Shaman Class Guide (Classic - Prophecy of Ro)
This guide will cover the Shaman class from Classic EQ until the end of Prophecy of Ro. I consider PoR to be the official end of the Classic Era of this game, things start to change so dramatically after PoR that I would need to totally rewrite all of the class guides to make them accurate for the future.
During this era of the game as a Shaman you're more of a support healer. You have Haste and Slow as well as a ton of buffs but your heals are subpar, you also lack a rez spell until you reach Omens of War which is level 70, the level cap of this guide. Until you get a rez spell it's hard for you to be a group's healer because if someone dies you can't get them back instantly.
Not only do you get your rez during OoW but you'll also get your Epic 2.0 which has a buff that primarily helps melee. You'll also get a group buff in DoDh that will primarily help melee too, for these reasons you will eventually become the healer for all melee groups during raids. You could say that OoW is a very kind expansion to you because this is when you start becoming a viable group healer too.
Prior to Omens of War your biggest advantage over a Cleric is the support you provide and the fact that you can solo/duo very effectively. You will get a weak pet, root spells, DoT spells, nukes and a slow. Basically everything you need to solo mobs effectively. Druids are probably better at soloing than you, but you're not bad either.
Shamans are also the best at melee of all the priest classes, your melee is "okay" during this era but a lot worse later in the game. As far as my experience with a Shaman during this era, I would put it at moderate to high. Whenever I have boxed more than 6 characters I typically always had a Shaman for their buffs and heals. This was also the first class I started boxing way back during SoD when I played my SK since SK and Shaman does very well together.
Important Stats & Focus Effects
Stats will give you the most benefit until you start capping them out with your gear and buffs during Kunark and Velious. Once you cap out your stats the only way to increase them is with AAs. You can get Heroic Stats later on which provide you with an alternative path to make your character more powerful. More on this later.
The most important stats for you on a Shaman are Wisdom, Stamina and a little bit of Strength. Once you get Weight Reduction bags the Str is less important but it helps early on, especially if you want to carry loot. You should also get Agility and (if you plan to melee) Dexterity. If you like to solo getting a lot of AC and HP will help too, especially getting a shield with high AC.
Strength: This increases your Attack and weight limits.
Dexterity: Increases chance to proc during combat and accuracy.
Stamina: Gives you HP.
Agility: Increases AC.
Wisdom: This gives mana, it scales as you level. At level 1 you get 1 mana per wisdom and at 60 it's about 10 mana per wisdom.
Once Planes of Power is released you will start to notice Heroic Stats on your gear. This will become more and more common as time goes on until eventually every piece of gear will have Heroic Stats on it. Benefits from these stats are kind of like real stats but slightly worse.
Each of these Heroic Stats will give diminishing returns past their soft caps. For this reason it's typically best not to focus entirely on one and to spread them around a bit. As a Shaman you will want Heroic Wisdom, Heroic Stamina and Heroic Agility.
Heroic Agility (Avoidance/Strike Through): Increases AC, Dodge, Block and Many of the most important Mod2s. Use my Heroic Stats Guide for more information.
Heroic Wisdom (MP/Regen): This increases your MP, Mana Regen and Max Mana Regen for Casters. Once you cap Flowing Thought, you'll need more Heroic Wisdom to increase your potential cap.
Heroic Stamina (HP/Mitigation): Increases HP, HP Regen, and HP Regen Cap. It also gives you some Mod2s which help with damage and stun mitigation.
Want more information about Heroic Stats and what they do/how they're beneficial? Curious what Mod2s are? Take a look at my Heroic Stats Guide for more information about what each stat does and why we're getting the ones that we're focusing on.
Important Focus Effects
Starting in Luclin and becoming more common as the game goes on certain pieces of gear will come with Focus Effects. For melee classes you don't start getting tons of Focus Effects until OoW and beyond. Below are the main Focus Effects that you want to get on your gear when they become available.
***Mana Preservation: Reduces the amount of Mana consumed with each cast.
***Improved Healing: This increases the total amount that you heal for with each cast.
***Extended Enhancement: Increases the duration of your buffs. Most of your value to others are your buffs and you want them to last as long as possible.
**Extended Range: Increases the range of your spells.
**Spell Haste: Reduces the cast time of your spells (makes your spells cast faster)
**Improved Damage: Increases the damage your DD spells do. This is very important if you plan to deal direct damage (with nukes).
**Burning Affliction: Increases the damage of your DoT spells. More important if you plan to solo or duo on your Shaman.
**Increased Detrimental Spell Duration: As the name suggests, this increases the duration of your detrimental spells. For a complete list of items that do this check out the Allakhazam Focus Page. I think most players will probably use the Jagged Gravestone of Affliction or a similar Aug from OoW to acheive this.
*Improved Dodge: Chance to Dodge is increased by a moderate amount. Pretty much gives you a bit more survivability.
*Improved Parry/Block: Chance to Parry and Block is increased by a moderate amount. More survivability.
Reagent Conservation: Decreases the chance of a reagent being consumed. It saves money since some of our useful spells do have reagents.
Important Spells, Skills & AAs
Shamans are one of the 3 different healing classes in this game and they're the class that comes with arguably the most buffs. As a Shaman you will be able to buff almost every stat, give players Haste, Regen, Focus/Talisman (HP + Stat buff), summon your own pet and buff your group in a few different and unique ways.
During this era of the game your pet will not be that good, this changes as more and more expansions are released though. Eventually you're able to pump so many AAs into your pet that you can make it better than it is during Classic - PoP. AAs like the one that allows your pet to benefit from all group buffs are massive in improving the quality of your summoned companion.
You'll also get many one of a kind buffs on Shamans during this era like Torpor, Avatar, Primal Avatar, Cannibalize (Self Only Mana Restore), Lingering Sloth (DoDh Skill, slows targets that attack you) and more. Buffs aren't all you get either, Shamans get a ton of useful debuffs too!
On more or less every pull you'll be using your Slow Debuff, this will dramatically decrease the amount of damage a mob does and make it much easier. If you're in a group with casters you may want to use Malo on every monster too, it will help spells land.
When you want to do damage you'll find your most mana efficient spells to be your Poison DoTs, Curse DoTs and Disease DoTs. These spells are really good for solo play or smaller groups but they kinda suck for larger groups and they definitely suck on raids. When you have a full group it's much harder to get the full use of your DoTs since enemies will die faster.
Full groups you'll probably want to use your Ice Nuke or your Poison Nuke to deal damage instead. When you're not dealing damage you'll normally be buffing, debuffing or healing. During the early eras you can use Cannibalize to get back mana instead of medding, but it's a lot of work for minor mana (at least until you get the Cannibalize AA).
Useful Buffs: When you join a group you'll always want to give Haste, Focus, Regen and stat buffs to everyone. You'll also want to give a melee DPS Primal Avatar (or the tank) and Lingering Sloth to the tank. I'd recommend using Spirit of the Panther on any melee dps too, this is your solid melee ADPS spell. If not use it on the tank. Another spell added in OoW is Spirit of Sense which gives you 7% avoidance, I don't believe it has any stacking issues but I am unsure.
Useful Heals: Until Luclin and PoP your heals kind of suck. The best heal you get in Kunark is Torpor, during Velious you get Chloroblast which is a bit better than Superior Healing. In Luclin you will get Kragg's Mending which is a little bit better again. Then once PoP hits you can expect a decent heal each time you level up. You'll get HoTs too on the shaman and group HoTs... Much later in the game you'll get a PB AE heal too which is amazing!
Useful Debuffs: As I mentioned before you'll get Slow Debuffs which decrease the target's Attack Speed and the Malo Debuff which decreases some resistances. Well, you'll also get the Cripple Debuff which reduces the stats of your target by a lot.
Idol of Malos (PoR): Starting in PoR many classes get an aura spell which will provide a benefit to group members who stay within the radius. Your spell is called Idol of Malos and it kind of sucks. Use it and see if you like it, most people don't use it from my experience.
How to Play: Shaman Basics
Playing a Shaman in a group environment is pretty straight forward, healing can be a bit difficult in the first few expansions but it gets easier once you reach PoP. During the early expansions your role in a group will typically be buffer/debuffer and spot heals or damage depending on the situation.
When your group pulls a mob you'll want to get Slow on it as early as possible, try not to pull agro with the debuff but try to apply it as quickly as you can. Your pet goes next after the slow. Malo is important too if you're in a group with casters, I would argue Cripple isn't worth the threat it generates until PoP and beyond. Depending on your tank and the dungeon you're in you may be able to throw a few DoTs or a nuke after you debuff the target.
Once OoW and DoN come out you will get much more support ADPS for your group. You will be able to do things like Spirit of the Panther on any melee dps and Lingering Sloth on the tank. These are short duration buffs which you will want to keep up on your group as much as you can.
All in all, I would describe it like - a good shaman knows what is needed in every situation. You should be able to assess each situation and recognize when you must switch to heals and when you can continue to DPS and also what debuffs are required for what dungeons/nameds and the same is true for buffs.
Soloing on a Shaman is a different beast entirely, when you solo your pet decreases in value a lot early on. It gets better a bit later when it can tank (a little) for you; it all depends on what you're fighting. Most Shamans that I know solo with the root + DoT method. You don't get a snare so you're going to depend on your roots to keep the enemies away from you.
Unlike other kiting classes though, you get a Slow! So even if your root breaks you're mostly good and can just just cast another then run away. You won't take as much spike damage as a Necro or Druid since their attack speed is slowed by so much. When it comes to raiding you're basically a buff and debuff machine. Your heals will be useful for some ramp targets and spot heals but you're not going to be a main tank healer. That role goes to Clerics.
Shaman BiS Lists
I have BiS gear lists for this class which include both Tower and Pre-Tower BiS items. For those of you who care less about a BiS list and just want a list of good gear options, I have included that at the bottom of each page too.
Kunark Shaman BiS Gear List
Velious Shaman BiS Gear List
Luclin Shaman BiS Gear List
PoP Shaman BiS Gear List