how are shamans played?

[Linuspinus]

how are shamans played?

hi there everyone the ladder reset is going on now and i dont have anything to do, i have decided that i want to use my featuring shaman to pvp with, all i know about them is that they are terific to play and very fun, so if u got some nice vids or any other kind of great information about the shamans just tell me i want to learn everything about them and maybe become a pretty good player. the information can be about anything, i just know one thing for sure about them right now, and that is that im gonna max volcano and bear[sum] so please write a post

 

[inanefedaykin]

Fissure, volcano and grizzly are your damage skills. Geddon is nifty but I wouldn't waste the points to get it or pump it, find yourself a prebuff helm for it.

 

[Queen Mebd]

Keep in mind shamans are played as summoners with fire spells, not fire druids with a huge bear (oh dear, I'm starting to sound like claniraq :wink3: ). For melee/less mobile opponents, fissure will be your main form of attack. You probably know it'd be best to drag them through fissures for the best effect. Like any other fire druid, you'll also want to learn the tactic of walking those that can tele on top of you (essentially laying a fissure at your feet and moving away so that they land in the fissure and follow you through it if still namelocked).

For casters, you can also try and walk them to an extent. However your main form of attack will be to stun them with volcano then telestomp with the grizzly. Said summon attacks quite fast (four frames if my recollection is correct, I have a suspicion it's off though) and packs a punch. It also acts as a nice minion stack, as such always try and keep it up.

Naturally there will be a few tough matchups for a shaman. Necros' bone armor will absorb some of the physical damage dealt by volcano, making stunning them interesting. Wind druids' cyclone armor will take the fire damage out of the equation, again making volcano stunning a bit problematic. Hurricane will also slow the bear, as will cold sorcs' attacks, if this happens break off and try to recast it. You can imagine what es will do to your stunning potential. On the upside, there will be some classes you'll give fits. All the particles put out by volcano will be an evadelock nightmare for 'zons (even with nextdelay). Also you can fissure away vs opponents without teleport, and you should. Best of luck with the shaman.

 

[Linuspinus]

okey much nice tips, but what about the shape tree and using the shock wave? and i read on strategy compendium that shock wave was very good to use when killing the oponents minions and stunning the oponent what do u think about that?

and should i use sum skiller or ele skillers?

 

[kohlman]

I used shockwave as a bear in baal games and nobody dies when you do that since everything is stunned. Im not sure how it works in pvp, but for leveling up, at least one point in shockwave is amazing.

I would go for summoning skillers to start since most people dont hoard them like they do with the elemental gc's. Once you get all set, You can go for a mixture of both. Remember tho, your a summoner before elemental druid.

 

[inanefedaykin]

I found on my shaman that you'll end up wanting about 6 of each skiller. Also, if you can afford to PVP you can afford 35+ life summon skillers so don't settle for plains.

 

[TTTimo]

I found on my shaman that you'll end up wanting about 6 of each skiller. Also, if you can afford to PVP you can afford 35+ life summon skillers so don't settle for plains.

I want your inventory :tongue:

IMO, Shaman's suck. Telestomp with bear works very good vs casters/low life opponents, but is useless against melee. Fissure works nice vs melee, but you can't have more then 2 active at the same time (maybe 3 for a split sec..) so people can easily avoid them. Charge desynchs so laying fissure's in front of them is very hard. Even if you manage to pull it off, they only take 1-2 hits (Say you have good damage: 6k * 0,17 * 0,25 = ~250 damage if they aren't absorbing) That means you need at least 8 hits to kill a crappy smiter/charger. As for volcano, anyone with a little bit of fhr will just walk out. ES Sorcs don't take any damage at all. Armageddon is the only skill you have that can actually do some damage, but you can't aim it. Clan iraq did a good job at making the shaman look like a nice build, but it really isn't that great, the delay's are just to heavy.

 

[inanefedaykin]

Keep extra skillers in stash and decide what you want to use vs each opponent.