SHAMAN GUIDE! - by Sabull

Hay guise!
I thought its time to open up the shaman career forum. With a basic topic of best specs, items, talismans and abilities to use on shaman and so on.
Many situations that i will consider here will be from the POV of scenarios. Cos those are real test for a player as a individual inside of a team.

First of all i want to say that all shaman specs are very viable and in right hands shammie can be the highest heal or dmg output in a scenario. And even both at the same time. And not talking about splash dmg, real killing dmg. With great debuffs and buffs, assist on the teammates.

I will cut this topic to few pieces, basically gonna go through all the specs what i have used and found useful.

HEALING with Mork

What spec should i use?
http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=7#15:41504:0:0:9:512:29:758:1940:592:589

Which is spec im using every time im in Gork. (used to use)
The most important skills u want to get is "Sticky Feetz" and HoT "Do sumfing useful". Without all else u would do fine, those 2 are the real stars.

What tactics should i use?

RVR: 1) RUN AWAY! (NEVER ever go without RUNAWAY! in rvr) 2) 10% Heal crit Extra Special Mushrooms
+ what ever combination of 2 of the following: Discipline (160 willpower), Restorative Burst ( AP when Heal crit), Whazat Behind You?! (detaunt when hit), Datz Makes Me Dizzy (instant ress). I use the first 2 most of the time.

We can argue about "Restorative burst". But for me its good because of my high heal crit chance (45%).

RVE: 1) Extra special mushrooms 2) Discipline 3) Restorative Burst and 4) Subtlety (less aggro) or Get Moving! (150 morale with "ere we go", 150morale/10sec)

Have different tactic sets ready for rvr and rve :). Also try to gather different armor sets for RVR and RVE.
For example i atm change 80% of my gear when going from RVR <-> RVE. Easy way to start this is jewelery, always have maxed out healing stats in rve, even if it means using green 20+WP jewelery or cloaks or anything.
I think my rve healing set is good example of this kind of thinking. In RVE i use
2x Annihilator (chest, helm), 3x DarkPromise(boots, belt, shoulders), 1 WarLord (gloves) which puts me to 270 healing BONUS, 45% heal critical change.

What should a basic shammie have in RVE, lets say in LV level of experience? 220 HealBonus, 30+% heal crit. Which should be poss with 3 DP, 3 sentinel and RR55.

For RVR sentinel is amazing set and to get better than that in rvr you'll have to wait long time. First time u would really want to change out from 5 sentinel, 1 DP (boots) (which is amazing combo) is when u can get 4 DP and 3 WL combo. And even then the difference is not big especially when u dont have the WL shoulders and have to give up senti helm (reduced change to be critically hit on both) its difficult to say if it's worth it.

ALWAYS USE LINIMENTS AND ARMOR POTIONS WHEN U DO RVR! which goes for all careers. The difference between lets say shaman with
5 sentinel 1 DarkPromise (boots) combo using liniments&armor potions VS. shaman with full WL and not using pots. Shaman with potions is better. Using em will push u up one tier in gear easily. For RVR use wounds&heal power, RVE willpower&heal power. Have both in your bags ready :).

Talismans?
Basic idea for all healers is to have at least 6k health when buffed (liniments) and rest in armor and toughness. U will not need willpower talismans on your shaman in rvr! For shoulders the best talisman is heal crit, and should be used without a question (goes to all careers, not defensive tanks).
So stack up wounds talismans so u have 6-7k health with liniment. If you are bad player then u might want to get more :)... But better just to practice!

U might wanna try to get stats some where around the following ( with liniment and armor pot, which of u are never without) (numbers ripped from my ass, didnt check my stats)
6.5k health, 800 willpower, 400+ toughness, 2k armor. And as high crit & low chance to be crit as ur items make u, cant change that with talis.

Renown mastery tree
This one is simple. For RVR u get toughness from first tier, wounds from second and heal crit from third (as much u can), if points left: willpower.
For RVE willpower and heal crit. Simple.

Alright this is what comes to mind now of the basic healing aspect of shaman. I will leave the other specs to other time (for which you need to have sum good skillz and at least RR55 to be really successful :)). Just a small short info of other specs:

Da green http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=7#9:32:0:0:15:8744:29:758:585:1942:1955
(healing thru dps) is amazing ganking spec, very strong against any career. And also can be very useful in SC premade. Of the following setup: 2 healers, 1dpshealer, 1 DPS, 1 tank, 1DPS/tank. Survivability increase with no loss in dmg.
Also I have done 6 boss run in Vulture Lord as a second healer with this spec with a dps specced main tank. Proving its capability.
In RVR u can be easily bar with the other single target ranged dps and at the same time doing the same amount in healing. Certainly has it's uses when theres other healer to deal with the aoe group healing. Da green does as much or higher single target healing than traditional Mork healing spec.
This spec is the first spec u want to try out if u ever want to try out from Mork.

Gork specs star is the healing debuff (Gork's Barbs, 50% less healing taken for the target to 10 sec)!
http://www.wardb.com/career.aspx?id=7#5:32:15:43552:3:0:29:758:585:1942:1953
Wich is the biggest reason why it would be useful in a group. We tried it out today, by stacking up ranged dps, me and 2 sorcs. And the healing debuff worked AWESOME. Target will go down 90% probability with Gork's Barbs on. Theres absolutely no way to heal thru heal debuffs. In most fights the heal debuff was the biggest reason why we won. With Gork u can do real high single target dmg. Only sorcs can give u real challenge not to be top dmg&KB.
But very often not even them :).

If you ever want to try out these alternative specs, i recommend u first get 4 invader, 2 conq combo, with LotD caster dps weapon.
My dps stats in RVR buffs are quite similar to my rve healing stats: 265 Magic BONUS, and 39% magic crit. So they are pimped out. And u should get your dps stats pimped out before u go try these, especially in scenarios. If healer is doing crap healing and crap dmg, he will get hate (wich is wierd :) rarely dps gets whines for low dps). If u go SC, make sure u will top dmg done to prevent hate :).. Also i recommend to get at least healer to queue up with you at the same time, so u dont get into a situation where ur the only healer in whole SC and in dps spec :) or even Da green spec (wich is excellent healing spec, but not to 12 people in the same time). This can traumatise u for life :D.

As u can notice i didn't get into details in how to play a shaman :). Which is a too hard thing to discuss in writing and not in mood to trying to explain such things in writing^^. Many of things what i have said above will require u to practice alot on ur shammie skills and really pimp out ur reactions and concentration. Especially the dmg specs, wich u should only try out if ur really experienced on ur git :).

Sabull

{expansion upon this thread later on - toro]

I dont recommend the Eeek! CD reducer. I dont think that's a skill you can totally rely on. Most of the melee avoiding should be done with Sticky Feetz, Run Away and most of all clever positioning. And Eeek! when it's really critical.
Also the main reason is that people get immune for knockbacks, knockdowns and so on for 30sec when u use Eeek!. Including the possibility that ur enemy very likely already is immune to Eeek!. So u wont be (successfully) using it in every 20 sec anyway. Wouldnt say its worth the tactic.

If u often find urself doing alot of ressing, i recommend Datz Makes Me Dizzy tactic most.

If "im using in rve actually, 3 sent 2 anni and devastator gloves for the 2 healing crit chance." does give u max heal crit & heal bonus u can get, its the correct combo to use in RvE for u.
And judging the gear u got atm "4 sent and 2 anni." is the right combo for RvR.
The next stage for ur gear is to get 5 Senti & DP boots. Wich u will use in RvR for some time, and it will replace ur current RvE gear too. Until u get 3 DP for RvE (certain item combo of 3RP can be good for RvR too, prolly DP boots, chest and belt and rest senti. But still most likely wouldnt recommend it)

[and following this, a short video of sabull ganking in RVR]

Yeah have been ganking at the start of the week to get some footage and put em together yesterday and its rdy :)!

I use Da Green spec mentioned above which is the best spec for solo ganking for shaman.

Solo fighting with shaman, squishy career, its very much about how good you can kite and about knowing when to finish players off and when to play defensive.
You cannot really rely on big crits or stun + big crits :) or what ever to do 1vs3+. You have to see the moment, lure and kite people and hit in the right time.

My intention was to get in hard fights, where i needed to struggle very hard and fights where i think many people wouldn't manage to survive/win
and to show the possibilities of a ranged ganker, which is alot cooler than melee, cos u can get soo much cooler fights as ranged in general :).

What is in the video?
Hybrid shaman soloing (mostly, occasional random peeps showing up). Few random 1vs1 as space filler/wanted to get more careers in, few 2vs1 and couple chain fighting 1vs 3-5 (actually all clips from CW are 1-2 vs 3-6 or starting from getting run by WB of order passing to IC, but they generally took too long time for youtube/hard to make real interesting so i had to take only parts)
Clips me dying, clips me using potions. Good extended use of kiting (cleanse, detaunt all these lil things :) ), small use of positioning (wich was the point (point was to have tough fights, not me sitting on a hill killing everything ^^ )

(just some notes for first TM fight it's 5 man party of Phoenix Legion. And second clip from TM is 4man INQUISITORS (dont know about WH tho) with counted average rr of 60 so im not fighting lowbies only. CW clips are mostly against Crimson players, including all melee WPs in 1vs2s and 1vs1 (counted average rr of 74.5+))
Well now actually when im checking them out, seems 90% of the order in this vid was around my rr. And atleast not overgeared (using invader+conq combo) so i guess they are pretty fair :).

Watch in 720p HD in Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59AMXUYNMDA

The DArk Omen Forum for Shamans can be found here