To those who played a Shaman in Beta

Jjaybrown

Hey, before I go to sleep I wanted to share a question I been asking myself for the last 10 minutes but, since I never played a shaman past lvl 7, are unable to answer myself.



How are Shaman in Vanguard?



From reading another post - Best Soloing class - some people said Shaman are pretty dang good at soloing and obviously with groups too. It peaked my curiosity more. Now, I like to solo, a lot but, with Vanguard I wanted to change that, which I did in beta. I grouped a lot with my Bard who could solo well but, not take on 3 dots because lack of self heals like other class. But he was also very useful with groups and plus I'm more way, way more a melee guy.



So I'm kinda undecided on what to play, Shaman or Bard. I love Bard, and the only thing it lacks is basically nothing. It's half and half for solo and groups. Doesn't excel (although good on both) in either unless you equip instruments and get a major boost in your songs imho.



So can anyone give me a more in-depth review into Shamans? I guess my main worry is becoming a healing slave. I like to solo like I said but, I will be grouping a lot also - especially end-game and that's my main worry since shaman are put into the healing category. That's what they'll do best. Now, I don't mind healing a group; even though i'll probably be sucktacular, but that's the fun of it ( Mastering something totally different). It's end-game, healing raids etc that I will hate and don't want to do. I'm a damage dealer at heart; always have been - but Shamans look like so much fun.



Blah, I don't know what to do. I'm tired and going to bed.



Thanks for any info on Shamans!

Faelan

Have you looked at vanguardshaman.com/?

parmenion

Well if you want to raid, and are playing a healer class, you will probably be expected to heal - because it is the thing you can do that no1 else can, pure DPS would be filled better by a pure DPS role, but I sincerely hope it will be rather more engaging than for example wow decursive or spam the heal button as it autotargets person with lowest bar.... healers (priests) I just found almost no fun to raid in WoW, plain and simple, when just filling the healing role in EQ was markedly better. However VG's attitude t the healer is very different, far beter than any previous MMO, they're expected to do alot more than just heal, it's a very busy and quite varied profession, with alot of snap decision to make on the fly, do you advance a chain, or trigger an opened special, or heal that party member who's taking damage or do you have enough time to trigger a group heal etc. The healers in VG are exceptionally well done from what I've seen & basically the bar for any other MMO to live upto now.



If you like to DPS necromancer stylee, bloodmage is a very intersting take on healer, alot of using your nukes (drains/taps) to also cause beneficials & healing for your group, if you like to melee disciple is an intersting take on using melee to cause healing and debuffs, aswell as having the plain old chuck a heal abilities on both. Cleric uses melee to regen mana and also makes a viable off-tank with the plate armour class and shield, they have alot of survivability.



Shaman have great utility spells, lots of dots & nukes, can't run out of mana with cannabalize (hp->mana) a nice pet  - and crucially for raids slow-debuff to melee (although it is far less essential than in EQ).



Shaman will travel 5% faster than any of the other choices afaik when mounted and quite a bit faster when on foot/fighting - this can be a boon if you are the cross the world exploring type.

Dradiin

Originally posted by Jjaybrown

Hey, before I go to sleep I wanted to share a question I been asking myself for the last 10 minutes but, since I never played a shaman past lvl 7, are unable to answer myself.



How are Shaman in Vanguard?



From reading another post - Best Soloing class - some people said Shaman are pretty dang good at soloing and obviously with groups too. It peaked my curiosity more. Now, I like to solo, a lot but, with Vanguard I wanted to change that, which I did in beta. I grouped a lot with my Bard who could solo well but, not take on 3 dots because lack of self heals like other class. But he was also very useful with groups and plus I'm more way, way more a melee guy.



So I'm kinda undecided on what to play, Shaman or Bard. I love Bard, and the only thing it lacks is basically nothing. It's half and half for solo and groups. Doesn't excel (although good on both) in either unless you equip instruments and get a major boost in your songs imho.



So can anyone give me a more in-depth review into Shamans? I guess my main worry is becoming a healing slave. I like to solo like I said but, I will be grouping a lot also - especially end-game and that's my main worry since shaman are put into the healing category. That's what they'll do best. Now, I don't mind healing a group; even though i'll probably be sucktacular, but that's the fun of it ( Mastering something totally different). It's end-game, healing raids etc that I will hate and don't want to do. I'm a damage dealer at heart; always have been - but Shamans look like so much fun.



Blah, I don't know what to do. I'm tired and going to bed.



Thanks for any info on Shamans!

A Shaman chooses a spirit to follow at level 15 this spirit choice enhances your play style. This will also give you a very nice pet. Shaman is considered to be one of the Two main Pet classes next to Necros.



Bear = Defense Think Tanks

Wolf = Balanced with stealth Think Rogues

Phoenix = Offense caster ranged DPS think Sorcerers



The thing is all paths can heal rather well and we have some serious utility for most situations. Buffs, Speed, Underwater Breathing, Debuffs, Dots. DDs, and even a cpl of endurance based Melee specials. At level 12 i got a nice Grp teleport which is super low level for such a nice ability.



Shaman in VAN is a very nice class it has a little bit of everything. Were truly a Jack of all trades.

Jjaybrown

Thanks for all the awesome replies everyone! Especially that link to the Shaman website. Before I was sure I was going Bard but, really interested in Shamans and now I'm completely undecided. Shamans sound like a really versatile, kick-ass class! Ha, I didn't even choose yet and I'm already confused as to what pet to take as a Shaman also.. Well, either way, can't wait until I can play!