I read through the greatest of all time section and these names popped up pretty often.. but I wanted to know what makes anyone a good shaman and what makes them great shaman in your minds..

cull
fantor
buzcam
malkaven
Beelzoid

Some things that I consider characteristics of mediocre shaman are not buffing in a timely manner, not actively participating (ie got to be either healing, nuking, slowing, debuffing not just one of em once in a while)...

Personally if I had to pick someone as the best shaman right now that I have played with, has to be Resinate :)

Fantor gets my vote. Anyone who ever played with the guy will agree he is amazing, mostly in his solo and leadership ability.

For example, if he has great leadership ability that makes him a great shaman? that would put Kinens on top of the best shaman of all time list for me..

Now if a shaman soloed something 1 or 2 other shaman have done on any server than I consider that reflective of being a great shaman,.. if he did gimmie examples! =]

Watching him get AA's per-PoP was fun. And if you're talking about leadership for SoT, you might wanna nominate Crovax and Ailnydar, not Kinens. =p

Man, where's the muktuk nomination already?

/mourn muktuk....may he one day get readdicted to eq.

Add another one to your "how many people can I make think I'm a retard? meter"

You say the same thing on every thread that has sot in it..

Any quality player in this game basically all follow the same criteria.
They need
* Intimate knowledge of gaming mechanics
* Knowledge regarding the interdependancy of classes and how individual classes generally combat specific situations
* The intuition to apply the aforementioned knowledge successfully
* Confidence in himself and his abilities

If you have the above, you know what to do and when to do it. And that's all there is to EQ. There's never any "new" scenario in EQ since it's all confined to the different classes, spells and abilitys since even 90% of the mobs in the game follow the same class pattern the players do. Either you have one mob in camp with the ability x, or you have 50 with a combination of the abilitys x, y, z and t - regardless, the rules of the game doesn't change. It's not like you can detour fifty blocks to where your buddy, who you call on your cellphone, sets up an ambush with claymores =P

This GOAT thing is stupid, Greatest of all time my ass. I have read heaps of these posts and they all mention different people and 99% of them I haven't heard of (hence couldn't be too great).

Well rant off I am going to get some sleep.

Ive played with Fantor.. Talked with him like every day at one point.
Duo'd with him, grouped with him..
And he was great.. no doubt about it.
He could solo camps in CT, solo'd Islands in PoSky, Solo'd WW dragons.. he could do it all.
Only Boiler sticks out in my mind as a better soloer.


But I would put Beelz as better in a group.
This is going back a bit before his semi retirement.. but he redefined what a shaman could do in a group to me. He was a flurry of actvity, doing everything that a shaman could possibly do, pulling, debuffing, buffing, healing, dotting, attacking, pet, CC, while cracking jokes and being an absolute joy to be around, he was one of those people who made you not want to log. He was never a big soloer because he always wanted to be around people and help people out and was just more social naturally. I think he felt he was making the guild stronger by including more people, helping more people level, get AAs. learn.
He was great on Raids too.
Anyone else from EW remember this
Beelziod tells the guild, "+++Aaryonar+++ SLOWED"

Cull never had that many chances to group with or talk to him about soloing.. But I know in Raids he is an absolute rock. I remember before he came to EW.. Beelz had gone into semi retirement.. only playing occasionally. EW was really really hurting. We couldnt get any solid or consistant play out of the shaman slot. Even Drizzen, who can play any class, and do it better than 95% of the people who play that class exclusively, couldnt box and replace what Beel gave us. Cull was like a godsend, when he came all those problems cleared up overnight. Suddenly Shaman became one of our strongest positions.
Top notch skill, awesome attitude, great leader, always there when needed, always.

All three were/are great in my opinion for different reasons.

Klaena > all!


Ibudin

Muktuk was a badass shaman. All I got to say about that.

KZ

Well let me say this once a shaman reaches a certain level; IE 5k + mana 4k+ hit points unbuffed they can all pretty much do the same things as long as they have all there spells.
Does it help to have more hit points and mana and the best gear available, well of course it does but does that make one a better shaman not IMO anyways.

I just need to get my elemental legs and clay bracer of the golem and I to can be one of the uber shamans, will that make me a better shaman probably not but then again I think I am a pretty decent shaman already and I sure will leave a great looking corpse.
:rolleyes

Nategray
Dead Shaman Walking

I'll second Klaena I've always thought she was outstanding.

Resinate because hes a froglok, and awesome!


Cull is also great, good times grouping with him back in the past.

My vote goes to Dartanian Because he's solo anything, had an amazing personality that could make you laugh anytime plus he could play like 5 clerics 2 rogues and a mage at the same time!

Prettifly > all

Klaena > all!

Fuck that, that stupid fucking skank sucks so bad.. S/he is the most useless shaman I personally have ever seen.
Lets not even add that s/he has the worst personality in all of EQ....

Saying s/he is the best is like voting for the whore who works near the corner of your house.

Anybody ever figure out if Klaena was a guy or a girl? Cause I've seen IT hit on guys..

I miss Muktuk. He was a great shaman and a barrel o' laughs.

I never saw fantor in action so can't judge him but seemed a nice person and a good player.

Cull is fun to watch and talk to.

I also have really been impressed with Resinate though I have not known him long.

Zhubok back in the day kicked some ass and made me want to be a shaman.

As for what makes a good shaman, it is so subjective I think its hard to compare or set a definate standard.

Just remember.....

Ogre shaman > all.

Hey L2, you forgot to mention where Fantor shined most...

...grammar!

i blame Mogur

Thoss

Nihou!

Yeah, I gotta say that Muktuk was amazing at times.

I'd also like to throw out Deezel's name for this. He did good work. I remember the cleric one day going afk for like 4 WEEKS, and nobody noticed because Deez was doin' it all.

And long gone, I wanna mention Aayjay. Damn fatty could solo in places you just couldn't. He had even the bad pathing in Chardok memorized, and could tell when to kill his badly pathing pet by a count of how many seconds it had been gone.



With Tolerance For The Good 'Ole Days...

Valarian

Sorry guys.... Sarkith >all other shamans! Tis true!)

bini was the pwn soloing is sky back in the day too !

Zenrk my HERO

How about some reasons why! damn name droppers..

:rolleye Tks Xan. Its great to be reminded that even tho you finally attached your guild hoping ass to the #1 guild on the server, you are still the lowest person on the server...

Fantor and Bini imho were the best.... soloing skills and knowledge of the game were unmatched.

Sorry guys.... Sarkith >all other shamans! Tis true!)

You clearly haven't met Clawmarks. Sarkith is soo dead.


Ibudin

Siludorf, the reasons why they think this sort of thing is usually because a) the shaman is a guildmate/friend and b) the shaman can buff, debuff, heal, dot, and nuke in an above average fashion(there's also a consideration to personality).

rolleye Tks Xan. Its great to be reminded that even tho you finally attached your guild hoping ass to the #1 guild on the server

Wow you get fucking dumber every time I talk to you bitch..

Matahari
Sphere of Transcendence
Eternal Wrath

That's like 4 years of playing EQ, I hop to trot !
Get a fucking clue you cyber whore.

Though I wonder if Fantor every four-boxed a CH rotation like Drizzen and Gandien. 8/

I've seen a lot of shamans - but the craziest mofo I've seen is Resinate. Soloing Juggs, PoF, PoG... not many places he hasn't solod with his Shaman.

Pfft, I solo'd Juggs, PoF, though never PoG. No worthwhile loots. 8/

I saw my name!

I've seen a lot of shamans - but the craziest mofo I've seen is Resinate. Soloing Juggs, PoF, PoG... not many places he hasn't solod with his Shaman

Shamans claim to fame is soloing where others cant. Saying Soandso Shaman is cool cause they soloed X place is not saying much. What shaman didnt solo POG back in the day? What shaman didnt solo Juggs?

A true test of merit in any class is your ability to look beyond the limitations of your class and play just one step ahead. Fandros said that Kinuvan "played his class beyond its limitations" (okay its a paraphrase) as a perfect example.

Fantor was like that ... so was Bini. Testing the boundries and expanding them... thats what makes you a good shaman.

Uhhh, I mean PoF as in Plane of Fire, not Fear... Sorry for the miscommunication.

PoFear = harder to solo then PoFire.

POFear would be harder just because of all those swarming mobs..even if they are wussy mobs.

However as a Shaman soloing in Plane of Fire is no easy task like it is for a class that can snare. Root cook is there only viable method (and really only efficient if you have LDON Bane other wise anything other than BoS breaks root) unless they are lucky enough to be a race that can use a right click snare and Im not even sure it would land on most mobs in that zone. If it was easy you would see a the zone full of shamans..which you don't its Bards, necros, wizards, and druids mostly.

That's cuz most shaman's know they can just loan their info out to friends and log in every day with 2 more AA's then they logged out with. 8/

Lopp is a great shaman imo. He's never been in a huge guild, doesn't have the most uber gear on the server, but knows how to play in a group better than anybody.

I also think Klaena is great.




Mirr

I doubt it'd be that hard for a shaman to solo PoFire, it's just that it's not a very profitable form of experience for them.

Not all shamans solo for XP .. some for money others to say .. HOLY CRAP I just attacked a red con Soandso.

pofire is amazingly easy to solo.. I remember giving resinate tips to solo when he was trying it in pov..

Right now soloing isn't really a big deal at all.. nothing one can solo that any other can't do it and do it relatively easy.. I would be impressed if a shaman soloed in poEarth..

And also BoU and BoS don't break root in addition to Bane, and if you md and vp then root doesn't break long enough for vp to repop and on top of that you can pox and reroot using vp to make even that not a risk.. it's efficient for us to solo pofire but it's sooo easy to get a group that most of them if they have 20 min to play can join and play 20 min right away..

What resinate did impress me with tho and I haven't tried is pulling lord ashir (sp) from the top of com w/o clearing using eye of zomm to target.. there is a dog trick that I personally am trying to perfect but last time I did it I got 4 ew and 2 sot killed =p

Christ0's pretty much on the ball with me, only, it goes a bit further than that. Muktuk is the bar by which I measure other shamen. I remember his constant complaint in guildchat of "do other shamen just suck? Why does my group insist on filling out with a cleric?".

He couldn't stand soloing, so was very much keyed in on the timing of group shamaning. Yup, the buffs were always there, with the right buffs on the right characters. When he had two tanks in the group, he maximized the group's regen by torporing the current target, so the mob would switch to the other guy while the torpor'd guy was slow. He knew when to slow, and when it just wasn't worth the mana.

He thought grouping with an enchanter was cheating, because it was so easy. He was the first person I ever saw use the shaman dance (canabilizing between med ticks), though he claims to have gotten it from ozwald (who soloed more).

When a mob got pissed at him, he didn't run around with it, he didn't root it, he took out his spear and poked it in the eye while the melees got around to taunting it off of him.

Muktuk never had that egoistic shaman feeling of "I'd rather be soloing, you punks are slowing me down" I get from many shamen, mostly because soloing bored him to tears.

Bah, one day he'll get readdicted.

shaman can snare fine with the right tools

Fantor soloed his 3rd veracity earring twice.

Before or after PoP ? Before is impossible without exploiting because one of them is completly unslowable.

Nm too long since I finished sigil earring (first one). Prae are earring 4. Earring 3 would be doable easily for a shaman pre PoP and a complete joke post PoP.

He was the first person I ever saw use the shaman dance (canabilizing between med ticks), though he claims to have gotten it from ozwald (who soloed more)


Canni dancing is a useful tool, and generally a simple way to tell a good shaman from a less knowledgable one - until canni4/5 come into play in any case. It wasn't started by or monopolized by either, any shaman that researches their class should be doing it - the info on it has been around as long as eq.

No, no, there was a time before cannidancing was used.

Muk was the first I saw consistently using it.

I didn't see it in wide use for at least 6 months after I first saw him use it.

That was simply a time before you personally saw it used. Canni dancing was explained to some shammies in beta by a gm, they in turn passed it on to the shaman community.

not alot of people got the privilege to hang with the nights crew but the couple of months that i was guilded with them i learned lots about everything and met quite a few people who get the g.o.a.t. spots on my list. among others aqui, shaman barbarian, i never saw her solo so i don't know how well she handled that but at raids and in groups i've never seen a more efficient shaman, even now that i'm a shaman myself i have no idea how she managed to keep doing so many things at the same time ;)

honorable shout-outs: gukii (wince-wince baby!), snuttan (for developing a new kind of shaman.. too bad it wasn't very popular though lol) and all of the sot shaman crew (except me of course :p )!!