Shattered Kingdoms

Hey. I'm new around here. I've decided to play a Sprite Shaman... Only thing is... I don't really have too good of an idea of what makes my class tick, since I've not played it before. So.... Before I go level-grinding I want to make sure that I'm not fundamentally misunderstanding what I should be focusing on.... My initial stats:

Str: Weak
Dex: Nimble
Int: Brilliant
Wis: Wise
Con: Healthy
Chr: Distant

I'm currently level 4, and I've trained, "Wis, Int, Int, Art, Art"

Am I wrong in thinking that this is a (primarily) caster class? I'm not looking to be a GM paperweight here, so I'd like some advice before I get started.. And to know if my initial stats are what one should be shooting for here. Are sprites a bad race for my class? Any help that can be given would be appreciated.

It depends on the focus of your shaman. If you're primarily going to be a malediction/voodoo slinger, then you want to work on your "caster stats" primarily. If you're planning on being a tank shaman, you'll want to focus on dex/con as well as your int (you'll need the int to hold your DR spells when you get bashed/tripped/etc).

Overall, I'd say you have a good start, but try not to art dump until you have those stats you're going to need most maxed or almost maxed.

Good luck, and welcome to SK.

Ah, well, here's the rub: I like playing casters, but I don't like being useless in PK... And I don't want to take my class a direction that it's generally bad at... Is a Malediction/Slinger Shaman a viable PK option?
Second - I know that the Cabal/Tribunal benifits are under wraps, but would a Malediction/Slinger character be a viable option in light of those options as well? I don't mind changing my character to being more tankish if he'd work better...

But I have my doubts that a Sprite would make a good tank....

A couple minutes of asking questions from you veterans could save me a lot of trouble later on... Thanks for the help.

I'm not really a vet, but I'll help as I can.

Sprite shaman can be pretty decent tanks, considering their high dex, but the blunt damage vulnerability plays a big role.

As far as malediction-oriented shamen go, no, they're not at all useless in PK, but at the same time they're more useful in groups. They make amazing support casters, because they can both weaken the opposing side, as well as throw a heal in now and then as needed.

Shaman are the closest to a blend between a fighter class and a healer class, even more so than paladins. There are many different ways to play a shaman, as well. If you want to be a strong melee fighter, then you're going to want to train up that strength, dex and con a ltitle more. If, however, you want to focus on healing or maledicting your foes, then more wis/int/art is the way to go.

I've never played a shaman myself, but don't be fooled into thinking that sprites cannot be good tanks. In fact, until some recent code changes, sprite shamans were (arguably) the hardest to kill race/combination in the game. Now, I would suspect they are still comparable, although probably not the absolute best for taking hits. Words of advice though, if you do decide to be more of a tank than you are now, then you will have to do some more stat training and miss out on a few art trains. For example, high dex would be very important for you especially, being a sprite, and a few more points in con wouldn't be a terrible idea, up to durable in my opinion.

For PK, there's two (general) ways you can go: either get your physical attributes (Strength, dex and con) up, so that you can live on the front line, or keep training your mental stats, so that you can live on the back row and keep your front line healed, while holding sanctuary on the front line characters and healing them, in between throwing maledictions at your enemies. I don't think your choice of cabal/tribunal will change those general facts about PK, but that also depends on the cabal you join, as they are extremely varied.

In the meantime, in my opinion you're going to be pulling your hair out unless you get some strength mods or train it up a little. Shamans don't get many damage spells, so most of your EXP gaining is going to come from healing and dealing melee damage, and without a lot of melee damage things will be crawling for you, leveling wise. That's just coming from me, though, and like I said, I've never played a shaman before.

I've never played a shaman, so I won't go into how to correctly build them. From what I can surmise, it sounds like you aren't doing too bad. I do know this though, that support characters are VERY nice in this game. As long as you don't expect to be able to solo well (although you can do it), your okay. A single support character like a priest or a shaman can sometimes make a difference in even an underdog PK situation.

And yes, there have been lightie shamans in factions. I can see a select few of lighties disliking them, but unless you RP weirdly, most of them won't have a problem with you.

sleeper

Alright, sprite shamans can be some of the most brutal tanks in the game. Pretty much no one but one cabal uses blunt damage and if we all recall the hero contest a few years back that a sprite shaman won against two giants from that cabal, I think we can safely say that sprite shaman can still hold their own.

So far you haven't trained anything wrong. I would suggest however, that you focus on maxing int, then con, before you stick any more points anywhere else.

Cha you don't need to bother putting anymore points into, it's completely useless to a shaman once you're done leveling.

Don't worry about being a voodoo cannon, someone mentioned that. You're a sprite, it just isn't going to happen for you. Focus on being a tank.

Once you max int and con, I would then suggest maxing art. After art, I'd put whatever you had leftover into dex, then wisdom respectfully and focus on modding str. Dex is far more important for you to tank with than str. As a sprite your str will never be that high anyway, so don't sweat it.

In short, finish maxing Int and con then art. These are your 3 most important stats. Afterwards work on dex (at least get it to 20) and then wisdom.

Thanks for the advice guys. This definately beats, "oops, I misbuilt" at level 25.

I've hit Initiate 1.... Still can't find the spell trainers for my Novice spells, lol.

Quick question about my Sprite Tank..... Do I have to worry about aging affects making him useless? What should I make my Con & Dex, so that they're not bad later? If ignore STR completely, will my character be better over the long-term, since I'm going to be horrible at melee damage anyway?

Use the mentor command and ask ICly around. There are plenty of trainers out there.