Postby kiryan » Thu Nov 20, 2003 7:31 pm
ive said before that i think shaman need to lose fury. its too short of a casting time and too good damage.
spirit wrack stuns too often, has a great chant, and does too good of damage. should knock that down a notch somehow. stunning is one major reason no one dies in zone anymore. another would be how easy it is to land silence after hex/curse.
pets, 3/week is very encumbering since shaman walk everywhere. It was really broken when you could blur them, thank god that was dgraded. they hit pretty damn hard and tank pretty darn well. I think they probably need to be knocked down about 15-25% in maximum hps/level, but im waiting to see what my pets are like when i max skill. at 69 skill and level 50 i regularly get 650-700 hp pets which can easily solo level 40 mobs without my help. I've heard of 900 hp spirits, this just sounds wrong, but i havent experienced it yet and I'm working up my skill to see if this is accurate (at 3/week don't hold your breath).
shaman blind is pointless. pwb sticks for 5 minutes (i believe) on a mob that you can't perm blind. shaman/cleric blind lasts about 1-1.5 minute if that and has a chant time (this is very very important, against bashing mobs). After you land it, you have just enough time enough time to mem back all your miscasts, heals, and stones before it fades. Its far better to wrack the mob flee out, come back in wrack it again. If you time it right you can keep the mob pretty much stunned and you don't really get hit while your chanting. wrack flee fury flee wrack flee stone and vit as necessary.
And really, pwb to priest blind is apples to oranges. one is used to keep low level followers from assisting or to prevent tracking the other really isn't good for anything.
switching elementalists from PWB to regular blind would be a significant downgrade. If shaman had pwb or could summon unlimited spirits, they would be as broken as i think elementalists are.
Also, I believe elementalist stone is an order or 2 better than shaman stone is it not?
also, the embody thing is huge imo. it makes it extremely easy to hit -100 ac while maintaining excellent hps and your semi wraith form meaning a chance that a mob who made it past your dodge check will still sprawl through you. This plus stone.
This is big thing... the level of risk they have to take. Sure lichs do insane damage with their unbelievlable pets, but they dont have stone or blind or vit.... Shaman have some good damage heal, vit, stone, and pets, but their stone is paper thin and 3 / week pets don't give you a lot of room to make any mistakes unless you want to wait 3 hours.
The whole picture still looks rosy to me. But there were a couple things i wasnt aware of like waiting for tick on embody and i really can't argue with gromi's protrayal of tehir damage capability without playing one myself. So I pretty much concede that they are not as powerful as I think they are, but will do some more research because I still believe the opposite.
Thanks for everyones input (well almost everyone).
and tonights winner in the Toril EQ lottery is demi belt and skull earring!
