The Spirit Realm

I would pass up every new spell they have planned for shms for the next 2 years if they would give us a GD root that is worth shit. I can cast 8-10 dots on a mob during a root-rot fight and I will average 7-8 roots. VP is all well and good but if u get more than 1 mob, and in any zone that worth being in, you will, VP is only good for a single target. Half the classes out out there get a snare of some sort, a lot get snare and root, and most of the snares are dots to top it off. We have a 54th lvl root that wouldn't hold a drunk boy scout. And when you add in the fact that tank mercs like to stay out front of you where they belong, our cleric mercs like to do the same thing. My clr merc lves to stand right beside the mob I have rooted and rotting and normally dies unless I uspend her, and yes I have tried moving back but when fighting in a tight area a lot of the time you cannot back up far enough and so you merc dies or goes away. Then of course root breaks, and breaks, and breaks and breaks and BREAKS. I am not asking for a root that holds forever, how about one that will always last 2 tics then has a chance to break-just 2 tics. Let it have the normal chance of being resisted, but damnit give us a chance to cast a dot or 2, or gate out or something. I know a shaman will get a snare when EQ finally dies out, but give us something to make it possible to solo again. Necro-fear, root and snare plus they get super mana regen, wizzies get snare and super mana regen druids snare/root, , the list goes. Give us something. I know I am blowing smoke out my ass, devs listen to players when it suits them. Give us a root that is worth something. Then about kicking the diiot that programs the mercs and write in a bit of code to make cleric mercs stand behind us where they can actually heal without being smacked. If you are gonna leave them out front where the mobs are then let them fight. I mean come on, someones head seem to be stratigically misplaced somewhere south of the waist and slightly to the rear. Tell ya what give me a real reliable root or a decent snare and you can take that abomination you call a shaman pet back and take VP, I would rather have a root that i can count on most of the time and can be used on multiple targets, than 1 that works 80-90% of the time with knockback but only every 2 minutes. I mean you don't even have to give us an AE root like the rangers

1) Use Putrid Decay on mobs, makes your root last the full duration 98% of the time.
2) We have the best mana regen in the game. It is called cannabilze, learn it, use it, love it.
3) I don't suggest using mercs for soloing, because:
a) They take up xp
b) They tend to break root // die randomly ( Or so i've heard, i've personally never used a merc for soloing because of 3a )
4) 8-10 DoTs seems a bit excessive, I know when i'd use 6 i'd waste like 30-50% mana a fight. I personally use this spell set up.
Mojo rk.II
Nectar of the Slitheran rk.II
Pocus rk.II
Nectar of the Rancor rk.II
Malosenea rk.II
Putrid Decay
Danal's Mending rk.II
Halcyon Whisper rk.II
Ancestral Obligation rk.II
Petrifying Earth ( too lazy to get pants and no luck on shield drops )

And mobs die rather fast // I lose around 8-10% mana while canni'ing

And honestly, I don't know what you're talking about with multiple adds in any zone worth soloing in. I generally am able to single pull in Beza // Tosk. And shms do get a snare -- just have to be a Troll to get that clicky.

Hope this helps - GL

and to get the snare you have to be a follower of innoruk. Which pisses me off as a troll shaman following Cazic

Pull mobs with Malis or Malisinse line.
Root then lasts. it's that simple really.

Really there is nothing else to it. I've done I guess a 1000AA's solo doing this.

Pull with malis. root on way in (clicky PoP era pants). if you get 2, VP the other one off.

Dot much. renew roots occasionally. Collect XP

Unless I am misremembering, Root was on the list of "spells which will not be upgraded" from the last beta, so... sorry. Learn to use them. They're good.

I can't recall ever root rotting, except for a few times where shaman was last man standing vs. a non summoning mob. So I am no expert, not even a dilletante at this stuff. But I am really confused about this. Why would you have a cleric merc for root rotting? Isn't the whole principle of root rotting to NOT get hit, therefore wouldn't the cleric merc be like... completely useless?
Am I missing something?

put cleric on reactive and it only heals. Or suspend cleric. It's that simple. really.

I use my cleric merc set on reactive mainly because I am usually root-rotting 2-3 mobs and fighting another one on whom root just will not hold even mith malis. I have the clicky root pants but that is no good in a situation where mobs are beating on you since you lose a ton of ac and several hundred hps/mana. My pet is always on pethold unless I am actually fighting one. The cleric mercs like to stand beside mobs I have rooted and usually dies, I used to spend a ton of time rebuffing her but gave up since she dies 6-8 times a night. I have to move halfway across the zone sometimes to get hr to move away from rooted mobs. Tank merc should stand beside mobs cleric merc needs to be programed to move behind you and heal from relative safety. On Fenin shamans are raid PC's and from what I have seen little else. Everyone has shm bot for buffs then use CC or other dps. I am figuring on trying to pay a power leveling company to do my SoD progressions, I did my own levels and will continue to do my own AAs but unless you have a steady group on fenin, then shm are not gonna get progressions done. Wonder since so many other classes are getting increased mana regen abilities maybe they will give us a snare- nahhhhh that would make a shm a real soloer again and we don't want that lol. I mean rangers get a AE root, and root and snare, wizzies get both , necros, druids, and look at the classes and the extra mana regen, I mean some of the guys in my guild can now regen mana a lot faster than us shms with maxxed cann. Pretty soon only thing a shaman gonna have all by ourselves will be alchemy. Hey we can make snare potions that actually work now, they just cost a bundle and last maybe 2 tics lol. I really don't care if ppl don't like what I say, I been playing long enough to have an opinion and I see more and more shms only logging in to raid then logging out to play other classes. Our class is dying slowly and in some areas not so slowly. I am a little surprised they do not have a shm guildhouse in PoK now where u can go pay a small amount for some buffs from a shm NPC and then go play and come back when they wear off. I refuse to give my shm up, I will play him til I die or EQ does-or the class does.

Once a mob is rooted it still checks to resist/break the root every tick. So with undead there is a good chance for them to come at you early. Decreasing its resists is the thing to do.
Putrid Decay is your friend (for VP).

Lifetaps do it. Heals are negative damage, and since the spell is detrimental the heal breaks root. Works for players, too.

Our highest root (64 Petrifying Earth) is the best for root-rotting -- 3-minute duration, -30 resist adjust. If you are using a lower level root, you are missing out on the resist adjust and/or the duration. Clicky root is useful on pulls because it has no recast wait time, but it only lasts 1 minute.

And as others have said, Malis makes regular root hold reasonably well. Helps dots land too. Without Malis, root doesn't hold for crap.

Ive been camping Eryslai KoW, for the clicky immob shield (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=18827) off the Chamberlain so I dont have to waste a spell gem with a backup root. To date I have killed him about 20 times and havent seen it drop. Is this confirmed to still drop off this guy, I feel like Im wasting my time.

Anyone looted this recently or have an alternative root clicky from inventory they could recommend

Can try for, http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=101364, but it has longer recast and is random drop so might not be any better.

0 cooldown timer versus two MINUTES makes that a very different item. Can't be used the same way at all.

One more thing, regarding snare. While the proc from the is mostly useful to control runners low on health, and not for pulling/CC'ing purposes (and ditto for those expensive, unreliable snare potions), there is a saying which loosely applies here -- if the mountain will not come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.

Meaning, if you can't slow them down, then speed yourself up. Beyond Bih'Li, there are 3 options:

1) Spirit of Cheetah
Not a very feasible option, having to burn a spell slot for it. But with 10 spell slots, AA Malxx, AA slow, clicky root, a cleric merc, AA hotkeys for self heals and defensives, it does come within the realm of consideration. Nine spell slots is good nowadays for the soloing root-rotting shaman. /mem spellset is your best friend. And can even be hotkey'ed.

2) Spirit Walk
Being 2 separate buffs, the Invis part will drop, but you will still have the runspeed/levi part. The levi part can be annoying or dangerous, as it seems you're more easily interrupted while trying to cast while floating. But since it has a fairly quick recast time, it can be useful for tricky pulls to help you outrun the mobs you're trying to lockdown.

3) Ghetto speedboost
If you use the NUMPAD to control your toon's running and where he faces, then you have a secret combo here to make you run slightly faster than you normally would. If right = 6, and 8 = forward, then 6+8 at the same time = forward right but faster than normal forward right. Something to do with the square root of two, don't ask. Try it, you'll like it. Esp good when you're really panicking and go into diagonal zig-zag mode

These hints, combined with the fact that you don't have to even see the mobs you're casting on (just as long as you have them in your target window, you can even be spinning in place and still cast on them), all add up to the fact that you can cycle-target or target nearest NPC (targetting keys are crucial for pullers/CC'ers/healers for quick response, since mouse targetting is a magnitude kludgier), then CC those mobs while you're making tracks to save your skin. As Brogh once famously put it, "EQ is a game of inches", and every little % counts, esp if you know how and when to add them up...

.... and lastly, if all else fails, you always have a ghetto-self evac: AA Gate to your bind point near enough to camp to get back quick but also far enough to zone if need be. Of course, you'll want to have several clickies that port you throughout EQ so you don't have to worry about compromising where to bind vs where to sell.

That self-evac hotkey is a life-saver if your multi-pull goes bad. And quick , both going and returning, since you don't actually zone. Imperative to make sure you're within range when that one mob that hasn't yet died from your DOTs but you want to get that XP hit when it does die. Or when you want to return to camp quick enough before root/VP wears off that mob you split from the 4-pull. A sort-of reverse COH pulling tactic, if you like...

Pulling with slow or root are good ideas, too. I prefer to split via root when mobs are too close together, when using VP or giving them a headstart with a Malxx debuff would bring adds instead.

And no, not a joke, regarding mobs seeming to break root more often when closer together or you are low on health. Just an observation on my part. And not too far-fetched, given that in-combat mob aggro and top of hate list depends on factors like proximity as well as how much damage you are doing to them, and that whether they run or stay to finish depends on your health.

As for whether or not to use clicky root pants if you have them, to me it seems obvious. Clicky wins out over spell root, in spite of the AC loss. Which, according to , only makes a difference of 10 "real" AC in your scenario of a 100 HP difference between the 31AC clicky pants vs 130 AC on "decent" pants:

Shaman softcap reached ~200 AC
shaman get ~17% return over the cap AC

Shaman A: wears clicky pants for 2200 total displayed AC
Shaman B: wears non-clicky uber pants for 2300 total displayed AC

Displayed AC/1.65 = worn AC
A: 2200/1.65 = 1333 worn AC
B: 2300/1.65 = 1394 worn AC

Worn AC divided by AC calculated after overcap AC reached
shaman at 17% overcap AC
A: 1333 worn AC = 200 undercap + 1133 overcap AC
1133 * .17 = 193 "real" AC

B: 1394 worn AC = 200 undercap + 1194 overcap AC
1194 * .17 = 203 "real" AC

Shaman B wearing uber pants has 10 more "real" AC than shaman A wearing clicky root pants. Even if that bumps you *2* notches down on the d20 of how much you're damage you're going to take (which I doubt), doesn't it seem a wiser precaution to be able to cast between clicks to root that mob, and recast again, and again, until root does take hold? Rather than cast spell root, resist, wait for spell refresh timer, recast root again, resist, wait, splat? All that times 2-3 mobs beating you at the same time?

Still, I think I will put that Shield on my to-get list, now that Air is open to all of level. I skipped past the Planes and went straight to Time with my first real raiding guild, and have yet to even step foot in even PoFire. It will be interesting to see if a 2s cast level 51 root without a debuff is better than a 3s level 62 root with -30 resist debuff -- 10 more "real" AC and one second less cast time (very significant) but more bounces, or 10 less "real" and less bounces... To not get hit, or to get hit softer...

The -30 resist modifier is a big effect on root, especially following Malx on the mob.

Here's Veril's Rooting Chart, based on root/rotting many thousands of mobs
MalX + -30ResistRoot = infrequent breaks, often none per mob.
MalX + root = sometimes break, 1 break per mob.
-30ResistRoot = many breaks, more then 1 break per mob.
root = many many breaks, Shaman Looking for Rezz

Good luck camping the clicky root shield from Air - over 20 kills now and not a thing to show for it other than wasted time. Im thinking about submitting it as a bug, because surely by now one would have been on the corpse 8-(