Hello,

I was playing around with the skill calculator for a while but I can't decided which would be the best (at least for me) spec to choose.

The spec which is preferred for RvR is apparently one of the following:
46 A / 8 M / 27 C
43 A / 18 M / 27 C

The specs I pondered about were to skip the cave line entirely.
47 A / 26 M
44 A / 31 M

I really like to play a pure support role so I'm pretty indifferent about having the offensive perks of the 27 cave spec or not. Now my problem comes from the fact that everyone and their mother keep telling that it would not be a shaman's job (except in emergency cases) to heal the group. While leveling I often feel otherwise because either there are too few healers in the group or they are busy doing other stuff like ccing mobs. More often than not the healers I encounter have even less mending spec than myself (8). Is that something that changes entirely once I hit 50 and start to RvR so I can ignore the need for more points in mending?

The reason for the 27 cave is instant PBAE disease. You do not want to skip that!

a healer with less mend than you will heal for more and using less power, they are the real heal class not you

It really depends on the play style you are going for. I enjoy small man and duoing or trio with friends. With this in mind, I use 38aug, 37 cave, 9 mend. As for an 8 man, you'd probably be more valued as a buff bot with the higher Aug build. Shaman mend line is just not great. Friggs is a joke compared to mana ment HoT and you're more valuable interrupting, peeling, and spreading herpies...err disease.

38 aug 37 cave 9 mend is just about perfect for an active, allround shamman.
Red baseline + yellow spec buffs arent as bad as some people make it sound and with LW1 you can still permasprint.
You have all the tools you need to kite and rupt and your dot is almost capped on damage.

38 aug 27 cave 27 mend if you really, really want to heal and play a shamman.
You still have all of the tools you need to kite (green farts) plus group hot and decent heals as long as you have +11 mend in your temp.

Imho anything higher than 38 aug is a burden on the shamman.
Everyone wants red icons on their screens but its more important to have an active and happy shamman who isnt going to quit after half an hour because he is bored.

I always went good with:

43 Aug they will love you for your red endu

31 Sub 2nd aoe root, insta pbaoe desease, some ruptdamage if needed

10 mend as a sham you need mend only for cure desease and cure poison really, and thats mend 7.

Red endo is great but to permasprint (its what really matters) you only need yellow endo and LW1.
So its either shammans speccing augmentation FIVE points higher (sacrificing the cave line and specifically the lvl 37 fart) or everybody getting LW1 with their very first RP (as a good habit).
I think LW1 should be mandatory for everyone in Midgard, as a gift to shammans.

46 aug 27 cave 8 mending (or whatever is left) is the best spec imo, red s/c for the tanks, red endu, better resists (24% heat is nice), pbaoe disease and enough mending to cure disease.

38/37 aug/cave or some version of it is nice for solo/small man but for fg imo the extra cave over 27 isn't as beneficial to the group

2 spec IMO

37 sub / 37 aug, 13 mend
41 sub / 32 aug, 14 mend

Disease and root are quite important.. The bolt and DD u get at 41 sub (which is what I would have specced) leaves u the possibility of going Sham/Skald duo, or trio.. Even soloing in DF, which is defo valid IMO.

Going Aug/Mend is useless, I get the high aug spec and 27 cave, but the higher disease, the better.. At this patch lvl disease is ****** mean.. But you will need ATLEST 6 mend no matter what, so u can cure the damn disease aswell

isocleas2 wrote:46 aug 27 cave 8 mending (or whatever is left) is the best spec imo, red s/c for the tanks, red endu, better resists (24% heat is nice), pbaoe disease and enough mending to cure disease.

38/37 aug/cave or some version of it is nice for solo/small man but for fg imo the extra cave over 27 isn't as beneficial to the group

Regarding this high AUG spec with red specs, you wont have enough CON to give everyone red specs anyways...

Azoazial wrote:

isocleas2 wrote:46 aug 27 cave 8 mending (or whatever is left) is the best spec imo, red s/c for the tanks, red endu, better resists (24% heat is nice), pbaoe disease and enough mending to cure disease.

38/37 aug/cave or some version of it is nice for solo/small man but for fg imo the extra cave over 27 isn't as beneficial to the group

Regarding this high AUG spec with red specs, you wont have enough CON to give everyone red specs anyways...

Correct you give the tanks + skald red s/c and the rest get yellow, also can save conc by not giving a couple tanks d/q and having them charge it. I find the add'd damage from red s/c on tanks + better resists and dmg add are more worthwhile than the extra damage and aoe root in the cave line. Most of time i prefer having the low lvl aoe root to spam for rupts and the higher lvl versions drain my power faster.

I suppose its different for everyone but I don't value the dots much since they break our cc and the bolt misses more often than not. What else does cave offer me in 8v8? If i did more keep/zerg fights i think i'd prefer higher cave for the aoe dot but its just not my style of play i guess. To each their own.

isocleas2 wrote:

Azoazial wrote:

isocleas2 wrote:46 aug 27 cave 8 mending (or whatever is left) is the best spec imo, red s/c for the tanks, red endu, better resists (24% heat is nice), pbaoe disease and enough mending to cure disease.

38/37 aug/cave or some version of it is nice for solo/small man but for fg imo the extra cave over 27 isn't as beneficial to the group

Regarding this high AUG spec with red specs, you wont have enough CON to give everyone red specs anyways...

Correct you give the tanks + skald red s/c and the rest get yellow, also can save conc by not giving a couple tanks d/q and having them charge it. I find the add'd damage from red s/c on tanks + better resists and dmg add are more worthwhile than the extra damage and aoe root in the cave line. Most of time i prefer having the low lvl aoe root to spam for rupts and the higher lvl versions drain my power faster.

I suppose its different for everyone but I don't value the dots much since they break our cc and the bolt misses more often than not. What else does cave offer me in 8v8? If i did more keep/zerg fights i think i'd prefer higher cave for the aoe dot but its just not my style of play i guess. To each their own.

I see that we could not agree less...

Cave has MUCH more to offer... Higher disease which is the main reason to spec cave, higher AE root, which could actully effect the DET TANKS, not for long, but it could peel a train.. The low AE root is BS, u cant peel a train, and using it to interrupt?!?!?! What if that target is close to a mezzed one, u break that, and with the low lvl AE root, u give the IMMUNITY so they cant be snared or root for a good while...

And to be fair, I would NEVER EVER waste a red S/C on a Skald, skalds are not DPS, they are supports which has to interrupt.. I get the point about the red resists, but I would at any point go for the higher disease and AE root, which actully could be usefull..

High level ae root is a waste if you ask me. You'll use it once in a blue moon at most. You can peel with single target root just fine enough if you need to. Works fine with a Druid for example. Also I agree that the low level ae root is decent for interrupts. I'd rather have decent biffs for my tanks so they can do their jobs a lot, lot better than giving myself a spell that I'll seldom use.


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AE root on tank train to peel? Pls stay mid, ty.

Azoazial wrote:I see that we could not agree less...

Cave has MUCH more to offer... Higher disease which is the main reason to spec cave, higher AE root, which could actully effect the DET TANKS, not for long, but it could peel a train.. The low AE root is BS, u cant peel a train, and using it to interrupt?!?!?! What if that target is close to a mezzed one, u break that, and with the low lvl AE root, u give the IMMUNITY so they cant be snared or root for a good while...

And to be fair, I would NEVER EVER waste a red S/C on a Skald, skalds are not DPS, they are supports which has to interrupt.. I get the point about the red resists, but I would at any point go for the higher disease and AE root, which actully could be usefull..

Which diesease are you referring to? The AoE and single target disease are both baseline so the only new diesease spell you acquire is a better pbaoe (30s greater duration, smaller chance of resist). It would be a little nicer to have but i don't consider it crucial.

As I said before i don't like using aoe root except to interrupt, its especially nice when you can sneak up on the enemy backline and single root a couple targets (cleric, druid, casters), then you can keep them rupt'd with the low lvl aoe root. From my experience playing higher cave and from playing my sorc the aoe root just doesn't seem to be worthwhile unless you can get the highest lvl one its best to single target.

Lastly Skalds while not nearly as strong with dps as a light tank or even a warrior are still a decent melee toon who benefits from higher str. They're not my first choice for a a red s/c buff but they certainly benefit quite a bit from it. With how easy it is to farm s/c and d/q charges on mid i'm not sure why you deem them unworthy of red s/c. You can free up the conc np.