Bear form is *very* usefull. I've never seen an instance of it altering faction, though - good or bad. (Mind you, I haven't gone around trying it.)

This doesn't apply to you, but for Barbarian Shamans, like myself, bear form disables our slam attack.

As for specialization, I think I'm going the alteration route, unless somebody can convince me otherwise.

Don't use DD. Feh. For a shaman, DoT > DD.

You should be able to kite in DSP now. That gets you around having to use root. (I went there at lvl 25, and look at my Magelo! I've got pretty crappy gear.) I'm partial to the SS entrance, as it usually isn't camped, and when it is, it's usually other kiters who don't mind sharing.

But hey, I'm only 6 levels above ya. Listen to what the more experienced folks say.

The only drawback I remember reading about on the Bear Form, is that do not use it when doing Epic, as it will mess with faction hits not being applied properly.

1) Stay close to Santus Seru so you can zone if need be. In my experience, this is the least crowded zone line.

2) Make sure Bear Form and Regen are up, to offset the fact that you'll be using Canni alot, and *ALWAYS* be aware of how long you have left on your SoW. Root should be at the ready as well.

3) Beware of the lightcrawlers. They don't venture as far as the entrance to SS, so it's safe to med there. At this level, your MR is really low, so avoid them like the plague. Don't pull a mob, if a lightcrawler is near. The XP on them isn't worth the headache.

4) Only target Zelniaks, as they are non-social mobs with no faction hits. IMHO they are undercons. They can be pulled from the center of the zone to the SS zone line.

5) Pull with your sickness based DoT, probably Affliction, from the edge of casting range. (This will take a bit of practice.)

6) IMMEDIATELY start running in the opposite direction.

7) After a second or two, you will have out paced the zelniak. Hit the mob with your poison DoT. You may be out of range, so repeatedly click the spell gem untill you start casting.

8) Immediately upon the second DoT landing, begin running again to the SS zone line.

9) BEWARE, the ditch that runs through the middle of the zone has trap mobs. If you venture too close, a blood starved wolf will spawn. They aggro almost instantly, although, if you're running fast enough, sometimes they won't aggro. It's better to avoid the spawn points. If you are here long enough, you'll learn the trap locations. At higher levels these make acceptable kiting targets, but at 25 you'll want to avoid them.

10) As you near the SS zone line, adjust your path into a wide, lazy, figure eight or circle. you are giving your DoTs time to kill off the beast. If a DoT wears off, you may have to reapply using the same stop and go technique from above.

11) When the mob starts its death march, get in there and add your melee damage into the mix.

12) Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

Somethings to keep in mind:

Kiting reds makes this faster xp than grouping on blues, once you've got it down. However, you have no way of judging what level a red is, and there is a wide level gap, so you may want to focus on whites or yellows untill you get the hang of the technique.

If you get resisted, start running again untill you've put some space between you and the mob, and try again. The urge to just cast again is high, but don't do it. Be safe. If you are getting too many resists, start targeting yellows instead off reds, or start malo'ing them. I did not need to debuff the mobs first, but your mileage may vary.

That's pretty much it. I like to bind just to the side of SS, next to the pillar type bulge in the wall. It's out of the way, and it makes transport from PoK very quick. Also, it makes a CR much faster.

A note about XP loss here. When I died, it was usually due to low HP aggro, which was alway due to over using Canni. However, killing two red mobs usually offset the death xp loss. As such, I never concerned myself with getting a rez. I think I died 3 times between 25 and 31, leaving beautifull bearshaped bodies littering the surface of the moon. (I always left a piece of zelniak meat on the corpse, so it wouldn't evaporate.)

-~-

Now I'm trying to find a good strategy for Echo Caverns. Kiting doesn't work, and I haven't quite got the hang of my dog yet. I've been forced back into Slow, Dot, Dot, Melee, in order to solo reds. Not cool. I usually end up at 50% health and OOM after taking out a red underbulk. I'll figure it out, and if you're interested, I'll post it here.

Alternately, I've done a little grinding in OT. When I'm fighting Reds and Yellows, puppy pull absolutely rocks.



Edited, Thu Jul 28 04:57:46 2005 by BellamDreamguard

You can't use slam (if you are a race that can, but I think cat people got sneak and safe fall instead, don't know how these will be affected)
[li]it's difficult to tell if you're sitting or not
[li]change view with F9 or scrolling with mouse is worthless, you will only see a big brown bear
[li]As soon as you can afford it *sigh* buy a horse. No more sit down/get up/sit down. (and not sitting will cause less aggro. But yes, this is soooooooooo expensive. Besides, horse doesn't work indoors, so you will still use bear form.
[li]Don't use bearform during epic

Alteration, alteration, alteration. Most of our spells are alteration. Every spell that counts (well, almost, but including slow, heal, canni and many buffs) is alteration

Use your dots. At some levels, especially in the beginning DDs will be less mana consuming comparing total damage and mana. Most of the times, and at higher lvls, only dots counts.
[li]Just remember that dot aggros a lot, and all the time the dot is on. So if you're grouping, slowing and dotting can make it difficult for tank to keep aggro