I started my orc a while ago, and got him now to 25. My biggest problem is his miss rate on spells. I am talking maybe 50% hit rate on all types of mobs with spells. I can use half a mana bar spamming spells and not hit once.
I dont understand how in the mid 40's my necro can 2-3 hit stuff, and never miss. And on the other hand my shaman will hardly ever hit with half his skills.
To make it worse his cast speed is awefull, and his weapon damage is minor. Any real tips on how to lvl this class? Its VERY painfull ATM because its taking me forever to lvl him up, and i dont feel like im anything special at all. I do horrid magic damage and even worse melee damage.
Orc mystiques have a bit lower magic attack than "true" nuking classes. And as they are considered cleric classes, they cannot manipulate their INT status via tattoos. So you have to rely on high matk weapons and +int robes if you want to nuke.
I do it that I use staff of life when casting, and switch to bonebreaker to meelee the crap out of mob. It's more expensive, but then again it's a twink. Most orc shammies I see use heavy or light armour and duals or blunt to beat on mobs.
I dont find the spells weak at all, its just when they dont hit its so hard for me to gain an advantage. When they hit, its great, i have no problems. If they dont hit im sort of stuffed.
Since Open beta most Shamans have done one of two things:
1)Heavy Armor and High Patk weapon, then Drain + Melee to level.
The added cost of drains hurts a bit, but the new potions that drop mitigate this a fair amount now. Brigandine (with or without the set completing helmet) is the most common armor , and 107 Duals the most common weapon. Since Shamans get generic weapon masteries, the difference between a Claymore and the Duals isn't as big as the one for a character who only has sword/blunt masteries. Due to the lower Matk on the melee weapons BSPS is desired to land any DoT's you may try or just to boost your drains when the pots are playing hard to get. Accuracy is a bit of an issue, so stick to low white/green mobs unless your using a blunt. In which case I would still stick with white mobs.
You could use Soul Cry to boost your Patk, but the MP drain on that toggle is too high to keep it up for long periods of time. For the most part I seldom use this skill, although I do keep it leveled up.
2)Robes + High Matk Weapon, then Sleep + Poison/Flame.
Again, the new pots help. Green mobs are almost a must to land the DoT's without shots. And even then the land rate isn't the best. For this using shots is almost a must. However, for the most part using blessed isn't that much of an improvement over regular SPS. (The shots improve land rate, but not the damage done.) Thus if you find a source of regular SPSD, that should take you up to C grade. The higher in level your DoT's go the more reliably they tend to land. Don't expect them to stick better until late 50's early 60's though. (OL's even later.)
Personally I did the 20-40 grind with Brigandine and 107 (+3) Duals. I had a Skullbreaker for awhile, but stun lands so little and breaks so fast that having a blunt just for stun isn't really worth it. About when I hit 30, mobs started to hit harder and take longer to kill so I started to use my wolf (Originally used with my Raider, but aggro rule change in C3 killed that.) as a hunting partner. I didn't use SS or SPS much because I was pretty low on funds then and trying to save cash for a Flamberge. Which was for my then Destroyer, but I ended up sticking with the Shaman/OL and using the Flamberge (+3/Focus) for a good portion of my C grade levels until I got a SoWD/MotU along with the wolf. (It's L55 now btw. =P )
PS - For Orc Mystics, I like the Duals a bit better than the 2H Swords. Although the performance between them is pretty close.
I dont find the spells weak at all, its just when they dont hit its so hard for me to gain an advantage. When they hit, its great, i have no problems. If they dont hit im sort of stuffed.
For my shamy freasing flame landed about 80% of the time without sps. Havent realy used any seals or venom.
For Overlords, not Warcryers (never played one so i don't know if it applies):
In A grade, even if you are using NM robe set and SOM w/ Acumen, your seals still land only on a few enemy PvP.
In 1v1 and even up to 5v5, the seal land rate is simply unreliable.
In mass-PvP, it's less than ok. You are able to land your seals on some enemies with luck (2 out of 10 maybe), but the short range makes it very hard to approach the enemies and target many at a time.
If you get a robe set that increases your m.atk, your land rate increases a bit, but your cast speed is too slow to actually aim at specific group of PvP targets.
If you get one that increases cast speed, you can surprise the enemies and get a lot more targets, but none of them are actually going to land because of your low m.atk.
In parties, that's where the seals actually seem to have been made for (some of them anyway). With my setup, I can sleep, mass-root and mass-silence most mobs up to 10 level above mine at a very high success rate (chances only halved with high M.def mobs). I can even easily sleep mobs in cats that resist sleep :).
Don't think that you can AOE groups of mobs on your own though. There is still the not so rare bad luck of failing your seal completely, even on lower lvl mobs. Besides, doing all your seals at least twice to make sure they all land costs way too much MP to be effective. Still, it's fun knowing that you CAN do it and show off to your gawking clannies :cool:.
With the changes made at C5 and the 10/24/2006 patch, the role of the OL changed a lot.
PvP : CP Heal and HOP heal bot.
PvE (party) : Crowd controller.
You don't need MP for buffs anymore, no one wants em in mass-PvP anyway.