Bot Shaman AA's

[Thulack]

Hiya i'm a ranger that will have a shaman bot on the new server and i was just wondering what you guys would suggest for aa's under level 65 as i want to get to that then work on aa's some. my brother will be playing a monks as well so we will have 2 cleric mercs so not sure i really need to work on the healing aa's but other then that am lost on what i need to get him. TIA.

[fendaann]

AA Recommendations
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=52

It really depends on how you plan to play the sham.

[Sowslow]

Canni is number one.
Then spell casting mastery. I would say the passive regen AAs are nice no matter how you play a bot. Not sure how hard it is to max both hp regen and mana regen at 51+ on a new server, but the cap increase ones are good investments for bots. Then quick buff and spell casting reinforcement.
From there go dot AAs if you cast those most or healing AAs if you cast those most. There are now so many it will take a while I think no matter which route you take.

[Thulack]

Thanks for reply's. After i posted this i went through and looked at the aa's i wanted to get for 50-61 and this is what i came up with. Let me know what you guys think. Now the group setup will be Ranger/Shaman/Monk/tank merc/2 cleric mercs or a PUG and 1 cleric merc.

Gate, Mnemonic Retention, Quick Buff, Radiant Cure, Secondary forte, SCM, SCR, SCS, Summon Companion, Suspend Minion, Canni, MGB, Pet Disc, Rabid Bear(1 level), Spirit Call, VP, Mystical Attuning, Natural Durability, Planar Power, Mental Clarity.

I do plan on raiding at some point in time and my brother who will be playing the monk will be using shammy when i'm not on for himself.

[Kakimor]

Looks like your shaman is going to fill a support / dps role rather than support/healer role. Personally I wouldn't bother with pet AAs and put those points into increasing personal dps. Critical Affliction etc. Shaman pet dps is so minor its almost laughable and gives you just one more thing to manage while boxing ( in my experience anyway). When your able to the AA Malo and Slows are $$.

[Scalia]

[Thulack]

Thanks scalia That info was very helpful. my plan is to get to 61-65 area and grind out some aa's before i make a push for 75or 85 if i decide to just get to the grind. I just wanted a starting point for shammy aa's as i have never played one other then using a friends to make pots. I plan in the end on raiding now whether i start raiding at 75 or 85 i havent decided yet but i figured i would get some useful ones like MGB just so i dont have to grind out 200aa to get raid aa's that i need. Thanks for info on pet aa's and the rabid bear. i know group is gonna be dps heavy but i actually plan on working def. aa's on my ranger first so eventually i can drop the tank merc and just do it myself. anymore suggestions from people would be greatly apprciated. i really should just make a shammy and level him up before the new server starts just so i know what i'm getting into.

[Veril]

from the AAs you have listed in order...
Mental Clarity 3. Canni. Spell Casting Mastery. Spell Casting Reinforcement + Mastery. Quick Buff, Mnemonic Retention, Radiant Cure, Virulent Paralysis, Spiritual Channeling, Secondary Forte, Healing AA's, Mental Clarity, Pet Hold AA, Suspend Minion, Pet Buff AA, Spirit call, Mystical Attuning, Planar Power, Gift of Mana line, Natural Durability, AC AAs,

Ones that are a waste of space:
Gate: 3500AA's and I still don't have this. I'll mem a spell if I want to gate, or use a potion.
Summon Companion: buy an item with it on, or use the spell, I haven't bothered getting this
Rabid Bear(1 level), wasted on a twink, you ain't going to be meleeing, and until you get rk3? not enough regen to be bothered about (I only use it in conjunction with spiritual channeling)

Re the Pet AA's. Until you have the pet hold aa don't bother getting the others, the pet will run off way too often. Once you get that, blast through a bunch of them the up the pet. It becomes a great panther proccing machine to support the melees, especially against non-enrage mobs.

[Ughbash]

[Thulack]

Thanks again guys your great. Anyone other AA reccomendations for the level 51-65 area? or any shammy bot secrets anyone wants to share?

[Scalia]

Some of the AAs mentioned above, e.g. Spiritual Channeling, are very nice, but you won't have access to them at 51-65. As far as Shaman bot tricks go, here are a few:

1. At lower levels you will need to chain cast Canni to maximize its efficiency, which is a royal pain for a bot, so try to get a horse/drog/boar/etc as soon as possible to increase mana regeneration and lower agro on pulls. You can use it in the Planes and in places like Grieg's, which should be good hunting grounds for a 50s character.

2. Make sure to buy Spirit of the Puma, the level 50 single target version of Panther available from Mystic Abomin in the PoK library. It may be a better use of your mana than DOTing. Pets will benefit from Puma more than players will.

3. Until you get the group version of Puma (and the group version of haste), Pet Affinity will not be as important as it will be later.

4. Learn what various buffs do and limit buffing to what's really needed. Low level buffs don't last long without AAs, so try to avoid unnecessary downtime caused by buffing AGI and whatnot. Juggling buffs during combat is certainly possible, but it's a pain even with one character and you really don't want to do it when boxing.

5. Hotkey everything useful, but you probably already know that.

6. Try to make sure you know exactly what each character will do when the excrement hits the fan. When you have 7 mobs in camp, you will have a lot of options with root parking, slowing, snare kiting on the Ranger, etc. Trying to figure out which character needs to do what will take precious seconds and cause unnecessary deaths.

7. Learn to control your pet if you haven't played a pet class before. Your pet's DPS will be low even in the 50s (although his survivability will still be borderline OK since mobs won't one round him the way they will later), but he is your most efficient DOT if you know how to use him. If you give him pet toys, buff him with haste/Focus/Puma (later Jaguar and Leopard) and take good care of him, you will get many hours of slow burning DPS out of him. If you don't, he will die every few pulls and cause more downtime than he is worth.

[Veril]

Re the pet: Put armour on it.