The Shaman, Bliz describes this class as a Jack of all trades and master of none, we will see about that… The Shaman will definitely be a challenge for those of you who take him into high level PvP, as his skills are extremely spread around, not really being able to do any one thing like an expert.
Race played = Orc
Level obtained = 15
Armor = cloth, leather, can wear mail at 40 with training.
Weapon of choice = Mace/Shield until 10 then Ax/Shield(I switch to Ax at 10 to get that extra 5% Orc damage bonus for using axes.)
Leveling Difficulty = Medium (hard in PvP)
NOTE: the cost to buy each skill is listed next to its name.
The Shaman Leveling 1-20
At the lobie levels this is not apparent at all until you start to hit 10+, think of the Shaman as a pala… Oh?!? almost said the “p” word, being a Horde peep that is against my religion. The biggest single problem you will face will also be your greatest asset… Totems Yes they are awesome if used correctly, but even if used correctly will you be able to convince an alliance member to step inside your Shamanitstic totemic circle of doom? ummm no… In PvE where the mobs have the intelligence of a high school senior on prom night, they will simply run right up to you, never stopping once to see the 4 totems you have sitting on the ground. So if you dare to enter the world of the Shaman do not expect to get massive kills in PvP as the opposing side will simply nuke you from range or totally ignore you, its not like you can just pick your totems up and start chasing them, no the Air totems do not have the fly ability enabled. Am I bashing the Shaman? Oh no, quite the opposite, the shaman will be the greatest challenge of all to play in PvP. That is why 90% of peeps play MMORPG’s, for the challenge of being the best there is, and letting everyone else know it. Necessity is the mother of invention and if it is humanly possible to find a way to rack up the kills with a Shaman in PvP, then it will be done. O.K. lets get you to 15 before I start a Shaman ritual or something… The first thing you want to do is open your inventory and right click on the scroll, or other object that will open the quest window on the left side of the screen and give you your first quest, accept the quest and if you look on your minimap you should see a little yellow dot this dot represents the NPC that you talk too to complete your first quest.(You may have to walk a little ways, but just starting off the quest NPC is usually very close to your starting location) For future reference anytime you see a little yellow dot on your minimap this is the location of an NPC that you have completed a quest for. When you get to level 5 you may take a trade skill, which may also show you little yellow dots on the minimap, these will either represent a “mine node” (if you have the skill “mining”)that can be mined or a “herb plant”(if you have the skill “herbalism”) that can be harvested.
Leveling 1-4
You will have (or may buy) these skills at lvl 1-4
Lightning Bolt Level 1
Cost = 35 Mana —– Casting time = 1.5 secs. —– Range = 30 yards.
A lightning bolt that hits your target for 26-30 damage.
Healing Wave Level 1
Cost = 35 Mana —– Casting time = 1.5 secs. —– Range = 40 yards.
Heals yourself or a friendly target for 39 to 49.
RockBiter Weapon
Cost = 30 Mana —– Casting time = Instant.
Buffs the Shamans wep by increasing the attack power by 26.
Spell lasts 5 minutes.
Stoneskin Totem
Cost = 35 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Must have the tool “Earth Totem”
Instant cast
Tools: Earth Totem
Summons a Stoneskin Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster. The totem protects party members within 10 yards, reducing physical damage taken by 3. Lasts 45 seconds.
For your fist few levels The “Lightning Bolt” spell will be your main pulling spell, Healing wave is here as well in case you need to heal between pulls.(Notice the really fast 1.5 sec cast rate) RockBiter is a wep buff that you should always have on when about to begin melee, the stoneskin Totem is awarded to you after completing a quest, this is your first totem so make sure you get some good use out of it. Since Totems are insta cast spells, you really do not need to cast these before combat, simply cast one when you receive your first melee hit. Later on when you can drop 4 different totems you will have to do a little more advanced planning. Approach a “mob” and as you approach you will see that the numbered box that your Lightning Bolt spell is in turn from red to white, this means that the mob is in range for your spell. If the spell “Lightning Bolt” is not on your hotbar you will have to open your “abilities” page and left click to drag the icon to a place on your hotbar so that you may use it. So the mob is in range, what I do is right click the mob, this puts you into “combat mode” if the mob is in range you will swing at the mob with whatever weapon you have equipped, but hopefully the mob is still a little distance away so that you may cast Lightning Bolt to damage it. Once you do this, the mob will come to you to do battle.(At the lower levels you will only experience the “melee” type mob’s later on you will face mobs that once you cast a spell on them they will start casting spells on you!) Once you cast Lightning Bolt you will see the “timing bar” start to fill when the bar is fully filled the spell will be casted, IMMEDIATELY click the spell again so that you may start another Lightning Bolt spell. In most cases you will be able to get off 2-3 spells before the mob actually gets close enough to hit you. If the mob is in melee with you and you try to cast a spell the mob may hit you, if that happens your bar will “jump back” and the spell will attempt to continue casting. At the lower levels after the mob gets within melee range just whack him with your weapon a few times and he should die. A little trick on casting spells… some spells when you get higher level have a “cooldown” time so you cannot keep casting over and over again, however at the lower levels wait until you see the green bar hit the end of the line and click again, do not wait for the bar to fill and disappear, click it as soon as the bar is filled this gives you about a .1 - .2 seconds of advantage over other players that simply wait until the bar disappears. By now you should be getting to level 4.
Leveling 4-6
At level 4 you may buy these spells:
Earth Shock Level 1
Cost = 30 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Range = 20 yards —– Cooldown = 6 secs.
This is an Insta cast spell that not only causes damage of 17-19 Nature damage, but also disrupts any spell being cast for 2 seconds.
This spell is very useful later on when facing casters, right now you just want to use this as an insta damage spell. As a Shaman since you can heal your self you really have no need for food, but keep all the drinks you find to replace your man to decrease downtime between pulls. Continue on to level 6, at level 6 you will most likely leave the “noob” town and make your way to another town to get new quests and higher level mobs. Up to now when you see a mob it was most likely yellow which means that these will not attack you if you get too close, however if see a mob that is red then this mob will attack you if you get to close, this is commonly called “agro”.
Leveling 6-8
At level 6 you may buy the following spells:
EarthBind Totem Level 1
Cost = 40 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Tolls required = Earth Totem
Creates an Earthbound Totem that slows enemies with 10 yards. Totem has 5 hit points.
Molten Blast Level 1
Cost = 30 Mana —– Casting time = 1.8 secs —– Range = 30 yards.
Flames the target for 18-26 damage
Healing Wave Level 2
Cost = 50 Mana —– Casting time = 2 secs. —– Range = 40 yards
Heals the caster or another friendly target for 64-78
The earthbound totem is really not needed at this level as you can just cast lightning bolt if a mob tries to run away. The molten blast spell is about the same power as the lightning bolt spell but has a little longer casting time. Healing wave 2 is an upgrade to your earlier Healing wave 1 spell. Still do as many quests as you can and always have the rockbiter buff on your weapon. By now you should be pretty familiar with the quest system as well as knowing what level mobs you can handle. It has been my playing experience that you should only kill mobs your level or 1-2 levels higher as anything else is going to cause a “mana dump” and a possible death, and you will find that the exp is not worth it at all, after you figure in the risk and the downtime needed to recover from the mana dumping. Also if you are going to take any trade skills get them now, even if you have to take some time to walk to your nearest capitol,(which is pretty close to you now, regardless which race you have chosen) You can get your 2 main tradeskills at lvl 5.
Leveling 8-10
At level 8 you may buy the following spells:
Lighting Shield Level 1
Cost = 45 Mana —– Casting time = Instant
This shields the caster with 3 balls of lightning, when the casters is hit in melee or by a ranged enemy they will be hit with of the lightning balls for 13 damage. Each hit that an attacker takes, takes away 1 lightning ball, the lightning balls will not discharge all at once and will only fire every few seconds.
Spell lasts 10 min. or until all 3 lightning balls are used up.
Lightning Bolt Level 2
Cost = 35 Mana —– Casting time = 2 secs. —– Range = 30 yards.
This is an upgrade from your Lightning Bolt level 1 spell and hits for 26-30 damage.
Earth Shock
Cost = 50 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Range = 20 yards —– Cooldown = 6 secs.
This is an upgrade to your earth shock spell causing 33-35 lightning damage and interrupting spell casting for 2 secs.
StoneClaw Totem Level 1
Cost = 20 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Cooldown = 30 secs. —– Tools required = Earth Totem.
Creates a totem with 50 health for 15 secs, that tries to taunt creatures into attacking it.
RockBiter Weapon Level 2
Cost = 55 Mana —– Casting time = Instant.
Upgraded weapon buff increasing the attack power by 53
Spell lasts 5 minutes
A good idea is too cast lightning shield and rockbiter 2 right after one another, if you are soloing then the Stoneclaw will simply attempt to pull the agro from you, I have found that the vast majority of the time this did not work well. At this level I was still using the Stoneskin totem and casting Lightning Bolt to pull and kept casting it until mob closed to melee then hit an earthshock for the insta damage and then melee the rest of it. By now you should have visited your capitol or have a quest that leads you to your capitol for your race. As a side note you cannot sell conjured food or water, yes I already tried… At level 10-11 you will most likely leave the level 5-10 “area” and be sent on a quest to visit a new location, this is also the level at which you may be introduced to your first “elite” quest. Elite quests are not meant to be done solo and no you cannot solo an “elite” mob that is your same level in most cases. I believe Bliz did this to encourage “grouping” after level 10 if you so desire. You can easily tell an “elite” mob from a normal mob by the word “elite” in the mobs name or the wreath around the mobs pic when you left click it. You can safely left click a mob to get info however if you right click it then you enter combat mode with that mob.
Leveling 10-12
At level 10 you may buy the following spells:
Strength of Earth Totem
Cost = 30 Mana —– casting time = Instant —– required tools = Earth Totem
Creates an Earth Totem that increase the strength of all party members as well as the caster by 10, totem has 5 hit points and works within a radius of 20 yards.
Spell lasts 45 secs.
Flametongue Weapon
Cost = 60 Mana —– Casting time = Instant
Buffs the casters weapon with 4-12 fire damage per hit, actual buff damage is based upon speed of the weapon.
Spell lasts 5 minutes
Flame shock Level 1
Cost = 55 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Range = 20 yards —– Cooldown = 6 secs.
Insta cast spell that hits for 21 and then DOT’s for an additional 24 damage over 12 secs.
Searing Totem Level 1
Cost = 30 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– tools required = Fire Totem.
Creates a Totem that attacks a single enemy within 20 yards for 4-6 fire damage every 2 secs. Lasts 30 seconds. Totem has 5 hit points.
Here the Shaman can quest for a fire totem at level 11, once obtained the Shaman can now have 2 totems running at the same time a fire totem and an earth totem. Another bonus is another insta shock spell so now you have earth shock insta AND the Flame shock Intsa.(Use the Flame shock insta first as this is a DOT) You also can now buff your weapon with Flametongue instead of RockBiter, Flametongue overall is the better buff. By now you should understand the basics of playing a Mage, and at the capitol city you should also find your “bank” as this has numerous “slots” to store your items, before storing items see if you can “stack” them by dragging one item over the top of another items of the same type. Stackable items include: potions, food, water, crafting materials, and crafting supplies. Also depending on which type of server you are playing on PvP or PvE you may start to see enemies from the other “realm.” From level 10-20 the basics of the game and the mobs start to take you out of the “noobness” and into the full game, expect to fight “caster” mobs, “bow and arrow” mobs and mobs that will give you poison, stuns, or other negative status effects. You may also want to open your “social” window and flag yourself as “looking for a group” if that is a style of play that you desire.(You also may choose to pick a talent here, see the bottom of this post for a link to a list of the talents available.) Although the shaman, at this point does not have emergency “get away” spell if things turn bad, drop an EarthBind totem and run it usually works well.
Leveling 12-14
At level 12 you may buy the following spells:
Rebirth
Cost = 140 Mana —– Casting time = 10 secs —– Range = 30 yards.
This is a rez spell that restores a dead friendly target to life, make sure after the rez that you heal the target right away as the target will only have 1% health.
Purge Level 1
Cost = 45 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Range = 30 yards
Remove 1 positive benefit effect from an enemy target.(Not to be confused with the DAOC realm ability “purge” LOL)
Healing Wave Level 3
Cost = 90 Mana —– Casting time = 2.5 secs. —– Range = 40 yards.
Heals the caster or a friendly target for 129-155.
Fire Nova Totem Level 1
Cost = 115 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Tools required = Fire Totem.—– Cooldown = 15 secs.
Creates a fire totem that will hit all enemies within 10 yards for 48-56 damage in 4 secs. Totem has 5 hit points.
Here we have a new interesting selection of new skills here, the Fire Nova Totem is kind of like a time bomb, after you place it it will “detonate” in 4 seconds, there is a talent that will lower this time down to 2 seconds, only bad thing here is the 15 second cooldown on it. Rebirth is a rez spell that only gives the target 1% of health and purge, to me just does not seem like a good skill in PvE. Healing wave is the upgrade from level 2. Well now it seems like it is time for you to move along to mobs that are a little harder, start out in search of a town called the crossroads. Here you will start to find that you are not in the lobie noob zones anymore. The majority of the mobs are aggressive(red con) and if you pull them and they have buddies nearby they will come also. You will also find mobs that “call” other mobs if they get hurt and are close to death, so if there are other mobs close by that are of the same type do not be surprised if they agro you when you have the mob you are working on almost dead. The best way to see this is to mouse over your chat window, go to the tab that says “combat” left click and hold and drag it to the right side of your screen to separate it from the chat window, now you can review all the damage and other combat related actions taken by you and the mob you were in combat with, as well as seeing any new chat messages in the chat window. At this level you really need to be paying full attention to your surroundings. Stay away from the “dinosaur looking” lizards south of the crossroads as they are melee and casters, and will zap you with lightning damage. Needless to say, now is a good time to get in a group. Also at the crossroads I am 99.9% sure you will experience your first PvP encounter…
Leveling 14-20
At level 14 you may buy the following spells:
Lightning Bolt Level 3
Cost = 55 Mana —– Casting time = 2.5 secs. —– Range = 30 yards.
Hurls lightning Bolt for 45-53 damage.
Earth Shock Level 3
Cost = 85 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– Range = 20 yards —– Cooldown = 6 secs.
Socks the target hitting for 60-64 damage and interrupting the spell being cast for 2 secs.
Stoneskin Totem Level 2
Cost = 75 Mana —– Casting time = Instant —– tools required = Earth Totem
Creates Totem with 5 hit points, reducing physical damage to all party members within 20 yards.
Spell lasts 1 minute.
Molten Blast Level 2
Cost = 45 Mana —– Casting time = 2 secs. —– Range = 30 yards.
Blasts the target for 32-44 fire damage.
Lightning Bolt is an Upgrade as well as the other 3 spells you get at this level. Something very important to remember about totems: you cannot “cast” a totem unless you have the actual totem somewhere in your inventory. By the time you hit the 14-15 range you will have figured out by now that the Shaman at these levels are really melee’s using totems as “buff” If you can see Shaman in this way I believe it will make your leveling allot easier. Pretty soon you will be heading to your second set of “elite quests”, so hopefully by now you have met quite a few players and already have some friends you can do the quests with. As you do your quests remember that the top most quest in your quest list under an area is the easiest one to complete, so in most cases you should do these quests first.
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