BM or Shaman? another thread by me trying to decide on my class

[mrbob]

Ok, i have played for a week now and am trying to decide between BM and Shaman. I ruled out cleric since he lacked the ranged abilities i thought would be necessary in group pvp and ruled out the disciple for the same reason. Now its beween the shammy and the BM, and im wondering, what will be a more survivable healer in group pvp? Will they both be good at standing back and hiding in a bush or some shadows and not attracting attention while keeping thier group alive, or is the BM alot more squishy and will die almost instantly in pvp? sorry for the jumbled up thoughts and bad grammer, very sleepy

P.S. Also who will be a more sustainable healer

P.P.S. any high elves who have done the quest "words of power" know where the book you have to find is, ive been stuck on that dip quest for days and need to finish it to move on

[Reyla]

Can't say in pvp but for the most part from what i play of shaman and grouped with a BM a few times. Shaman draws agro, smacks mob, heals group, tank gets agro back all good. Seeing BM supposed to have more threat ratio than shm its a bit tougher and requires more skill, bm steals agro and tries to heal while stealing hp from mob at same time. now my guess in pvp would be a bm would look like a nuker so would be under the first to die rules, shm looks like any medium armor (unless has pet or patron form) so would be under the leave until casters dead, if your lucky. But as i said not really sure about pvp.

[CrimsonEdge]

Can't say in pvp but for the most part from what i play of shaman and grouped with a BM a few times. Shaman draws agro, smacks mob, heals group, tank gets agro back all good. Seeing BM supposed to have more threat ratio than shm its a bit tougher and requires more skill, bm steals agro and tries to heal while stealing hp from mob at same time. now my guess in pvp would be a bm would look like a nuker so would be under the first to die rules, shm looks like any medium armor (unless has pet or patron form) so would be under the leave until casters dead, if your lucky. But as i said not really sure about pvp.

The only time I get agro as my BM is if I'm low on HP and mana and heal. However, if I put myself in that situation, then I should be dead either way.

A smarter way to heal yourself as the BM is to use your small heal on yourself instead of trying to lifetap the enemy. This way, you only get the agro from the heal instead of the agro from the damage and the heal.

[kraznor]

Ok, i have played for a week now and am trying to decide between BM and Shaman. I ruled out cleric since he lacked the ranged abilities i thought would be necessary in group pvp and ruled out the disciple for the same reason. Now its beween the shammy and the BM, and im wondering, what will be a more survivable healer in group pvp? Will they both be good at standing back and hiding in a bush or some shadows and not attracting attention while keeping thier group alive, or is the BM alot more squishy and will die almost instantly in pvp? sorry for the jumbled up thoughts and bad grammer, very sleepy

P.S. Also who will be a more sustainable healer

P.P.S. any high elves who have done the quest "words of power" know where the book you have to find is, ive been stuck on that dip quest for days and need to finish it to move on

I play BM, and I'd have to say that shamans are better for pvp. Not taking into account their awesome buffs, their armor makes them a better choice.

Don't get me wrong, I love my BM. But in pvp, the melee will seek you out quickly as a BM, and with light armor (PLEASE UPGRADE US TO MEDIUM ARMOR) you will find you take huge dmg from them.

While on that topic, the strafing needs to be fixed BIG TIME. It's pretty gay that a melee can just circle you as a caster in pvp and whack away, while you MUST be facing them when your spell goes off to do any dmg. Please please please do something about that, cus it's stupid, lame, and not fair to casters who do 0 dmg unless thier spells land. Hell, even 1 missed spell is 2 seconds + that you lose in a duel, meanwhile a melee lands 3-4 shots on you in that time.

[ZNICK]

It's pretty gay that a melee can just circle you as a caster in pvp and whack away, while you MUST be facing them when your spell goes off to do any dmg. Please please please do something about that, cus it's stupid, lame, and not fair to casters who do 0 dmg unless thier spells land. Hell, even 1 missed spell is 2 seconds + that you lose in a duel, meanwhile a melee lands 3-4 shots on you in that time.

That's the way it should be. You are RANGED, if you let a melee get close enough to you, he SHOULD be able to kill you. He already has a huge disadvantage!

Z

[Malivan]

A smarter way to heal yourself as the BM is to use your small heal on yourself instead of trying to lifetap the enemy. This way, you only get the agro from the heal instead of the agro from the damage and the heal.

In my experience, the straight heals draw more aggro than the taps.

[kraznor]

That's the way it should be. You are RANGED, if you let a melee get close enough to you, he SHOULD be able to kill you. He already has a huge disadvantage!

Z

I hate responding to trolls like this, but I guess I will anyway.

Name 1 workable way of dealing with a melee as a Blood Mage, please. You can't. Our best tactic would be root nuke, but since our nukes carry a DoT with them, our root will wear off nearly every tick (60% chance when dmg is applied, INCLUDING Dots, and I have YET to have it not wear off when damage is applied).

The only thing left to try is to simply use Despoil and Ritual/Root only for damage. Let's see, that takes away about 65% of my dps capabily, extends the battle considerably, and is MUCH rougher on my mana.

That means I have to have:

1) Time, and lots of it - not usually the case in pvp
2) Room to move, and LOTS of it - hardly EVER the case
3) Be fighting a foe that can't heal themselves (Even rangers could heal themselves fought this way).
4) Be fighting a foe that can't break root (rules out elves)

So ya, I'd say it pretty much leaves us out to dry in pvp. I've still won more than I've lost and have over 200 infamy, but only because I have quick reactions and can move and spin fast enough to keep up with the strafers. I HATE doing this, but I have little choice.

If spell damage hadn't been halved in PvP while still costing the same amount, well that's another story... Oh ya, and melee damage didn't get the same nerf, so ya that's fair too...