Abercrombie's Shaman Guide

I am a 40th shaman on Igraine. I have barely any RvR experience except for a dozen raids and a few weekends of guerilla warfare in Emain. I like to play the whole game and take my time. I am writing this guide from the point of view of a group-support MEND/AUG shaman. If you find discrepencies or some details missing, its because I either made a mistake or haven't experienced the concept first-hand. This guide is a collection of ideas I find work well with my choice of specialization at my level. It is by no means intended to be a template of strict rules but rather a glimpse into the duties of my particular shaman. At this writing, my spec lines look like this:

Augmentation=27 Mending=27 Cave Magic=2

I chose kobold because I thought the smallness and blueish tint would give me an edge in RvR. Both have no edge as far as I can tell. Most of my RvR deaths happened while xp'ing in the frontier, where:

• I may be small, but my group is "loud" and "big": We are easily spotted.
• I am not meleeing anything - That makes me a prime candidate for a critical shot.
• I appear to be the only healer.

So, in retrospect, I might have avoided those silly deaths if I looked more like a huge troll that can take 3 arrows in the back of the head and keep on swingin'. I found most enemies aren't stupid: they look for casters and healers to pick off first whether at range with arrows or with a nice backstab in the back of the neck. In the ensuing mayhem, they manage to cloak and pester the rest of the group until high levels from your realm come to the rescue and run them off. It doesnt matter what race you pick. There is a lot of debate on this subject in forums and articles on the web, so I wont repeat the gory details already available out there.

I put 10 points in STR/CON/PIE. Str to carry loot, con for hitpoints, and pie for power (mana). Again, there is a of information available already on the web on character creation. I dont worry about the studies on "how much harder you hit" with a little more strength here or dex there. My purpose in life is to make my realm mates kill more efficiently. If I find myself hitting the monster, I am wasting my group's time. Say you mess up and fumble your points in the beginning, the amount of buffs you get in the augmentation line can solve your stat gimpness quite nicely.

Reputation is a big deal in this game. Consistently playing well and doing your job will be rewarded with recognition and invitations. Being able to pick and choose what group you feel like joining is more fun than sitting in line at the crab ledge waiting for an invite. People expect you to know your character well and to support them as best you can. Players remember your deeds for a long time. They might forget exactly why they cant trust you, but they will almost always remember your name.

A strong spec in augmentation will net real and measurable damage to the target: from YOU through YOUR TANKS to the TARGET. Believe me, you will feel the love from your tanks pre-combat during buff-time. It may look like a boring spec, since almost all buffs are applied once and re-applied after zoning or death. Active buffing and rebuffing to match the group's situation can help relieve the boredom and more importantly, can turn the tide of many battles. We are the buffing class of midgard: it is our duty to provide massive buffs to our realm mates.

As a support character, your "view" of the world might need a little tweaking. I have a huge part of my screen allocated to the "big" pull-down group bars, as well as the mini group box and chat window. I open both group boxes to keep an eye on health levels since they seem to be lagged and not always in sync with each other. My text box is also huge and expanded all the way up my because I need to spot poisons and disease messages that may be affecting my group. I play in 3rd person view because I need to see my group and the area surrounding it, including behind me. I use the '~' (tilde) key a lot ('/keyboard' to check your camera swivel key) and constantly check for of incoming "adds" during combat. Learn all your keyboard shortcuts and learn how they work: understand how the select-next-nearest-target keys work, how they cycle, and use them. You don't want to explain to your groupmates that you were "unable" to select them in time to land that heal. Get used to using keyboard shortcuts as early on as possible, since things get choppy in raids and medium sized RvR situations. Use the shift-F? keys to select your group members then quickly press the # for the spell. Healing someone in your group should look like: 'Shift-F3 + 1', *not* 'use-mouse-to-select-on-mini-group-thingie-then-select-on-my-quickbar-oh-no-my-quickbar-is-on-my-buffs-setup' etcetc.. I try to position myself away from my group's kill spot. The combination of healing and being too close to my tanks during combat raises my chances of getting the monster's aggro. Every now and then, if I hang out "in the line of pull", or between the incoming monster and my group's kill spot, I get hit by the incoming monster on its way to the group. Sometimes this can drop my health bar by a third or more. While I don't need a heal, the healer may see it and decide to "help" me, causing the monster to prematurely aggro on him.

I keep my conc box at the bottom of my screen next to the mini group box. That way I can quickly see when any concentration frees up. As a buffer, you are expected to keep track of a group's constantly changing members and make sure everyone has the appropriate buffs. If your group suddenly changes to tank-heavy, you may have to remove buffs from members that no longer provide the best leverage for the buffs to work, and apply those buffs to the newly arrived tanks. Being on-the-spot with buff re-arranging is important if your group is to be the best it can be at all times when near danger. There is nothing more maddening than to watch an unexpected monster make an easy fight turn into a deadly outcome because you "forgot" to buff the main tanks. The big group box helps me memorize who is what class in my group at all times. It is especially useful to have up when the group is trading in and out players at a fast pace. The big window also has more "resolution" on the mana bars of everyone too: its easier to go by that than the "brightness" of the mini-group mana lamp.

The next table assumes you are in a group of 4+ and you are the only aug-shaman in the group. Of course, if you are in a small group and have a lot of concentration left, you should lay that extra [DEX+QUI] buff on a caster, or the [STR+CON] on your hunter. there is no reason to run around with conc unspent doing nothing for your group. Things get a little tougher when you are low on conc points and have to pick out who can make the BEST use of the buffs. My rule of thumb is: unless the class gains a unique advantage from the buff (like PIE for casters), the primary tanks get buff priority. In Midgard, melee damage amount is based on strength, so applying your [STR+CON] and STR buffs to shadowblades and hunters should be your next priority if you have the chance. In groups where I have extra buffs, I try to put [STR+CON] on healers and casters, just for the HP it gives them. When I apply this buff to a caster, it boosts their HP bar by so much that it looks like they just "lost" 1/4 of their total HPs.

Buff Name	Effect	Be	Th	Wa	Sk**	Sh*	Rm	Sm	Hu	Sb	He
Major Evasion	DEX
Murk's Guide	DEX+QUI
Power of the Viking	STR
Vitality of the Deep	STR+CON
Exaggerate Health	CON
Gloom's Enlightenment	PIE+INT
Greater Force of the Deep***	DPS
Fungal Covering	Damage Shield

	*   I treat cave-magic shamans as tanks.
	**  A good skald is able to get aggro (and take a few hits), therefore I consider them tanks.
	*** Never use your dmg add buff with a skald in the group - their dmg add song is better than yours.

If you are in a full group you will quickly spread yourself thin because there is a limit of 20 buffs allowed at the same time. This limit clamps how many buffs you can throw around, even if you have enough conc for more. While I didn't like the 20-limit at first, I have since found it very useful in judging how well I spread my buffs. You will notice some buffs cost more conc than others, and this cost is a good measure of how useful the buff really is..

1. You saved the person you chain-healed. Wait for mana.
2. You didn't save the person. Wait for rez.

Whether your role is primary or secondary healer, you need a "guardian angel". This is a tank who's primary job is to drop everything and rescue you in case you get in trouble. I prefer tanks that have a good taunt in case I aggro'ed a monster due to heals. A monster that just "happens" to pick me is a lot easier to peel off than a monster that is bent on destroying me because I chain-healed. Make sure that your guardian sets his protect on you.

As you get into the swing of things and you get used to your puller's pace, you may slip and heal the puller too early. Too early means the puller or the tanks haven't actually done any damage to the monster. If they pulled with a mez or a root, a small bolt, or even just a backhand, your early heal may shoot you straight to the top of the monster's aggro list. Another common mistake I make is forgetting to pay attention to the combat text and failing to realize that the main tank has WHIFFED for 3-4 rounds in a row. If you are in a small group and your tank has not hit the target yet, and you pop that heal, you become the primary target of the monster.

• Right before the first melee round

  This is key to reducing mana requirements on the main healer, both in time between heals and actual amount of heal needed. The group must do everything it can to prevent any chain-healing: this spell is one of the strongest tools in aggro-management there is. There is _no aggro_ generated by this spell, and while it may be less effective in combat (fewer "ticks" happen in combat), it will deliver hundreds of hit points during the fight that the healer doesn't need to produce.

• During combat to heal non-tanks

  Inevitably, at some point during combat, a non-tank will gain the aggro of the monster. This will trigger an emergency where the rest of the group instinctly tries to peel the monster off and restore its attention to the tanks. If you or the healer sees the health bar of the non-tank drop too fast, the situation could be aggravated with a misplaced heal. A misplaced heal in this case is dumping a large heal on the non-tank to save their life and gaining overwhelming aggro. This aggro is harder to peel off and now risks the life of the entire group. In an experienced group, healing the non-tank is the LAST thing you do because the rest of the group is able to step in and use every other tool at their disposal (taunt, root, mez, etc). The only way to not risk the entire group's life is to depend on their skills to peel the monster off in time. One dead runemaster is better than a whole dead group. Now, while the group is drawing aggro _away_ from the non-tank, you can make things better and less scary by casting a cheap non-aggroing regen. At my level, most non-tanks have figured out how to behave during combat, so this doesn't happen quite as often now.

• Immediately after combat

  As soon as the last monster drops dead, the tanks will sit. This is where regen shines. You can top off every single person's hitpoints with one cheap group friggs'. They will all have full bars of red before their endurance catches up. The regen "tick" ticks at its fastest here, and every tick you are healing everyone for almost 100 HP a tick. In the right group and fighting the right monsters, your healer should be medding for more mana (because it got spent, hopefully). If the healer is healing post-combat, it is either because your healer is inexperienced, or your group is fighting monsters that are too easy. If your healer insists on healing post-combat, its time to find another healer. post-combat healing belongs to the shaman, any other healing between combats is a waste of mana and people's time.

I have seen many different styles of play, learned many things, seen disasters, and even caused disasters. Throughout almost every adventure I have found myself in, the best groups have always been the ones with good communication skills. With good communication, your group can pull off some amazing stunts and make an otherwise boring evening very enjoyable. Miscommunication can lead to frustration, anger and even death. Here are some basic things that have kept me alive time after time:

• Working with another healer

  I like to make a healing-plan with the healer in the group as soon as possible. The one I find works best is: '/g I'll heal anyone that drops under half'. That sets the expectations right and reduces the chances of double-healing (and wasting mana). Its also much easier to follow this plan, since it doesnt require knowing *who* gets healed by what healer - which can lead to confusion and more importantly unwanted aggro (by chain healing).

• Mana status

  The DAoC game interface has 2 ways of telling your group how much mana you have. I know this is redundant, but I will explicitly make it clear to my group when I'm burning through mana too fast and I'm about to run out. There are 3 distinct moments during a dangerous mana-burn for me: The good ole '/g HALF MANA', then the dreaded '/g 2 HEALS LEFT', followed by the possibly fatal '/g NO MORE MANA'. Spam? perhaps.. Dying at level 42 because you didn't realize I was OOM? Not gonna happen on my watch.

• When its on you

  Even if you did everything right, you can get aggroed. When this happens, don't just assume your group knows right away. If your group is making xp, you are probably fighting monsters that can chop a shaman to death within 3-4 rounds. If you get hit once, it costs nothing to squawk and type '/g ON ME'. Do it, because you now have 3 rounds left to live... 2 rounds... last round..

• When its time to run

  Never be a hero unless you know your group very well. This means dont stick around and try to finish off the big monster. The monster that just annihilated your full group will eat you in 3 rounds. Normally, the main tanks can "feel" the group well enough to say "/g healers RUN" when they think its time to run. Do NOT second-guess your tanks on this. If they say "RUN", you mash the 'sprint' key and ask questions later. A few tips when running:

  • Make sure people running away with you do NOT follow you like this: [you] - [monster(s)] - [groupies]. The monster will lose interest in you at some point and start to run back... ..right into your groupies.
  • If both rezzers are making a run for it, try running in opposite directions from each other to increase the chance that at least ONE rezzer survives.
  • If you are training many monsters, don't /yell for help if it will get another group (who could have rezzed you) killed.

• Rezzing

  So you ran away in time and the monster forgot about you. It's time to run back and start rezzing. Make sure you talk to your group and have them look out for monster(s) that may be close to their corpses. Remember to ask if anyone "confused" a monster before you rez: That monster is coming back soon. Make sure you tell your group who is next up for rez, and make sure they know where the safe place to run to is. I sometimes rez from very awkward positions and where you are rezzed is generally not the safest place to be, especially when youre rez-sick and near dead. Depending on the situation, I will rez then frigg (target regen, not heal) each person since that is the cheapest way for me to make you alive and healthy in case we get re-aggroed. If you have the time to do rezzes safely, rez in this order: healers FIRST, then shamans, then skalds, then everyone else. If you are in a dangerous rezzing situation, you can make things a bit safer by using a little trick: Stand just inside the maximum rezzing range away from the corpse, then cast rez and start running away towards a safer spot. By the time they click 'ok', the actual resurrection will appear to be outside the max range allowed.