I want to play a Holy Shaman
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:51 pm
Tired of playing melee characters? Istar is too easy for you? Then I have the perfect build: the Holy Shaman. In the past weeks, I've tried to level such build with no or little success. The early game is simply impossible...
So let's describe here the build I've used. Rolled a dwarf shaman with balanced stats, since you will need STR to carry stuff, INT to survive the early game, WIS as your main stat, CON for hps and CHR for decent prices in shops. My starting stats: 14 12 18/30 10 10 10. Since this character will neither be able to fight nor cast spells with the starting mana pool, and shooting is almost out of question due to abysmal hit chance, ABSOLUTELY sign for every Dungeon Keeper event until you win the event and get a mana-boosting item out of it. Gloves of the Magi are a must, but a Staff of Mana with a decent + (6 or more) will do. To get such item, I usually equip a mage staff and skill Air/Holy Support with the 10 skill points you get from winning Dungeon Keeper and leveling to 3. Be careful, if you skill only Air and don't equip a mage staff, the game may think you're playing a rogue and give you a useless item (like gloves of thievery -- happened to me once).
The skills for this build are the following: Mimicry at 30, Holy Offense and Holy Support maxed out, Holy Defense at 40, Air at 5, Traumaturgy at 6, rest into Spellpower. This will probably have to be finely tuned, but we'll go with these values for now.
In the beginning, buy a spellbook of Noxious Cloud. Any spare cash should be spent in cure serious wounds and phase doors. Your first 10 skill points should have been spent before redeeming your deed for an item in Air (5) and Holy Support (5). If you need cash, kill townies with Noxious Cloud. Buy as many cures/phases as you can, a Word of Recall, and go to the Orc Caves. Stairscum, try to kill everything you can with Noxious Cloud and grab everything you can while staying near the stairs. You should quickly gain some levels by killing low level orcs and similar monsters. Remember to avoid anything that's resistant or immune to poison: this means kobolds, unliving and undead. Once you have enough loot, recall to Bree and sell everything. With the cash, buy 3-4 Word of Recall and a book of Holy Light. Spare gold goes again into phases and cure pots. If you play everlasting, try to keep 1500 gold and enable instant resurrection. For spending skill points, the rule is simple: skill Mimicry until your skill value is equal to 0.6 times your level (remember we aim for 30 at level 50), max out Holy Offense and Holy Support, spare points go into Holy Defense (until reaching a value of 40) and them to Spellpower if Holy Defense is maxed. Scum -50ft Orc Caves until you reach level 15 or so.
At this point, with any character, I dive deeper into the Orc Caves until I'm able to kill Azog. With this build, it's out of question. The best to do is probably to go back to Bree and dive into Barrow Downs until you're around 1000ft. Take advantage of the forest terrain by getting a form that can cross woods (even a yeek form will do -- remember that with a staff of mana or gloves of magi, you need a form that can equip them, which eliminates all animal forms immediately). Get a passwall form early in the dungeon (phantom warrior is easy to get, after that you can scum for green glutton ghost which has a +6 speed boost). Kill hounds for experience.
Once level 20 or so, buy a ring of cold resistance and go to the... Helcaraxe! There you can get Sasquatch form, which is a good early midgame form. Be careful, the wilderness around the dungeon has a high danger rate (level 40 or so), and if you stay idle too long on the surface, very nasty monsters will spawn (ancient Ds are common in the area). So recall one sector west of the dungeon (50,38), go there quickly, enter immediately, magic map the level and get down to -100. Stairscum between -100 and -50, kill cold hounds for experience (sometimes an ice troll pit may spawn, consider clearing it if there are no ice troll warriors/chieftains/monks and such nasties inside), and scum for 20 Sasquatchs to get the form (you can get Yeti form first, which has cold immunity and will help greatly in the dungeon).
After you get the form, you should be in the high 20s so it's time to go to Gondolin and scum -50 Mordor for gold and better equipment. At this point, it's vital to raise your WIS stat to get a better mana pool and lower failing rates. You can't kill much with Noxious Cloud or Holy Light, and Curse not only costs a ton of MP, but only harms targets 25% of the time! Your main offensive spell, Orb of Draining, will have a fail rate of 54% with 18/30 WIS at level 27. Once you lower this fail rate below 30%, you may start to use Orb of Draining more often. Kill dark elven warlocks packs for stat pots. Scum for Fasolt the Giant and start working on getting Cloud Giant as form, it's better than Sasquatch. Once you hit level 30, you get ESP from Sense Monsters, which should make life easier.
This is pretty much the point where all my characters die, so I'll have still to write the last part. This will involve staying shallow Mordor for a long time, trying to max stats and getting better equipment (stats, resists, speed...). Once comfortable, go down to the depth where P pits start to appear and get Storm Giant form. At level 37, buy a book of Sense Surroundings to get Clairvoyance. Then scum for Dragonriders...
So let's describe here the build I've used. Rolled a dwarf shaman with balanced stats, since you will need STR to carry stuff, INT to survive the early game, WIS as your main stat, CON for hps and CHR for decent prices in shops. My starting stats: 14 12 18/30 10 10 10. Since this character will neither be able to fight nor cast spells with the starting mana pool, and shooting is almost out of question due to abysmal hit chance, ABSOLUTELY sign for every Dungeon Keeper event until you win the event and get a mana-boosting item out of it. Gloves of the Magi are a must, but a Staff of Mana with a decent + (6 or more) will do. To get such item, I usually equip a mage staff and skill Air/Holy Support with the 10 skill points you get from winning Dungeon Keeper and leveling to 3. Be careful, if you skill only Air and don't equip a mage staff, the game may think you're playing a rogue and give you a useless item (like gloves of thievery -- happened to me once).
The skills for this build are the following: Mimicry at 30, Holy Offense and Holy Support maxed out, Holy Defense at 40, Air at 5, Traumaturgy at 6, rest into Spellpower. This will probably have to be finely tuned, but we'll go with these values for now.
In the beginning, buy a spellbook of Noxious Cloud. Any spare cash should be spent in cure serious wounds and phase doors. Your first 10 skill points should have been spent before redeeming your deed for an item in Air (5) and Holy Support (5). If you need cash, kill townies with Noxious Cloud. Buy as many cures/phases as you can, a Word of Recall, and go to the Orc Caves. Stairscum, try to kill everything you can with Noxious Cloud and grab everything you can while staying near the stairs. You should quickly gain some levels by killing low level orcs and similar monsters. Remember to avoid anything that's resistant or immune to poison: this means kobolds, unliving and undead. Once you have enough loot, recall to Bree and sell everything. With the cash, buy 3-4 Word of Recall and a book of Holy Light. Spare gold goes again into phases and cure pots. If you play everlasting, try to keep 1500 gold and enable instant resurrection. For spending skill points, the rule is simple: skill Mimicry until your skill value is equal to 0.6 times your level (remember we aim for 30 at level 50), max out Holy Offense and Holy Support, spare points go into Holy Defense (until reaching a value of 40) and them to Spellpower if Holy Defense is maxed. Scum -50ft Orc Caves until you reach level 15 or so.
At this point, with any character, I dive deeper into the Orc Caves until I'm able to kill Azog. With this build, it's out of question. The best to do is probably to go back to Bree and dive into Barrow Downs until you're around 1000ft. Take advantage of the forest terrain by getting a form that can cross woods (even a yeek form will do -- remember that with a staff of mana or gloves of magi, you need a form that can equip them, which eliminates all animal forms immediately). Get a passwall form early in the dungeon (phantom warrior is easy to get, after that you can scum for green glutton ghost which has a +6 speed boost). Kill hounds for experience.
Once level 20 or so, buy a ring of cold resistance and go to the... Helcaraxe! There you can get Sasquatch form, which is a good early midgame form. Be careful, the wilderness around the dungeon has a high danger rate (level 40 or so), and if you stay idle too long on the surface, very nasty monsters will spawn (ancient Ds are common in the area). So recall one sector west of the dungeon (50,38), go there quickly, enter immediately, magic map the level and get down to -100. Stairscum between -100 and -50, kill cold hounds for experience (sometimes an ice troll pit may spawn, consider clearing it if there are no ice troll warriors/chieftains/monks and such nasties inside), and scum for 20 Sasquatchs to get the form (you can get Yeti form first, which has cold immunity and will help greatly in the dungeon).
After you get the form, you should be in the high 20s so it's time to go to Gondolin and scum -50 Mordor for gold and better equipment. At this point, it's vital to raise your WIS stat to get a better mana pool and lower failing rates. You can't kill much with Noxious Cloud or Holy Light, and Curse not only costs a ton of MP, but only harms targets 25% of the time! Your main offensive spell, Orb of Draining, will have a fail rate of 54% with 18/30 WIS at level 27. Once you lower this fail rate below 30%, you may start to use Orb of Draining more often. Kill dark elven warlocks packs for stat pots. Scum for Fasolt the Giant and start working on getting Cloud Giant as form, it's better than Sasquatch. Once you hit level 30, you get ESP from Sense Monsters, which should make life easier.
This is pretty much the point where all my characters die, so I'll have still to write the last part. This will involve staying shallow Mordor for a long time, trying to max stats and getting better equipment (stats, resists, speed...). Once comfortable, go down to the depth where P pits start to appear and get Storm Giant form. At level 37, buy a book of Sense Surroundings to get Clairvoyance. Then scum for Dragonriders...