Shaman-isms

Monday, March 5, 2018

EQ - Heroic Shaman Guide 85-125 [Revised 10-24-21][Updated 06-27-25][Originally posted on Reddit][Under construction]

INTRODUCTION
First and foremost, this is a HEROIC SHAMAN guide. If you started a Shaman from lvl 1-85, that's impressive in itself. And mad respect and props to you. But we're not talking about "canni dancing" and zones that no one really goes to anymore except for epics, the weird off quest item for some stuff they didn't even know they had or wanted to do, or for nostalgia's sake. A heroic character is a bought character token from Daybreak/Darkpaw that starts your character at level 85 and some various items (mount, food, gear, 2 bags, etc.) The reason that I am pointing this out first is anyone that has worked the Shaman from level 1 up until 85 is this guide will be of little use to them. Except maybe for the macros.I feel this guide will be more beneficial for someone that isn't very familiar with the Shaman. And just wants to try it with skipping all the research nonsense I had to go through.

I have found very little help for the current Shaman play style, and I saw this requested many times over, as all the Shaman play style information is heavily out of date, beside raiding. So I decided to take a crack at my own guide and what has worked for me. I have played solo, molo, box, group, and raid Shaman. I find it most fun when I am playing casually in either a group setting or boxing.

I have taken time off here and there. But when I play again, I grind this game like an X-games competition. Originally when writing the guide, during Empire of Kunark I was a solo Shaman primarily, sometimes in a static group. I solo'd in Frontier Mountains and eventually became Max level, chase loot geared, tier 2 armor, max A.A. My static group dissolved and I added a SK and 'Zerker, and started boxing.

Since writing this guide years ago, a new level of Heroic Character has been added to the game. Level 100. This guide will still be beneficial to this level also.

WHAT IS A SHAMAN
What exactly is a Shaman? What can they do? Well I am glad you asked those questions. Because you have Shaman questions.....but I have Shaman answers. Below is the text from the character creation screen. It's spot on and basically explains how you should be playing the Shaman:

"Shamans serve as priests to the tribal races of Norrath, able to draw upon the power of the spirits and focus it for their own purposes. Shamans are primarily a magic-using class, able to wear chain armor and wield blunt weapons and spears.

Shamanic magic has two main focuses: enhancing the mind and body of the shaman's allies, and weakening or damaging their enemies. A shaman's enhancement spells are always in demand, massively improving the strength, stamina, health, and other physical aspects of the shaman's group. Shamans are also able to heal their allies and have excellent health regeneration spells.

The weaken and damaging spells in a Shaman's arsenal are tremendously effective in battle. The Shaman attacks his enemies with disease and poison that causes massive damage over time, while using cold and ice magic to inflict damage directly. A brutal line of crippling spells can slow a monster's attacks, hamper their resistance to spells, and lower their physical prowess.
Shamans are a well rounded class with strong abilities in both group and solo situations. An experienced Shaman can turn the tide to any battle, bolstering their allies while weakening their enemies significantly. The Shaman is an excellent class for players who enjoy working in groups."

SO....WHAT'S NEXT?
Psst! Hey kid I hear ya want to be a Shaman but you have no idea what you're doing! Let me guess, you bought or earned yourself a Heroic Character token, then dove into the confusing mess of Shamanism. Now you're confused and have no idea what to do next? Does this sound about right? Well if it does, no worries. I can help you become an awesome group Shaman and have a less confusing stay in Norrath, and dare I even say have some fun in the process? Check out the links on the right side. They'll help you on your journey.

Buff, Slow, heal,
Trollout/Disclosingz

Friday, December 1, 2017

Updates & Plans

Well met traveler! Hopefully Norrath has treated you well.

*** This is a constant work in progress. I take time off here and there.***

Currently: Actively playing.

Updates:
03-05-18 - Fixed some formatting errors.
09-16-21 - Updated and reformatted some areas. Added new information to all areas. Began update to 115.
09-16-21 - Began boxing section for Shaman. Added information to augs section. Reformatted some areas. Added a little disclaimer. Expanded on farming plat.
10-21-21 - Updated spells and buff section to reflect all the way to 115.
10-24-21 - Fixed some grammatical errors. Reformatted some areas of the guide. Deleted out of date information in some sections. Expanded with more information in some areas. Added more tips.
06-11-23 - Added a glossary of repeated terms.
11-22-23 - Added a macro section. When I find time I will explain them in greater detail.

11-23-23 - Started modernizing the guide for end game expansions.
05-17-24 - Reformatted some areas of the guide for modernization.
06-27-25 - Reformatted some areas, fixed some typos, began a separate page for AA abilities and a few other areas to make the guide less cluttered. Expect in the upcoming weeks for the guide to be separated into pages, that you can navigate to specific areas using the side bar. Added some stuff on RoS and TBL. Reformatted a lot of the guide. Created a sidebar navigation.

Upcoming updates in progress currently:
-Gear updates for ToV, CoV, ToL, NoS, LS, and TOB.
-More comprehensive aug explanations.
-A more organized AA section.
-Add explanations for late game spell books. (110-125)
-Finish glossary.
-Separate pages for the guide (AAs, macros, etc)

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Beginning...

BEGINNING
Ok onto the guide . . .

You start out in Feerrott, quickly click the PoK stone so we can be in a neutral place to work on your hot bars and spell book. Delete the spell book, they loaded for you. It's terrible and will get you no where really quickly.

Root rot can be something like this(can be how ever you want though):

Really it's best to figure it out on your own. But the reality is the spells you have at 85 heroic and gear suck. Just figure out which ones you like best and use them. If you do decide to use my "template" you should be okay though. 1-6 are DoTs(Damage over Time), 7-9 are heals(Trust me you'll always have heals in your spell book, no matter what). is the weak ass version of Roar of the Lion, but still good for the level. 11 is your pet summon. 12 is a root spell.

Conclusion/Disclaimer

CONCLUSION

This guide was started around 2017, written by the person who plays Trollout(now Disclosingz) and author of this blog. Originally posted on reddit, not thinking anyone would read it, I have found it passed around here and there around the web. I have sparingly updated it over the years. I created the blog as a backup that I have continued updating. It is currently being worked on again to be current. The reddit version will probably never be updated. This will always remain the most current version of the guide.

These are all my opinions or things I found that worked well for me. If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, you can do so accordingly. If you have any questions about anything I did not cover, please comment. I will add a section for it. Also if you found a different spell bar beneficial, post your spells! I hope you have found the guide helpful and informative in your Shaman journey. Thanks for reading!

These are just strategies, methods, and opinions that were beneficial to me during my playing of over 14 thousand hours on Shaman. It probably won't work for everyone. If at least something in the guide was useful to you than the mission was a success. The only reason I wrote this guide was I saw an outcry by many individuals in many areas online for help with a Heroic Shaman (This and Zerker help, not to get off topic, but why the zerker information is so hush hush is weird af). If you have a different way, most excellent my dude! I hope you share it in a comment within a civilized manner. I have a lot of experience as a Shaman in EQ, but I never believe I am the end all of knowledge for the class. I know many that make my experiences seem minimal. I merely presented the information that was helpful for me being a high end Shaman with experience in raiding, group, casual, solo/molo, and box play. That doesn't mean I still can't learn. So if you read something on here you don't like, disagree with, can be improved upon, or feel is just out right wrong, that's cool and I would hope you can share that without being disrespectful. Heck! I might even add it to the guide with your permission and giving you full credit of course!

AA Hot Bars

AA HOT BARS:
These aren't as terrible as your pre-loaded spell book, but you still need to work on these a bit. Make a third bar, and eventually you might end up with a 4th, 5th, and maybe even a 6th.(I personally play with 6)

Your preloaded AA's:
Ancestral Aid - increases your parties healing and melee statistics. Click this every 12 minutes. Especially if in a group. This is non-negotiable in becoming a badass Shaman, just do it. (at higher levels I save this for named mobs)
Ancestral Guard - Absorbs a portion of damage you'd take for a short time. Helps you be able to tank a little bit. (Mostly played on the tank, but is a good OH SHIT AA, if you're getting clobbered on.)
Cannibalization - This is your life line, your never ending MP. Learn to love this AA. it's your bread and butter to continue on. Especially later on(level 110), when this is maxed.
Forceful Rejuvenation - Refreshes most spells in your spell book instantly. This is an oh sh*t! AA. I've used it in order to get my heals back when one wasn't available to help save myself from dying. It's sorta situational, and I don't use it much at 105 anymore, but it will save you before then.
Malosinete - Lowers resistances by 66 for 2 minutes. You'll be using this a lot so that your DoTs do more damage.
Radiant Cure - Pretty much removes debuffs received from enemy mobs, I use this more in EoK areas than I did first starting out. It is super useful. (Pretty useless in Ring of Scale from as far as I can tell, but up to 105 mobs it's great.)
Silent Casting - reduces hatred by 85% by your spells for 1 minute. This is basically if you're stealing aggro from a tank, you click this and it will help quell your aggro. If you're melee attacking along with your DoTs in a group, or if you're using your pet to tank, this will keep the situation under control if you time it properly. (With the recent Shaman nerf to the DoTs, it's almost impossible to steal aggro now, which is good. Also kind of made me never use this also.)
Spirit Call - Pet spam the mob. If you send your regular pet in to attack a mob and then click this, make sure you use your Tailsman of the Lynx so that there is a greater chance for crits by all the pets. Also when you get higher leveled, Tailsman of the Lynx will be replaced by Roar of the Lion.(Just so no one in comments asks why I didn't mention this, there's always one)
Spiritual Channeling - use HP for MP for 3 minutes. Okay so some might be wondering what the use for this is. When I am in a group sometimes I lose sight of my mana and it drops to 20-30%, I pop this bad boy, and and cannibalize to get my mana back up. Soloing you probably won't use this much.
Union of Spirits - Instantly heals target, Heals over Time(HoT), and increased melee statistics. I used to use this on myself when soloing, but now I'm mostly in groups, so I add the tank/pet in Extended Target Window 1, and made a macro for this which is below:
/timer 7200,/xtarget1
/alt act 662
Virulent Paralysis - Knocks back enemy and roots them for 2.9 minutes. Learn to love this AA if you're planning on soloing. You will use this a lot in that case, in groups it's mainly to knock back an add if you don't have crowd control from per say an Enchanter.

Added AA's to the hot bar I recommended creating:
Tranquil Blessing - Next beneficial spell you cast is cast on all within a radius of you at double mana cost. You can do Mass Group Buffs(MGB's) with this. Pretty useful. I do this while wondering around and see groups of players. Just to be known as a generous Shaman. I will touch on the buff spell book later in the guide.
Focus of Arcanum - Helps your level 95 and lower spells not be resisted. Until higher levels you will NEED this, especially if you get lucky enough to be carried or Power leveled(PL'd) through some tough areas by higher level characters.
Rabid Bear - Boosts offensive capabilities for 5 minutes. Use this if you are attacking the mob melee style. Higher ranks make this even better. Best if used for burning named or as a "HOLY CRAP" if getting melee pounded to allow an escape or if you can take the mob yourself.
Inconspicuous Totem - Basically the Shaman's FD. Makes you an immobile totem that makes level 89 and lowers NPCS forget about you.At higher ranks this becomes super awesome. I can't even tell you how many times I have been able to IT, when my party was going to wipe and then invis, drag corpses, and rez everyone; saving a whole lot of hassle. Sometimes I even use this real quick if I'm attracting too much aggro, then remove the buff from my buff list and it will allow you to move freely again and GTFO or go back to beating on mobs. Very rarely do I do the latter.
Shrink - This shrinks you allowing to move around easily in tight quarters. If you end up raiding you'll be using this A LOT. It's just good to have.
Call of the Ancients - Summons a stationary ward that heals everyone around it. Use this mostly during named mobs.
Dampen Resistance - Improves resist mod by 25-75 for 30 seconds. Another named mob AA.
Turgur's Swarm - slows target's melee attack speed for 8 minutes. THIS is needed to be cast on every mob, EVERY mob.SERIOUSLY EVERY-FUCKING-MOB. It's never acceptable to not play this on a mob. If you're ever gonna play in groups, this is your main objective. Slowing mobs.

Other Alternate Abilities(AAs) I use:
Spirit of Urgency - a giant cat appears for 15 seconds and has a chance to stun the mobs you are fighting. It also drops all aggro from whoever is getting beat on. I use this if the tank dies some how and starts attacking me.
Spiritual Rebuke - Pushes back and roots up to 8 enemies for 2 minutes. I use this if multiple mobs are coming at me. Then I usually have enough time to Inconspicuous Totem or gate out. Sometimes I use it also to have fun in DHHA's and test my tank/healing abilities. Just don't use this in cities...

Read through your AAs, learn them, live them. There's quite a few they don't give you that are pretty awesome. But I thoroughly suggest getting to max level and having auto grant on(this is why I suggested All Access, auto grant stops at a specific level) then getting at least to 10-20% into max level before grinding AAs....

Spells

SPELLS

What you'll notice is many of your spells every expansion for a while are really just updated versions of one another. A lot of the even have similar names. I.E. Talisman of "Unwavering", "Enduring", etc. They're synonyms of one another. Or many of your healing spells will be similar "squalls", "renewal", "regeneration" Once you are familiar with this, when you are updating your spells you should become more comfortable with what is replacing what for your current level.

It doesn't matter if they are RK. II or RK.III at first. Just worry about obtaining the spell, and eventually obtaining the RK.II. RK,III spells are obtained through raiding. Rk. II are gained by killing named mobs. The regular spells can be obtained from a merchant in the respective expansion. If you do not plan on raiding ever the highest spell type you can obtain is RK.II

Of course you remember this atrocious spell book from when you first started:

When all is said and done, your regular spell book should look something like this at 105:

1-2 are target heals, 2-4 are group HoT, 5 is your Oh SH*T heal, (This will be used on yourself primarily if you are soloing. If you are moloing or have a tank this will more than likely be used on them or your mercenary) 6 is another target heal/, 7-11 are your DoTs, and 12 is your make everyone hit harder and a slight heal.

Make sure you upgrade your spells every chance you get. It's vital. Level 85-90 spells will be worthless in the later expansions.

At 110 right now my spell book looks like this:(Like before can be whatever you want)

First of all RoS gave the ability to send 150 AA on Mnemonic Retention, which gives an added spell gem. 1-2 are target heals that use a slight bit of mana and your own hp to heal the target. I find these super beneficial if a tank is dropping below 50%, this will boost them anywhere between 70%-100% hp. 3-6 are HoTs. 7 is a mini cannibalization. 8 is cast on the tank. It has a chance to slow the mobs attack speed by 25% and a small heal. Cast this on the tank a lot. 9-11 are DoTs. 12. make everyone hit harder and a slight heal. 13. Another DoT

These are NOT set up for raids. But group/boxing play.

At 115 a good example of a healing based spell book is:(Again can be what you want this is merely a template)

If you want to try and take on a more Hybrid role you can replace 2 of the heals for DoTs, for example:

Or you have been blessed by being grouped with an actual Cleric, another Shaman, or your group is competent/strong enough to handle less heals you get to do my personal favorite...DPS spell book:

HEALING

Put the tank in the Extended Target Window 1. If you are soloing, put your pet there. If you are moloing and the merc is a tank, put them there. Use and abuse the extended target window.
Healing will get you groups easy, but to me it is boring. ZzZzZ. Easy none-the-less though.
If you are healer of your group. Chain heal. Spam heals, your spell book should remain gray. Non-negotiable. Just keep clicking heals, get in a rhythm and let it roll.
Play with the mentality of, if the tank dies you die. Even if it isn't true. I find it better to play this way because it keeps me alert.

I set up two healing macros to make it even easier:

Heal[Target]:
/cast 1
/cast 2
/cast 6

Heal[Group]:
/cast 3
/cast 4
/cast 5

I rotate clicking those two hot bar buttons while the tank is targeted through the Extended Target Window. When it is getting super bad, lets say the tank drops to 50-60% HP I have another Macro for that situation:

UoS AG [XT1]:
/timer 7200,/xtarget1
/alt act 662
/pause 7,/alt act 614
/cast 3

Just keep an eye on your HP if you're soloing, and everyone's HP if you're in a party, when in doubt you can add everyone to Extended Target Window(XTW), but it probably won't be necessary. That's pretty much how I heal, it may be sloppy but it gets the job done.

Since originally writing this, my method above may work well, but I changed my style a bit. I still use the macros but I don't just spam heal anymore. I systematically heal, If the tank drops below 70%, I hit him with a reckless regeneration or Eyrzekla's Mending. If more than one person is taking damage, IE. DPS is taking aggro from the tank(It happens) I hit a HoT, usually Eyrzekla's Recourse. After a mob dies, I heal the tank to 100% so they are ready for the next mob. Healing is pretty easy once you become accustomed to it.

BUFFS
Right out of the box Heroic 85 Shaman's buff aren't really going to do much for level 85+, but you can buff lowbies. After going through spell book this is what I came up with:

      1. Talisman of Unity
      2. Talisman of the Resolute (Faster heals)
      3. Spirit of Scale(Spirit of Tala'Tak for your level.)
      4. Tailsman of Celerity(Eventually get the AA at level 96, RoF)

When you get to level 95+, 105 would be ideal this is what I use:

Talisman of Kolos' Unity(replaced your regular Tailsman of Unity spell, you can get this at level 95)
Talisman of Tribunal - Shields party from poison and disease for 2:30:00, pretty useful for dealing with names and mobs that like to debuff, you can get this at 104.
Talisman of Celerity I - Increased movement and melee speed(Haste) for 00:36:00
Talisman of Faithful - Hastens groups natural healing, helps group recover HP faster for 00:36:00
Spirit of Tala'Tak - Increases groups run and attack rating for 00:36:00

The unity spells cast a few buffs in itself. The text says, "(The text on this says "Fills your group with a preeminent foresight, mammoth's force, imperative focusing, and a spirit of resolve. These effects will improve their avoidance, melee damage, maximum hit points, strength, dexterity, stamina and maximum endurance", so I know this seems like not a lot but by time your done you'll have given everyone what they need from the Shaman.

If you're feeling nice you can go to where ever the lag piles is on your server and buff everyone using Mass Group Buff. The people of Norrath will be grateful.

Also, you need to cast Tranquil Blessing before each spell, you need to cast Tranquil Blessing before each spell, I believe it's like a 30 second cool down.

You can load the spell book and make a simple macro for this:

Buff Macro 1:
/alt act 992
/cast 1
/pause 300,/alt act 992
/cast 2

Buff Macro 2:
/alt act 992
/cast 3
/pause 300,/alt act 992
/cast 4

There ya go, you can Mass Group Buff using macros. It's even easier for your group.

Group Buff Macro:
/cast 1
/pause 22,/cast 2
/pause 22,/cast 3
/pause 22,/cast 4

One and two click buttons, and you can choose everyone or your group. Pretty cool!

At 110 your buffs will be:

Talisman of the Wulthan (Upgraded Unity spell)
Talisman of the Unwavering (Upgraded Talisman of the Faithful)
Thorn Wilting(on yourself if soloing, on the tank if in group)
AA Talisman of Celerity I
AA Preincarnation I
AA Visionary Unity(Chance to proc swarm pets on DD or DoT spell casts)

The first 4 are group buffs, the last two are self buffs. That's pretty much it as far as buffs go.

The 115 buffs will be:

Talisman of the Ry'Gorr (Upgraded Wuthan spell)
Talisman of the Enduring (Upgraded Talisman of the Unwavering)
Thorn Wilting(on yourself if soloing, on the tank if in group)
AA Talisman of Celerity I
AA Preincarnation I
AA Visionary Unity(Chance to proc swarm pets on DD or DoT spell casts)

Where to go/What to do.

THE GRIND

Now that all of that is out of the way, the longest, more tedious path is to do the quests in Feerrott and The Grounds after the J5 Merc is acquired. So that you can get your Rk.II spells. Then move to Veil of Alaris expansion and do the same all the way through RoS.

The quicker path, which I choose was to do The Dead Hills Heroic Adventures and The Broken Mirror Heroic Adventures with a group of people. If you play a few hours a day and do this, you can be 110 within a month and have AAs grinded and invested in the ones you have and unlock the ones you don't have yet.

A typical example of soloing in the simplest way is Hit Virulent Paralysis, Turgur's Swarm, 1-6 on spell book, and let the sucker rot.(What this does is knocks the mob back/roots them, Slows them, plays 6 DOTs, and then you wait until they die

Where to farm
You have a decision here. Go forth in the current content as stated below or you can go back Underfoot where the mobs are going to con light blue and green. These will probably be easier to kill, making the XP gains quicker. You can probably melt 6 light blues or greens before killing a couple of dark blues or a single yellow mob. If you find yourself having difficulty in The Dream, Feerrott then try this, you will find it easier and the XP gain around the same. Do this until you gain a few levels, maybe 88 and you can attempt The Dream, Feerrott again.

Okay, back to The Dream, Feerrott after you fix your spell gems and Hotbars. Head to the grounds with a group. (It is possible to solo, but very easy to get overwhelmed very quickly until you obtain at least Tier 1(T1) gear from there. This is your new home until about level 92. (Technically you could go to Argath at 90. But it's nicer to go in a couple of levels higher than the zone guide states. I also recommend doing some The Dead Hills Heroic Adventures(DH HA) as often as you can. Great experience.If you choose to go to Argath, I personally like the Veil of Alaris Expansion. So I really suggest focusing on acquiring the armor and weapons from the name drops here. The experience should be pretty good too. There's areas where there are a lot of room to experiment on what works and what doesn't. Easy to root rot here. If you choose this route make sure to do the first two quests in Shard's Landing. Welcome to Shard's Landing and Words of the Unspoken so that you can master the Alaran language. The quests are easy, I Silent Presence myself and explored the areas on the map for the first quest. The second quest you can invis also for, it's just collecting ground spawns in the underground city and combining them. You end up with doing a part of the Rain of Fear(RoF) progression, but some of the Veil of Alaris(VoA) also. Pretty sweet. Now that you can speak/read Alaran you can purchase your Rk.II spells. (IIRC 'Stup' is the merchant that sells them for the Shaman. You can also turn in Alaran Cantrips in Beasts Domain that drop from the named mobs.

At around 93-97 go to Shard's Landing with a group and slay all those mobs you had to cast Silent Presence to sneak around for those quests mentioned above. Lay waste to everything outside the ring you arrive in. Most of the named mobs will spawn by killing that trash. And you'll end up with fear touched armor and dread motes to turn in for your Rk.II spells. You can also kill in Ethernere Tainted West Karana(Call of the Forsaken) Which ever floats your boat. Then once you reach level 100 move on to The Darkened Sea Expansion(Katta Castrum: Deluge) If you plan on ever doing progression in EoK do a mercenary task while you're here. Only one is needed to start the Lceanium progression.

Do more DH HA's. . .seriously. ha ha. Do them until you hate them and do them some more. You will level quickly doing a lot of these. I still to this day usually find time to do a couple a day still at level 105. Now that I am 110 and they made the DHHA's really only viable up until level 100, it's not needed that much anymore.

If you followed my guide and have been doing the mercenary, partisan quests, and DH HAs as often as you can, you should be some where around at least 100. You have another choice here, you can continue on with the questing and move to RoF, CotF, TDS, TBM, EoK, RoS, TBL, ToV, and CoV. Or your other option is you group with people and jump straight in to TBM/EoK stuff.

If you chose to follow the progression, which can be rewarding(AA:Hero's Resolution, AA: Hero's Vitality, and AA: Hero's Fortitude) but very tedious then you will level slower. I suggest getting to 110 as quickly as possible. This will be done best in DH HA's and grouping in EoK/RoS zones. The real grind starts then, while collecting AAs to improve Cannibalization, Virulent Paralysis, Turgur's Swarm, Ancestral Aid, and so many more. But those four are priority in my opinion.

Also do the daily from Franklin Teek in POK every day, that offers some good XP!

If you made it to 105 by now EoK can be your root rot dream. Especially if you do not want to group or cannot find groups. You can go to Frontier Mountains and Root Rot the Treants. Root them, then DoT them down. Sit and wait. Might have to do this twice. You can do multiple at a time. Just switch your AA to 100% (Type V and choose Exp to AA 100%) and go ham. The trees won't break root. unless you melee attack them or they get nuked by a direct damage spell. You can do this forever. It's really boring though. If you do choose this hopefully you have two monitors so you can watch a movie on the other one while performing this. There's nothing of extreme importance in this expansion. A few decent augs spread around the zones amongst named and maybe chaseloot which is pretty worthless at the current moment, except to sell in bazaar.

RoS - You'll want to complete this solely for the Emperor Ganak Familiar. (This is Will be upgraded in getting Paragon in CoV, ToL, NoS, and LS if you so choose to complete those expansions.)

TBL - You'll want to complete the mercenary, partisan, and missions. The Jann's Veil is an illusion item earned by completing part of the progression /Paragon of the Burning Lands, for the expansion that gives a buff with all sorts of greatness. (click the link to see) And a really cool Very Fast mount Efreeti Carpet (offers a pretty decent buff when used also) by completing the Burninator achievement which requires Champion of the Burning Lands. At level 115 this is absolutely miserable. At level 125 with a good amount of AA it's cake with a group or even boxing.

It should also be noted that there are four evolving items in this expansion worth getting.
Djarn's Tarnished Amethyst Ring
Tattered White Satin Gloves
Threadbare Weighted Tabard
Torn Efreeti Boots

The requirements to evolve those items is pretty steep, for the ring you will have needed to finish EoK and RoS, for the gloves completed Slayer in PoP, EoK, and RoS, for the Tabard Master Scavenger in CotF, EoK, TBM, TDS, and RoS, for the boots you basically need to get explorer in everything which requires you to go to like every single zone in the game. These drop in one single Mission. Fight Fire by Grieving Soul Scent that's right by zone in when you enter the entry zone in TBL. They don't drop every single time either, so in order to get all of these, you will have to farm the mission. I don't really see the point. But if you're like an OCD completionist and you're actually taking your time completing the expansions they might be worth picking up. I ended up getting them all and never bothered evolving them. And never used them as later expansion stuff was better.

Don't bother with regular gear here. It's a pain and most of the augs are only usable in this expansions armor.

If you do the missions, try and get the Savior achievements, they offer AA: Hero's Vitality, Resolution, Fortitude. You can cut a lot of the work out and just buy Task adds to missions if you ask in general. I'm sure you'll find someone that's willing to do them for plat. Just expect this to become very expensive, maybe not so much so for older expansions, but newer expansions definitely. Although I do see the nice guy in General chat every so often that is willing to Task add for free. Either way try to get these done regardless of the path you choose.

Gear & Chase Loot

Gear
As far as gear goes, holy smokes it sucks the big one at heroic 85. My best advice is to stay in House of Thule with a group for a bit and try and get the armor and augs by killing names and doing the kill quests. The augs you get by completing the mercenary quests will improve the heroic armor quite a bit.

At level 85 heroic your gear is terrible. Very underwhelming. Upgrade this as often as you can. In Argath you can upgrade your armor. But I'd wait until you hit Shard's Landing for the Fear Touched armor. Then in The Darkened Sea you can upgrade to Castaway armor from named mobs. You can buy the fear touched and Castaway armor in the Bazaar, shouldn't be that expensive. TBM armor seems weak until you aug it. The T1 EoK armor is Cohorts and the T2 is Selrach's.

Ring of Scale brought us a new-ish older twist on armor, and let the Trade skill junkies shine! Pretty much until you can make the T2 armor your goal after 106 is to get conflagrant armor made by yourself(if your TS are high enough), a friend, or buy it from the bazaar. On my server it was priced pretty steep. As of recent though the prices are starting to drop. My TS are all maxed so I just went and farmed the material I needed for my armor and made it myself. You can still get the EoK chase in this expansion also.

TBL - TBD: Right around the middle of TBL I had quit playing for a bit until recently. So TBL information will be scarce in the guide until I am finished with the progression with my group. But will be added eventually to make the guide more comprehensive for all. TBL did present "Chase Loot" ultra rares, but a dev accidentally left the table in for the EoK chase. So you have the ability to roll for both in this expansion. You can get EoK & TBL chase loot. EoK chase loot is still fairly decent in TBL. The times I have been there when it was paired with the TS(1.5 tier) armor from RoS it held up pretty well in the starting zone. I would not know about later zones yet though. Will include tier 1, TS, and tier 2.

In Torment of Velious(ToV) we were truly blessed with the named in the tier 1 zones dropping gear that was tradable. So if you can grind out a named camp you're pretty golden. If you cannot, you can actually buy all this tier 1 in the bazaar, but if it's anything like Cazic it will be for an insane amount of plat. Worst case is you're on a low population server and can find no group and there's no one just grinding out the named to sell the loot in the bazaar. In this case I'd say server transfer to a more active server, because you're basically confined to nonsensical areas at the very best, and stuck at the very worst. And on average going to get XP very slowly. Regardless the gear is a lot easier to get for tier 1 than in prior expansions because of this. Torment of Velious also has it's own table of Chase Loot.

Claws of Veeshan(CoV) - TBD Will include tier 1, TS, and tier 2.

"Chase Loot" Ultras Rares
You have seen this mentioned in the prior section. And it's kind of worth going over for anyone that is unaware. Okay so there's been zone wide drops for a while now. I am unsure the exact amount of time. Perhaps maybe since Depths of Darkhollow. Not positive on that though. But they introduced zone wide gear drops in HoT(which by today's standards are absolute garbage and most people don't even realize it's the ultra rare drop for the zone and tribute it, destroy, or sell it.) But around EoK they got amaze balls and people grinded for hours, days, weeks, months, to obtain them. Either to gear their character with essentially the equivalent of raid gear for that expansion or to sell to people for Krono. (And even though it's against ToS some people do real world trading with them.) If I recall correctly the odds for a chase loot drop are something like 1/17,000 chance. Something like that. Don't quote me on the exact number. They're really rare though. If you get one of these coveted items think to yourself how will it be most beneficial to you? Will equipping it for your toon be best? Would selling it for a Krono(s) for a free month(s) of play be better? Or for Krono(s) to sell for plat? (Also don't forget, if you get a piece you can't wear, you can sell it for the going price on your server and ask for the plat equivalent and most people will be cool with that also.)

Mercenaries

Mercs

"They have added the No Heroism Without Fear quest for a reason. It is dead simple and a trained monkey (ba-dum-crash) should be able to complete it. Might be a little crowded with everyone here though. Should get you almost halfway through 85 though when you finish. http://hot.eqresource.com/noheroismwithoutfear.php This will net you a MUCH improved mercenary that should be able to help you get all the heroic augs and get leveling. I timed it and even with my dogs distracting me it took 15 minutes. Use Find to get to the investigators quickly and the link above to get to lizardmen and mushrooms without wandering around lost." - LLCoolKryz (Redditor)

I feel this pretty much hit the nail on the head. If you choose not to do this quest, you're pretty much doomed to group play. Your soloing days are pretty numbered. So if you want to solo this is priority number one. This quest takes literally less than 30 minutes and that's being very liberal. Seen people finish this in like 15 minutes. So do it. The difference in mercenaries is TREMENDOUS. Seriously though, do this quest.

Okay, after my first draft of the guide everyone assumed I felt the healer merc was the ONLY merc to use. This is certainly not the case, but it will allow you to learn the class and make mistakes without a huge penalty. This is true for all classes. Then when you are more comfortable with your rotations and know what the AAs and spells do you can certainly change it to a tank, caster, whatever.
I use the tank mercenary while soloing, even though that they act a little wonky if you attract more than 1 mob. Especially if you're slowing multiples with Turgur and are stuck with a situation where you can't use Tigir's(Your AE slow) because of attracting even more mobs. The tank will jump around depending on who your targeting and acts all stupid and doesn't just stick with one mob. This MAY cause you an issue. In lower level areas this doesn't present much of a problem though, especially if you are geared accordingly.

A little more on mercenaries. I have seen it said often "mercenaries after level 85 are garbage" or some iteration of that statement. I can almost guarantee you these same folks have less than 100 AA in their mercs. Let me tell you I have 1792 AA in my mercenary, and current merc gear in all 4 slots, that fool can tank named with ease. They only suck if you do not show them any love. It's infinitely harder to find a group these days. Even if you do they'll hardly be willing to grind hours. At best you'll get a couple of hours. People have lives. A lot of times when grouping you may find yourself with less than 6 people. This is a perfect opportunity to use your merc and get them some AA. Even if you decide to root rot. Have a healer merc out, so you get AA for them. But keep in mind, it's an AI playing that mercenary, they are not always ideal or perfect. Some weird/frustrating things will happen depending on the class. Be prepared for that.

Boxing & Macros

BOXING
So, let's say you started a Heroic Shaman to group with another toon or even your box group and you have no real interest in one besides say the buffs, slows, heals. I get it. You'll still have to drag this dude around with you. If you're not going to PL him the fast way, which would be either finding someone on your server to buy the TA thing or someone on your server/in your guild that will TA you for free to the current missions, and right before they open the chest popping a LOTD(Lesson of the Devoted; Veteran AA that gives XP bonus). The other option is to bring him along with you to a camp you can handle, preferably an easier named camp, so if they spawn you can start getting gear and augs for the Shaman also. Once you got this dude up to par and where you need it to be, it's basically the same.

1. Buff group before pulls.
2. Slow & Malo immediately upon the mob entering the radius of your camp.
3. Start heal rotation.
4. Throw a few DoTs.
5. Continue heals.
6. Rinse & repeat.

I will be including Screenshots as well as copy and pasted macros for all of these steps soon. So instead of having to click repeatedly you can click 4 to 6 timed macros and have the Shaman still be efficient in the box group.

MACROS
Below are some important macros. These will save you some clicks and allow you to tell you group what you are doing. Add these to a hotbar botton line by line. You can alter them as needed.

Malosinete & Turgur's Swarm
/alt act 148
/pause 11
/alt act 3729
/g %T Debuffed & Slowed.

Cannibalization
/timer 1200,/alt act 47
/pause 11,/cast 5
/g Cannibalization!

UoS SG[xT1]
/timer 7200,/xtarget 1
/alt act 662
/pause 7,/alt act 614
/cast 3

Tranquil Blessing Buff Macros(If you want to buff people at the pile on your server, or multiple people at once not in your group):

TB Buff Macro 1:
/alt act 992
/cast 1
/pause 300,/alt act 992
/cast 2

TB Buff Macro 2:
/alt act 992
/cast 3
/pause 300,/alt act 992
/cast 4

Group Buff Macro:
/cast 1
/pause 22,/cast 2
/pause 22,/cast 3
/pause 22,/cast 4

Healing Macros: (Have yourself single target heals in 1, 2, 6, and group heals in 3,4,5) Have the tank in the extended target window, whether a merc/pet/another player for the first macro.

Heal[Target]:
/xtarget 1
/cast 1
/cast 2
/cast 6

Heal[Group]:
/cast 3
/cast 4
/cast 5

More to be added soon.

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.

Plat/PP

Plat
If you followed the guide you should have obtained quite an amount of plat and loot to sell..I highly suggest unless you are going to do the Artisan's Prize(Which I have done and it is the most disgusting set of tasks a video game has ever asked of me.) that you sell all the trade skill stuff in /barter to the trade skill junkies. Everything else to vendors. If you did and you weren't frivolous with your plat. Also it would be beneficial to set up a trader in the bazaar at some point when you are logged out, so you can make plat on TS items, gear, and other loot while away from game. Another little protip: Unless you are specificly saving your Daybreak Cash(DBC) for a particular item, always use your 500 on the Legands of Norrath(LoN) card packs. It's a gamble, but sometimes you get a super rare prize. One time I got a Dragorn War Mask. I linked it in chat and had 11 tells instantly. A buddy of mine gave me 4 Krono for it. So you can sometimes bank on those prizes for some hug gains in either Krono or plat.

So let's say you have been foolish with your plat or even just didn't really sell anything or loot the trash, etc. What to do now? Let's not kid ourselves here. The easiest way to get a large number of plat in a short amount of time is buying Krono and selling them on your server. (This should net anywhere between 2-2.7mill plat each depending on the server) Now if you do not have a ton of money this isn't really an option. So what can you do? Well there's a few options.

Start looting everything first of all unless it's a quest item you don't need, not worth anything, or a no drop item of some sort that is worthless. It's best to look up something you are unsure of. Use the /barter and sell your TS stuff, and all the trash to vendors, save a percent in your bank, don't carry all your plat on you, force yourself to budget.

If you got membership and you are suffering in the plat department, ALWAYS do the card pack when claiming the DBC. You might get lucky and get a prize that is worth something huge, and you can restock your funds very easily.

You can always run through an old Planes of Power zone or any old zone that has some mobs that drop high amount of plat and/or trash loot that will sell and get plat this way too, although the most arduous method. Old Seb is a great area to get a lot of TS and trash loot items that sell well. Like the gems.

Try to be innovative. Go to old zones like GoD and try and farm Lightning Core's or Pyrilien Flame's or other items that are old but still needed today and will sell for a decent amount. The items are really rare, but often worth a quick dip out to the zone, run through and kill everything and loot and leave.

Shaman's are the only ones that can do alchemy. If you farm the materials for pots you can make a small profit on these too in the bazaar.

There's a lot of options for plat. The truth of the matter the game is nearly 2 and a half decades old, plat should not be an issue for you like the eras of 1999-2004 were. People literally have millions of plat these days. But if it is, try some of the methods above, you'll surely find a way to make some coin quickly.

General Tips

GENERAL TIPS

If you're able to, become all access and get the latest expansions. This guide will be more beneficial to you. Although owning the latest expansions is not necessary, but if you plan on raiding or joining an active guild it will help immensely. This also will keep you from reaching the level cap maximum.
With that being said, JOIN A GUILD. Going alone can be okay, but this game is extremely more fun if you play in groups. Soloing/Moloing gets tired real quick. (**Please, do this. I cannot tell you the amount of times someone says they get no groups and has not joined a guild and isn't very retroactive in finding their own groups. Even a little "Hey doing X anyone want to tag along?" in general chat usually ends up in at least 1 or 2 joining you for a grind session.**)
Speaking of soloing/moloing, if you do not Get a J5 Mercenary you're going to die a lot more. It makes a huge difference. Do the quest especially if you plan to mainly solo. Use the healer. It's the only viable mercenary for soloing at this level.(Once you become accustomed to the Shaman, you will more than likely use a tank while soloing and healing said tank.)
Do your epic quests! Don't skip any of this. Do your epic 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. You'll use the 2.0 a lot in groups and solo play. Besides the Shaman epic story line is awesome. Seriously people, this is one of the few epics in my opinion that is a must have. DO NOT SKIP getting this.
BE PATIENT. Live servers are not what the game was in 1999-2004. If you're coming back due to nostalgia, this is not the game you're looking for. You will be better suited for Time Locked progression servers. But if you can re-learn some mechanics, read a ton of stuff, and push through playing, you will get better each time. Eventually muscle memory will take hold and you'll seem like a total badass at the character, when in fact you're just going through your rotations as quickly as possible. And you'll inadvertently form memory timers for your abilities.
The best solo/molo for Shaman is root rot. Find mobs that you can do this too with Virulent Paralysis(knocks mob back and roots them), Malaise them, Damage Over Time(DoT) them and sit there and wait until they die. I.E. And in Empires of Kunark, the zone Frontier Mountains has treants all over the North side of the zone. They are not social (They will not help one another if you attack one) Do not do this with a merc. A wizard's nuke will break the root. And any melee will also break the root. Just have a back up plan. If you've done the Anniversary quest "Pub Crawl" then you have the excellent item "Drunkard's Stein"(Instant port to Plane of Knowledge) or if you're wanting more of a challenge you can run a bit, hopefully not die, Inconspicuous Totem, wait for aggro to drop, then go back to doing what you were. The second best requires you to heal between your pet and mercenary. Also all mobs (besides named) in Dead Hills Heroic Adventures are also rootable. This is a great area to practice your abilities in, especially around the late 90's early 100 levels. Just always have an emergency plan to escape or not die.
I don't group often but when I do.....Dos Equis. Stay Buffed my friend. No for real, stay buffed! Pay attention to this. Have everyone in your group constantly rebuff. You are not the only buffs in the game. The Enchanter, Ranger, and Wizard for example have some pretty stellar buffs. As well as other classes, always take buffs and stay buffed. Even bring a potion to raise stats. (I.E. around RoS use Gorowyn Fortified Drink) Bring stat food/drink for your level also.
If you are idling any noncombat areas, SUSPEND your merc. You are wasting plat. And unless you're willing to break ToS and real world trade (Which I suggest not doing, since it's a bannable offense) you're blasting away hundreds of plat every 15 minutes.
Get a map pack and install it. I use Brewall's Everquest Maps This has been a huge time saver.

Shout Outs

SHOUTS
VOX: Sparatan, Axex, Holypaper, Kallysta, Thelda, Charmologist, Derod, Mineo, all the old members of The GoDS(miss the fuck out of you all.) Zalrusis, Azzalea, Snarc, Puzzlez. Hankz, Meatlick, Kashmirre, Shaddrack, and everyone else that ever grouped with me on that server and showed me a great time, made me laugh my ass off, or helped me get gear and XP. You are all appreciated although I lost contact with most of you.

A super special thanks to Sparatan, Snarc, Axex, Holypaper, Kallysta, Thelda, Charmologist, Hankz, & Derod. You all allowed a baby Shaman to group with you all, brought me through a lot of progression and quests in TBM, EoK, and some of the older expansions. It's you all that truly allowed me to explore the Shaman and the hidden potential that lay hidden beneath. I only got this far with your help. I will always love you dudes Oh yeah, and Zalrusis deserves an OMEGA epic shoutout, when I was doing the AP, this dude gave me 6 of the seals free of charge. What a god-like spicy papi legend. One of the coolest people and nicest dudes ever.

Cazic Thule: Fascion(This dude brought me through the Empires of Kunark progression with his box crew when we were both on Xegony, and showed a noob the ropes as a Shaman and what we're able to do in battle, lost contact with him, and later found him on Cazic), SpiderGirl, Brewall, dude is a legend for making those maps, his in game house is super freaking awesome!

Guilds: The Guards of the Divine Soul (RIP), Guk Off, Veritas Mortem, and all the others I had the the pleasure of being a part of or playing with or learning from. Scoundrels of Norrath, Return of the Exiled, Silent Redemption, Sojourners on Cazic Thule.

If I forgot anyone, I apologize. Many hours playing were spent inebriated. So I don't remember everyone's name. If we ever grouped, sent tells, or we're in a guild together I have nothing but mad love and respect for you!!

Glossary of Terms

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
A few terms you will see over the course of this guide repeated. You may be wondering what they mean, so a list of them will be here for quick reference.

Solo - This mean it's just you.
Molo - Soloing with a mercenary.
Boxing - Playing more than one character at a time.
EoK - Empires of Kunark
TBL - The Burning Lands
RoS - Ring of Scale
PoK - Plane of Knowledge
A.A. - Alternate Ability points.
Merc - Mercenary
ToV - Torment of Velious
DHHA's - Dead Hills Heroic Adventures

T1 - Tier 1
T2 - Tier 2
TDS - The Dead Sea
CotF - Call of the Forsaken
Plat - Platinum (your currency)
HoT - House of Thule
ToL - Terror of Luclin
NoS - Night of Shadows
LS - Laurion's Song
TOB - The Outer Brood

Author

AUTHOR'S INTRO
Hi! I am a Shaman originally named Trollout, I began my journey as a Heroic Shaman on Vox!I am currently playing on Cazic-Thule as Disclosingz. I have a lot of hours in the game as a Shaman. You can check on the right side there to see approximately. I have completed the expansions Call of the Forsaken, The Darkened Sea, The Broken Mirror, Empires of Kunark, Ring of Scale, and The Burning Lands. House of Thule & Veil of Alaris are almost completed, a few quests left in each. Torment of Velious, Claws of Veeshan, are about 70-80% completed. Terror of Luclin, Night of Shadows, Laurion's Song, and the Outer Brood have little to nothing started. I have been in most areas though, mainly getting AAs and gear. I also have taken long stretches of time off since this guide originally started due to work and personal life stuff.

Outside of the game, I work a full time job, and enjoy life to the fullest and have a lot of hobbies including art, reading, watching cinema, dancing, hiking, music, etc.