Hello, I started a DK and I have a Shaman for support. I cut my teeth on the IoD Temple, and man did I learn facts real good on that while two boxing. This may seem like a Shaman question, but I am asking it here because it pertains directly to my DK. Originally, I was going to go Bear for Patron because of the sexy Str and End buffs I would have on my shaman. However, I've been thinking that the added DPS to my group via the wolf patron might be more beneficial to my DK tank (I'll plan to be in tank stance most of the time). Does anyone have an opinion on which patron would be better suited with my Duo for level, Wolf or Shaman? (Please keep in mind that I'm not always able to fully utilize all of the potential of my shaman simply do to time constraints in a fight. I do not bot.) Thanks everyone!
You'll do fine with either, honestly. You didn't mention what level you are now, but I assume it's still relatively low as you cited the temple on IoD. As a DK, you'll get Ravaging Darkness at 18, which lets you drain endurance every 40s or so I believe. This will help offset the lack of endurance regen if you go wolf. On the other hand, a wolf shaman won't necessarily be all that much more dps than a bear if you can't actively tab over and play it much. Realistically, the wolf is probably better at least until the 30s, as the bear doesn't even get their admittedly amazing endurance regen buff until 34. Once you get to that level it might be worth it to swap the shaman to bear, because Tuurgin's Vigor is just insanely good for any melee class, but if you like the wolf a lot you can still do fine because of Ravaging Darkness.
This is great advice, and the type of Context I was looking for. I am only level 10 on both characters at the moment, so I appreciate the heads up on higher level spells. I try to do an active swap between characters anytime I have a GCD going, so the Shaman does get a fair amount of attention. But when the going gets tough, I basically prioritize heals on the Shaman. My Belkin n52 game pad makes the swaps a lot less painful. In a group pull situation (3mobs), I will typically root pull a mob with Shaman, switch to DK, torture pull one add, and bring the melee to the third mob right away. Meanwhile applying Dots from Shaman. Once the first two are down, I turn all attention the to final, rooted mob. At least, that is the intended plan. Having a pet might make that a bit more complicated.
The shaman pet does not auto-assist, you have to command it. If a bear, it doesn't do much damage...it will get a force target and a ton of health and is more of a tank substitute. You might be rooting now but once you get going, maybe somewhere in the 20s, you should be able to pull 5-6 normal mobs onto the DK and wear them out. And if they are not that hard, defensive stance would just be a set of brakes. This will all vary by relative strengths of the targets and the chance of bumping into more; even things of the same level and number of dots could be much easier or harder depending on what they can do. Around 12-13 you could cut your teeth in the Gardens of Xia'liu in Wildgrowth Forest, maybe not the top part of it, but all the quests on the bottom level would give you a lot of 2-3 semi-tough mobs at one time.
Thanks, Amnath. I appreciate the guidance there. I'm currently level 13 on both, and I've been edging my way into Khegor`s End ever so slightly. Maybe your suggestion would be more appropriate for me. Looks like I'll have to develop some /pet macros. Thanks!
Khegors is where everyone goes,which is why I second the gardens of xia lau. Wildgrowth forest( the chunk its in) is a cool zone too imo. I box a pal and a bear shaman, and have never second guessed my bearness. As for pet macros, /assist whoever /cast lethargy is the only one I really use. If needed I just back the pet off manually. Not sure if you can macro pet abilities, but that might be something to consider. My 2cp.
Thanks Catalinawinemixer, how is your DPS on a Pally, Bear Shaman? Last night I went back to Khegor's at level 14, and I made my way all the way down the 'spider ledge,' but I don't have the heat to take on the bugbears yet because of the groups they are in. But, each spider fight was a lengthy, albeit not difficulty battle, and I was actively applying dots, lethargy, and melee strikes from my shaman, who is my second char. Side Note: for 3 bucks last night, I bought a SOE store Lich illusion, and now my Orc DK walks about with a Lich, who heals and casts spells (of course its my shaman) : )
Yes, pet stuff will macro or work on the hotbar. The dungeons are all very different, some nothing more than a solo area with a name slapped on it, some suit 2-3 players, others needing 4-6. For the level, KE is probably closer to full group. Every time I did it, people facerolled the stuff on the entry ramp and as soon as we got to the first tough pull, wiped--just because of essentially running through the first stuff, not watching healer energy or waiting for the group to catch up. Gardens starts with hard mobs, but you rarely get a huge cluster of them. Its upper level is much harder, but there is a workaround for the quest, and so I was able to complete that one more than once in a group of 2-3. Once you hit 16 it may be trivial though. For the most part, with a tank & healer, things will be lengthy but not too difficult; dps only speeds it up. Eventually there are things that really call for the abilities of a particular class, fortunately, shaman fills some of those needs (disease and curse removal mainly).
My dps is respectable, but nothing to write home about. They are both level 38 with cragwind weapon and full CW gear( including the ancient weapon on). My pal is also 40 in minerology, so I can make some nice jewlery for them. As mentioned in the above post, fight length will increase as you tackle higher level / tougher dungeons. As amnath mentioned also though, its pretty hard to die unless you chain aggro a whole room
With a dk, it gives you room to experiment with what was weird for me in the leveling process--which is that groups really love some crowd control. I wanted to tank multiples because on a bunch of targets, a single scythe of doom is a massive heal. Being your own healer, you could really fine tune the performance level there. When you're only hitting one thing, scythe is really weak and you have to do endurance regen for it to be any good. It will also be good to pick up cull spells, a neat death blow is to use the short stun and cull it to death. Works in mid fight too of course.
Thanks for the dialogue! I'll have to look more into those Cull spells that you mentioned. Right now I try to save 'word of doom' (i think it is called) for when things get hectic, and from what I've heard about Cull, its kind of a similiar thing. Thanks!
Best single-target heal you have is Shadow Step/Harrow combo. Make a macro for it to make life much easier. Cull spells are okay at lower levels, but as you go up in levels, you will find that it's long cast time means you will take much more damage while casting it than it heals for.
No, cull is not hugely useful at high levels, just one of the few "extras" we can pack in our box and so possibly worth having for occasional use; again, maybe with the short stun to free it up for two seconds. Formerly it was good on the "furious" effect but, with that adjusted to total spell resistance, it does nothing. Similarly, with hate added into the spells, I've found it helpful to use word early on. Well, not on a level 20 trash mob, but once you are group tanking anything that fights back, you should use it. For some reason, it seems like most classes have a hidden "crit bonus chance" built into one ability--for dk, it is word and for warrior, kick--comparatively those seem to crit much more than anything else. So, casting word is great for the +hate and the extreme likelihood of opening two more hexes (can't remember if those are built in or you learn them at higher levels). Would like to hear what patron OP chose and how you find it working out on various encounters.
