Hi everyone I would like some instructions on how to build a bear shaman. I mainly want to easily solo hard mobs and solo lower level dungeons. Some info on race and attributes priority would be greatly appreciated.
In order to "easily" solo "hard" mobs I believe you need to really focus on your gear requirements. You need to be able to get gear that gives you fairly significant mitigation that allows you to dps without constantly worrying about getting one shotted while also having the attributes to do some dps so you are not there all day. The pieces you are after are spread across multiple mobs. At lower levels I always felt that the time investment for the gear required to do this well - plus building a healing set as well - was not worth it for me as I was constantly out levelling the gear that I had. Soloing hard mobs (not necessarily easily) is possible with lower level gear and good timing. I would go for survivability first then start to build on dps. Vitality is not as important for a shammy as say a cleric and once you get your ability to recover mana - energy regen is not as much of a pain as it is for a cleric either.
The good and bad of the bear is that for one, the bear has a massive amount of health, but secondly, it doesn't build much hate. You can probably solo anything if you let the bear do all the work, but it doesn't do much damage either. If you actually play the shaman, the bear gets sidelined. In comparison, since the pet is not really going to hold the target, a bird does way more damage and seemed to be more useful pet wise. On single targets and eventually multiples, a shaman should be able to solo some rough stuff inherently. Without any details, it's hard to be specific. On a melee basis what helped my bear shammy was the Trengal Keep cloak--you get a level 40ish cloak at around 27. But if "solo lower level dungeons" means soloing TK at level 40, then you're not getting the advantage from it. If you mean starting a new character and being able to solo Gardens of Xia-liu when it comes up, I couldn't do it so can't tell anyone how. I'm not sure any dungeons are really soloable until you get no xp and the gear is useless. That said, the dungeons are tuned differently, and I can beat Gardens with a duo, but something like Karrus Fahrel might be unsuccessful with five. I agree that if you wanted to solo the hardest targets you can find, make the toon like a tank--survival first followed by dps. Your heals won't be anywhere near as powerful as they could be, but for the most part what matters is not powerful healing, but fast healing, and the nice thing about shamans is they get two instants plus a really fast one. I've never used anything with like a four second cast time because the numbers were bigger, especially soloing you'd be dead before it went off. Doing it this way, I'd want to have enough vitality to at least not have the healing penalized. Not sure about the regen, shaman sacrifice seemed pretty weak, you might be able to cast a bunch of them but dying while you do. In essence, hard targets are possible for any healer, and usually easy in the sense that you just heal through it. They won't die fast, and if they do some kind of interrupt or energy drain, you might not be able to pull it off. Dungeon wise I don't see it happening, although a lot of that can be done by as little as two people while still in the level range for the xp and gear.
You will hold aggro if you are soloing. Get Bosrid's ticking as much as you can and the bear shaman is a pretty decent damage sponge.
I want bear to tank and me to spank in human form while soloing is this possible? I'm currently prioritizing the following stats con,vita and wisdom is this ok? Btw does the bear pet scale of any of my stats like getting 10% of my attributes or smthing?
The bear can tank - however with the small amount of damage that it can do - it will take a long time to kill a mob. With the low amount of hate that the bear pet generates coupled with how much aggro you can drop - you also can't help too much from a dps point of view or you will pull aggro from the pet. You can always be in human form. The buff that you get where you are turned into a bear comes in two parts - the buff and the bear illusion. The bear illusion part can be clicked off. Your stats would work with the pet tanking however if you want to kill things quicker at a lower level soloing I would max strength and then split the balance between wisdom and vit. As you get to maximum level I would work towards con maxxed with enough in vit and wisdom to satify your healing requirements - strength as high as possible and the balance in int. Also if you are not critting enough on your melee hits putting some in dex would help. As you level up I find its more about - where is my weakest point at the moment e.g. I dont have enough mana or I cant crit enough or my hit points are too low etc. You then need to look at your attributes and gear as to how you can improve this. Attirbute points can always be reassigned if you feel you need to change them. At higher levels the pet is more useful as an off tank if you get an add. As Amnath said even if you can get one more person so that you can duo on a regular basis - your horizons are widened considerably.
Yes, for add tanking the bear is terrific. Another instant cast heal with a fast refresh keeps it going. On easy mobs it barely needs any healing, tough ones start to juggle your attention and cooldowns, which is usually where the fun begins
