Lunicant Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 By Arzaeth Introduction ------------ The shaman is an extreme terror at high ranks. Able to switch roles between tank and healer they are excellent company in a hunting group. Powerful solitary hunters they are similar to a hyena in attack, wearing away at the victim, resting, wearing a way a bit more, until the victim is a mass of disease and lacks the energy to run anymore. Surprisingly they are not played as much as people think - people just remember the well-played ones that turn the tide of the game. A very well equipped badly played shaman is fodder regardless of equipment. To play this class successfully you need a full understanding of all your abilities, a good understanding of how to equip well, and the ability to play well under pressure. Many shaman battles end with the victim *believing* he is actually beating the shaman half to death only to see the shaman flee and return fully healed. By then of course for the hapless victim it is far too late. Often though a shaman has left the decision to flee one round too late... Race Choice ----------- Human - The main benefits of a human shaman are no xp penalty and no weapon/spell vulnerabilities. They are very quick to rank, will always have people lower ranked in PK range (up to 8 ranks below at rank 50), and very few people higher ranked in PK range. The average mana and hp will become quite an annoyance at rank 50 where hp is not important and mana is vital. However a wise choice of eq can raise mana quite a bit and thus a human shaman should never be discounted - especially for a first-time shaman player. Duergar - Benefits of a duergar shaman are higher hp and innate magical resistance. They will suffer at higher ranks due to lack of mana but will rely a little less on their maledictions due to their high strength and ability to dish out more damage physically than a human and a drow. This low mana is enough to discourage a lot of players and, combined with a nasty vulnerability to water-based weapons, duergar shaman are rarely seen - they better clerics. High hp and magic-resistance versus lower mana and water vulnerability make this shaman choice more unpredictable in combat. Fire Giant - A very hard choice for shaman. Not recommended to those with no experience of shamans. Low mana, mental vulnerability, and hard to train make these the most complicated shamans to play successfully. Obviously they benefit from enormous strength, hp, and bonus from fire weapons. The fire weapon bonus is negated somewhat considering a shaman's lack of choice of weaponry but, correctly equipped, these brutes will rely mainly on their raw damage backed up with a tactical selection of maledictions. With mana so scarce it is vital to pick tactics correctly or find yourself with no mana and a live victim. Drow - A very popular choice for shaman. Highest mana of the shamans (without eq), charm resistance, autosneak, easy to train make this combination a very powerful one. Lack of hp is not really a problem with wise equipping. High dexterity makes for good defense. Highest XP penalty of the shamans mean your pk range will generally fall on the higher ranked but this is a small price to pay for all the bonuses. General Tactics --------------- A shaman is a hit-and-run character. They only have a short period each time they battle to lay down their mals and the order in which they are placed is vital. This order will vary with each race/class being fought and it is vital to learn from any mistakes you make. They run in, lay down some mals, flee, heal, run back in, lay down some more mals, flee, heal etc. It is for this reason you should learn your own limits. Notice how quickly you are losing hp and try to determine how many rounds more you can risk before fleeing and healing. Do NOT heal during battle. It is a pointless exercise and will only lead to mana loss and frustration. If you have laid your mals correctly you will find that you can heal up whilst your enemy is unable to get too far away from you. ALWAYS be flying during battle. Either by scroll or potion - a triplagged shaman is useless and dead. I will discuss tactics against melee classes, spell classes, and communers after a discussion of the various skills and prayers a shaman has. Skill/Prayers and training -------------------------- All weapons and defenses should be mastered by a shaman. This is not hard to achieve. Find a place with multiple low rank mobs or utilise the ability to summon to create your own 'training rooms' in comfort. Wear a practice weapon and shield and go for it. Equip a weapon + shield to train initially. Once you have mastered your one-handed weapons move on to hand to hand + shield. By now you will have no doubt mastered shield block, your weapons, and hand to hand. A staff will finish your final weapon and parry. Until you are able to get a good noremove weapon and a nodrop or noremove shield you must expect that a lot of the time you will be disarmed and/or without a shield. Should they get sacced in battle as they often do the goblin chieftain and goblin guard are a quick source of sceptre + buckler. Remember any shield is better than no shield. Choice of weapon and shield are not vital - a well played shaman can kill with the two mentioned at any rank. Blindness - One of the staple mals of a shaman. A lot of people believe this should be the opening mal in combat. This is wrong. It will depend entirely on what you are fighting. If you are fighting a spell caster they will often recall after being blinded thus wasting your time. A communer can generally heal it. Warriors and monks have blind fighting so will still be hurting you. A berserker will panic and suddenly be hitting you hard and often. I would go so far as to say do not blind a berserker ever - there is no need. Weigh up your enemy. Blindness often causes players to panic at their keyboard and so a well-timed blind can cause all their tactics to go out of the window. Against spell casters and communers curse should be placed before blindness. To train - practice on a sleeping mob. Curse - An annoying mal that has the effect of preventing their recall as well as lowering their efficiency in combat. A must against spell casters first. Many victims do not perceive curse as a problem until a few rounds later they need to get out quick. Another advantage of this spell is if things aren't going your way. You can recall and they are faced with a (hopefully) long walk. To train - practice on a sleeping mob. Poison/Plague - Two very important mals. Both prevent the victim regaining any mana/hp/moves each round. Never rely on the damage from these two alone to kill an opponent although plague can get pretty nasty the longer it progresses. The main effects of these is to stop your opponents running for too long. They will also keep rogue classes and rangers out in the open. Poison should be laid before plague for two reasons. One, the victim is poisoned every round and is useful for keeping rogue classes visible and spotting autosneaking characters in the same room as they pass through. Two, plague can get very messy and quite often will find itself back on you. This is not a problem with your cure disease but it is annoying to use mana to cure. Train on undead mobs. Poison can be trained on wyverns and other poison immune mobs. Dysentery - This spell can kill a victim who has somehow managed to get away from you. Not easily removed it is a bane on anyone unlucky enough to have it. Again it stops mana/hp/move regeneration with the added side-effect that in the first couple of ticks a victim will leave a marker (dung is locatable). Train on undeads. Deteriorate - This will allow subsequent mals to land easier. Therefore use it in opening combat against magic-resistant races and characters with high mal saves. If you find that your normal tactics are not working and your mals are not landing be sure to keep at it until this one does. Coupled with phantom grasp you can make a big difference on those who you were previously unable to touch. Train on sleeping mobs. Blasphemy - Absolutely essential for killing communing classes. It leaves them with the inability to commune. A well played communer will always have backup potions for most of the prayers they have for exactly this reason. For this reason it is important to have a communing class blasphemied and cursed before worrying about your other mals. Train on sleeping mobs. Mass Hysteria - Excellent against melee types. It has the effect of temporarily lowering their combat skills by up to 50%. Against a perfectly trained warrior, berserker, ranger, or monk this can be devestating. Train through combat. Enfeeblement - Causes the victim to use more moves whilst running. Perfect for catching up with an enfeebled victim and picking them off as they are unable to flee the room. Train on sleeping mobs. Weaken - Obviously this spell weakens your opponent. Coupled with plague, which also weakens, your victim will often find themselves unable to hold up their weapon or shield and the damage they were doing to you will be lowered considerably. Train on sleeping mobs. Curative prayers - Do not even practice cure light or cure serious. Both will not be used once you have cure critical. Cure critical will master itself with continual use so, unless you feel the need, there is no immediate concern to master it. Cure disease/poison will usually be cast at your leisure and therefore it is not essential to have 100% skill. As mentioned above do not be tempted to cure in combat. It is a waste of time and mana. Flee first and get the most benefit. Word of Recall - Master this. It can be a real life-saver and the last thing you need is to lose concentration on this at a vital time. Find a room blanketed in darkness, or a room you cannot recall from such as your guild, and spend the time to master it. You will be thankful later. Teleport - Do NOT use below 50. It is not worth taking a mobdeath just to save a few items of equipment. Much of the time you will teleport to a place you cannot get back to anyway so will still lose the equipment you were trying to save. It is worth noting that a mastered teleport will take you to generally a safer place but it is still risky. This is often the cause of deletion for many new or inexperienced shamans. Insomnia - Remember all those mals that should be trained on sleeping mobs? This gives you the ability to put your mob of choice to sleep. A good tactic is to insomnia a mob (preferably one that can't see invis), run to a blanketed or guild room and wait for it to come in and fall asleep. You can train in relative comfort then. Against players it has a two-fold effect. One, they cannot choose to sleep and will therefore lose any mana/hp/move gain bonuses they would have each tick. Two, they will fall into a long sleep when it kicks in. This is great if you know where they are when it kicks in. You can lay most of your mals on a sleeping victim without waking them up. Dispel magic - a double edged sword. On one side it will remove sanctuary and other beneficial spells on your opponents. On the other side it will often cause your opponent to flee immediately - be prepared to chase. Also if cast AFTER your own mals you can dispel many of them. Thus should only be used at the beginning of combat if at all. Train on sleeping mobs. Harm - This should be practised at the expense of cause light, cause serious, and cause critical. It is the only one of these bunch worth practising to 75%. Harm is a great combat finisher on a victim unable to flee. When you have laid your mals down and are satisfied that you have them, lay the harm on them. Quite nasty against unsanced ogres too. Train during normal use. Visitation - an interesting prayer. Will cause your victim to take 2 or 3 rounds of unblockable/undodgeable/unparryable damage at a later point in time. Many a victim has escaped at awful condition believing they have survived and then the demons come.... Train during normal use. Spirit Bind - This prayer is underused and often not understood by many. Simply put it gives you a THIRD attack. Damage is proportional to the level of the mob you spirit bound but even the effect from a pig is better than none. It is another attack that the victim has to block/defend and, at higher ranks, can deal damage higher than you are capable of with a weapon alongside your own. You should always have a spirit bound to you. Protective Shield/Sanc - These spells should be up continuously. Moreso sanctuary than protective shield but even when you think you are safe it is foolish to let these drop. Many times a shaman has awoken and stood up where he thought he was safe only to be bashlocked to death. During combat if a melee type throws himself against your shield trying to bash he will lag himself and waste his valuable combat time. Dark Shroud - this will hide any color effects on you. People will not be able to determine if you are sanctuaried. This is an excellent victim teaser. They find you 'unsanced' and it gives them false hope. Only later naked at their pit do they realise why they were only grazing you. It also has the benefit of fooling communers/mages into not casting dispel magic. Will often convince the victim to stay in battle longer than they would normally. Chorus of Anguish - Not very useful. Area attack that causes little damage. Only real use is to bring out hiders but then faerie fog will do that non-offensively. I never practise this but others may differ in opinion. Faerie Fog/Faerie Fire - use to illuminate thievs, ninjas, and rangers and prevent them from hiding/camouflaging. I don't need to tell you how useful that is. Protection - a kind of 'mini' sanc. This will lower damage to you from good aligned creatures/players. Should be up along with armor continuously. These are the main prayers of a shaman and all play a part in the tactics. With such a wide variety of options there are many combinations of tactics and ideas that can be put into play. For this reason it is also very easy to make a dodgy combination and therefore makes a shaman incredible or appalling depending on player experience and understanding. As stated it is important to learn from mistakes. Go over your logs should you get defeated and try to pinpoint which mal/loss of concentration at which point led to your downfall. Do not be afraid to adapt your tactics and, indeed, this will be necessary from opponent to opponent. Here is a rough guide against each type - this assumes your mals are landing. If not you should open with deteriorate until it does land. This is by no means the definitive list and no two shamans really share the same opinions. Spells you should have up before and during combat: armor, protection, bless, protective shield, sanctuary, spirit bind, (fly - potion or scroll) Opening spells: Spell caster - (if sanced - dispel magic) / curse / blindness Communer - (if sanced - dispel magic) / curse / blasphemy / blindness Melee - (if sanced - dispel magic) / (non berserker) blindness / curse / weaken / plague This is a good start. If you land these you can finish with your plague/poison/dysentery/enfeeble. Equipment --------- Simple. Mana boosting/HP boosting/Saves boosting. Do NOT bother about damage as a drow - less so with a human and duergar. A shaman's power truly lies in his mal and you need to be able to stay in battle long enough to lay them down. Damage from your weapons should not be a consideration, especially as you should have spirit bind up. Inventory --------- A sensible shaman should always have: 2 gyvels (available - ie not in sack) 1-2 recall potions 1 emergency potion/scroll flight 1 boat - (all non-flying classes/races should have this out of their sack) A more daring rank 50 shaman might wish to carry a black pill of teleport too. This way if you are blasphemied you should still have the means to cure blindness and escape. Conclusion ---------- Shamans are lots and lots of fun. To get the most from them you must be prepared to invest the time getting vital mals to 100%. Combat can be long and drawn out lasting up to 20 minutes or so in some cases. Patience is the key. Do not panic - have a clear tactic marked out in your head and execute it clinically. A shaman is perfect for solo eq gathering although it may take a while. They are also great explorers. As has been said before they are good tanks or healers within a group and, due to this, will often not have any problem getting to 50. A well-rounded class with few drawbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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