Zigy's Philosophy on Shaman Play

[Zigmund]

This is a guide to help returning shaman, people with shaman alts, and people new to playing the shaman class, understand the way in which I personally feel a shaman should be played.

As most shaman already know, our primary job in groups/on raids is to de-buff the targets, followed by keeping our DPS groups ALIVE, followed by keeping them doing as much DPS as possible, and THEN, do the extra stuff like dps (good on raid healing), or spam heal tanks (low on raid healing).

A shaman should NEVER quit casting…..think of the way “old school” bards used to twist songs before auto-twist…same thing, but with AA’s, clickies, and spells, rather than twisting songs. If a shaman isn’t casting for 5 seconds and something’s not preventing him from casting, something is wrong with that picture. There’s always something a shaman could be doing, waiting to heal someone that’s not yet damaged, or is already receiving plenty of heals, ISN’T the right thing to do…Show absolutely no respect for your mana pools, in today’s game with Canni, Canni5 AA, mage Mod Rods, Staunch Recovery Vet AA, Kiss of E-Marr, Spiritual Channeling, a shaman should never run completely out of mana…EVER….so keep that “twist” going.


Raid/Group Task #1
Debuffing Targets – Pending there’s mages in the raid/group, a shaman shouldn’t have to malo targets anymore, but turgur’s swarm is always required, and if the shaman is dps’n on an event that doesn’t require pre-slowing mes’d mobs….languid bite is a must…if we’re casting turgur’s already, mine as well get the added dps….and if all the shaman are slowing…..everyone’s LB dot will stack the dps…..on add heavy raids….glyphdust and runedust should both be used…..(the armor de-buff stacks on both, and there’s twice the chance to stick a slow/snare)

Raid/Group Task #2
Keeping your group ALIVE! During all trash pulling and throughout events, a shaman should ALWAYS keep group HoT on his group….and always have Intervention, Mending, and Recourse (new group heal)…there’s no use for single target HoT in a shaman’s spellset, raid or group. If a person in your group dies, its crucial that you get them call’d back into the action and back doing damage, ASAP…on events that require curing, don’t make the bard do it…they have enough shit they’re supposed to be doing too.

Raid/Group Task #3
Keeping your group doing the most possible DPS – In the same way I said we should always keep group heal over time on your groups…in groups primarily consisting of melee party members, Talisman of the Tiger must be kept on your group at all times….unless told in /raid that procs are not acceptable. On burn encounters, there’s no reason (pending its up), that a shaman shouldn’t have his epic 2.0 clicked by 98% on the mobs health….waiting any longer than that, is killing the DPS members disciplines…if the refresh up is up mid-fight…click it again, the more you click it the better in fights…other than keeping the members alive….epic 2.0 is a shaman’s single most DPS increase we can add to our groups. The only reason to wait on an epic 2.0 click, is if a “don’t burn until 75% is called” in /raid, etc. Third Spire of the Ancestors and Ancestral Aid may also be clicked in addition to the epic click, to further enhance to groups damage capability.

Raid/Group Task #4
“The Extra Stuff” – This is what separates a good shaman, from a great shaman. After your first three tasks are under control, now’s the time to cast DPS yourself, or spread more heals to the tanks, pick one, either are ok….but not doing either, ISNT AN OPTION... If your mana bar has that blue stuff in it….USE IT! As a tip on raids to help keep more tanks upright…each shaman should pick 2-3 tanks to add to the HoTT, and watch those specific tanks, to ensure the raid gets spread out shaman healing on tanks, just a thought.

There are also things a shaman can do or obtain, to make doing the list 1-4, much, MUCH easier…starting off with making and using high end potions. IMPORTANT! All of these said potions are made with store bought components from the PoK, except for the Dream Dusts. The ones worth making for a shaman are Regeneration (up to 5% longer buffs, including HoTs and tiger), Benefit (up to 5% extra beneficial pres on top of worn focus effects), Efficiency(up to 5% longer detrimental spell duration), and Resonant Toxin(adds poison dd chance to poison DoTs and DDs).

Another great way to add DPS to your shaman is to use personal tribute, in particular, Twinge of Pain, which is affliction haste. It makes your DoTs cast faster than even the best worn focus. Nectar of Torment, for instance, changes from 2.0 seconds with worn focus, to 1.7 seconds with Twinge of Pain running….moral of the story, more time=more casting, can’t stress it enough!

Not too many shamans remember to ask rogues for their Instruction in Toxicity either, and should start doing so more regularly, especially now that it lasts like 12minutes, and can slightly increase their DPS with it.

My spell bar consists of the following on DPS heavy encounters: Bite of the Blightwolf, Qirik’s Mending, Ascendant’s Intervention, Qirik’s Recourse, Penumbra of Renewal, Undaleen’s Venom, Nargul’s Malady, Nectar of Torment, Spinechiller Blood, Hex, Frozen Gift, and Ancestral Covenant. Replace Frozen Gift and Hex with Cures/De-buffs if needed.

[Lestumpette]

Seriously retired now .. but really really love this attitude. Super Shamanism in a bottle.

Lest

[Samanna]

[Poguk]

I subscribe to that playstyle, Zigy, good post. Thinking about the extra stuff (which I do too) got me to thinking about actual shaman DPS...

I have an interesting theory in regards to shaman DPS. Most people like to run a parser and whatever numbers that spits out is what people take as gospel. What a parser doesn't show is attributable DPS... the additional damage that is generated by you because of the bonuses created by some other class (the shaman and bard would be classic examples of providing attributed DPS). I have thought about this and come to this theory regarding DPS --- "The DPS you contribute to a group is the difference of the group's overall DPS with you minus the group's overall DPS without you." Using that criteria, I think you can not only determine a "DPS" class's true effective DPS, but also a support class's DPS.

If I ever get the time/energy, I might even try this idea. I'd like to find the true damage contribution of my monk vs. my shaman. Basically, the idea is to assemble a standard group of 6 toons for Scenario 1. Kill a steady stream of mobs for a few hours and parse the group's overall DPS. Then for Scenario 2, completely remove the monk from group and camp him out, kill a stready stream of mobs for a few hours playing shaman, parse the entire group again for that time period. Then for Scenario 3, swap in monk for shaman and repeat the process, with the shaman camped out, and parse group again.

Then just do the subtractions. Subtract Scenario 2 from Scenario 1 to find the monk's contributed DPS. Subtract Scenario 3 from Scenario 1 to find the shaman's contributed DPS. That would provide a great snapshot of "alright, the group did 20k total DPS when both toons were present... the group did 15k DPS when the monk was gone... the group did 16k dps when the shaman was gone". Then you could say that alright, the monk was worth 5k dps while the shaman was worth 4k dps.

Those are just theoreticals... but gets the point across. It's not about how much damage you do as an individual... but how much the group's total DPS goes up when you join. That to me is the true measure of DPS. The interesting aspect of this is that there are so many scenarios based on group make-up, or situation like group vs. raid, where you have effects being MGB'd also. But man would that be interesting! You'd be able to tell how much a, for instance, berserker is adding to the entire raid, with group crit bonuses and mgb war cry... or a ranger hitting their MGB buffs.... of course that would be hard as hell to set up that test, but man it would be interesting to see what a single class is contributing to the overall raid besides just the damage they themselves are doing!

[Sowslow]