Effects of the heal ability:

• Heal adds hit points to the target.
• Adding ranks to heal will increase the amount of hit points recovered.

Heal in my opinion is the lifeblood of Shaman.  It gives an excellent amount of favor that stays consistant as you level up.  The amount of favor you get when you heal depends on how much you actually heal.  For example, you'll get more favor for healing 400 hp than for 1 hp.  Heal is excellent at keeping you and your teammates alive in battle and is effective against battling poison or crud.  I would say that Heal is a must-have skill for Shaman if they wish to level thier characters the best way possible.  At later levels (900+), heal may be less effective at gaining favor and healing enough hit points, so trading it for another skill such as Fortify could be an option.  It takes approximately 300 +/- 20 favors into heal to drop its success down to 0 depending on your energy and authority.  If you wish to level up quickly, get Heal as soon as possible!

Heal gives favor every time it is cast on yourself or someone very close to your level.  It even gives favor for being cast on Uglies.  However, there comes a point when it stops giving you favor for casting on yourself.  I believe this is a mechanism to prevent someone from sitting all day in one spot healing themselves with the same group of Uglies.  How long you can heal yourself before it stops giving favor seems to be dependant on how many Uglies you spawn, but I'm not entirely sure.

Carapace (WARNING! Spoiler alert!)

Command: cover <character>

This ability is based on:

Effects of the carapace ability:

• At its starting level, carapace will absorb damage from tooth and nail, iron claw, and tail attack.
• As ranks are added to the carapace ability, it will begin to absorb krushing, slicing, and piercing damage, in that order.
• As ranks are added to the carapace ability, the amount of damage a carapace absorbs will increase.
• As ranks are added to the carapace ability, the duration of the carapace will increase.

Carapace is an excellent skill for fighting against Uglies, Humanoids, and Non-Magical Undead and Chimera.  Carapace absorbs the damage done by a physical attack and prevents it from doing damage to you.  This skill does require some good investment before it can become very effective against other players and Uglies since it doesn't block every type of physical attack at 1 rank. Here are the points at which Carapace blocks different types of physical attacks:

• Tooth and Nail, Tail Whip, Iron Claw -- 1 rank
• Krushing weapons, Boulders -- 100 ranks
• Slicing weapons -- 260 ranks
• Stabbing weapons, Missle Weapons, Ranged Weapons -- 450 ranks

It is important to note that Iron Claw has a different effect on Carapace.  Iron Claw is an additive to the damage of Tooth and Nail.  While your carapace my be strong enough to block all of the Tooth and Nail damage, it may not be strong enough to block all of the Iron Claw damage, thus you will get hit for damage.  For example:

Rozial the Vampire slashes at you with his iron claws.  Your carapace absorbs 1850 damage and crumbles away! You are hit for 530 damage!

Smarmy the Hobgobling slashes at you with his iron claws. Your carapace absorbs 300 damage!  Your carapace absorbs 90 damage!

So while it blocked most of it, the Iron Claw still was able to slip through and hit on Rozials very strong hit, but it blocked both Tooth and Nail and Iron Claw on Smarmy's weaker hit.  When Carapace is maxed, I believe you will be able to block all of that damage.  Carapace is an excellent skill for those who want to do some Player versus Player fighting.  Its limitation is that it needs to be recast every time it crumbles away which will prevent you from attacking other monsters.  Haste is excellent to have in combination with this so you can do multiple things other than recasting Carapace.

Carapace gives favor the first time after you wake up, the first time after you die, or about every 45 minutes to an hour.  So you may cast it 30 times in an hour, but it may only give you favor twice in that hour for casting.  It gives favor for casting on someone near to you in level.  It does NOT give favor for casting on Uglies.  The favor it does give is larger than a single cast of Heal for example.  Its very useful in that it covers about 3/5 of your death penalty favor loss when you recast it after dying.

Endure Damage (ONLY AVAILABLE TO PURE SHAMAN)

Command: endure <character>

This ability is based on:

• At its starting level, endure damage will absorb cold damage.
• As ranks are added to the endure damage ability, it will begin to absorb fire, electric, and acid damage, in that order.
• As ranks are added to the endure damage ability, the amount of damage endure damage absorbs will increase.
• As ranks are added to the endure damage ability, the duration of endure damage will increase

Endure Damage is similar to Carapace except that instead of physical attacks, it absorbs Magical Attacks.  Endure damage is particularly good to have when hunting with Chimera since they often use magical breath attacks that splash off of Uglies and hit you. Like Carpace this skill involves a decent amount of investment to become particularly useful.  Here are the points at which Endure Damage blocks different types of magical damage:

• Cold Breath and Cold Touch -- 1 rank
• Fire Breath and Fireball -- 100 ranks
• Chain Lightning -- 260 ranks (not positive about this)
• Acid Damage, Disease Damage? -- Probably at 450 ranks

Endure Damage is great in combination with Carapace because you essentially become invulnerable to almost every type of damage. This exludes Drain Life, Poison Breath, and Venom and Crud additives.  Because it crumbles away, it does require recasting many times until it gets stronger so Haste is great to use in combination with this.

With the new additions, Cold Touch now can penetrate Endure Damage the same way Iron Claw can penetrate a Carapace. 

Endure Damage gives favor the first time after you wake up, the first time after you die, or about every 45 minutes to an hour.  So you may cast it 30 times in an hour, but it may only give you favor twice in that hour for casting.  It gives favor for casting on someone near to you in level.  It does NOT give favor for casting on Uglies.  The favor it does give is larger than a single cast of Heal for example.  Its very useful in that it covers about 3/5 of your death penalty favor loss when you recast it after dying.

Sphere of Protection

Command: protect <character>

This ability is based on:

Effects of the sphere of protection ability:

• Sphere of protection makes all attacks on the target harder to hit.
• Adding ranks to sphere of protection will increase the amount of protection and the duration of the effect.

Sphere of Protection is a great spell for all types of Shaman.  When cast, it makes you harder to hit.  This does NOT absorb damage like Carapace and Endure Damage, it merely makes it more difficult for a person to hit you. So, for example:

[Success: 300 Roll: 400] Tazeran the Troll slashes at Whindanser the Gryphon! 386 Damage!
Whindanser the Gryphon casts a Sphere of Protection on himself.
[Success: 600 Roll: 650] Tazeran the Troll slashed at Whindanser the Gryphon! 386 Damage!

As you can see, Sphere of Protection did not absorb and damage, but instead of needing a 300 to hit Whindanser, Tazeran needed a 600 to hit him, which means Whindanser basically doubled his defense with Sphere of Protection.  This skill is good because unlike, Endure or Carapace, it gives a general base defensive bonus regardless of what type of attack someone throws at you.  You can cast this on you clanmates as well which makes it very useful at Fanes.  At high levels, a strong Sphere of Protection will give you a 950 for defense against most people.

Another advantage of Sphere of Protection is that its duration does not depend on how much damage you take.  Sphere only crumbles away when its duration is finished.  The duration can be extened through favoring Sphere itself, Energy, and Authority.  This is good because at Fane battles you don't have to keep recasting Sphere and wasting valuable attacking time.

Sphere of Protection gives favor the first time you cast it after you wake up, the first time after you die, or about every 45 minutes to an hour.  So you may cast it 30 times in an hour, but it may only give you favor twice in that hour for casting.  It gives favor for casting on someone near to you in level.  It does NOT give favor for casting on Uglies.  The favor it does give is larger than a single cast of Heal for example.  Its very useful in that it covers about 3/5 of your death penalty favor loss when you recast it after dying.

Spirit Shield

Command: shield

This ability is based on:

Spirit Shield often gets confused with Sphere of Protection.  They both do similar things in that it makes it harder for someone else to hit you by raising your base defense.  So, as in the previous example Spirit Shield does the same thing (for this example, Spirit Shield is the same strength as Sphere of protection in the other example) but it works in a very different and unique way.

Tazeran the Troll approaches Whindanser the Gryphon.
Tazeran the Troll stops next to Whindanser the Gryphon.
[Success: 300 Roll: 400] Tazeran the Troll slashes at Whindanser the Gryphon! 386 Damage!
Whindanser the Gryphon is surrounded by a sphere of blue light!
[Success: 600 Roll: 650] Tazeran the Troll slashed at Whindanser the Gryphon! 386 Damage!

Ok...so far so good...or is it? Here is where Spirit Shield differs from Sphere of Protection. Whindanser DID NOT cast Spirit Shield on himself.  It happened automatically. This is called a passive ability.  It comes into effect without the user actually having to cast the spell.  Now...there's more to the differences between Spirit Shield and Sphere of Protection. We'll go back to our battle between Taz and Whind. Note that Spirit Shield is still cast on Whindanser:

Whindanser the Gryphon retreats.
Tazeran the Troll approaches Whindanser the Gryphon.
Tazeran the Troll is pushed away by an unseen force and is knocked down and stunned!
Tazeran the Troll is no longer stunned
Tazeran the Troll growls, "What the? How did I get down here?"
Tazeran the Troll stands up.
Tazeran the Troll approaches Whindanser the Gryphon.
Tazeran the Troll is pushed away by an unseen force and is knocked down and stunned!
Tazeran the Troll is no longer stunned
Tazeran the Troll stands up.
Whindanser the Gryphon pats his Spirit Shield happily.
Tazeran the Troll mutters and slinks away.

What just happend?  Here is where you see the true strength of Spirit Shield.  Spirit Shield is a passive ability that is cast when someone either approaches you or attacks you.  When it is successfully cast, it has the possibility of stopping a character from approaching you by pushing them away, knocking them down, then stunning them briefly.  Spirit Shield even remains in effect if you are stunned!  Talk about powerful!

Adding ranks to Spirit Shield will lower the success number that you have to roll and increase the chance that someone will be pushed away from you.  Approaching someone yourself will NOT cause them to fall down. They must approach you.

There are some limitations to Spirit Shield.  Spirit Shield loses some of its effectiveness with people who attack with ranged magical or ranged physical attacks.  They don't have to worry about being knocked down or stunned.  Furthermore, because Spirit Shield is a passive ability, it may get cast even if you don't want it to.  Those who use healing as a major source of favor gain will find that Spirit Shield hampers thier ability to use Heal because thier Spirit Shield is making it harder for them to be damaged. This is a great skill for people who enjoy PvP, but  I would suggest this as one of the later skills in a Shaman's life.

Spirit Shield gives favor the first time after you wake up, the first time after you die, or about every 45 minutes to an hour.  So you may cast it 30 times in an hour, but it may only give you favor twice in that hour for casting.  The favor it does give is larger than a single cast of Heal for example.  Its very useful in that it covers about 3/5 of your death penalty favor loss when you recast it after dying.

Cure

Command: cure <character>

This ability is based on:

Effects of the cure ability:

• Cure reduces the amount of poison and disease in the target.
• Adding ranks to cure will increase the amount of poison and disease removed.

Cure can be both an extremely useful ability or an extremely useless ability depending on how you look at it.  In my opinion, it is an extremely useful ability.  If you get poisoned with either Creeping Crud, Venom, or Poison Breath, Cure can nullify the effects of them before doing too much damage.  Poison Breath is one of the strongest attacks in the game and can do a massive amount of damage. Here is an example:

Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser the Gryphon! Strength 400!
Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser the Gryphon! Strength 1000!
Poison courses through Whindanser the Gryphon's body for 1400 damge!
Jinn the Cerebus waits for the poison to settle in with an evil smile.
Poison courses through Whindanser the Gryphon's Body for 900 damage!
Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser the Gryphon! Strength 600!
Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser! Strength 500!
Poison courses through Whindanser the Gryphon's body for 2000 damage! He falls kicking and screaming into Grendel's Embrace!

As you can see, poison has cumulative damage.  It degenerates over time.  In the example, it went from 1400 to 900.  Had Jinn not kept poisoning him, it would have gone down to about 600 then 450.  Once it hits 450, poison degenerates only 10 every other round.  So cumulatively, you've taken 3350 damage by the time poison gets down to 450...and you still have a loooong way to go.  Now lets throw Cure into the mix:

Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser the Gryphon! Strength 400!
Jinn the Cerebus exhales his poisonous breath at Whindanser the Gryphon! Strength 1000!
Poison courses through Whindanser the Gryphon's body for 1400 damge!
Jinn the Cerebus waits for the poison to settle in with an evil smile.
Whindanser the Gryphon casts Cure on himself.
Poison courses through Whindanser the Gryphon's body for 200 damage!
Whindanser the Gryphon smirks.
Jinn the Cerebus gasps.

As you can see, he avoided a TON of damage by being able to cure himself of the poison.  It can be cast on others as well.  Someone with a strong Cure can most likely cure thousands of points of Poison thus nullifying anyone with Poison Breath as thier attack or Venom or Crud on thier claws. 

However...how many times per day do you get poisoned by Uglies or other players? How many times do you go into the poisonous swamp?  Some people believe that Cure is not worth getting because they are simply not hit with Poison enough to warrant getting it as a skill.  I would not say that Cure is a necessary skill, but I would say that it is certainly useful to have, especially if you enjoy PvP.  Furthermore, recent additions of creatures around Uthgol have made poison and crud more widespread in the world. 

With recent additions of Disease Breath and Acid Spit cure has added uses beyond just Poison Breath, Crud, and Venom.

Cure gives favor like Heal.  Each time you cast it, it gives favor relative to how much poison you actually cure.  The favor is fantastic.

Fortify

Command: fortify <character>

This ability is based on:

Effects of the fortify ability:

• Fortify increases the healing rate of the target.
• Adding ranks to fortify increases the healing bonus and the duration of the effect.

Fortify is a useful skill which isn't seen too much.  When cast, it increases your regeneration rate and the amount of points you regenerate.  Most people choose heal instead of this, however Fortify has several advantages over Heal.  The main advantage of Fortify is that you only have to cast it once, and it will last for a duration of time based on the strength of the spell.  This is better than Heal because you don't have to keep recasting it and wasting time by not attacking your opponent.  I have not seen a maxed out Fortify in action, so I am not entirely sure how much it can possibly raise your regeneration, but I know from experience that it gives at LEAST as much regeneration as a maxed out Spirituality for leaders.

Fortify would be a nice pick for Shaman who can't get Haste.  Also, its a good pick for Shaman who are later in levels, like 900+ because at that point, Fortify probably becomes better in terms of PvP than Heal especially since you don't necessarily need the favor that Heal gives you anymore.

Fortify gives favor the first time after you wake up, the first time after you die, or about every 45 minutes to an hour.  So you may cast it 30 times in an hour, but it may only give you favor twice in that hour for casting.  It gives favor for casting on someone near to you in level.  It does NOT give favor for casting on Uglies.  The favor it does give is larger than a single cast of Heal for example.  Its very useful in that it covers about 3/5 of your death penalty favor loss when you recast it after dying.

Sacrifice (PURE SHAMAN ABILITY--unless you have the Hierophant subrole)

Command: sacrifice <grunt> [for] <corpse>

This ability is based on:

Sacrifice is an interesting ability that, if used correctly, can be extremely effective.  Sacrifice is a pure shaman ability, but can be obtained if you have the Hierophant subrole (for half off the karma cost too!).  I think that this skill is only useful under certain conditions for your character.  I feel you need to be either a Hierophant/Magical or a Hierophant/Leader to use this skill effectively.  Why? Because of Raise and Grunt Mastery.

To use this ability effectively, you need to have easy access to grunts, otherwise the ability is useless.  Having Raise or Grunt Mastery (preferrably Grunt Mastery) makes using Sacrifice very easy and efficient.  At Fanes it is extremely valuable if you can sacrifice a grunt for your clanmate so they can stay in the fight. 

With recent additions Sacrifice has been given new capabilities:

With these new additions, Sacrifice becomes a VERY useful skill.  The only drawback is having enough grunts to use it effectively.  I would say that the best way to use this would be with a Leader/hierophant or a heirophant/leader.  This skill seems to require Grunt Mastery.

Wards (ONLY AVAILABLE TO PURE SHAMAN)

Command: ward <monster race> or <human>

This ability is based on:

Ward is a skill that has been rarely tested or used.  This skill was recently changed to make it more enticing for people to use it.  As it stands, it remains underpowered from what was tested, however it is much more effective than before.  Below are the changes: