The Spirit Realm

Hello all,

Root rotting is something that I have never really tried on my shammy as I duo with my sk and my 3rd box is either monk/mage, depending on how lazy i feel.

I found a nice thread by doing a search on root rotting, but the last entry is in feb 07, 2 years ago!

My plan is to start soloing a lot more to learn more about this class and I think I have the technique down, where I will pull with malis, root it, then dot the crap out of it. VP add, and hope for the best that it works!

What is your spell line up when rotting? I am currently 76 and realize that all my sets are melee based with my SK and monk/mage (ie cougar/sloth/champion etc).

I rarely even use my dots and I realize I am missing out on a lot of fun with this class.

Two best curse dots, three nectars and two bloods, with canni, HoT, and a swap slot. Sometimes root, if I'm having to split lots of mobs, or Malosinea, or Putrid, or direct heal, or Bite.

Get the Ornate Chain Leggings from PoP, clicky root. No recast, no spell refresh delay, no fizzle. Frees up a spell slot.

at -1000ish hp/mana for me on the pants, I'll g'head and cast root I have Defender of the Ancestral Spirits I use frequently, cast root is just for resisty mobs or ones that will be sitting a while.

1000hp vs a spell slot and the benefits of an item castability. No contest for me. But then I use VP as my emergency root, not as my main root. Personally I wouldn't want to unequip my shield for one with so much less AC compared to legs. (shield AC is about 5* more effective than item ac, so 150+ac on the shield translates to about 750 displayed)

For RR I always use VP, no contest there at all.

Only root clicky from inventory and easier to get than the pants.

Scaled Avatar's Leggings = you can buy all the parts in the bazaar and vendors n PoK. Run to PoTranq and complete quest. How easy is that Funi?

Defender does Immobilise, which does have a nice duration and clicks from inventory. But pants does greater immobilise, I find the -30 to resist mod makes a massive difference, even on mobs malis debuffed.

Huuurgh - what do you do on double pulls using only VP?
Me I malis to pull 1, root it with pants and VP other. Only using VP seems to restrict your fight spots and options such a lot.

I knew of the snare item, but 15 min reuse pretty much makes it useless for Xp root rotting sessions. I want to be killing 1 mob every 1-2 minutes

Ahh, forgot the pants pattern was droppable but do people still farm it for bazaar? And yea, I forgot about the Slimy Ooze Ejector or maybe I just disregarded it. I think the recast on that item makes it so even Mages don't even farm that item.

If you're planning to use VP as your main root method (which is what I do) it's a Disease resist check, not a magic resist check. Malis won't help you there at all...at least as far as the VP root goes, unless I'm missing something.

I root rot quite a bit with my Shaman and I pull with Putrid Decay. It has a -200 resist check so it's rarely if ever resisted. Since it's kind of a long cast time you get that cast out of the way before you have aggro. If you have all of the VP extender AAs, I find that VP virtually never wears off before it has refreshed. You can keep a mob rooted indefinitely, basically. I root rot in Steam Factory quite a bit and I never have a mob break VP early. Now...some of the mobs in there will dispell it, but that's not due to the resist check. I root rotted mobs in SoD zones as well and it always holds until refreshed if I debuff with Putrid Decay and then rot with disease and poison dots.

Thanks for all your advice....but I am embarrassed!

I just tried root rotting a mob in Sverag... Forgot completely that a lot of mobs start summoning when you damage them (product of having an sk main I guess!)

So what is your favorite zone for root rotting? I'm at 76 and was thinking to try murkgliders.

DSH is pretty simple. Minotaurs and nymphs have plenty of single pulls - make sure you've got the relevant combat tasks as well, for extra xp and currency. Bugs are also pretty easy, and the named drops an OK aug (he summons, but doesn't hit too hard).

I tried DSH, root rotted the minos. I didn't realize that we could pump out that much dps with dots! I had 6 loaded and was doing around 600 dps.
I find it amazing that when I popped lessons, I was getting 35% AA per kill... thats more than an AA every 3 kills!!
At roughly 2 min per kill, thats 5 AA on a lesson burn.. not too shabby at all!!
I pulled with putrid, VP'ed it, then malis, hit it with the 2 long disease(?) dots first, then juju and curse and then the poison dots (yoppa) the long dots had just worn off maybe 10 sec before they die.... i love it!

Orcs/Wargs in Loping Plains are a pretty good camp once the easier zones start to LB out on you. They'll be dark blue through roughly 81, and mostly LB in 82.

Well, just doing Nymphs and Minos at the moment in DSH. Gaining levels in VP and maximized my critical affliction and 1 level in Blood Tithe.

My last Root rot fight lasted 26 seconds and I was doing 1054 DPS according to the parser I was using.

I honestly never realized that Shaman could pump out that kind of damage with their dots. I discovered I need the next level of canni as I can sustain this for about 8 fights then need to med up. This is using 7 dots in my line up.

And as soon as I try to do that DPS on raid mobs, after applying a single round of 2 Magic and 4 poison DoT's I jump to the very top of the hate list, and stay there ... well until I die

Tribute Affliction Haste VIII is 33% spell haste.

Tide's tanks are good, it was an SK who was tanking, and she held aggro from everyone else pretty solidly. It was just me. 4 poison and 2 magic dots, producing less DPS than the top 10DPS'ers was enough to get me aggro every tick.

DoT aggro is borked.

Or you could be unlucky like me and killed him 7 times for nothing yet

Be careful. You should try to stack your DoT's from a distance before rooting. If your DoT's have an initial DD they could break root if you root first. Hopefully you'll have your pet up or be strong enough to take a few hits while you cast. I first discovered root rotting with a ranger, but the tactic is weak with rangers and you have to combine it with other techniques to be effective. Necros root rot really well and clerics do it well against undead. Druids are also good at it.