Subject: "Shamans! Part 1." Previous topic | Next topic
Printer-friendly copy Email this topic to a friend CF Website
Top General Discussions Announcements Topic #2306
Show all folders

DaevrynSun 25-Apr-10 08:43 PM
Member since 13th Feb 2007
11117 posts
Click to send email to this author Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list
#2306, "Shamans! Part 1."


          

A handful of us have been brainstorming up a shaman revamp for a while, something that got majorly derailed when we lost our last server and it was necessary for effort and time to go a hundred places that weren't there.

The rough plan we've been working with called for a system of specialization along two axis, much like paladins have dedicate + virtues, or rangers have style and terrain, or warriors have specs and legacies.

Having seen (and liked) Valg's recent efforts to put a chunk of stuff in for orcs at a time rather than saving it all up to put in a massive set of changes at once, it occured to me that while proposed shaman revamp axis #2 was complicated and going to take a lot of time, axis #1 was something relatively simple that I could throw together in my spare time over a weekend, and so I have. Obviously this still does not put the shaman class near the completed full revamp we would like and still plan to do, but my hope is it breathes at least a little new life into a class that hasn't seen many changes in a while.

Here is the helpfile in question:

WARPRIEST
Syntax: warpriest <heavy/light>

This command allows a shaman to specialize their combat training. This choice
is made at the 10th level.

A shaman focusing in heavy armor receives the following benefits, each dependant on wearing heavy armor:
- Increased hit point regeneration.
- Minor reduction of damage caused by others; this improves as the shaman faces multiple player opponents.
- Increased chance for armor deflection of an attack.
- Small chance for heavy armor to reduce the effectiveness of a stunning
attack; this is very rare unless the shaman is fighting multiple player
opponents.

A shaman focusing in light armor receives the following benefits, each dependent upon wearing light armor:
- Increased mana regeneration
- Increased evade chance
- Increased effective level of supplications; this is more powerful while fighting and has a smaller effect upon communing to initiate combat or while not yet fighting.



I would like to point out the following additional things:

Currently, your warpriest choice can never hurt you. That is to say, if you pick light and wear all heavy armor, in the worst case your choice will do nothing for you and you will be exactly like a choiceless shaman. This may change in the future if/when other shaman goodies come in.

As a heavy armor warpriest, generally you benefit from wearing gear that is actually armor and is made of a heavy material like most metal, stone, and bone armors.

As a light armor warpriest, generally you benefit from wearing armor that is not the above, and/or is light in weight.

Generally speaking, I think shaman is a fairly terrible class to try to win a fight against a gang with. Because heavy warpriests have some abilities that get better as they're fighting a bunch of players, you might draw the conclusion that they're good for fighting a bunch of players. My gut feeling is that these improvements upgrade them from terrible to merely bad in this department.

The light armor warpriest casting level bonus works a lot like spellcraft, except it's generally a smaller bonus. I think this is a really useful ability and probably the best selling point for light armor for most PK-oriented shamans, but at the same time I would caution anyone not to expect too much from it -- with as many saving-throw-negates kind of abilities as the shaman class has, a small bonus has the potential to go a long way, but it is a relatively small bonus.

At this point I think both choices are pretty balanced; which is better often just comes down to the play style of your character.

Finally, it's entirely possible that there will be additional choices available someday, just as paladins eventually got the champion and monk options for dedicate added. I'd initially really wanted to do a weapons/melee warpriest choice, but I was unable to get it to a state where I was happy with it in terms of not overlapping too strongly with other classes and balancing reasonably with the other two. At a later date that or other options may become available but currently the light and heavy options are all I plan to work on for the foreseeable future, so I wouldn't recommend saving your choice and hoping.

  

Alert | IP Printer Friendly copy | Reply | Reply with quote

HOT TopicShamans! Part 1. [View all] , Daevryn, Sun 25-Apr-10 08:43 PM
Reply Do current shamans get this too? n/t, Dervish, 29-Apr-10 08:35 PM, #14
Reply Yes n/t, Daevryn, 29-Apr-10 08:35 PM, #16
Reply Suggestion pulled from facebook fan page., Cerunnir, 28-Apr-10 08:18 AM, #6
Reply I've always thought this, Doof, 28-Apr-10 12:47 PM, #9
Reply Questions, Marcus_, 26-Apr-10 07:54 PM, #2
Reply RE: Questions, Daevryn, 26-Apr-10 07:57 PM, #3
     Reply to be clear, laxman, 27-Apr-10 11:32 AM, #4
          Reply I'd like to know too. n/t, Pro, 27-Apr-10 06:52 PM, #5
          Reply RE: to be clear, Daevryn, 28-Apr-10 08:50 AM, #7
               Reply This still isn't clear to me., Pro, 28-Apr-10 12:47 PM, #8
               Reply RE: This still isn't clear to me., Daevryn, 28-Apr-10 01:05 PM, #10
                    Reply RE: This still isn't clear to me., Splntrd, 28-Apr-10 08:09 PM, #11
                    Reply RE: This still isn't clear to me., Hutto, 29-Apr-10 08:35 PM, #12
                    Reply Thanks. n/t, Pro, 29-Apr-10 08:35 PM, #13
               Reply My understanding, Valkenar, 29-Apr-10 08:35 PM, #15
Reply Awesome stuff!, Amberion, 26-Apr-10 01:09 PM, #1
Top General Discussions Announcements Topic #2306 Previous topic | Next topic