Shaman: Fire Giant or Human?

[Stiehl26]

I am hoping to get some insight into the differences in the races and play style between a fire giant and human shaman. I basically was wondering if people, as a whole, felt that for a casual player (one who can devote about 8-10 hours a week) one race is better than the other for playability and pkability.

I have looked back and saw that both Vrykhul (human) and Quar (fire giant) were quite succesful, though Quar was much more so. At rank 50 would the probable low skill/spell % learned and ice vulnerability be more frustrating than a "normal" (non-masochistic) person could stand?

I understand that I could rank both races to 50 and try it out, though I may be dead of old age before that actually happened, so anything to at least point me in a direction would be much appreciated.

[Groq]

I've played everything but fire giant shaman just because you'd need to put a decent amount of time into training the core spells I think. Drow I didn't like at all just not my style no hp what so ever but learns like a bastard. Human was all right it's fast to rank and not to bad to train. Duergar was by far my favorite, nice strength, nice health, the vuln is a bit nasty but I think the hp and str make up for it. So if I had to pick i'd go duergar again. For a new person trying a shaman i'd go human just to learn it and see if you like it. Trying something out for the first time and having a vuln you'll probably get frustrated instead of actually sticking with it.

[rabidgecko]

[Slade]

Your only choices here are human or duergar. They aren't terribly different, so pick whichever sounds more interesting/fun. Fire/drow are completely out of the question. P.S. Quar is rolling over in his grave at the idea of being associated with pip. Everyone knows that it was Makhan.

[Erlwith]

[rabidgecko]

Who was Quar? I was taking a break from AR at that point and never got to know his story, but who played him?

[Slade]

[Davairus]

I would take human because you said casual - that race requires less exp to rank and learns its spells faster. That's the best reason for you to play human.

[Vhrael]

That and stats are better for spellcasting (wis, int).

And though it's not a huge problem for most experienced players, humans not having to deal with vulns is a big plus.

[Mahkan]

[Davor]

Most have mentioned Quar had superb player behind him, he is rather bad example to observe. Players such as Slade and Pip usually pull of really high ratios/percentages regardless of what they play.
Fire shaman is slower to rank, real pain to train (no 1. reason i don't play fire giants), lousy casting stats, have two exploitable weaknesses. End result is not that big hp and poor mana.
Upsides are scarce, better parry (str based if I am correct) which is not bad at all for shamans, resistance to certain types of damage, big weight carrying (that is extremely nice, cause you can carry lots of extra gear and shift between sets), and of course 1H oversized weapons.
All things considered I would say cons easily outweight the pros.
Also when considering Quar you must take into account his generous (and very correct) use of cabal supplies, casual player won't have those at hand, that further handicaps fire giant shaman.
Human shamans in hands of an average player are great fun. I havent played for more then two years prior to making Vrykhul (we don't count odd logins to check if its still there), it is exactly human shaman's massive ability to survive that allowed bunch of mistakes go unpunished. No weaknesses is a great compensation for lack of "legacies", and to that overall decent stats, great pk range and qucik leveling. Unlike fire giant shaman a human shaman can be quite effective with mere two praccing skills.

I will strongly suggest making a human shaman for casual play.

I don't understand the venom in Erlwith's comments:
1. Quar basically fought anyone he could
2. Flee/heal is basic shaman tactic
while i had my ass brutally handed to me here and there I would hardly call fine number of people I beaten scrubs.

[Stiehl26]

Thank you guys very much for your replies. They were very helpful and I have created a human shaman and I will see how I can do with them. I always find myself to be "pleasant" when playing...meaning I dont rock the boat nor PK to heavily...and never aggresively. I really would like to change that, at least for 1 character. I'll see how it goes. Thanks again for all of the info.

[Erlwith]

It's not venom. You don't get bonus points for being able to flee/heal. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but it really isn't hard to do at all, and thus to me doesn't warrant that much 'skill' credit. I don't claim my shamans are so pimp because it's easy to survive as a shaman, especially with that tactic being the primary one. It's just a reality check, just like invokers don't get kudos for spamming hellstream over and over and over again even if it wins them some fights or thieves don't get praises for permablackjack.

As far as Quar, if anything I'm only praising him. I don't see where I was vicious or insulting to him at all. Again, just a reality check. The majority of logs I read on invokation were of people fighting him with physical weapons, fighting without mal saves and getting blinded etc., or just using pisspoor strategy. This is not to say the player behind Quar isn't good, but some times these things speak for themselves.

And Slade a shaman with 25 str or what have you will be able to wield better weapons (unholy mace, w/e), have a ton more supplies(every save, every vuln, every savebreak, and anything else they need while a human is just trying to hold on to his water cube and effigy at the same time), be able to wield 2handers in 1 hand and also ipso facto will do more damage. Let's not forget a shaman's speciality, making his opp. useless. so while dealing with major vulns, they also have a very nice way to suppliment it. I'm not overestimating str, but in my opinion a 4 or 5 str difference makes a large impact in pvp, granted though some classes will benefit more than others.

[Nakachi]

Everytime I see Davor post and my peripherals pick up his forum image, I think he is a nazi for some reason. Just throwing that out there.

Human shaman is great, but hp is still not what you would hope for. Duergar shaman is fun and more hp. Either one of those two would be best for a beginner shaman.

[rabidgecko]

I'd suggest human, I had a great time with mine and there are no vulns you have to deal with. Also, Davor's signature is a commie symbol

[Davairus]

That symbol might be associated with communism, but it doesn't at all symbolize that. Hammer and sickle is more of a representation of Russian pride and their industrial diligance, and military might. Thats like all flags, they stand for their country. Its just unfortunate that a few people in history became dictators and resulting in the ignorant west rubbishing what it really stood for..

[rabidgecko]

It's kinda like the confederate flag...might be an innocent symbol to those who take it in that mindset but it also carries connotations

[Nakachi]

I wasn't actually saying when I look at the flag, I was just saying out of the corner of my eye. It looks normal and non-offensive when I actually bring it to the center of my eyes. I dunno what it is... Just every damn time though lol..

[Erlwith]

I'm just waiting for some asshat to start a completely new thread with some diatribe "proving" Dav wrong.

[Davairus]

The confederate flag does stand for racism now actually. It doesn't compare to the hammer and sickle (farming tools representing hard work) its just some yankee XXXXXX lynching shit. It has gone the way of the swastika. That's what happens when racism gets involved. Communism is an economic idealogy.