There are many possible paths to take as a Shaman. Some lend themselves to offense, others to defense, and others
to just old fashioned role playing. Which is the best for you? Only you can answer that, but here is a look at a few
of the major options you'll have upon character creation. All of these assume you take Shaman as your first role thus
benefitting from your leader's
Spirituality.
Pure Role Shaman
Pure roled shaman have many advantages to them, the first being that you can focus and specialize on your Shaman skills
and
only your Shaman skills. The second biggest factor in being a pure roled Shaman is
Endure Damage. Endure Damage in combination with
Carapace creates one of the best defensive combinations in the game by being able to block almost all forms of physical and magical
attacks.
The Pure Shaman specific abilities are Endure Damage, Sacrifice, and Wards. Currently, Wards does not seem to be
working and Sacrifice seems to be too cumbersome to use. However, both Sacrifice and Wards have not been extensively
tested, therefore they could be rather useful.
If you wish to have a highly defensive character, I would suggest getting a Pure Shaman to get both Carapace and Endure
Damage. If you wish to have a more offensive character, a Pure Shaman probably isn't the best way to
go, but perhaps getting Venom or Crud as an additive to your claws would be a good way to go. As a subrole
I would pick either a Cauterizer, Saw Bones, or one of the caste specific sub-roles.
Pure Shaman are probably the best at combating pure Mages due to thier need of high energy (to block stun and teleport) ,
the use of Endure Damage (to block magical attacks), and Cure (to counter Poison Breath).
Shaman/Magical
Shaman/Magicals are my personal favorite in terms of Shaman Dual roled characters. There are tons of skills to
choose from and plenty of different ways to go. The problem is that there are so many options, you may not know which
skills you want and when! I feel the best reason to be a Shaman/Magical is for
Haste. With a maxed Haste, you can cast multiple shaman spells in a row without having to wait for your timer bar to replenish.
I will use my character for an example WITHOUT haste:
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Carapace on himself.
Booger the Minotaur hits you for 650 damage, breaking your carapace! His Iron Claws hit you for 300 damage.
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Carapace on himself.
Booger the Minotaur hits you for 650 damage, breaking your carapace! His Iron Claws hit you for 300 damage.
...And so on...As you see I'm taking 300 damage each time from his claws, but I can't heal myself, or else I won't have
my carapace up to block the majority of the damage Booger is putting on me.
Now...here's what happens WITH haste:
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Haste.
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Carapace.
Booger the Minotaur hits you for 650 damage, casuing your carapace to crumble! His Iron Claw does 300 damage.
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Carapace.
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Heal, which heals 300 hit points.
Whindanser the Grypon shoots Booger the Minotaur with his Cold Breath for 550 damage!
Booger the Minotaur hits you for 650 damage, breaking your carapace! His Iron Claws hit you for 300 damage.
...and so on...As you can see, before Booger could attack twice, you could recast carapace, heal yourself, and attack
him! Talk about gaining the upper hand!
Only Chimera dual roles can get a ranged magical attack, so you must take that into consideration. You don't necessarily
need a ranged magical attack as a Shaman, but it certainly has its uses. Having the Magical dual role opens up many
options for you whether you want to be more offensive or defensive, however I think it lends itself more to an offensive type
character. An offensive character would probably choose Blood Oath, Stun, and a Magical Ranged attack (if Chimera).
There are many possibilities you have with a Shaman/Magical. Finding out what is best for you is essential and you may
have go through some trial and error with skills to find out which you want and which you don't want. As a subrole I
would pick either a Cauterizer, Saw Bones, or one of the caste specific sub-roles. The Shaman/Magical role is probably best
for Chimera since they can get eight abilities.
Shaman/Leaders
Shaman/Leaders can be a very interesting combination. While you can't get the role specific leader abilities of
Spirituality, Warmonger, and the rest; you can get Battle Cry, Inspire, Grunt Mastery, Mentor, and Intimidate. Shaman/Leaders
are great for people who want to be the ones leading minions into battle and helping them do battle. A Shaman/Leader
would be extremely effective under several circumstances.
For example:
A Shaman/Leader uses his Grunt Mastery to call his grunts to him at a Fane. He then uses his Battle Cry to help them
hit. He then casts Carapace on all his Grunts and perhaps Sphere of Protection. Throw in Intimidate or Inspire
into the mix with a bit of Healing and you have some juiced up Grunts ready to inflict some serious damage and take a lot
of abuse.
Shaman/Leaders have the ability to gain favor very quickly through the use of Heal and Mentor. While they may not
get as many minions as a Pure Leader because of the lack of leader bonuses, an active Shaman/Leader who hunts frequently and
has Inspire and/or Battle Cry would serve his minions well enough to be attractive.
If you are interested in being a leader and want ways to help them out in battle, I would highly suggest being a Shaman/Leader.
If you use Grunt Mastery, I would suggest either the Heriophant or caste specific subroles. If you don't use Grunt Mastery
as a skill, I would suggest the Empath or caste specific sub roles.
Shaman/Builders
I would say the main reaon to be a Shaman/Builder would be to gain favor as fast as possible through the use of traps.
A Shaman/Builder who could trap a lair and get favor through his hunting and healing would get very large amounts of favor
very quickly. The Trap skill would probably be the only useful skill to a Shaman since a Shaman must hunt and use his
spells for favor and that cannot be done in the lair.
As a subrole I would pick either a Cauterizer, Saw Bones, or one of the caste specific sub-roles.
Shaman/Warriors
The Shaman/Warrior is for someone who is more offensive-minded, but wants to have the added defense that Shaman skills
can provide. I think this is a great area for Humanoids and Undead since they are often vulnerable to the magical spells
of Stun and Teleport. Having Spirituality instead of Warmonger as thier bonus would give them more Energy to combat these
spells.
A Shaman/Warrior has the ability to do more damage than any other type of Shaman because they can get Iron Claw.
The one problem is that Claws are affected by Agility. Agility obviously affects defense. Therefore if you have
a lot of Agility, you won't get hit as much to use Heal as much, so it may become less useful. (Not to say you necessarily
need heal, but its the best favor-giving spell in the Shaman arsenal) Undead can also get Drain Life which is an excellent
skill to use against Humanoids and Chimera (Doesn't work against other Undead) which in combination to heal, would make you
regenerate extremely fast.
I would suggest any subrole for a Shaman/Warrior except Hierophant.
Now that you have your role picked out lets take a look at the Shaman Skills.
