hey all! Just looking for a fun discussion and hopefully I can learn a little bit. Shamans and bards as a box. These are two classes I know very little about. For example can a group geared shaman heal slow and dps on a dungeon crawl or is that more then they can usually handle? When it comes to a boxed bard j know regen song and resist song. What else can you really do successfully on a boxed bard? I just no very little about both classes and I'm more into dungeon crawls then strong xp groups.
Shaman can heal a small group due to the simple fact that they have the best slow in the game. You will however have to do the canni dance every once in a while to ensure that you have enough mana to constantly pull. What are your plans to box the shaman with? Also if you are planning on boxing aboard they will probably be singing one song unless you plan on using that as your primary character to control while leveling. If you plan on playing a bard it's easier to have fire and forget classes for he rest if you want to play the class to a higher potential.
I box a necro chanter cleric. I'm just trying to get a better grasp of some other classes abilities and libations when we are all boxing a crawl here or there. The better I understand boxed classes limitations and such the more effective I will be able to lead small raids and such
I leveled Shaman Bard Monk to 52 and then leveled bard and shaman to 60 independently. It was a very easy trio to level, but after playing bard by itself and shaman by itself it became obvious that both of those classes were being played in a 3 box at about 20% potential. I'm not clear on the question you're asking but if you're asking if grouping with someone 3 boxing with a bard or shm or both is a good idea when crawling and constantly moving in a dungeon the answer is "ehh". Pretty sure that's true about any class being boxed, but I think the classes that are diluted the most by not being focused on are bard, shm, necro, and enchanter.
Even boxing a shaman at 20% potential will still get you 75% slow. I drag mine everywhere but the class certainly does suffer if not mained or focused on.
i box pally shammy and necro. on a typical group mob it looks something like this. pull on pally with stun, then stun as mob gets near, switch to shammy cast slow, switch to necro send pet as mob arrives, start casting snare and lifetap dot (macro), switch back to pally stun again, switch to shammy send pet and canni macro (3 cannis and sit), then play pally and switch to shammy and hit canni macro as needed. toropor is the real game changer for a shammy before that you will be just spamming your 500 point heal and cannying
I main bard and box sham a lot when playing. To me it's one of the strongest combos in game even if not the fastest killers. You have Pac, mez, charm, oos, tash on bard and then Mali, slow, pet, dots, etc on shaman. Also a nice advantage is either toon can tank once mobs are slow
I've been leveling a trio of Bard/Druid/Sham, currently 59/59/58 respectively. I usually try to group with dps classes (have irl friend leveling 3x pet classes works great) because even with the druid/shaman epics their damage output is pretty low for crawling in dungeons - you can make progress but its going to be slow and steady. The Bard gets used to lull, pull, mez when needed and play mana song. If I get the mob properly positioned without a hitch I'll twist Cantana and Chorus - 1x cantana 3x chorus repeat. The Shaman slows, buffs and will help with healing, epic clicky and occasional dots. I don't think its really feasible to do slowing/healing/dps/buffs all together on the shaman itself unless you have access to lots of mana regen (canni is too demanding of your time). When It's just my trio, the shaman is typically the tank due to the aggro associated with slow. The Druid does most of the healing and refreshes regen and damage shield, uses epic clicky and throws out a dot on some mobs. I'd also note that a group like mine will change significantly at 60 with access to torpor, malo, potg, focus of spirit all opening up - the shaman will become a much stronger healer, the group gets much better mana regen etc. You'll be able to get more done if you are remaining stationary in a camp and not having to move around your chars for sure, or if you have someone else pulling for you. Edit: Also wanted to note the shaman pet is a nice addition, treat it like a mana free dot on targets. Bards can currently charm mobs up to lvl 51 and you can use that as either an additional mez type ability or as a source of extra dps - I tend to use charm pretty rarely on bard but it can be useful
Is it really reasonable to talk about Torpor though? I may be missing something but it mostly drops off raid mobs and the last time I saw it in the Bazaar it was going for 90k. I would say it is probably out of reach of the 'average' player who isn't in a raiding guild.
this is all true, but sometimes it sells cheaper, i paid less than half of 90k for my copy and was worth it. the kunark dragons often sit up though so the need of a raiding guild isnt strictly true, they can all be killed comfortable by 2 groups with a bard.
Definitely a good point, something I was speaking with my buddy about last night actually. Shaman is an expensive class at 60 for sure. Not only are you going to pay a pretty penny for malo/torpor but they really want good AC/HP gear along with standard caster stuff since they'll be often taking aggro when slowing, at least in my set up. Pre 60 though Shaman shouldn't be too costly. Classes tend to change pretty dramatically in terms of what they can do as they progress through their levels and get new spells, skills and gear - the experience at level 20 will differ from 40 will differ from 60 and that's worth remembering.
Shaman is a crazy awesome fun powerful class. That said they're best when added to a typical group. A lot depends on your play style as well. If you're planning on substituting a shaman in your 3 box rotation I'm curious what 2 you would pair with it. If you're a charmer with that enchanter I'd think you would get more bang for your buck with the Bard. You'd have a class that can pull. Help you get around quickly and most importantly would make charming as safe as can be by just rolling mez song on your pet. Charming is so OP to begin with and now you can do it with a HUGE safety net when you add in the bard. I'm pretty ignorant with regards to necro (and iirc that was your main on AK) so I'm not entirely sure what your play style is like. If you're not big on charming the shaman could probably add more to a necro/cleric combo then an enchanter assuming you are comfortable pulling with cleric / necro and not relying on Mez
This is the crux of things. A shaman can be a support box but probably works best in a tank/heal/dps trio. A bard, not so much. However, focussing on the bard for pulling while using the enchanter to charm is ridiculously powerful. With that set up, on pets the bard can mez, you could consider hasting the charmed pet which is just silly dps.
Shamans and bards fit in all group types really. Just as fansy stated earlier though they lose effectiveness. That being said I have never been in a situation on bard or shaman where they were not useful.
I agree 100% with what a lot of people have said here about bards. Once you start having 4+ people in a group is when they both start to shine. They round out a group perfectly filling many different roles.
