Retiree needs help!

Salvador

Hi there,

Long time lurker, first time player; I've recently retired from Achaea and I'm thinking of coming to Imperian permanently.

I had some questions though if someone doesn't mind answering? 

I've chosen Shaman as my class, Lamira as my race, and Antioch as my faction for now.

My questions are:

1. How are Shaman in terms of 1v1 and group combat? 
2. How do races and stats work here, and what race should I be looking at for optimal performance?
3. What is the general PK scene like, is there 1v1 regularly, or mostly group focused stuff? I like both, though some 1v1 would be nice.
4. If I was looking to invest in artifacts, I have 4500 retirement credits; what should I buy to get the most bang for my buck?
5. Finally, how is the bashing here, and is it 100% essential to get to level 100 (Aspect, I believe?) in order to perform in combat?

Thanks in advance for any help, hoping to see you around soon!

Sumie

1) Shaman at this point in time is fairly good at 1v1 and group combat. It is an affliction class but also has amazing group skills such as Fetishes and vortex.

2) Races are separated from stats, so you have can have a different statpack than your race. I'm pretty sure Clever used to be the optimum statpack for shamans but it leaves you a bit weak healthwise. Most races don't add too crazy of skills in my opinion.

3)The PK scene is pretty good, we have some fun things like Shardfalls, Obelisk Battles, Raids, Defiling Shrines(which strangely does not happen too often), and small stuff like Monoliths, bounties and champions.

4)I quite enjoy my surcoat, and if you're going to be invested into shaman a runestone is always nice.

5)I would say Aspect is pretty important for combat. Not that you can't do without, but with aspect skills and the health increase with every level till aspect it does give quite a benefit. Bashing can be a bit monotonous but you can always change things up by gathering some people to hunt some bosses. I've been quite fond of the wave mechanic in some areas. Basically when enough of it has been hunted a new wave of monsters will spawn in that area that are just a bit tougher. Sadly these waves only go so high and eventually reset to normal. 

Laeka

Get with Dyron icly if you want to talk shop about pk and best gear for shaman. He is in Antioch with you and he does both 1v1 and group fighting... and he is a shaman. 

Generally speaking there are a lot of things to do, and in Antioch we are happy to help you level, learn your skills and help with your character and pk development. 

Sumie pretty much hit most of the other points fairly well.  Look us up in game and welcome to Imperian and to Antioch!

Septus

1. Top tier one v one, top tier teams. Shaman is a very strong class.

2. Really doesn't matter unless you can start investing into ancestral races later (these are special races available through special items who tend to have better racial inherents). For stat purposes, irrelevant. Clever statpack is generally optimal for shaman.

3. Reallistically it is more team based. You can find one v one if you look for it.

4. Tank, tank, tank. After skills (get miniskills, these are hugely underrated and better bang for your buck than basically any mitigation artefact), but for pk:
- Bracelets. Level 2 is good, level 3 is great.
- Surcoat, ring of magics bane. Both huge upgrades against their relevant classes. As an Antimagick player I'd recommend you take the Magics bane first, as you'll tend to run into non phys classes more often generally speaking. The surcoat is great but you'll probably impulse buy it after experiencing some artefact knight or druid.
- Artefact shield, depending on your statpack selection (regular shields are gated by your strength stat here). Basically decide if it works out being worth it for you, it likely will be.
- Con is good, but more pricy compared to bracelets for what you get. Definitely don't go higher than two until you have other stuff.
- Health regen is great value, particularly level 1.
- Sip rings are also good, again I'd not go higher than level 2 until you have other stuff.
- Resist rings are good for optimising your tank against certain classes and relatively cheap, but on a budget I'd wait until you know what classes you struggle with before investing in those.
- Acrobatic boots. People will hate you, it means they're good, I promise.
- Druidic robes. Think robes of the magi from Achaea, great here because clotting can quickly become expensive. Buff your health and damage mitigation first, however. These do you no good if you can't live long enough for them to matter.

Once you have got enough tank that you feel you can toe to toe reasonably, an artefact runestone is a great investment. Artefacts that can boost your offense (again, I do not recommend buffing your offense until you have invested in tanking):
- Artefact runestone technically, depending on how you rune it. Also defensive for the same reason.
- Shamanistic gloves.
- Magic damage enhancing collars.
- Int artefacts.
- Artefact fetish. This shines more for teams as shaman, generally for one v one 6 slots will do just as well, as you lack the upfront burst a runeguard has.

The utility list that will change your life:
- A foreboding stone, tells you whenever an unveiled enemy moves in your area.
- The token monocle that removes the eq cost from glance/observe, I forget its full name.
- Ring of Flying (this is good here, it is not as huge a deal as in Achaea so don't buy this until you're sure you need it).

Probably more things that I'm forgetting, but this is the list that immediately jumps to mind.

5. You will want aspect. Silver lining: getting aspect here is comparitively very easy. Join a sect, make sure to always have double experience (you get these bonuses from achievements, many of which you can do pretty trivially early on), make sure to have an owl tattoo, ask your sect for highfavours so you constantly have one up while bashing. I can't overstate the joining a sect part enough, shrines in your local area -significantly- boost your damage output. Saying that, don't get too hung up on it. There's no point in being that guy who never jumps into combat because they're not aspect yet - you won't lose xp from pk deaths, so even in the worst case you come out net neutral (and you'll almost certainly come out net positive).

Salvador

Thanks for the advice, super helpful! Now I have a shopping list and a vague plan

Gjarrus

To add to the defensive arti thing:
Reflection wand. Amazing for 200c.
Wolverine's claws. 100c for an additional escape, even if it's counterable, is pretty good.

Dimitri

Digging someone up who's burrowed is hilarious.