Shaman leveling spec. Paladin leveling spec? - Page 2

Shabadu · 09/09/06, 9:32 AM

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...50002010000000

Bucking the trend and leveling as elemental. Getting +9 to all spell hits right at release will make it not terribly painful at all. Getting both lightning mastery and unrelenting storm on the way to 70. We'll have to see if they do anything to lightning overload and totem of wrath before I consider giving up swiftness, even just for leveling.

♦ Oggie · 09/09/06, 4:20 PM

I think the SF yes/no stems back from when it was a tier 1 talent, and it was in the first 16 points of any build, ever, anywhere, no matter what.

What you can do to drasticly speed up leveling time is go through Thott or the AH and find the slowest, hardest hitting 2hander. Speed is THE most important thing, and crit doesnt' really matter till Vengence. I agree that SF is overrated, and since you'll be rich just go ret ret ret and respec into it when you get to your mid 30s.

Hopefully there's a Vegian's Fist equivilant (25-27 dps weapon at 20...yes please? now?), which will massively overpower...I mean...keep you well geared through your lower 30s.

One thing that people tend to forget is that paladins are actually overpowered (vastly) in the 20s becuase of Fist/SoC, and only scale back down in the upper 30s/mid 40s. You're going to zoom through those levels so don't stress overmuch about how to. The 15-20 grind is if memory serves a real PITA, a la hunter 5-10.

A few tips:
Elites? What're those? oh, hey, more xp.
You really can survive anything, do not be ashamed to LoH.
Grinding on undead is a hair safer, but -not- faster. Exorcism and Holy Wrath are not efficent.
Get a shield, and a 1hander. Just in case.
There is no reason you can't tank, dps and heal at the same time in small (non instanced) groups.
HoJ is ridiculously strong, not really any reason not to use it every cooldown. More than dps with JoC (though there's no reason NOT to Judge the instant you HoJ, judgement is unlinked global CD), it's a guarenteed heal and nothing resists holy for squat.
BoW helps more than BoM in almost every situation, mana just matters more.
Ret aura is great, but don't be ashamed to swap to +AC. At low levels it's about the same amount as a shield, for particularly hard hitters.
SoC cannot glance.

Just some random stuff I remember from leveling a few pallies here and there, everyone else feel free to chime in. Hi2you Saramin. And Fjord for that matter (chatted once on test about ES's stat budget way back in 1.11).

• frmorrison · 09/09/06, 5:59 PM

Originally Posted by Oggie

Grinding on undead is a hair safer, but -not- faster. Exorcism and Holy Wrath are not efficent.
Ret aura is great, but don't be ashamed to swap to +AC. At low levels it's about the same amount as a shield, for particularly hard hitters.

I found Undead to be faster, b/c Exorsism is another spell to do dps (just don't spam it). It is about efficient as FS (1.5 damage/mana ratio).

Ret aura is nice, but I think Devo armor is better until you get Plate.

No Holy resist on mods is nice.

heals · 09/11/06, 12:08 AM

how will 2 crusadered flurry axes be for my shaman for leveling, is it worth using them over a big 2 hander since i have them from a warrior alt i stopped playing. would they be effective?

Rz · 09/11/06, 12:14 AM

Another trick to remember when leveling, especially with Shaman DW at level 40 (and even both classes at lower levels) is that you can slap Demonslaying enchants on weapons and grind demon areas with ease. Demonslaying proc stuns so it has nice synergy with SoComm as well. Of course demons can be Exorcised as well.

Something like Ashenvale -> Desolace -> (small gap here) -> Azshara -> ??

sekdar · 09/11/06, 12:16 AM

Originally Posted by heals

how will 2 crusadered flurry axes be for my shaman for leveling, is it worth using them over a big 2 hander since i have them from a warrior alt i stopped playing. would they be effective?

Hell yes. Two flurry axes should serve you well almost until 60.

Once you've dropped a few points into dual-wield spec, dual wielding consistently outpaces a 2h for sustained dps.

Nite_Moogle · 09/11/06, 1:39 AM

Originally Posted by sekdar

Once you've dropped a few points into dual-wield spec, dual wielding consistently outpaces a 2h for sustained dps.

I like how you're sure of that even though there are currently zero Shamans able to dual wield, and the Shaman DW talent is pure hit only. If you're restricted to weapon enchants on the main hand I don't know that dual wield will be able to out-pace a solid two-handed weapon for raw DPS. I agree Enhancement is the way to go, but early on it can be nice to go with a 1her and shield until your AC catches up well enough to tank through fights if you're untwinked. Once you hit mail AC and get that extra 10% mitigation there's no question that going shieldless is the way to go.

Mem · 09/11/06, 6:05 AM

When leveling a paladin (which was my main at the time of the EU release), I found spiritual focus to be very good. However, since you can always heal while the mob is stunned, you might first want to pick up SoC, then go spiritual focus, which lets you last longer against multiple targets and while your shield is down. Furthermore, if you can heal quicker you can resume dpsing the mob faster and need less healing. Then go deep into retribution. You might also give a preference to grinding areas and quests involving undeads since exorcism makes pulling and killing stuff much easier. Use BoM and Devotion against non caster mobs, resistance auras against caster obviously.

Decker · 09/11/06, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Nite_Moogle

Originally Posted by sekdar

Once you've dropped a few points into dual-wield spec, dual wielding consistently outpaces a 2h for sustained dps.

I like how you're sure of that even though there are currently zero Shamans able to dual wield, and the Shaman DW talent is pure hit only. If you're restricted to weapon enchants on the main hand I don't know that dual wield will be able to out-pace a solid two-handed weapon for raw DPS. I agree Enhancement is the way to go, but early on it can be nice to go with a 1her and shield until your AC catches up well enough to tank through fights if you're untwinked. Once you hit mail AC and get that extra 10% mitigation there's no question that going shieldless is the way to go.

Probably because dual weild penalities hurt hard. As a shaman you probably don't have much +hit currently, so initially 2H would be best (as you'll be missing less!).

This is relative though I suppose because you have to think the type of mobs you're going to be grinding. Sure we're used to fighting level 63 mobs now and know our caps, but if we lower the level of the mobs we're fighting (greens have always been best for grinding correct? :P) then we'll find ourselves missing less, and effectively doing more DPS.

Theorycraft in its finest! :)

Also to get back to the Paladins my reason for grinding Undead was for the simple fact that Exorcism is great for pulling. Rather then running to a mob you can quickly setup in a nice spot (Blind Mary in Duskwood!) where you can basically be in range of many spawns quickly. Grinded for quite a few levels here. Not sure if it was particularly productive, but it kept me busy! ;)

Humbaba · 09/11/06, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Nite_Moogle

Originally Posted by sekdar

Once you've dropped a few points into dual-wield spec, dual wielding consistently outpaces a 2h for sustained dps.

I like how you're sure of that even though there are currently zero Shamans able to dual wield, and the Shaman DW talent is pure hit only. If you're restricted to weapon enchants on the main hand I don't know that dual wield will be able to out-pace a solid two-handed weapon for raw DPS. I agree Enhancement is the way to go, but early on it can be nice to go with a 1her and shield until your AC catches up well enough to tank through fights if you're untwinked. Once you hit mail AC and get that extra 10% mitigation there's no question that going shieldless is the way to go.

I read that as meaning for warriors since he's a warrior.

I plan to immediately go 41 enhance, 10 resto and put further points into resto. At 70 I'll respec and get NS. With the gear I have in mind (based on what I have and what's reasonably attainable in the next three months) I should have about 700 AP, 17% to hit and a Crul'Shorukh main hand / Dragonfang Blade offhand. I anticipate duoing a lot (with either or mage or priest) and running a lot of instances with very little solo grinding.

sekdar · 09/11/06, 2:01 PM

Originally Posted by Nite_Moogle

Originally Posted by sekdar

Once you've dropped a few points into dual-wield spec, dual wielding consistently outpaces a 2h for sustained dps.

I like how you're sure of that even though there are currently zero Shamans able to dual wield, and the Shaman DW talent is pure hit only.

That has no bearing whatsoever on being able to do math based on already-known rules.

If you head on over to this thread, you can get a warrior DPS spreadsheet. With about five minutes worth of changing the talent spec and what attacks are used, you can get the spreadsheet to mirror the effects of how it could work with a shaman's white damage output - including weapon/totem buffs, chance to hit, weapon skill, and pretty much any other attribute you want.

Dual-wielding, in general, has always been higher DPS than using comparable-level 2h weapons as long as you're appropriately geared for it. I'm sorry if it comes across as blind speculation, but why would Blizzard intentionally make the pinnacle of the enhancement tree and it's next 5 points worse than a 1-point talent close to the top of the tree?

heals · 09/12/06, 1:30 AM

someone got time to mess around modifying it my spreadsheet friend is busy with schoolwork -_-