Question: Whats the best armor for a shaman to wear to level effeciently? Light, Heavy or Robes? And when u get to 40 which is the better class to go? OL or WC? And What armor then??
I went OL, but going WC or OL has been debated and thrashed about for a long time.
WC - Party Buffer
OL - Alliance / Clan Buffer
Anyways.
I went heavy on my shaman pre 40 and just used drain a lot to keep up my health. A good set of duals or a nice blunt worked for me. Don't use a shield, your evasion sucks anyways so it won't help much at these levels.
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It will work, he's just saying that the damage you get from duals may outweight he benefits of a shield. However the Brig shield is part of the bonus, so it may be worth using if you go heavy.
The truth is that there is no single correct answer about the armor or the weapons of an orc mage. It is no accident that we get all three armor skills. You can adjust your gameplay on any kind of armor. Simply, one kind of armor is better for a certain situation than the others. For example, heavy is better for soloing than robes, but robes are more usefull if you need to buff your party. And what happens if can't afford a heavy and a robe set? You go light (as I did) which is a fair compromise between the 2. But the fact is that even with robes you can easily solo. Just choose apropriate hunting grounds and mobs. The way you decide to deal damge (gameplay) is the key factor for your armor and weapon setup (adena availability is also a key factor). You can choose to sleep a mob and decrease it's HP by two or three DOT's and finish it of with a couple of blows. Or choose melee fight using drains from time to time, to keep your HP up. First case is best served by robes or light and second by heavy. And accordingly your weapons will follow. Fisrt case needs a staff (increased Mattk to help your DOT's and dreaming spirits land) and second needs blunts and shiled (or duals later) for higher Pattk.
My own gameplay up to now was this: Up to 23 I had no grade weapons and armor. I had a heavy and a robe set. I used the robes at the beggining and when mp was low, I put on heavy and continued for some time more. When I sat to regain MP, I wore robes again. For weapon I used a staff. After that, I changed to D-grade, went light armor (not enough adena for 2 sets) and switched to a single hand blunt and shiled. This setup I could afford and it's really not hard to live (and level) with it. I can't say much about 40+ since I am not there yet. But I guess that this is the point where it starts to make a difference if you are an OL or WC since the roles are a bit changed. A WC for example is in high demand in parties due to his versatility (buffs, melee and healing), while OL needs to solo more since he is more clan dependant for parties. So, maybe WC should be in robes or light (if you party more than solo anyway) while the OL in heavy. Of course all this can be changed by various game's aspects (provided you can afford them). For example if you are a WC you can easily go heavy if you have a weapon with mana up SA (30% more MP). Orc mages are very versatile class and can be setup in many different ways. It all comes down to how much adena you can spend on armor and weapons.
why no robes?? their magic attacks are outweighted by their physical abiliy? or what??
What I found out for myself, and I am certainly not dis'n on any other response here, is that I solo'd for the first 30 levels. I found that I could bash and level quicker with almost no downtime in Heavy. I went with blunt pre 20 and I went with duals 20 - 40. My main goal was to grind asap since it was a 3rd toon for me and I wasn't concerned with money or learning the game.
I have seen quite a few in light, which is as the previous poster said, a nice balance between robes and heavy.
The only thing I do disagree with is I see many more WC's in Heavy, not robes. Don't know why as I am mostly focused on my OL (level 62 today!! woot).
I like the OL because I have an excellent clan behind me that knows having me along is a benefit. I have also seen alot of alliances that focus on the "perfect party" which alas, an OL doesn't seem to be a part of.
A WC on the otherhand, seems to be able to fit into those situtations better and of course, since they are party based, a clan and clan support is not necessary.
The shield takes away a set amount from your evasion. At lower levels, it is so small anyways, I didn't feel like it would help much and I could get a better killing weapon anyways. This also led me to use the drain alot, sleep and some DOTs more, but when you start to do that, you also slow down on leveling.
It comes down to alot of factors, mostly how fast do you want level vs the need for adena and where are you trying to go today.
why no robes?? their magic attacks are outweighted by their physical abiliy? or what??
1) Orc Mystics have only one direct damage magic attack, their drain attack. The huge MP cost of this spell means that you will never be able to use this spell like a nuker to level unless you have a veritable party of rechargers refilling your MP constantly.
2)Orc Mystics DoT spells (Their only other damage skills) do not benefit from BSPS in damage. (Only land rate) Thus leveling with the DoT's/sleep is highly MP intensive and require frequent recharges/downtime.
3)Just about every Orc Mystic spell consumes mucho MP to cast. Thus Robe MP bonuses are nearly laughable on an orc where they are much more useful on a DE/LE/Human. And despite the extra MEN, regen is still laughably inadequate. More so for the voracious usage of an Orc than any other mystic. This only gets worse the higher your level. Our buffs take a big chunk of MP, but our 'attack' skills aren't any cheaper. Orc MP usage is usually measured in seconds...not minutes. >_<
4)Thus the most efficient way for a Orc Mystic to level is to Melee in Heavy (Uses no MP) and solely use their Drain to heal. (Save the Stun for when in party when you don't need to drain to heal.)
HA is really the best choice if you spend most of your time soloing. I used HA up until level 40, at this point I switched to robes for the MP bonus and started grouping. Also, imo, duals are more effective for pve. In a group, my goal is to buff the group (75% of my mana ever 20 minutes), so I have duals up for extra damage and robes for MP. This allows me to have soul cry on more, which increases damage by a noticable amount. Just remember to turn soul cry off well before the next buff cycle :p
Currently I have a set of HA and Robes, and there is no doubt in my mind that HA is better for soloing. But in a group, I will do more damage over time and never get behind on buffs with a robe set.