I'm not a complete newbie, but I'm not a veteran either. I'm interested in learning about shamans. They have alot of nice maladictions among other things, and I just want to get some insight into what race you think would be the best for a shaman. I'm going to be a evil shaman who just wants to kill anyone in my range.

What races are best for that? I know there are alot of human shamans out there, but I want something a little different. Dark elves have high intelligence, and I'm guessing that's good because of learning communes quicker, and perfecting them faster than a fire shaman would. But a fire shaman has alot of strength, and alot of hps. The fire shaman can hit harder than dark elf shaman. But what about duergar shaman? I see some of them too, but vulnerability to holy attacks is big. What about an arial shaman?

I just dont know what to do about race. Any suggestions?

Also, I'm sure I'll learn them as I go along, but what maladictions do i need to worry about the most when learning? I know blindness is big, so is plaque, curse, and fatique, but what else is important? What things do i just need to know to be a good pker with a shaman? Any insight from shaman players, or tactics used on you by a shaman would be helpful.

Most everything has been covered for the basic physical nature of shaman and races...giant resist, duergar see hidden, arial perma-fly and so on. Each also has their downsides. For myself, I find I can handle any of the human/half-human races pretty well. They offer a nice mix of pk ability with the ability to easily learn supplications. Also, you may wish to consider which cabal, if any, you will want to see (upside and downside). One of the scariest opponents (and spooky rp) was a dark-elf shaman when Shadow was present. If you step away from pure pk ability and power, a whole new field opens up.

The -charisma effects can be nice against those pesky bards though. :-D

Here's my take:

Duergar- The obvious *huge* bonus is that you can detect hidden. The downside is that you're vulnerable to positive and light, and many of your enemies will either have the wrath commune or wrath weapons. A certain cabal power (and certain shield) make this less of an issue. I wouldn't count on them, though. You're also dumb as a rock, though not quite as dumb as a fire giant rock.

Fire giant- The big bonus here is resist_physical. You're also dumb, even moreso than a duergar. Low intelligence not only affects how quickly you learn communes, but also how much mana you'll have and how quickly it regenerates. A shaman without mana is pretty useless.

Human- The big bonus is not having an xp penalty. That means your PK range will extend further in the "low" direction, meaning you should be able to fight more lower-level opponents. Also helps you rank more quickly.

Dark-elf- Super smart, but also super frail. Mithril vuln and high xp penalty are the big penalties. Autosneak can be helpful in some situations.

Arial- Almost as smart as a dark-elf, but without the annoying mithril vuln and super-high xp penalty. Lightning vuln, but you can cover that w/o too much trouble once you hero. Water you can't cover, at least not easily. Then again, water attacks are rarer than mithril. Perma-fly is nice given you can't see hidden people. Less chance that someone will trip you to death while you're spamming down eastern road.

This may not count for much, but from what I can tell the majority of players choose duergar, fire giant or human.

Personally, if I were going to play a shaman again, it would definitely be a half race. Half-drow or Half-elf. 24 wisdom. Good intelligence. Decent strength and constitution. Low xp penalty. Quiet movement for those ####ing trigger-whores. If you're trying to get introduced to the class, I'd choose one of these. There is a much larger learning curve on the fire giant, duergar, arial and dark-elf races.

I originally typed up something, but removed it. I'm not sure I'd recommend a half-race over a human. The extra prac/rank is the equivalent of 50 extra hp at hero. Except you have lower con, so figure you're going to have approx. 25 less natural hp. So, basically, you pick up 25 hp, but have to deal with an iron/mithril half-vuln. In any fight where your opponent is wielding iron or mithril, that half-vuln is going to hurt you more than the extra 25 hp helps you.

The other advantages are higher intelligence and quiet movement. Quiet movement is indeed handy, but the higher intelligence is pretty much a wash. We're talking about the difference between 21 and 20.

24 wisdom I found was very nice as a shaman. In fact, mechanically, I'd say half-drow is the way to go. The range is about the equivalent of human, you get a nice bonus and the partial-vuln is for the most part negated by your dam redux from class abilities.

What about equipment too? If I pick a certain race like Dark elf do I need to concentrate more on hp gear? If I pick a race like Fire Giant, do I need to concentrate more on damage, and mana gear?

Thanks for help. Shamans look very interesting.