Hey all, this is to all mend/aug shammies out there firstly, though lots of
good general knowledge for everyone in here. Many aug/mend shammies today I
find are really not using their abilities to their full potential.
The mentality of an aug/mend shaman is, first of all, since they are not
specced in cave, the 'damage/utility/combat spec' that they can do nothing but
buff and throw a heal now and then, and that they have no offensive capability
whatsoever. This is far from the truth. Also, many people believe if the CC
you have isn't AE or instant, its next to worthless, it isn't, plenty of
excellent ways to make full use of your single target root, which I'll show
later on.
Anyhow this is good read for anyone, especially shaman, and especially aug/mend
shaman.
Augmentation spells/Buffs:
This is where a shaman does most of his damage, and in a full group, can most
likely do more damage than a full cave shaman... Not directly, but through
other players; potent buffs turn Gimps into Gods.
Before I get to what buffs should be given to who in your group, and in what order of priority they should be given, I want to point one thing out. Many shaman, in the interest of pleasing their group, buff themselves very little so group members can get more buffs; big mistake. Their philosophy is that "I'll just give myself base and spec dex to heal fast, but if my group is good, I wont get hit much, and tanks are going to be taking most of the hits anyway right?. I mean that's what tanks do...take hits and keep the seers from getting hit...right?". No.
No matter how skilled your group is, or how lousy the enemy group is, you will inevitably be getting hit, and as most of your power lies in your buffs, dying would be a crippling blow to your group. Think of it this way; It is better to give yourself 19 buffs and stay alive through most of the fight so one group member can benefit from ONE buff, than for your group to be fully buffed, you not buffed, and dying right off the bat. At least in the former scenario your group is benefiting from your buff the whole fight, in the latter example your group will have NO buffs.
First thing you do in a group (after buffing yourself) is give end regen to
EVERYONE in your group - Not just tanks! The Benefits of end regen to a group
are vast. The only classes to whom it is a necessity are tanks, without it
they can't style most of the fight. However other classes can make equal, if
not better use of end regen. Examples:
-Tanks, of course, with end regen can style indefinitely, therefore doing more damage and more stun/hinder/slowed effects etc as well.
-Seers, with end regen, can more successfully kite any tanks that are on them, and, when under ranged attack, can get out of range of enemy faster, or close in faster to interrupt. The longer you and your fellow seers stay alive the longer group has buffs and heals, and the more chance your group has of winning the fight.
- Same goes for any other damage or support classes, including casters.
They can also stay alive longer, and therefore, do more damage/support etc.
with end regen.
Next priority is to give dex/qui to the healers in group, if they get the AE
mez off first, chances go much higher in your favor of winning a fight, and
they can cast heals a lot faster.
Next priority should be to give all tanks and non aug specced healers Str/Con
and give dex/qui to any RMs/SMs. By this time you should be OOC (out of
concentration) in a full group. If you are not, give dex/qui to everyone in
group that does not have it.
Very rarely will you be casting any base buffs on your group members. In fact
the healer in your group (if one is present) should be giving you your base con
and dex buffs to allow you more concentration to buff group with spec buffs.
Healing/Base Cave & Combat:
Very often I find that aug/mend shaman have this habit of simply standing
still in fights, doing absolutely nothing, staring at their mini group window,
waiting for someone's life to go down, then healing. While its good to be a
very diligent mender, your group's Healers(2 in each group is ideal, arguably
3) should be taking care of most of the healing with group heals and spread
heals. You, the shaman however, as a secondary healer, should be watching the
fight to see if your healers/support classes are under attack. If so, root the
attackers, disease them and heal whoever it was they were on. Also it is good
to watch your tanks, if one of your tanks is fighting 2 enemies at once, might
want to root one of the attackers, makes your tank's job much easier.
Also, in groups, usually only tanks /assist each other on targets. It is an
excellent idea to have an assist macro of your own. You should be assisting
with at least your disease spell (most underestimated shaman spell, very potent
battle spell) and if time permits, a DoT (Damage over Time (Poison)) if you are
low on damage dealers.
FYI: to make macro:
/macro ASSIST /assist <name>
Tip: Care of Draknar from Percival:
"Here a tip I was clued into for making assist macro's. This allows you to
make a permanent macro to make /assist macros on the fly without having to
retype them all the time :)
/macro MAKE MA /macro MA /assist %t
Make this place it on one of your hot bars. Then when you get a group find out
who your MA is, target them, hit this button, and it will make you a brand
spanking new MA macro for you hot bar !"
Disease is very potent due to the effect it has of halving heals. If you have
ever tried to heal a diseased target you should know it is an enormous power
drain. Do note though that disease breaks mez, so if your healer gets an AE
mez off, don't AE disease from the start, you should press assist macro,
disease/dot target the MA is on. Once target is dead, assist your MA again,
disease/dot etc and repeat till one by one everyone is systematically and
smoothly eliminated.
WHEN YOU GET HIT:
A good enemy group will spot out the healer/shaman and you will have tanks on
you in a lot of fights. DON'T JUST STAND THERE, make it as difficult as
possible for them to kill u, you should be sprinting and running in random
patterns, this makes it much harder for tanks to style on you, the longer you
live the longer your group has uber buffs (don't want those Godly buffed
players to be turned back into gimps!), so do whatever you can to stay alive
as long as possible, until tanks can peel off of u. Also make sure to announce
in group you are under attack, a good shield tank, if available, will switch
his guard to you, or a healer will mez/root whatever is on you.
If whoever is attacking you does not have end regen or is dumb enough not to
sprint, you should sprint away and root them, or disease and kite them if you
cant root, casting heals/rezzes etc. whenever possible.
ARCHERS/RANGED DMG DEALERS: If an archer pops up far away and starts shooting
at you, sprint out of range as soon as possible. If an archer pops up near
you, don't run, you will more than likely be dead before you get out of range.
Instead, sprint up to archer, whack him/her with your hammer, run through the
archer, root it, then get out of range, or stay in range and between heals
keep interrupting the archer with disease till your tanks can get to it or a
healer can mez him/her.
Adapting to your group:
If you are the only seer in group your priorities should be to stay alive and
keep group alive, little time for anything else. So stay behind your group,
make sure you have guard on you, maybe have a tank stay back with you, stay
far away from the fight, hide behind trees etc. Your first priority is to stay
alive. Your second priority is to heal.
If your group has Healers, you should be doing the following in this order of
priority:
1 - Keep a close eye on your healers, root/disease anything on them and heal
them after they have been attacked.
2 - Take over healing when your healers are unable for whatever reason, though
this will only happen when fighting groups that know what they are doing and
go straight for your healers.
3 - Keep an eye on your casters/support classes, do same to them as you would
to healers, but healers have higher priority.
4 - Keep an eye on your tanks, if one tank has multiple enemies attacking
him/her, make it easier for him/her and root all enemies s/he is not on.
5 - Assist your MA with disease.
6 - Assist your MA with dot.
RA's :
Passives: a good set of passives to get is:
Aug. Acuity 2
Wild Arcana 1-2
Wild healing 1-2
Serenity 1-2
Take these no higher than level 2 in my opinion.
Actives: much more fun than passives.. :)
I suggest getting at least one of the following tricks. Get whichever suits
you or you think will be most fun. I am only going to list the major ones for
now.
Ichor of the Deep: though costly, it is a fun RA, and any RA that has AE
instant CC can be invaluable. Just remember not to use it on a group of
enemies that your healer has already expertly AE mezzed.
MOC (Mastery of concentration) - Not as good for Shaman as it is for Healers,
but it does come in handy in a lot of situations. Think of it this way,
IP (ignore pain) will give you a second bar of health, Ichor will give you
instant CC, etc. But with MOC, though you get nothing instant you get a chance
to give yourself heals and get to full life over 15 seconds, like IP. Or a
chance to root anything on you or your group without interruption, like Ichor. MOC
will allow you to do anything you want over 15 seconds, just not
instantly instant like some other RAs. So it is more versatile without doing
anything instantly for you.
MCL2/Raging power: This is good for "Player Recycling". This is one of the RA
combo's I have. Between my original full bar of power, MCL2, Raging power,
serenity 2, power potions, and purity 4-5, I can perform 7-8 battle rezzes in
20 seconds. During an intense battle I rez a fallen tank, slap on end regen
and Str/Con, and off he goes into battle again. 1 spread heal from the group's
healer and he is back in action. With no interruptions I can recycle my entire
group in a long fight, which is quite comical, other groups can never quite
kill my group without killing me first or keeping me interrupted.
IP (Ignore pain): For any class a second bar of health can come in handy. And
as the realms buffing class the longer you stay alive, the longer your group
does. 'Nuff said.
Purge: Invaluable for healing classes. As we do not have access to
determination, and we cant keep our group alive while mezzed, this RA can make
or break or fight. Though it does have a 30 minute reuse timer. Beware, smart
CCers will use one form of CC to open with and make you burn purge, and cast
another form of CC right after. Therefore you must use this skill selectively.
Well that's all I can think of for now questions, comments and additions all
welcome. You can reach me at Midgard Percival on Delivis, on any one of these
alts .
Delivis 50 Shaman
Balizar 47 Savage
Dreinnor 42 Healer
Tirkanomeda 35 Hunter
Mhojir 35 Thane
Omkron 33 Supression RM
Zernest 27 RC RM
