Malleus2
Dalayan Elder
Due to my apparent addiction to this game I tend to keep track of what gear other high-end shaman use. A few months back I noted my counterparts in <Steel> sporting a neck item that seemed a bit better suited for the shaman than the Woven Ivy Choker. Upon receiving my own Choker of Putrefied Gore a few weeks later I was quite pleased to see the boost to my two best dots. Then last week it came to light that the poison and disease foci were affecting the wrong dots and the staff quickly moved to fix it. Of course fixing the effect was the right thing to do but it left shaman with little choice for a poison focus.
I spent quite some time today checking as many people as I could on Fomelo, scouring the wiki and talking to people in game in order to document the available focuses. I’m sure the list is not entirely complete but the items I have found so far can be found here. (**Please note I have moved the list from this post as I felt the discussion of the broader topic of elemental focus items warranted its own thread in Classes and Gear.)
Sivyana's Malice (6% Poison)
Armbands of Tortured Souls (nec)
Vile Poisons (4% Poison)
Zahnea's Virulent Quill (all)
Venomous Channelling (2% Poison)
Flowing Robe of the Watch (clr/enc/mag/nec/wiz)
Focus of the Serpent (nec)
Although I have omitted where these items come from I can say that all the 6% items are available starting with items in IP and Valor B. Browsing the list one can quickly see that items for fire, cold and even magic are fairly well represented with several choices for the classes that might want that focus while poison and disease items are sorely lacking.
The only shaman useable poison focus item I did find was Zahnea’s Virulent Quill which drops from extremely difficult treasure maps.
The quill itself is quite a nice item when considered on its own. The stats are on par with CoD and lower IP gear in general and wearable by all classes. But when you start to compare it to the range items a shaman has to chose from starting with Yashira and working up through the tiers it becomes less and less desireable.
The fact is, once you are raiding Thazeran’s Tower and Tower of Tarhyl the lower stats bolstered only by a 4% focus makes this item very lack luster.
Some may argue that shaman don’t really need more dps as their role is to slow, debuff and heal but I would beg to differ. The strength of the shaman class has always been its versatility. Our heals and dots are not as good as the clerics, druids and necros but we do stand ready to provide whatever is needed in any given encounter. Also at this stage of the game your guilds clerics and druids normally handle all the healing on trash mobs leaving you to dot for faster kills and added dot damage mitigation on your tank after slows and debuffs have landed. Even in some of the less intense boss encounters I can keep my relic on the target and still provide ample secondary healing output.
As such Id like to offer two different remedies to fix this gap in shaman gear.
Before I outline my ideas I thought it best to show the scope of the upgrade suggested. With Affliction Enhancement 7 and nearly 2 tomes completed my relic dot does 3582 (dd + 4ticks of dot) without crits. A 4% boost means 143 points more damage. 6% works out to 214 points more damage. An upgrade from 4% to 6% yields 71 points of damage.
Option 1: Add Sivyana’s Malice (6%) to the Spirit Caller Greaves.
By the time most shaman are upgrading to the Spirit Caller Greaves they are likely wearing the Zejav legs from IP so here they are for comparison.
The most notable upgrade is the single point of FT and the saves. Note there is no mana increase. By comparison a druid upgrading from Zejav to their Thaz legs gains 20 mana and 2 FT.
Of course Thaz gear is not built on a set formula (ie: FT on legs, MC on arms) so I compiled the stats on the complete sets of priest Thaz gear for comparison. Note that as the shaman bracer is unknown (I blame Volkov and Finster for this) I have been forced to omit bracers from the totals. Given that the cleric and druid bracers are very similar I assume the shaman one also falls within similar guidelines.
Cleric:
1160mana, 985hp, 225ac, 47 to each save, 295 points to stats, 2FT and 5 focuses (range inc, duration inc, bane, mana cons and casting speed)
Druid:
1120mana, 960hp, 122ac, 49 to each save, 258 points to stats, 3FT and 6 focuses (damage inc, mana cons, casting speed, duration inc, healing inc and recovery 5)
Shaman:
1005mana, 770hp, 159ac, 44 to each save, 287 points to stats, 2FT and 6 focuses (swarm mastery, range inc, casting speed, mana cons, affliction enhancement and recovery 8)
As you can see the AC falls where you would expect given the materials that make up each armour. The stat points are close with druids getting the worst of it. Shaman get 6 focuses they would desire as do druids whereas clerics only get 5 (where are you HI7?!?). It is readily apparent though, that shaman lag way behind in mana and HP.
In short I don’t feel a roughly 70 point increase (200 if working from no poison focus) is unbalancing nor do I feel the addition of this focus would make the shaman Thaz armour set a superior armour set to the other priests, rather it would close the sizeable mana and HP gap.
Option 2: Add Vile Poisons (4%) to the Spirit Caller Greaves and add change a shaman useable item available from encounters above Thaz to have Sivyana’s Malice. After creating an exhaustive list of drops from the top end raid zones and considering the lore as well as the ramifications of the change on the people that have (or may be planning to obtain) the item I have in mind I think I have a workable item but Ill save the explanation in the hopes option one is suitable.
I now invite your comments, questions and suggestions.
I spent quite some time today checking as many people as I could on Fomelo, scouring the wiki and talking to people in game in order to document the available focuses. I’m sure the list is not entirely complete but the items I have found so far can be found here. (**Please note I have moved the list from this post as I felt the discussion of the broader topic of elemental focus items warranted its own thread in Classes and Gear.)
Sivyana's Malice (6% Poison)
Armbands of Tortured Souls (nec)
Vile Poisons (4% Poison)
Zahnea's Virulent Quill (all)
Venomous Channelling (2% Poison)
Flowing Robe of the Watch (clr/enc/mag/nec/wiz)
Focus of the Serpent (nec)
Although I have omitted where these items come from I can say that all the 6% items are available starting with items in IP and Valor B. Browsing the list one can quickly see that items for fire, cold and even magic are fairly well represented with several choices for the classes that might want that focus while poison and disease items are sorely lacking.
The only shaman useable poison focus item I did find was Zahnea’s Virulent Quill which drops from extremely difficult treasure maps.
The quill itself is quite a nice item when considered on its own. The stats are on par with CoD and lower IP gear in general and wearable by all classes. But when you start to compare it to the range items a shaman has to chose from starting with Yashira and working up through the tiers it becomes less and less desireable.
The fact is, once you are raiding Thazeran’s Tower and Tower of Tarhyl the lower stats bolstered only by a 4% focus makes this item very lack luster.
Some may argue that shaman don’t really need more dps as their role is to slow, debuff and heal but I would beg to differ. The strength of the shaman class has always been its versatility. Our heals and dots are not as good as the clerics, druids and necros but we do stand ready to provide whatever is needed in any given encounter. Also at this stage of the game your guilds clerics and druids normally handle all the healing on trash mobs leaving you to dot for faster kills and added dot damage mitigation on your tank after slows and debuffs have landed. Even in some of the less intense boss encounters I can keep my relic on the target and still provide ample secondary healing output.
As such Id like to offer two different remedies to fix this gap in shaman gear.
Before I outline my ideas I thought it best to show the scope of the upgrade suggested. With Affliction Enhancement 7 and nearly 2 tomes completed my relic dot does 3582 (dd + 4ticks of dot) without crits. A 4% boost means 143 points more damage. 6% works out to 214 points more damage. An upgrade from 4% to 6% yields 71 points of damage.
Option 1: Add Sivyana’s Malice (6%) to the Spirit Caller Greaves.
By the time most shaman are upgrading to the Spirit Caller Greaves they are likely wearing the Zejav legs from IP so here they are for comparison.
The most notable upgrade is the single point of FT and the saves. Note there is no mana increase. By comparison a druid upgrading from Zejav to their Thaz legs gains 20 mana and 2 FT.
Of course Thaz gear is not built on a set formula (ie: FT on legs, MC on arms) so I compiled the stats on the complete sets of priest Thaz gear for comparison. Note that as the shaman bracer is unknown (I blame Volkov and Finster for this) I have been forced to omit bracers from the totals. Given that the cleric and druid bracers are very similar I assume the shaman one also falls within similar guidelines.
Cleric:
1160mana, 985hp, 225ac, 47 to each save, 295 points to stats, 2FT and 5 focuses (range inc, duration inc, bane, mana cons and casting speed)
Druid:
1120mana, 960hp, 122ac, 49 to each save, 258 points to stats, 3FT and 6 focuses (damage inc, mana cons, casting speed, duration inc, healing inc and recovery 5)
Shaman:
1005mana, 770hp, 159ac, 44 to each save, 287 points to stats, 2FT and 6 focuses (swarm mastery, range inc, casting speed, mana cons, affliction enhancement and recovery 8)
As you can see the AC falls where you would expect given the materials that make up each armour. The stat points are close with druids getting the worst of it. Shaman get 6 focuses they would desire as do druids whereas clerics only get 5 (where are you HI7?!?). It is readily apparent though, that shaman lag way behind in mana and HP.
In short I don’t feel a roughly 70 point increase (200 if working from no poison focus) is unbalancing nor do I feel the addition of this focus would make the shaman Thaz armour set a superior armour set to the other priests, rather it would close the sizeable mana and HP gap.
Option 2: Add Vile Poisons (4%) to the Spirit Caller Greaves and add change a shaman useable item available from encounters above Thaz to have Sivyana’s Malice. After creating an exhaustive list of drops from the top end raid zones and considering the lore as well as the ramifications of the change on the people that have (or may be planning to obtain) the item I have in mind I think I have a workable item but Ill save the explanation in the hopes option one is suitable.
I now invite your comments, questions and suggestions.
