Augs!

 Augs
Everyone is always so concerned with the visible and non-visible gear but no one ever gives any love to the augs, the very thing that enhance that gear and make it even better! This means your toon becomes better! Some time I will go into a comprehensive list of augs, but for now I will list links to the augs in every expansion, look through them, find the ones you need for the Shaman(Heroic Wisdom & Stamina are the augs you want, even better if they have AC too, especially if you're dead set on soloing.

So if you're a masochist and chose to grind out the progression in House of Thule (Hey man no judgement, I get it, this game drives you to do strange things.) Ruppoc Rockjumper a little froglok at the entrance when you zone into the yard of the House of Thule that give a bonus reward of augs for your heroic gear. (Regular augs cannot be used in the gear. It sucks, but if you're going to do the mercenary, partisan, missions, etc. You have to do this anyway.) The aug rewards he gives you dramatically improve the armor, even though it's still really terrible in perspective. I really would try to get to end game first and come back to this. That is what I did. I still haven't finished House of Thule I have 2 zones left. Regardless you'll end up with enough augs if you do the quest to make you a lot better than starting.

Veil of Alaris is a little trickier. There are type 3 augs sold by the interceptors near the beast's domain entrance. The issue here is that you need to know Alaran and have it skilled to 71 in order to purchase them from the vendors. So basically you have to do the mercenary, partisan, missions in both Argath and Lunanyn. You don't need EVERYTHING done in both, but if you're doing the progression doing this will ensure a high enough skill in Alaran to purchase the type 3 augs (These increase healing, damage, and duration of spells) At this point in the game up until end game if you're gaining XP every time you play you should be changing gear, augs, weapons, etc fairly often. There's no real augs here of significance, you'll end up with better. So really just roll for any augs, use them until that time comes.Heroic wisdom and stamina is what you're after while doing this, but take any of the augs like I said if you can use it, any improvement is better than none. Because you also want HP/MP augs and most of the type 7 and 5's offer that. This will be your life for the next 4 expansions. It's much, but it's honest work. If you're in a good group constantly, and the XP is flowing through all of these expansions, you should be a millionaire with plat. Plat definitely should not be an issue at this juncture. Now if you had gone to RoF and did those quests I said you could do while invisible you will already have the requirements for the Alaran language to purchase the augs. This also will be beneficial in the fact you can obtain all the quests within VoA now.

Empires of Kunark
Ring of Scale
The Burning Lands
Torment of Velious
Claws of Veeshan
Terror of Luclin
Nights of Shadows
Laurion's Song
The Outer Brood

No matter which style of play you are choosing current augs help a metric buttload! One of the most underrated things in the game in my opinion. I highly recommend getting them.

For the Shaman you want type 5 and 7 augs that drop from named that have HWiz & HSta(Heroic Wisdom & Heroic Stamina), MANA(anything with good mana, mana regen, etc.), and HP obviously, AC is good too. But if you're grouping with a tank or the tank in your group is in need of it more, it is better to pass up the aug solely just for AC. You should rarely ever be hit in a group, unless it's an add or something. Years ago the Shaman's DoTs were super OP and they'd often take the aggro from a tank. So this was an issue for a while. But if you knew the Shaman well you could outplay this very easily without pissing off your tank and/or dying. About 2 months later they were nerfed. So this is no longer something of concern. A lot of the Shaman augs will usually be a Wis/Int aug that offers HP/MP, and Heroic Wisdom/Stamina, and very few offer AC. You're not a tank. You're basically a cleric that can deal some damage.

You can use the resources above for whatever expansion and look through the augs. I am current working on listing my current augs, what is worth going after in every expansion from EoK up until 
TOB.