DPS Shaman

[Ogharod]

Besides a nice Video all over http://war.onlinewelten.com/downloads,id11,warhammer_rpc_ingamevideo_part_1.ht ml,
made me really happy at about 4m 25s into it, the part where a Goblin Shaman 2 shoots a Dwarf Mech :D
Although this is an outdated version and all, it should really show us how much fun building up WAAAGH! can be.

Enjoy.

[Trolls]

pretty good video, it looks like the shaman changed some of his tactics before he was able to 2shot that engineer tho.. : )

[Aes]

Seeing as most of us are making the switch from WoW to WAR, can we make the effort to kill the dps acronym? Let's replace it with a more fun word like boomage or something.

But yeah hopefully when the healing is down to a minimum it'll nice to have the hard hitting abilities to burn our waaagh on to lay n the hurtin'.

[Missapus]

DPS has been around along time... even since everquest

[Nemes1s]

Seeing as most of us are making the switch from WoW to WAR, can we make the effort to kill the dps acronym? Let's replace it with a more fun word like boomage or something.

But yeah hopefully when the healing is down to a minimum it'll nice to have the hard hitting abilities to burn our waaagh on to lay n the hurtin'.
You can't spend WAAAGH on offensive abilities. You build WAAAGH with them, you spend it on healing/buffing.

PS: DPS has nothing to do with WoW.

[Aes]

You can't spend WAAAGH on offensive abilities. You build WAAAGH with them, you spend it on healing/buffing.
Over on WAR-RvR there are screenshots of an ability that allows you to convert Waaagh into action points. I can't remember off the top of my head if there were any offensive abilities that used Waaagh directly though.

PS: DPS has nothing to do with WoW.
Doh.

[Arathan]

Over on WAR-RvR there are screenshots of an ability that allows you to convert Waaagh into action points. I can't remember off the top of my head if there were any offensive abilities that used Waaagh directly though.

All the "support" skills had an action point cost and could use Waaagh! to increase it's effects (more HPs for the person you rez, longer duration speed buff etc).
Based on the screenshots over on WAR-RvR, that is. :>

All the "offensive" (debuffs/DDs/DoTs etc) skills had the line "Builds Waaagh!" in their description.

[Gemini]

In theory, you could try to be a dps shaman, but I doubt that will be much easier or effective than trying to be a squig herder tank.

[Aes]

In theory, you could try to be a dps shaman, but I doubt that will be much easier or effective than trying to be a squig herder tank.

I don't think the point of the class is to strictly be one or the other, it's simply fill the gaps in your team, heal when they need it, dps when you have enough healers. The shaman can and will do both, how often he will be dealing damage will depend on the how neccessay healing is in comparison.

[Gemini]

I don't think the point of the class is to strictly be one or the other, it's simply fill the gaps in your team, heal when they need it, dps when you have enough healers. The shaman can and will do both, how often he will be dealing damage will depend on the how neccessay healing is in comparison.

I agree with you somewhat, they do what is needed. However, puerly from a balance prospective, giving a healer(or tank, or any class that isn't designed for dps for that matter) the ability to do as much damage as a dps class is unbalanced.

If a shaman can dps as well as a squig herder, but also has his heals to fall back on, it would be horribly imbalanced. From a purely numbers point of view, why be a squig herder if you can do just as good damage from a shaman and have heals.

Looking back though, my comparison was not a very good one, I hope a shaman would make a better dps'er than the a squig herder would make a tank.

[Metamorph]

it cant be said often enough: there's no such thing as too much damage, there is such a thing as too much healing.

the fact that the shaman is designed to become more effective at healing by first doing some damage should give you all a big hint. if the developers screw up and make it better to be a pure healbot then mixing your damage and healing spells relatively evenly then its a problem, but considering the stated intentions of the game designers, i doubt this will be a problem.

[Gloovish]

puerly from a balance prospective, giving a healer(or tank, or any class that isn't designed for dps for that matter) the ability to do as much damage as a dps class is unbalanced.

If a shaman can dps as well as a squig herder, but also has his heals to fall back on, it would be horribly imbalanced. From a purely numbers point of view, why be a squig herder if you can do just as good damage from a shaman and have heals.

I don't agree. I think it's just WoW brainwashing. There are more creative ways to balance classes than crippling thier DPS. This kind of thinking is what made wariors and priests suck at soloing in WoW. IMO all classes should be able to achieve similar DPS in WAR. Instead, the "DPS" classes should get extra gimmics, flexibility and utility in their DPS dealing to make up for their lack of healing and toughness.

As an example ill answer your "why be a squig herder if you can be a shaman?" question. Shamans can summon different squigs and therefore are good at adapting to varios situations. They are more flexible than shamans in this way. Herders can also jump into an armored squig which is a gimmic unique to them. There are many more reasons why someone would prefer playing a herder than a shaman even if they have comparable DPS.

[RockpapperWaagh]

This thread is full of silly WoW stuff.

This is WAR, there will be no balancing of dps to make 8 million people think they are all special angels.


Shamans will have decent dps, which will after doing some damage to an enemy make their healing much much better for afew spells then they go back to dps to build waagh again. In RvR shamans will be whats above, and have excape mechanics to them so that despite their somewhat moderate damage if they play right they can outskirt melee dps to take them down.

NOT EVERY CLASS WILL HAVE COMPARABLE DPS Do not expect as shaman to be doing the damage a choppa will be, ever, ever, ever. However expect to stay alive longer

No you will not be a heal bot, you will not be a dps bot. You will dps to build waagh to throw out heals and buffs. If you want pure dps ranged go squig herder.

[Pkshaman]

If a shaman can dps as well as a squig herder, but also has his heals to fall back on, it would be horribly imbalanced. From a purely numbers point of view, why be a squig herder if you can do just as good damage from a shaman and have heals..

This is a horribly stupid thing to say, im sorry. Having good dps AND good heals is not imba. You have to take into account other things such as survivability, utility, CC, Anti-CC... Just look at a shaman from WoW. Awesome dps and has heals to fall back on...NOT IMBA. Goes the same for Druids and certain types of Priests.

Comparing the Squig-Herder to a Hunter from WoW, a Hunter has comparable dps to a shaman but has no heals. What he lacks in healing abilities, he makes up for in survivability, CC and he has a pet.

You understand where I'm going? Healing and dps are not the only aspects of this game, or any game, so don't go around calling a "support" class that can dps imbalanced. Now if that class had, say, a fear or something, that would be imba.

A healer does not heal his target to death, conversly a dps class has other tricks up his sleeve to escape situations where he could not simply pew pew his way to victory.

[hybriddj]

well, actually... the squig herder can eat their squigs to heal themselves! hah!
i played the shaman, the dps is really good, the heals are really good but useless if you dont build waagh (4 second cast without waagh, 1 second cast with waagh), but it was not overpowered against the other classes. Squig herders have alot of utility, to get away such as stabbing you in the foot, and then running, and their pets... (can get inside the pets for armor, and eat the pets for health)

You can't just say that a class that is dps should be better than a dps/healer... because no class is just dps, there are many more factors than that

[Rofllove]

Shamans are healers/support that get a part of the action. Going "pure dps" will not get you many group invites and you won't be playing the class as it is intended.

[Gemini]

I'm afraid I afraid I'm gonna have to eat my foot on this one. My earlier comment about shaman having as much dps as a squig herder was rash, not well thought out at all, and just plain stupid. I failed to consider many many other things, as you all have reminded me of.

However, that said, after all the trouble that Mythic has gone through to make sure the support classes are forced to fight, I hope they have steps in place to make sure the support classes also do their supporting role. Will there be people who try to be pure dps shaman or zealot or whatever? Sure, of course, just like there were hunters in WoW that tried to do just melee, or primary warriors in GW who tried to just be a heavily-armored spelllcaster. Neither was very effective, but people were free to try if they so chose. I would like it to be like that with the support hybrid classes trying to take the hybrid out. We all know they covered the heal bots, but I hope they also did the same for people trying to go just damage, no support.

[QtipGreenSnot]

The more damage you dish out, the more it benefits your heals.

I don't see why we have to create a division between Damage and Support, one feeds off the other.

I'd even go as far to say that the Shaman is an offensive class, we deal damage to build WAAAGH! and this allows us the option of faster, more powerful heals.
Our heals do not allow us the option of dealing more damage, therefore we are dependant to a certain extent on dealing damage to get the best use from our non-offensive powers.

[Gloovish]

I hope they have steps in place to make sure the support classes also do their supporting role.
As long as healing gives renown just like PDSing it should be ok.

[Jesper]

in daoc it worked...darn, even healing / ccing from outside a group gave you rps (even if not comparable to a group situation).

[Dorian]

I enjoyed the Video. Everything outside of the Shaman clips somewhat bored me. But I suppose i am Bias.

[Fael]

There are many more reasons why someone would prefer playing a herder than a shaman even if they have comparable DPS.

Quoted for truth.

Besides, no one has really tested how good Shaman DPS (or any other class DPS) is compared to the other classes. And even if someone did just that, it's still too early to say ANYTHING is final.