Shattered Kingdoms

You do realize that shamans get some of the best spells in the game, and to complain that they don't get a spell like rezz is utterly stupid right? Like...God no. Spirit aura? Spirit horde? Call lightning? Seance? Voodoo? What about that makes you think they are more priest-like? They are lik advanced battle priests, like..combat medics *nods sagely*, badass thing that can sit there and do anything.

show me a direct quote from dulrik that says that class x is supposed to be inherently better than any other class and i'll show you an incredibly surprised (but still dirty) mexican

unless changes have been made:

- spirit horde is still almost useless, with aura and sanctuary up you will never really get a chance to cast it except in pve, which i could not give a flying [REDACTED] about because the game lets me pit my character against other characters, in which case i'm going to get tripped, bashed and mauled regardless of how much of this i have
- voodoo is just a one-shot broken skill that has no particular purpose except to either harass the [REDACTED] out of someone or used simply to continually blast someone to kingdom come and back
- seance is uh... an rp skill. when seance can rip out the living souls from my enemies so that i can incapacitate them, let me know

in the end, priests are much better in the battlefield almost entirely due to a single spell (harm), and they have the potential to be insanely awesome even without that single spell. the only thing shamans really have going for them is that two or three of them in a single group could effectively kill any other group out there up simply by merit of call lightning, and even then it's debatable because you have cases of people stacking enough magical protection that it doesn't do jack (except to giants, who take it nice and slow in the butt). to be a tank shaman you pretty much have to play them in an incredibly specific way and pretty much optimize yourself just to be competitive -- not even good, just competitive. otherwise you're only really good for lightning and healing.

I find it very humorous people don't know how to play a class to save their lives. Not every class is supposed to be a pvp power-house.

Secondly, you forgot about the key thing shaman's have - malediction. Landing a slow on a fighter or blinding a warlock are pretty much battle winners.

And let's not even forget control weather, which can prevent the enemy group from flying around. Or hell, let's just assume you're too dumb to cast spirit hoarde a second before someone behind you casts so when battle initiates you already have bashed their entire front line as you get healed and damage them. Shaman are great tanks, after all, better than paladins and hellions and priests. Hell, I'd even say better than anything that's not a mercenary with spells.

Remember folks, this game is no longer about 1 vs 1, but group tactics. Try to use that as your paradigm. The next person who says 'bards suck' because they aren't solo powerhouses clearly has not fought against a competent one in a group.

control weather is too slow to be considered a viable solution to anything, ever.

spirit horde is circumstantial as hell and from what i remember, shaman hp pools aren't exactly in the upper tier, so after the damage soaking changes to spells like sanctuary, shamans still get dropped insanely fast when in the front row.

on slow and blindness, if you're thinking one on one, if you aren't bashed and unable to cast spells at all then your opponent is a moron. if you're thinking groups, then yes, throwing blindness and slow around is a good idea -- but the problem is your art isn't very high (is it? has it changed since i last played?), and so blindness isn't difficult to overcome (although slow was and still is one of my favorite spells to use).

pretty much the best tanks are swashbucklers, barbarians or mercenaries with a priest or paladin behind them to sanctuary them. swashbucklers in particular, because they are incomprehensibly difficult to hit. it's pretty much going to stay that way for a while.

I gotta agree with Sinnoch here shamans are a support class and are amazing in groups. They still can take their fair share of damage, but rather than being uber tanks like in the past you might find it useful to put more stock in high dex and dodge combined with the damage reduction(shield block too.) Also the maledictions are what make shamans in pvp, deafness, sleep, slow, blindness...All game breakers. I wouldn't mind seeing some changes to some of their spells though, it seems like a fair share of them are never used.

I really need to turn pm to email notification off.

Anyways, if you're a shaman and in front rank to start 1 v 1 pvp then you're just inept and there's no code that will save you.

When you know your enemy is near, control weather works great and takes only a few seconds to cast to affect a huge area. Shaman have the same HP pool as does a hellion/paladin. Not the best but decent.

You can have 12 art as a shaman, more than enough to land any maladiction you want on someone who isn't enchanted out the [REDACTED]. Even then, non-fort based spells such as sleep work most of the time and are quick to cast.

Sk isn't really about skill. There's very, very little talent involved in SK pvp - it's all about having more people and inputting a command faster. This isn't an emlen mud, so really, your complaints about tactics are just really silly.

This game is about RP and no matter how well you pk, no one remembers you for it unless you are flawless (Finney) or are extremely fearsome while doing it due to rp, regardless of success rate (me and i can't believe I am saying this - ardith).

But yeah, shaman are fine. I used a shaman in the adepts to be the primary tank and he was a beast. I think pretty much everyone remembers Amnemoreth for being able to take a severe pounding. We 3 or 4 manned the adamantite golem with him, even, a hellion, a shaman, and two priests.

you have no real ranged damage spells that work for you well enough that would justify you not being in front rank. in 1 v 1 the shaman is completely hopeless, you essentially want to not start in the front row so that you can run away. that's pretty much the extent of shaman 1 v 1. which, to be honest, i guess is okay, because the game's focus is group vs group. it's just silly that some classes pretty much [REDACTED] on the shaman's 1 v 1 ability.



shamans have a smaller base hp pool, and you can go and test it for yourself if you have the time. i have no idea where you got this idea from. i claim insanity.

control weather takes a lot longer than you think it does, and it takes a few casts to get a result that would be in your favor. it also costs more mana than would be comfortable if you're going to enter an engagement soon. i do think the good use for cw consists of any fights that happen in open areas -- you can conjure a storm rather quickly and the additional damage from having a storm brewing overhead is definitely nothing to laugh at.


pumping art usually translates into your stats sucking, considering the limited amount of improvements you get. you essentially have to make the choice early as to whether you're going to be a tank or a malediction [REDACTED]. the problem is that shamans can't have their cake and eat it, too.



it hurts to agree with you



yeah if you build a shaman to be straight tank then you can pretty much be straight beasting because you can get protection from items, sanctuary, spirit aura and armor. full kit with mp and you're pretty much sitting there for years, although that's pretty much your entire job (which is mindless and boring, imo). the more interesting way to play the shaman means you drop quick as all hell.

You can get change weather staves and it's not that much mana.

But, shaman really do have the same hp pools as hellions/paladins. They just lack the heavy armor bonus.

Sinnoch is right about the HP pools. Dulrik has said that all classes in the same category have roughly the same HP.