Hey All,

I was playing on hib for a while but just came back to Midgard as I really like the realm/lore. I have a Skald currently and enjoy playing him but as I gain levels I am worried about not having any buffs and how I will be regarded when trying to get groups for PvP.

I was thinking of rolling a Shaman and wanted to know the Pro's / Con's of both classes.

For the Shaman I was thinking of 46 Aug, 27 Cave, 8 Mend.

For the Skald I was thinking of 50 BS, 39 Hammer, 18 Parry.

Can anyone lay out the Pro's / Con's of solo/group play with these two? Also, which is easier to level (I will be Solo mostly)

Cheers.

Well, I don't RvR with skald(I do have one lvl 35 now). I have lvl 50 shaman used mostly for pve raids and helping guildies level, but from info I get from some mates playing solo shamans, they love it. Most solo shamans are cave spec though. As far as skalds go, you can play them both solo or group. I don't know is there an optimal ability spec that is good both for solo and group, because most of my friends always have a respec stone extra, so when they feel like soloing for few weeks, they respec their skills and RA's to fit their needs. I would definitely take skald if I were to solo a lot...speed is a huge advantage, especially with hasteners removed. However, you will need a lot more money for decent skald template and also you will spend more money on buff barrels. As far as leveling goes, shaman is needed in any group, and extra tank is always good also...so you shouldn't have any problems finding groups for either classes. With the recent changes on xp bonus based on how many mobs add at once(dependable on how many of you are in group), mob group bonus is pretty big, and most players go dodens on higher levels, so there is huge xp bonus there. Midgard currently also has all relics, so that is additional help . If you don't feel like farming a lot for a good skald template, I would recommend a shaman. Shaman templates are pretty cheap, and you can always find a group to rvr. Skald-shaman is a pretty good duo, and I often see spams from skalds looking for a shaman to duo with, so you will have speed often.

shaman solo = cave = no grp rvr. With grp spec its more easy for a shaman to find a rvr grp, since every grp needs 1 shaman and good shamans are not so easy to find as it is a very important class in grp.

skald spec only differs in RA spec for grp and solo. You can still kill something solo with grp ra spec and from RR9 on you can even go split spec with the most useful grp RA's like aom 2 and ip 2 for solo rvr, purge 3, sos and anger is good for solo and for grp rvr. But not every grp needs a skald and a good skald is nice to have but its more the social slot in a grp, so it is a bit harder to find a rvr grp.

edit: so its very important to judge your own play skills. If you think you are a kick ass player i would go for grp spec shaman, a bad played shaman will not be invited in the same grp twice and you will constantly here what you did wrong etc. So if you think yourself on the more casual side as a daoc player i would stick with skald, no one expects a skald to win a fight and a good skald is a skald that does not overextend and dies in 10 sec. So no high expactations

Cave Shamans are lonely souls. Only get a grp invite all 3 months when a relicraid is going on

You will find groups with skald, all groups need speed. And about skald spec go 44 hammer 46 songs and rest parry.

every grp needs speed, but yellow aug healer speed is enough, even the best with some setups. And every grp has yellow aug healer speed at least

btw @ mordakane, was it you that asked me how a grp shaman should play some days ago? Sry that i did not answer anymore, we had a long inc and then i forgot the tell

Not my style, i try to answer every tell. please tell me again ingame

holsten is an arrogant elitist, never answers to my tells

thats just because i don't answer sexual harassing tells