Shaman Vs DoK

[Necodamus]

I've been going back and forth on which one of these I'm going to level up. They both have real interest for me. However, I think the thing that'll really push it one way or the other is how well they can heal a group.

So anyone know? A DoK specced healing vs a Shaman specced healing? how do they fare?

[Vendom]

Spec'd healing the DoK has more group healing options.

I love both classes, loved the DoK a little more in beta, but ended up going with a Shaman for release. Why? I found I died much more often on my DoK while testing Teir4 content than I did on a Shaman, mainly due to choosing between having to be up front, or standing back and using Blood Offering a lot. Of course, spending a lot of time to learn the classes better could have changed this.

[Rusby]

Another thing to consider is I'm guessing that castle/keep seiges will play a big role in this game once we're all level 30 or 40. DoK seemed to run out of "mana" really fast, since they need to be killing things to regain their energy. Shammies on the other hand can stay back and do damage from below or on top of walls.

Just my 2 brass coins.

[Necodamus]

Exactly! Hah. So many things to consider, it becomes an extremely difficult to figure out which would be more useful.

[HesH]

i think if the healing way is what you want then Shaman is it, outta the 2, but if you like to melee then go dok ... both are Par healers so would you rather heal and tank... or heal and ranged dmg... to each thier own

[Affrell]

Shaman's can EEeeek! and thats the best reason to use them.

[Gisli]

Eeeek! is good. Gor sez Stop! is better.

[Necodamus]

Thanks for the input. I think I'm going mostly Shaman, might level up my DoK here and there too though.

[Andzral]

The DoK doesn't use mana or "Action Points" in the usual way. We have Soul Essence, 250 points of it. Each heal so far costs 45 or 55 Soul Essence. We have a method of transferring AP's into Soul Essence which is a channeled process.

As at level 15, I do not have a direct x point heal except the morale heal. I have 2 Hots, 1 is insta cast pure hot 15 secs. The other has a .5 sec cast time, heals for a small amount then turns into a Hot.

We have one ability at level 8 which I think is fantastic. It's called Rend Soul:

You repeatedly assault an enemy, shredding their soul energy and twisting it to your own purposes. You strike the target up to four times over 3 seconds, dealing 75 damage per hit. Each hit heals your defensive target for 250% of the damage that was dealt. This effect will end if you break your concentration, or run out of Soul Essence.

Find a squishie and use this on them and watch your defensive targets health rise, I love it. Is even better when you are solo, I can take 3-4 even con mobs at once and even con Champion mobs. Sometimes having to throw in a HoT.

With all this in mind, I have no problem being in the top 5 for heals in most scenarios.

[Teofilo]

A quick little note on Dok's in regards to keep sieges. With out ability blood offering, we can turn into ghetto heal fonts during keep sieges. All you have to do is heal, heal, heal, then blood offer, rinse and repeat.