Shaman — Achaea's Forums

Shaman Basics Thread

Estinien — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:22:20 +0000

After years of wanting the class but being intimidated by it I finally picked up Shaman. The class seems really complicated so I figured I would start this thread for future Sham noobs and my own benefit as well. I just wanted to explain some basics I've learned and let the better ones add to it as they will. Some...ok most of what I put here is probably only half of the picture, but here it goes.

Firstly, choose your spirit bonds before you get into anything. Some like Ri'shen are great for bashing, but there are better choices for PvP. You cange them out freely so make yourself a script to change "sets" for what you want to do. It doesn't take particularly long to change them up but it isn't something you want to do in the middle of a fight. If you have to, run somewhere you can breathe for a second and change.

Pay attention to the benefits of attunes when choosing your spiritbind setups, they are important!

Swiftcurse is your friend. Make sure it is up before you get going, if you are jumped on then still put it up, it is pivotal in getting your early momentum going so you can get them bleeding a bit and get into coagulation. Attuning Teraile helps immensely here, it makes all curses cause some bleeding.

You can jinx the next balance after a curse, this includes after coagulation (correct me if I'm wrong there) so be sure to alternate. Swiftcurse counts!

Puppets are strong, but the method in using them is very different. Manaleech is your buddy for fashioning, you get 8 stacks per fashion if they have manaleech and I believe more than that if they are low on mana but I haven't messed with lowering mana.

Start off simply, get the basic lock down first before trying all the other fun things. Mixing bleed into your curses to keep coagulation going is the ticket!

Shaman combat tips and tricks

Dulcimer — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 03:38:55 +0000

Coming into shaman as a complete combat newbie. Ideally, i'd like to know exactly what I need to secure a kill as a shaman. I have transed out all my class skills, but I dont really know how to use em' too well. I realize that there are many kill paths as a shaman, and i'd like to learn em all. Shamans in game are hard to find in my opinion at least. (just not seeing that many of em, at all, and the few that ive seen so far haven't been combat shamans.) my character is Cij and we dont really have much by way of shaman combat scrolls, so im hoping I can find some help here. Assume that I know very very little about combat in general and next to nothing about shaman combat. (yea i have read every one of the discussion threads, and i've been looking for shaman combat logs so that I could read up a bit that way as well, but I cant seem to find any.)

willing to learn and icly, not really tied down anywhere yet. not really leaning one way or another as far as morality or faction goes, barring the fact that I'll always remain with the cij. any and all help would be appreciated, no bit of info is too small - i know nothing so far.

Shaman RP Advice

Storil — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 04:22:19 +0000

Hello,

Storil recently switched from Depthswalker to Shaman after returning from a long sleep. He wanted something different and had always been intrigued by the shaman class because it seemed very mysterious and complex. He is enjoying the class very much, but most of the RP with him has been around his race, family and city. I have never really done all that much class based RP with him. But I would really like to learn how to RP a shaman. Does anyone have any advice on how I might do this?. Storil has talked with @Neraka and @Hadassah and found them very helpful. He has also joined the Shaman clan and read some of the scrolls there. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Seeking Combat Advice

Neraka — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 02:10:15 +0000

Hello everyone! I've been enjoying Achaea so much recently that I decided to invest into multiclassing as a shaman. So far, I really enjoy it! Conceptually the combat is really cool, the utility is neat, and the roleplay really clicks with me. The problem being, I only have a vague concept of the combat, as my first class (2h runie) doesn't afford me a very deep background in affliction-based combat.

From what I think I understand, we have tzantza, locking, and inflame as kill options. I've tried each, and have managed only inflame. I struggle to stick very many afflictions on anyone at any given point, and properly curing hemophilia shuts me down so hard it's kinda funny. So! Clearly I don't know what I'm doing. Would someone be so kind as to help me gain a proper understanding of shaman combat? Namely, how to stick afflictions and turn that into a lock or tzantza, and how to successfully inflame against hemophilia prio if this is at all possible. I'll admit, if I could do nothing but inflame, I totally would. That skill makes me extremely happy.

Thank you!

Shaman Questions

Leviticus — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 13:05:47 +0000

Good (Insert Time of Day),
I have some questions for shaman I would love to see what some of the solutions you guys found out there.

How do you manage curse, blight, swiftcurse, jinx.

I currently have the L3 swiftcurse artie so I figured I would:

curse target curse invoke whatever

Jinx Timer

Now I can get off 4 swiftcurses before I HAVE to jinx or lose it

Is that the recommended path? Or are invokes > swiftcurse

I haven’t done a lot of testing (not a lot of people to test on when I am on) with curse/swiftcurse/jinx to see what is the best path, so I don’t even know if I should even do 4 swiftcurses or mix it up.

In what scenarios would you use blight? I feel like it has its part in the whole cycle but I am assuming invokes are more important than that. Could be a bad assumption, unless I am trying to get a quick Tzinstantkill off or hide some critical affliction. But when I tested curse and blight, I didn’t notice a difference in how fast someone cured. I felt like it was the same.

Do you guys code your offense using aliases, or keys?

Script for conditional affliction tracker

Aliases:

^(c|s|j)(whatever kill path you want)$

call script

If then elseif then else?

Currently I am using the keys. But I am thinking of switching it to the aliases

Best race for Shaman?

Kurdock — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 08:28:04 +0000

CON, INT I heard are the most important stats.

So some good races would be

Horkval Commander? 13 cons, 13 int. Resistant to cutting and blunt damage as well, which would help shamans withstand damaging knights, but no armour probably makes up for that?

Dwarf Foreman? 13 cons, 14 int.
Resistant to various things, good choice or nay?

Mhun Bodyguard? 13 cons, 12 int.
Extra movement which allows for better fashion-and-run tactics.

Tsol'aa Guard? 13 cons, 13 int.
Ability to swing around and hide in jungles. I'm from Eleusis so it might help.

Or any other suggestions?

Also I'm unlikely to buy an artefacts, so.

Artefacts

TheSolnir — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:21:12 +0000

Hello!
I'm a shaman coming in with right about 10k retirement credits, and curious what to use them on.
Perusing the forums, it seems that most people recommend defensive artefacts first, so I compiled a list of what I think would be best, even if it's probably horribly wrong, and I'm hoping some helpful souls out there will let me know what to add, upgrade, or remove!

Level 2 willpower regeneration - 850 credits

Prismatic ring - 600 credits
Level 2 reserve bracelet - 700 credits

Level 2 health sip ring - 1000 credits

Level 2 health regeneration - 850 credits

Shield of Absorption - 800 credits

Eagle's wings - 800 credits

Permanent Tree tattoo - 100 credits

Permanent Shield tattoo - 100 credits

Ring of Flying - 400 credits

Wyrmskin pack - 100 credits

Level 2 con belt - 1000 credits
A bunch of skills to transcend - 2000 credits
Total: 9300

Couple questions first: Do I need Aldar Diadem? Or the swiftcurse augmenting Skull pendant?
And to note, I'm mainly interested in hunting to at least logosan, preferably dragon, and participating in mild PvP, for now. I may get more into PvP later.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Edit: Misspelled swiftcurse.

A few questions, reguarding a few things.

Calypzo — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 08:02:11 +0000

I am new to achaea, like actually new, and im attempting to find a class that will suit me. I really like shaman, curses and being able to astral peoject sound beastly, but im wondering, is it a viable class for pvp/bashing still? I doubt very much i'll be able to buy the lesson package for new players or the credit thing, so ill have to do without boosts or artefacts .
Currently i think im level 27. Able to kill the small gnolls at least, all ive tried.
I am a member of cyrene, they seem to be the most active at any given time, and i dont really ever see more than a couple shamans in the land..
My race is siren, i have specialised as a sorceress for 15 int, and i have 12 con and stuff i think. I'm told con is better for shamans though, but i dont know that i WILL be keeping shaman, so i dont want to use my only race change to select con.
I will be focusing on grinding until im super strong... if there is another class that might be suitable, please suggest it. Also feel free to address anything in my post. Thank you all for your consideration ~

Random Shaman combat questions

Omor — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 17:38:01 +0000

I've been working my way through shaman for a bit now, asking questions on a different thread, so figured I'd just make a thread here.
To start off, I have a couple.
1) What's better for sticking afflictions quickly: swiftcurse , or curse /jinx /invoke ? In my testing, you can't swiftcurse/invoke, and swiftcurse (or breach or blight) doesn't proc jinx.
2) Does invoke coagulation just add an affliction to your curse, or does it do something special with the affliction? Like make it harder to cure/act like a blight/etc.

Bashing - arius vs. bleed/jinx vs. swiftcurse bleed

Xoatl — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:46:17 +0000

I tried looking this up in the past and there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus - which is fine if that's the case. It sounds like there was a hunting rebalancing which probably changed things a bit. Now that the change has settled for a while, is there a clear winner?

Searching suggested:
swiftcurse bleed - fastest but burns through WP hard. I have low crit so this might not be worth the WP drain for me right now, feels like almost 3% WP per mob (something like 20 curses per gnoll). Get tons of battlerage.
jinx/bleed - what I'm currently running, only a fraction of WP drain. Only a little slower than swiftcurse? But I hadn't optimized battlerage useage with swiftcurse.
arius - ignore shields, big hit, but eq based

I went nimble since i had assumed nimble + swiftcurse was the way to go. I'd guess I could improve my hunting a little more by using arius instead of breaking shields with battlerage and just letting the mob hit me instead. I'd additionally guess that these might get better/worse just based on how much WP/crit I have, so maybe swiftcurse will end up better once I've got a few 10s more of levels?

Need an updated help on shaman locks

Katoumee — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 17:22:16 +0000

I've been reading a lot and asking for advice. I have gotten a lot of information from since I first started playing this game a few days ago. But I can't seem to find an updated version of help on how to curse lock someone as I looked the cure list is different and curses are cured differently than the posts I have read. Is there anyone that can help me out?

Shaman Raiding and Defending Options.

Acknu — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 21:11:05 +0000

So I've recently been trying to get more involved in group combat but I've been pretty timid about it. Its not that I'm afraid of dying or the such but rather I'm not sure where I fit in because I'm not sure what I have to offer. I don't have much combat experience but mostly I have found it hard to see if what I'm doing is effective because there are a lot of different variables occurring all at once. I would like to discuss options and see what other people are doing. I know that this is going to differ between cities and that certain options might be better/worse do to city strategies but general concepts may be the same. I'm also interested in see what classes have to say in terms of "you should do X to benefit me and the party."

When everyone is the same room: I usually try to hinder while building to towards damage or someone's instakill. Typically if I'm trying to aid someone like a blademaster, I might do something like spam paralyse while trying to use haemophilia, sensitivity, and recklessness. When trying to aid affliction classes, I try to spam paralyse while working towards mind afflictions that typically hinder aswell while working towards tzantza and other instakills like enlightment (Since I'm from Ashtan). Would it worth trying to spam Arius Roar or Tarnel Snare over swiftcursing paralyse? Another question is whether or not I should be focusing on trying to make a doll and fashion or just focus on swiftcurse. With just fashioning, I feel like I give up a lot of pressure. The middle ground would be to blight while using maligus to (hopefully) gain fashions while cursing but in this case you can no longer swiftcurse spam paralyse.

LoS: I'm not sure where I fit in here. I'm not arty and don't have bow, etc. I've tried binding Anthius, but it is only adjacent rooms. I really couldn't get anything done here and make myself pretty vulnerable getting in adjacent room if everyone is just LoSing. The use of vodun is option especially with throttle but while it takes one fashion to use and keep using it, it still takes one fashion which might be hard to get in certain situations. Otherwise, I just kinda of stand around, throw up arrowcatch, and look pretty.

I would be interested in hearing what other people have experienced and I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks.

Bloodlet went from useless to even more useless?

Achimrst — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 21:09:31 +0000

Spiritlore
----------
* BLOODLET will now deliver bleeding effects over time, rather than all at once. Ginseng-based afflictions will increase the duration of the effect.

Bleeding is already delivered over time, how does this help Bloodlet in any way at all. Maybe it was a bug when just testing it now but it seemed to not being doing much of anything different. Bleeding still went down and seemed to be using up the afflictions, it lasted like 4 seconds and did very little to no damage. Sooooo, what is going on @Tecton with this change I just really need to know since it seems waaaaay more useless then it already was.

Shaman Invoke Bloodlet - Increase?

Dochitha — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 08:43:04 +0000

I have been playing with stacking ginseng and invoking bloodlet recently.

Currently invoke bloodlet turns every ginseng aff into 150 bleeds. Now Shaman gets access to haemophilia, addiction, vomiting, while lethargy is gained through coagulation.

I can understand stacking 3 ginseng and invoke bloodlet into 450 bleeding. If I attempt to stack 4, which means I need to coagulate at least 150 bleeding into lethargy, I am losing out 150 bleeding for coagulation while getting the 150 back again during invoke bloodlet from lethargy...so it's kinda pointless to try 4 ginseng stacks.

I am thinking if invoke bloodlet can be increased from 150 to a larger number. It takes a while to stack the ginseng for bloodlet, and I think being able to stack 4 ginseng via coagulation and then bloodlet can have some kind of reward...you know...at this point it is just pointless to even try, cos you lose 150 bleeding via coagulation and then gain that 150 back on invoke bloodlet, it is net zero, might as well just invoke bloodlet off 3 ginseng without lethargy...

To illustrate clearer:
Scenario A: Target bleeding 150 with 3 ginseng affs. Invoke bloodlet turns 3 ginseng affs into 450 bleeds, for a total of 600 bleeds.
Scenario B: Target bleeding 150 with 3 ginseng affs. Coagulate that 150 bleed into lethargy, and then invoke bloodlet for 600 bleeds. Total...600 bleeds.

Both scenarios end up with 600 bleeds. While scenario A is actually better since target could be bleeding more than 150+ and coagulation clots up all bleeding.

Is scenario B totally useless...or can invoke bloodlet be increased so scenario B becomes a worthwhile attempt?

Thoughts?

Shaman KILL Strategies?

Dochitha — Tue, 26 May 2015 17:19:29 +0000

Been sparring and testing a lot lately, I am really looking for the real way a Shaman is fighting. I am sure I am getting it all wrong.

Okay...I am so confused I am not sure what I am trying to ask...is there any plans to start?

What I have done:

Using Charts to time the curses, but curses alone can't do much for me...I am like keep looping the same curses over and over until I die to limb breaks...
Trying to setup Tzantza...doesn't really work without a lock.
Trying to lock with curses...whoa I need more luck!
Combined the use of Vodun and Curses, now this is more reliable, but it requires me to fashion so much it's insane to still be living, unless I move about a lot at the right times, which just straight up annoy the opponent.

I know these are all wrong...what is it that I am missing, what is the core concept of a successful Shaman? How do the top Shamans trap and kill people?

I must be missing some important concepts about Shaman and doing random things altogether! Appreciate all advises!

The Math of Stacking

Nein — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 20:18:30 +0000

I understand the basic concept of affliction stacking, but it seems to work wrong for me in practice. Can anyone spot an error in this for me?

0.0 paralyse

0.0 paralysis cured

0.9 paralyse

1.5 paralysis cured

1.8 haemophilia

2.7 paralyse

3.0 paralysis cured

3.6 paralyse

4.3 impatience

4.5 paralysis cured

5.2 paralyse

6.0 paralysis cured

6.1 swiftcurse

7.0 paralyse

7.5 paralysis cured

7.9 asthma

8.8 paralyse

9.0 paralysis cured

9.9 paralyse

10.5 paralysis cured

10.8 paralyse

11.7 anorexia/slickness

Locked

I've tested it. My test subjects (many thanks to Ast, Xinna, Wintor and all the others I lured into my schemes) all managed to cure out. Now, aside from developing a hatred for tree tattoo, I can't figure out how I messed up. Last time I tested it on someone who didn't have focus or tree tattoo or passive curing, she ended up with Anorexia, Asthma, Slickness, and Paralysis. Thanks in advance.

Shaman changes - they happened! (Spiritlore)

Antreus — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 10:13:17 +0000

What a great capstone to the persevering efforts of the Curio Spiritus clan? Who knows at this point - I don't. Share what you know!

I logged on an alt today and began testing a few things, putting in a few typo reports, e.g., pray versus prey, even finding a bug with ritual drums falling out of inventory on log out.

Spiritlore is quite fascinating conceptually. It's like having a thematic druid morph for each Achaea class. I saw some amazing synergies with Curses and some great early game passives and actives such as INVOKE WAYFARE on a mutal ally for travel.

Current State of Shaman (Combat and Hunting)

Kadin — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:09:26 +0000

So as a lot of you know I'm one of your many serial class changers. I've changed classes many times. Over 10+ easily. Being artied and tri trans in all of them except for alchemist. I recently went monk and its nothing like I remember. The denizen damage changes and the new limb damage leaves a lot to be desired. I love Ashtan and I love the people in Ashtan, but I've played every class Ashtan allows.... except for Shaman. I have yet to find a class I'm happy with. I always think I'll enjoy a class and learn that I will not when its far too late and I've spent way too much. So with that being said I will for once do the smart thing and ask about the current state of Shaman. I know inflame can make for some nice kills in groups and that the affliction rate is insane for 1v1. How is the hunting? And does anyone have any advice if I were to go Shaman? What stats/traits should I be pushing for? Any advice at all will be appreciated.

Help out with aff combat?

Aehren — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 18:28:12 +0000

I've been playing a shaman for some time (it's the only class I've really played to any real extent) and I really enjoy it thematically. Thing is, I'm finding it really, really hard to enjoy it in combat. Stacking afflictions is difficult given I can't tell what's still on someone since the curing/application message is off the top of my screen about a second after it's sent. I've recently come back from a few months of absence, and previous to my return I was trying to get the hang of totem locking (which I was getting slightly better at, although still terrible), but since that is no longer a real option I'm back at square one.

Last raid I just walled myself into a crevice and fashioned dolls for resurrection purposes for the rest of the party, but I really want to get into honestly contributing. I recently asked in my city for some help, and was directed to a person who was very patient, but a professional coder and therefore we were just not on the same page by any stretch. I found the ideas he was talking about far too complex for someone of my level, and the entire thing, while it took a couple of hours, was essentially a waste of time for both of us. I learn things pretty quickly, but this has been a major obstacle for me- I think it's due to the lack of clear direction/instruction. I know Achaean combat is a lesson in patience and time, but I really need a hand here.

I really need someone who can relate and communicate to a lua layman on how to fight with afflictions. I cannot script (I'm absolutely willing to learn and have read some tutorials, but I am as a child with this).

I am using:

-Mudlet
-SVO
-A chat box script

I have customized:
-My chatbox script
-I have written an alias for each curse and vodun ability (essentially, curse target asthma has been made "cast", with "send/svo.doadd("curse "..target.." asthma")" as the conc, blight target asthma is "bast", and so on
-I can write basic triggers to directly send commands, but not to call scripts

I'd really like to get to learn affliction combat, and I'm willing to put in the time and effort, but I need someone who can explain the entire process and work through it with me step-by-step. At this stage, I've been trying to find someone willing for so long, I'm willing to change cities/houses/pay credits/whatever. I'd really appreciate any help.

Shaman Changes when are they coming?

Dastan — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:03:53 +0000

I remember from the previously classlead, most shaman ideas were rejected because it was mentioned that there were already plans to tweak shaman class. Soo...it's been too long already...

Shaman Combat

Vyn — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 22:32:27 +0000

Since I'm -slightly- new to Achaea, and have no real concept of combat other than Knight combat, I was wondering if you all could help me out a bit with how Shaman combat works. I am able to help out with runelore and the like in group combat, and if I'm lucky I can get a few Vodun dolls to add to Vyn's collection, but past that I have no idea what I should try to pull off if I'm dueling someone or sparring someone in the arena.

I am tri trans, and nearly trans in survival. I am able to survive and cause draws in the arena against any class, due to me going a constitutional route, and between my armour, algiz, berkana, boar, and me placing Uruz runes everywhere, I can keep myself alive enough to get more than 60 stacks on my opponent. The problem arises when I have no idea what to do when I reach that point. I've tried forcing a sleep/transfix lock, then going for concussion, and rushing a Tzantza. But they either wake up just in time, or they have curseward/metawake up.

I do not have any artefacts yet, I am nearly level 80, and I have enough combat knowledge to understand advice when it's given to me. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a kill, they don't wake up fast enough, or their curing prioritizes the wrong thing, such as if I'm kelp or goldenseal stacking. Vodun Bleed spamming is not viable because of clotting, unless I'm with a Priest and they want an easy kill. But again, I want to focus on actual duels, rather than being reliant only in group combat.

Any advice, or things I should look out for?