I'll start this off by saying I've never played a shaman so there might be more at play than I realize but it seems to me that shamans shouldn't get protective shield so early.

Far as I know bash is already nerfed pre-25 so why not give shamans protective shield at or around that rank.

I just hate having to avoid shamans in the early ranks as a melee character (especially when playing village applicant) because they can just run up to you blind/poison/plague with relatively little risk if they pop a flight potion.

So are a ton of other classes.

Protective shield at that rank lasts like 3 ticks. If you are dying to that specifically you just aren't doing it right. =P

If it is 2am flee until 4am then bash.

Shaman also don't get flight. A lot can be tripped.

First you have to contend with whatever opening prayer the shaman drops on you.

Second you have to time it just right. And even if you do you can still miss the bash or not lag them long enough for them to flee, put it back up and come back at you.

But thanks for that info. I did not know it was so short. That is definitely one of those nuances I was referring to for not having played the class.

Most aggressively pking lowbie shamans I've faced have had flight up. Yeah that doesn't last long either but if I'm poisoned or plagued I just don't have the time at that rank to wait for something to run out so I can hopefully trip/bash them down.

Generally if I decide to give a shaman a fight as a lowbie I might get lucky once in awhile or get them to retreat first but it is usually a battle of attrition that I end up losing because they can come back before I recover. Poison and plague are rough on lowbie characters and you don't always have the resources to deal with it at that rank.

They aren't worth the effort of fighting.

It's a proposal so you don't always have to avoid them.

Or if you happened to get caught by one you at least have some kind of sporting chance.

I mean avoiding characters on a PK mud is no fun at all. Plus it sucks way worse when the shaman is some asshole #### talker who essentially calls you a #### for not fighting them.

Lowbie whip spec. They cant defend vs whips for beans and they have no way to mitigate lash. Certain races also do better than others because of inherent resistances to poisons/diseases etc.

Most people are vuln_shaman at lower levels because they are more concerned about just leveling or working on skills instead of collecting the gear that is available to have saves and stat coverage etc.

nt

Shaman is my default class & I will typically avoid whip/flail if I can. Sweet #### all to do vs lash is exactly right, and a shaman(light focus) is s9 dependant on landing that first Sup than if it fails they can be eaten up pretty quick(lash, trip, bash, misdirection, etc...). Try to get your saves to around -15 or 20 by lvl 22-25 if possible & you'll see your world change a bit.

As a shaman I'm not that worried about whip specs. I'm happy to slip one supp in per clash and then be chased while I heal. Also your tanking isn't that bad what with shield block (assuming an appropriate shield choice).

See how this man beat protective shield with this one simple trick!

Not only is protective shield short duration at that level, but it is also extremely expensive mana-wise to cast. Forcing a shaman to cast it two or three times during a running battle with no rest means that they won't have a hell of a lot of mana left to use for offensive supps.

Less mana to do haven and offensive supps, less mana to heal if you are able to drive them off, etc