The Spirit Realm

Hi for obsessive EQ addictive personality, i am a grouper, but i have asperations of being a raider. I know i lack seriously in the heal AA i have none, as i have not been grouping with anyone my heal amounted to a hill of beans anyway, but soon they will. I know the Mana lines need to be done, I cant get the slow aa yet, got my VP maxxed for my lvl, canni, CoTW, the little obvious things, But what i want to know is a basic breakdown of the major raid AA and why they are important. Is there a specific order i should use AA in and under what conditions. I know this is a huge chunk of information im asking for but if a few knowlegable people would just answer something different, i think this would be a very useful thread for future shamans looking for the same information. I looked thruogh several of the posts pertaining to AA and did not find one relating to this type of thread, if there is one could you kindly direct me there? This is my second shm btw, with the 1st being lvl 85 conv flagged, and around 650 aa. She sat at lvl 55 for 4 years, and i dusted her off to do her epic when i was bored waiting for UF to come out. I fell totally in love with the class all over again, but for personal reason this cant be my main toon. Hence the birth of Ninsar. Im in beta now with a shm and let me tell you, she is a GODDESS! But i dont know what 1/2 those aa really do. Thank you for any time and attention you devote to this matter.

Well, if you want to raid, you're going to have to grind your way through those healing AAs - adept, boon, gift. You're going to need Fortified Intervention; Cannibalization maxxed, of course; Mass Group Buff; Spiritual Channeling; Call of the Wild; Union of Spirits and Ancestral Aid (ehhh, these aren't make-or-break, imo, but nice to have around); Quick Buff; maybe a bit of Spell Casting Subtlety; Radiant Cure; Quickened Radiant Cure and Hastened Curing. You'll also want the rest of Mnemonic Retention, Forceful Rejuvenation and Hastened Forceful Rejuvenation, Gift of Mana, SCRM and Turgur's Swarm when you're old enough.

There are probably some I'm missing, but I'm only about halfway through my first cup of coffee.

Some that are not as high as Tordail's list but I would still recommend - Shield Block, CA/CS up to 18 or so, the resist cap one discordant defiance, group shrink, a rank or two of rabid bear to click with spiritual channeling is nice.
You are going to git hit more in raids than groups, by ae ramp or adds or aes and will need all the help you can to survive, so defensive AAs help.

Sowslow added some good ones! Apparently, he has had more coffee.

Yeah - definitely resist caps!! You're going to want lots of resists. Way back when, I actually purchased all the innate resist AAs, but I suspect gear now is way past good enough to max your resists without those AAs. Rabid Bear + Spiritual Channeling is awesome because Rabid Bear has a nice HoT component that goes well with SC. Lacking Rabid Bear won't prevent you from raiding effectively, I don't think. Rabid Bear is just super nice for offsetting your casts off your HP bar without you having to really think about it. I keep the two AA right next to each other on my hotkey bar and always hit them together. Definitely get CA/CS - I stopped at 18/33, for what it's worth. Group Shrink, super nice utility (though a ridiculous recast on the AA) ... but you can do the same thing with Tiny Terror spell. So that's a nice convenience so you don't have to mem a spell, but not make-or-break.

Ummm... there was another one I was going to add, and now I can't remember what it was.

Thank you for the replies i am aware of the basics in the general and archtype CA,CS, DD, SB, RC any damage boosters, resists, anything that boosts my wisdom etc i should have been more specific. Im trying to pin down what shaman aa in the class section i should be doing, I know i need to do my spires for damage, and heals, but for instance what exactly is the benifits of Rabid Bear vs the ranger Group Guardian of the Forest that does similar boosts and overwrites it? Should i block that ranja buff? When is Rabid Bear better to use than Pact of the Wolf?

Ancestral Aid is this something i can MGB?

Languid Bite, does it make that much of a difference, and does it affect all slow components even say for instance the one in the spells Lethargy and Healing Counterbias? I notice these 2 stack, is the slow aa Turgur's Swarm still better than the combination of the 2? Tigir's Insect Swarm, there are so many slow options, in relation to raiding what is the optimium slow or combinations of slow i would want to land? Oh which brings up the question, not really aa related, but when is it better to try to use a diseased based slow?

What exactly is the benifits of Spirit Walk it has 2 buff components, with one being overwritten by Silent Presence. Is there a benifit to using this in a raid?

Spiritual Channeling is this just something you use when you are out of mana?

Acute Focus of Arcanum does this effect slows? Is it something i would use in a sequence of aa and should be set up on a hotkey with other aa and what other aa would i want to use that would benifit from this being active?

Anything i missed?

Generally I view Utilies as grp over single. Same with HoT, I'll cycle SoR all day long with lynx but rarely have Hayclon loaded(especially with the introduction of HC) However most of our grp utilities require self cast version first. Perfect Lev being a prime example. RB vs Pact? I prefer Pact rank 3 for the 500/500 hp/mana and I can cast an illusion over if if I need a mount. Anc Aid is MGBable and seems some guilds have taken to MGB rotations during staged events to spread the wealth of AA over the raid versus pockets. Hastened anything is pretty tops to get. Acute focus is needed for a couple of mobs in Tower and helps with some UF mobs, but outside of mobs like VL I rarely use it. The rout I went with AA's was self preservation/stats, healing, must have grp Utilities, general utilities, then the fun stuff for personal dps and everything left there after.

Spell Casting Reinforcement - Heal AAs (Adept/Gift/Boon MAXXED atleast) - Radiant Cure - Fortified Intervention - Cannibalization - Turgur's Swarm - Spiritual Channeling - Defensives - The basic Utilities (spell slots, buff slots, invise etc etc) are the main AAs that are needed for a good healing/debuffing raid shaman. Then you can work DoT AAs for extra dps on raids and stuff like that.

edit - Those are in no particular order, they are all very useful to a raiding shaman so you can decide what you think fits you the best to work with, I recommend healing/reinforcement first.