Druid I picked up a trinket which I could click to increase my armor by 1200 or something similar. Clicking the Trinket changed my mitigation for the duration by less then 1%. My existing trinket I already had changed my dodge percentage by 6.75% for the duration. This allowed me to -easily- see which trinket was worth keeping without forcing myself to get hit for a long duration parse then use a 3rd party program to estimate what gave me the biggest return on investment.

Just because Min-Maxing is more difficult to do in EQ, does not mean it doesn't happen. I would bet money if people could prove that something was best in slot and had huge player power increases in EQ, people would go out of their way to obtain it. It's just human nature.

-Fenier

[Yesak]

I agree with Fen about the lack of a real bridge in terms of gear. When my guild gets applicants (we are just now doing well in Solt, finished TSS a month or two ago) they are generally REALLY bad off. I mean, they die in the first 30secs of a fight because they can't resist much, nor do they have the hp to be able to withstand a hit. For melees, their DPS is laughable 'till we can get them into something better. The easiest argument against this is Crystallos. If my entire guild were in Cryst gear, we'd be probably through Solt by now. However, I found Crystallos access annoying to get (although not horrid by any stretch of the imagination) but I came back to EQ AFTER most people in the guild had gotten it and it is really hard to convince people to spend a ton of time getting you the flag. Add that to the fact that Cryst groups are a mixed bag at best and you get an annoyed troll. I got lucky however and was around for the BB revamp. I found that once I got a near full set of visible gear from root/rotting trash, I could solo the named for other gear. I think I am still sitting with BB gear in 50% of my slots.

I thought the faction task system with the armor would be what I wanted and could be a bridge. It wasn't once I got into my BB gear. What I would like is some sort of task system that could function as that bridge. Get some BB/LGuK level of armor as reward. Nothing particularly spectacular but enough to bridge the gap to Cryst or raid gear (or whatever is out there in the next expansion). I guess you have to remember that I freaking loved LDoN and DoN, so I'm biased.

Anyway, I hope SoD is pretty fun. I can't afford to buy it for another month or two

[Lathdrinor]

[Sustenon]

Wasn't there supposed to be another line of the "Defiant" armor? Not that it would be anything spectacular just wondering. I am 50/50 on this new expansion. I like the unity buff idea. Makes raid buffing a WHOLE lot easier. And the slow aa and lev/run/invis aa. Those are useful. Shaman have always got the shaft on healing spells. Thought we would all be used to it by now lol. I don't know just my idea on some things but I really haven't had the time to play around with the new stuff yet, bought a new truck, buying a house etc etc work work work So thanks for this thread because I learned a few things about the new expansion from it

[Unmei]

I wouldn't expect any more defiant armor. The point of defiant armor was to get people who left the game a while ago and were coming back up to speed-ish. If you're already in your 70's, you can hunt and get real armor.

[Zama]

few quick questions, do you know
what increase chance to crit from spire1 is
do old ancesteral intervention aa's work on the new one,

[Sowslow]

Thought it went 15%, 18%, 21% for the first spire, could be wrong though.
The AAs for AI work on the new spell.

[Brohg]

http://www.antonius-bayle.org/kumbaja/s ... +ancestors

Correct on First Spire

[Sustenon]

And apparently they did just add a new level of defiant armor. Saw it on patch message and for sale in Bazaar already. Decent stats if you missed out of BB/LGuk or can't get any groups in Field of Scale. It is for 70+.

[Rommuluss]

Well, two months into the expansion, I can appraise the situation, in my view, in simple terms: Yawn. The new Shaman AA's are nothing short of horrible, including spire 3 that debuffs focus, an AE slow from a 58th level spell, a series of debuff expanders( when the original debuff's should work effecectively as stand alone spells), miserable upgrades to all our old AA's, from Ancestral Aid to Virulent Paralysis, and everything in between, to patheticly old, worn out, boring AA's that are nothing short of inconsequential.

Not to be outdone, our spells are even WORSE. Yep. From 81 to 85, they simply suck. The DPS boosts are minimal, they are thoughtless, uncreative, repetitious and in some cases, utterly useless. All of you can spend countless hours prying them apart and comparing and investigating, and so forth, ad nauseum, and a person of average intelligence can make that conclusion after spending 2 hours playing this class.

Its one thing to be 'jack of all trades', its another to fall behind or to the side, in a most callous manner---benign neglect.

Our 3 most useful spells/effects----remembering that Clerics and Druids can outheal us without hardly making an effort( let alone Mercs)-----are Epic, Champion, and the new Panther upgrade...the former two, 5 expansions old, and the latter, a painful, mana burning, mind numbingingly brief GROUP DPS upgrade.

We still have FOCUS. I suppose thats something.

As a guildleader, raidleader, Shaman forever, I can honestly say, for the very first time, I have absolutely despaired about this class, have no desire to play, or even to raid; that we wouldnt remotely consider recruiting another---two, possible even 1, is sufficient for any raid, to cast focus and champ 3 groups, panther a few, and cast a couple slows on occasion. Heck, we dont even have to cast slow---get a BST or Chanter( the latter still remaning absolutely crucial for success in multiple events).

I get the biggest kick out of our Clerics( some) whining about how terrible it is for them---as they tank 3k hitting mobs---and we get our XXXX handed to us, even slowed, haha. Or watch Druids solo rot/nuke/dot/egress/port/fernspur, and generally run circles around us.

Here is my SOD Shaman 'quick writeup": Find a new class, or a new game. Or, if you persist( like me) on playing, regardless, then prepare for constant dissapointment: EQ has no intention of changing whatever maniacal paradigm that allowed them to make our proud class putrid. Where once there was hope---now there is just reality.

Happy New Year.

Rommuluss, Diligence Guildleader, 7th Hammer.

[Brohg]

I disagree.

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Unmei]

Bah. The Shaman healing boost is crazy good. No group with a shaman should ever waste a slot on a healer merc.

That alone catapults this expansion from "meh" to solid for shamans in my eyes. And chill out about Spire 3. They'll fix it, I'm sure.

[Cantiz]

I will forever remember GoD as the worst expansion for Shaman.

[Kneesmasher1]

I have to disagree with Rommuluss as well. I only wish I had 15 spell slots instead of just 10. Shaman can do soooooo much to help a raid, or group, it's not even funny. I'm constantly wishing I had more spell slots so I wouldn't have to change spells so often. Unity helped a lot, but add to that, having 2 heals loaded (direct and HoT), a canni, Champ, Lynx, Malis, Discord (for those hard to slow mobs), and a nuke or dot and I'm getting maxxed out. I'd prefer to have 2 or 3 dots loaded and both nukes. I'd like to keep Regen up because it doesn't last all that long. Sometimes you need that group corruption cure loaded as well. I'd also like to keep Unity loaded for those battle rezzes on raids. I like Wild Growth and like to keep it up. Sometimes an AE slow is nice to have loaded, at least until I get the AA one. Shaman can bring a ton of value to any raiding guild or group guild IMO.

I still think they are one of the very best and most versatile classes in the game today.

[Unmei]

Can't you dodge loading Malis by using the AA Malosinete? I mean, sure, it's technically not unresistable, but magic -200? Good enough!

[WaringMcMarrin]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Brohg]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

Yah. Multiple spell bars that you could roll through (like ctrl 1 for spell bar 1, etc.) would be awesome. The spell sets are nice, but during a fight it is a real pain to sit/remem spell set etc.

Perhaps we could offer a trade off to the Devs? If Tharkis agrees to stop wearing skirts and man up with some pants, perhaps they will investigate the possibility?

All kidding aside,I know they have always said 'can't be done' but they said that about LOOT ALL till some bright shiney star with skillz looked at it. Even though loot all is a thing of the past now, it still stands as valid argument that what they thought couldn't be done, might be possible.

Peace\

Edit: I would pay many many fine AA for a second spell bar.

[Unmei]

[Mojarda]

I use the AA in group/raid situations, but will load Malosenea when root/rotting as the 9% increase to magic damage is nice.

[Buzzuzu]

MAlo AA is awesome if you a real shaman and not a bot. I found the expansion gave a few nice thing 3in 1 FOcus is great. It increased our HP`s by a lot per level. The spells are OK with foci and AAs Soloing seems the same as before killing evens-reds is easy. Since TSS our AC and HP`s seem to have gone up a lot. I raid Buff to 30k or so hp and I am still finishing Void D for the armor to increase a few slots. The Void vendor Zeb sells lots of the droppable stuff so if you are weak in 1 or 2 slots you can make the 300-400hp jump for non-visible armor slots. I find the content is fun to play and the Iskar mask makes some of the quests really fun.