Teh OMFG PVP SHAMAN Guide
Yes, it is here...
I. What the hell is it?
II. Uh what did you just say?
III. Stat placement
IV. Skill placement
V. Skill explanations/uses
VI. Gear set-ups
VII. Merc
VIII. Leveling
IX. Dueling Techniques
I: What the hell is it?
The PvP Shaman is a elemental/summoning druid.
You use the skills Fissure, Molten boulder, Volcano, Armageddon, and Summon grizzly.
These might seem like underused/weak skills to you, but I tend to disillusion people when I kill them.
What this build loses against:
Extremely powerful wind druids
Absorbing Chargers
Absorbing WW Barbs (not assns, usually)
What this build kills
Everything else.
II: UH What did you just say?
Yes, this build is among the most powerful pvp builds in existance. In fact, the only build that is generally better for dueling is imo the Wind Druid, who, unfortunately, gets either completely annihilated or has a hard time against certain chars (fire sorcs/trappers/hammerdins)
The PvP shaman combines two extremely powerful druid builds, the Fire Druid and the Summoning Druid.
The Fire Druid has powerful caster spells, but will generally lose to other casters, who can either overpower him or absorb him.
The Summoning Druid can pack a deadly combo with teleport/grizzly, but he is helpless against most melee/ww chars, and bone necros (and wind druids).
When you combine the two, you are left with a char with very few weaknesses.
Using Volcano / Teleport / Grizzly, in that order, you will kill 90% of casters.
Fissure will kill 90% of melee people.
My stats:
Level 91 Druid "Grizzly" (useast ladder sc)
2100 Life (3400 with oak)
Maxed Resistances, stacked about 30 deep.
-20% Enemy fire resistance
83% Faster Cast Rate
Lvl 40 Fissure (3k Fire Damage)
Lvl 40 Volcano (900 Physical, 1000 Fire)
Lvl 40 Molten Boulder (1400 Physical, 800 Fire)
Lvl 31 Firestorm (3300 Fire / Second)
Lvl 21 Armageddon (3200-4000 Fire)
Lvl 36 Grizzly (4800 Physical, 3700 w/o how)
Molten boulder is only really helpful against wind druids :/
III: Stat Placement
Strength: enough for enigma, make sure to have enough for a monarch, since this is what you will most likely use (ss, spirit, resists shields are all monarchs), so make sure after all other gear you have 156 strength
Dexterity: enough for Wizardspike, if you ever plan on using, or none. Blocking is hopeless here.
Vitality: EVERYTHING ELSE
Energy Base
IV: Skill Placement
Elemental
Remaining points in Firestorm
20 Molten Boulder
20 Fissure
20 Volcano
1 Armageddon / prereqs
Summoning
1 Heart of Wolverine / prereqs (includes 1 oak)
20 Summon Grizzly
Shapeshifting
None
V: Skill explanations/uses
Fissure:
A powerful skill.
I get this to do ~3000 damage. This is extremely similar to Blizzard but has wider radius, hits more, and does less damage.
This is good against melee/ww people, since you can drag them through a fissure, inflicting massive damage. You can generally hit a ww barb 5 times or so if he teleports on top of you into a fissure. A pally trying to charge through will get hit about 3 times. If a necro or druid is minion stacking, get them to teleport into a fissure, and all their minions will die.
Fissure will not work very well against casters, since they can teleport out of it before it hits them.
Volcano
Deceptively powerful.
Volcano will work on casters. Namelock someone with a volcano, and it will always hurt. Not only packing fire and physical damage, volcano has a very good ability to stun. If your volcano does more then 1/12 the hp of someone, they will be put into FHR. While the volcano is under them, they will be stuck in FHR lock. Seeing as volcano lasts 6 seconds, this generally kills weak people in 1 casting. This stunning ability is especially useful against casters, since you can stun them enough for you to teleport onto them with Grizzly, usually killing them right away.
Volcano's main use is killing casters. Toss one under their feet, and teleport on top with Grizzly. Keep in mind, however, Volcano CAN be blocked.
Grizzly
The telebomb.
My old build was pure Grizzly, but the synergies aren't neccessary, since the +skills can add to them. The idea with your Grizzly is to teleport onto someone with a namelock (or teleport close to them), and your Grizzly will hit them within ~5-7 frames. This can kill many sorcs/bowazons in a single hit. The minion stacking it provides also makes it impossible for you to be hit by guided arrow.
Grizzly is also helpful defensively. Against characters that teleport onto you (wind druids, hammerdins), it will hit them as soon as they land on you, before they can attack most times. Keep wary, however, that your Grizzly can be frozen. Dont shy away from recasting it.
Molten Boulder
"Pshh I can tank that"-
Idiot-Sorc was slain by Grizzly
This skill looks very weak.
It's slow, near-impossible to hit with, and packs absurdly high damage.
The reason: When you hit with molten boulder, it knocks your enemy back, and hits them again.
Getting hit 5 times from my boulder results in:
7000 Physical 4000 Fire damage.
Ouch.
For the most part, this skill is just there to make fun of people. However, it is extremely vital in fighting wind druids.
Wind druids cannot be hurt by fissure, and volcano lacks the damage to put them into FHR.
However, the ~1400 physical on Molten Boulder is enough to clobber most wind druids, if you can trick them into teleporting into one.
Armageddon
This is not Thunder Storm; it's better and worse.
Armageddon is a cast/forget skill. With one point, I do 4k damage with it. The trick is, while you teleport, the rocks from armageddon fall behind you, leaving a wake behind you if you teleport away from someone. Not only giving an incredible scare factor, this kills any melee chars that attempt to chase you down. Very useful against trappers that get a stunlock on you, since it will pelt them while you sit there.
Just don't count on Armageddon killing anyone. It's pattern is random, so you can't target anyone with it, it just strikes randomly.
VI: Gear Set-Ups
Armor
Enigma:
No other options in this category. Your best bet would be with either breast plate or mage plate, since they have low strength.
Weapon
Hoto:
The best caster weapon, and perfect for this build.
Beast:
Adds to your grizzly damage, but the fanat aura gives 1/2 listed damage, meaning that hoto will add 1-2x the damage beast will.
Wizardspike:
Nuff said?
Shield
Spirit:
Insane mods. Use.
Lidless:
Like spirit, but with less str requirements. Use if you plan on ultra low strength
Stormshield:
Helpful to have in your stash for dueling melee people / wind druids.
Helm
Ravenlore:
Excellent help to your fire skills, along with resists. Keep in mind it might leave your Grizzly a bit weaker.
Jalals:
Very nice bonuses, the +2 all skills help alot but with spirit the fhr is generally not as useful.
Kira's Guardian:
An Umed 70% resist Kiras is great to have in your stash for ANY char.
Belt
T-Gods:
Absolutely neccessary to duel trappers, or most lightning based builds. Provides both vit and str, making it a great choice.
Verdungos:
High vitality, along with that dr that you will be lacking, very good if you insist on not using absorb.
Arachnids:
Very nice caster bonuses. Just make sure the fcr will help you reach a breakpoint before you think too hard about it.
Gloves
Magefists.
Boots
Triple-Resisters:
What do you think they do?
Treks:
All-round good boots, but lack useful resists.
Hotspurs:
Best choice unless you don't wanna make people hate you.
Amulet
Maras:
High Resists/Stats/Skills makes this invaluable
+3 Elemental or summoning:
Good, but will leave your opposite branch lacking.
Rings
For this, just leave in your stash:
2x Wisp
2x Dwarfs
2x Ravens
And use either sojs or bk rings.
Charms
5x Elemental, 5x Summoning
Use and anni, and fill 9 spots left with resist scs.
Make sure to stack on resist scs even if your resists are maxed. This is to counter -resists equipement.
On weapon switch
CTA/Spirit:
Because it is, uh, is good.
Insight:
Good if you skimped on the cta, you can switch to this to regenerate mana.
My personal set-up:
Hoto
Enigma (mage)
Spirit
Ravenlore
Tgods
Magefists
Hotspurs
Maras
Wisp/Raven (with rest in stash)
5x Ele gcs, 5x Summoning gcs
9x Resisters, 1x Anni
VII: Merc
3 Main choices here:
1) Act 2 Might merc:
Adds great damage to your bear, and with a reapers, can help you pvm very well.
2) Act 2 Holy Freeze merc
When you teleport on someone, this will lower their run/walk, making them an easier target for your bear.
3) Level 27 Act 2 Prayer merc using Insight
The ideal pvp merc, it provides fast hp regenerating from synergized prayer/meditation, along with the obvious mana regenerating, all at a cost of ~5k gold per revive.
VIII: Leveling
If you don't know how to level a char, You realllly shouldn't try pvp yet.
The order to max skills:
1) Fissure.
2) Grizzly
3) Volcano
4) Molten Boulder
5) Firestorm
Pumping points into fissure will dominate norm for you. Level 1 will pretty much solo trist runs in 8 player games.
Once you get up to norm baal runs, you should max your grizzly to use as a tank.
Since this is a pvp char, the leveling and order of it is pretty much irrelevant, but Fissure and Grizzly will help you the most in pvm.
IX: Dueling Techniques
Barbarians:
Singers:
Just run them outa mana. Typically 1 volcano is enough to take out a weak singer, since they have no shield almost always. You can slap on some dr to basically null their attack, but the main thing is to just play offensively. The barbarian is also playing offensively, but if you can turn a duel into a teleport chase, your bear will finish them off with ease.
Whirlwind
If they don't have an enigma, it's pointless for them. Just fissure/teleport, and you've automatically won.
If they are a tele/ww barb, however, the game is now much harder. If they are single-handed, you need to duel like a blizzard sorc; lay a fissure underneath yourself, and teleport away when they teleport on you. Fissure + ww has an interesting reaction. If you attempt to ww through a fissure, you will be hit ~5-10 times. Ouch. By laying these under your feet, you can force a ww barb to run. Once a ww barb starts running, or playing defensively, take the offensive right away. Namelock/teleport if they try to escape, since they will only have 25% blocking while running, along with 0 defense. This basically means a free shot for your bear.
If they absorb, then they actually have a good chance of winning. If they are 2-handed, you can just fight with volcanos and grizzlys. If they are one-handed, however, they will leech more then your grizzly can dish out, so switch over to oak sage and just toss volcanos as best you can. If they are teleport/ww/absorb, its a very hopeless duel for you.
Concentrate or Berserk
Point and laugh.
Leap Attack
See above.
Sorceresses:
Fire Sorcs
These come in one flavor; Fireball.
The one thing to bear in mind is that fireball doesn't just pack a decent punch, but if you teleport on top of them, it will stunlock your bear, preventing it from hitting.
Unfortunately, fire sorcs are also 99% of the time weak. Just lay one a namelocked volcano under them, to stun, and teleport/grizzly to finish them. If they are the type that tries to outrange you, chase them with grizzly. It packs more damage then energy shield can absorb, so a grizzly/volcano combo almost always kills.
Lightning Sorcs
Almost identical in every way to fire sorcs, except these can't outrange you as well. The main problem is that they also tend to pack a higher level energy shield, meaning they can most likely take a full grizzly blast without breaking. To counter this, simply play on the offense. Chase a lightning sorc down, and dont let go until they are dead.
Holy Shock Sorc
Put on a t-gods.
Blizz Sorc
Main thing is to be careful. By laying down a namelocked grizzly hit, you will 100% of the time make them instantly turn defensive. Take advantage of this by following with a namelocked volcano. They now turn offensive again. Follow with a grizzly. Rinse, lather, repeat.
If they duel by trying to outrange you (aka archiocoax style), just play their game. Fissure has a larger radius then blizzard, so you can win the outranging game. When they realize this, and go on the offensive, follow up with a hit from your grizzly. Guess what comes next.
Orb Sorc
ARrrrrggghhh.
Grizzly is useless against these, since orb will freeze him. You can kill these by dueling entirely with volcano. If they have enough es to take your volcanos without flinching, just duel by doing passes with your grizzly, resummoning each time. While it seems futile, with careful precision, you can get a hit off, which will always drain their mana leaving you to kill with a volcano.
Oh and if they are BM, dont forget that you can always just stack your cold resist with 2x raven to completely null any kind of cold sorc.
Melee Sorc
If it is a werebear sorc, refer to my previous section on how to duel a concentrate barb.
If it is zeal/teleport, simply namelock volcanos. These will hit them before they can tele onto you, and will almost always stunlock them anyway, so they never really stood a chance, regardless of how much damage they can pack.
I hope this guide is handy. Any comments on it before I make it?
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I despise cheating, and although my brother used MapHack, I would never use it.
