Let me start off by stating I am very new to this game, I haven’t been playing since pre-release launch like many posters here seem to have. I play the game for fun, which I think most do, but I struggle with finding fun in builds and ideas that are convoluted with end game farmed items and everything is hyper optimized for max dps and clear speeds with end game content. I am struggling to level certain builds, some of which I find here.
Currently I am trying to level, from the start with no gear specific drops to augment, a Lightning based Stun Jacks build. Currently struggling with levelling something similar to THIS.
The issues are obvious, up to level 18 I was just doing a Devouring Swarm maxed for levelling, then I decided to switch to Wind Devil/Stun Jacks and force myself to play it. I want to play the build as I level, not grind some mindless thing to cap and switch it out for what I want later. Weaknesses are obviously along the lines of cool down reduction/spell recharge on Wind Devil and Stun Jack energy depletion.
Any suggestions for something I can do to get close to a Stun Jack spamming build while levelling? Like low level gear I might farm, augments or such that might help? This is my main issue, being new to the game I don’t have the knowledge to draw from to make this work while levelling.
The obvious solution to your energy woes is to equip caster gear for its inherent boost to energy regeneration. You should be able to easily find decent magical equipment with +lightning% and/or +physical% damage (+elemental/+all damage alternatively). Likewise, you could pop a few Ectoplasm at +2 energy regen/sec a piece in your equipment. Or spend a few devotion points (3 exactly) and pick up the “-5% skill energy cost” node.
The final option is to simply not level your stun jacks or its modifier until you have sufficient energy regen.
Energy heavy skill builds need to keep this in mind in the early stages and not over level the skills past your limited capacity. Most times you should have pretty decent luck finding caster gear, hats and chest pieces being the primary gear for this starting out, and phase in rings that provide energy regen as you find them. Next in line will be the caster offhands and if you haven’t found one by level 10 you should stop at the merch and buy a cheap one. You will also likely find some other gear with energy bonuses tho those tend to be more limited with how much they provide. Eventually you can round it out with certain components.
After that it’s simply a matter of upgrading as you go along and by level 18 you should be rounded out enough to sustain a moderate amount.
Besides gear you should be steadily advancing up the mastery and not overleveling skills (don’t completely neglect your main damage dealers of course). Moving up the tree provides more attributes and health and energy.
Equip yourself properly and build in a fashion that advances and opens up your mastery(s) and you will find that energy regen becomes a non-issue.
Your mistake is relying on something that isn’t Primal strike to level a char that has Shaman in it.
There will be plenty of time to play as a caster once you get some decent gear and levels. For now, pick up the biggest 2-hander you can find, any gloves with attack speed (Rover shop gloves will do) and use Primal strike (max Torrent, 1 point in storm surge). Devotions should go Falcon (attach to Primal strike) -> Lizard (+ blue crossroads) -> Hawk -> Kraken (you can re-buy the blue crossroads point). This setup is so powerul, it really doesn’t matter what else you do until late in elite (but you should obviously max Vindictive flame and Flame touched while leveling for speed and OA). Just pick up whatever constellations you intend to use after the switch so you start leveling them.
Also, keep in mind that most cookie-cutter builds people suggest work extremely well with limited items (especially builds that use regeneration to sustain themselves like Saboteur, Vitality Conjurer and PRM Arcanist). This build looks extremely frustrating to play due to low damage output and move speed. If you are not able to farm effectively with your first char to reach Ultimate, it will get progressively more frustrating to level other chars since you won’t have godly items to pass on to them and will have to grind in Normal/Elite. Imo, it is best to leave silly builds like stun jacks for when you have bags full of good items no other char is using. Besides, you will be more experienced with the game, so experimenting will be easier.
This isn’t a mistake, it is a choice. But by your comment if you play Shaman and don’t go Primal Strike you are playing the wrong class right? I hope the devs were better than that at fleshing out a class.
Thanks to the others for their tips, I just went back in game and made it work.
Hi, I have a em…level 83 stun jack build and the most important skill for me next to stun jack is Grenado and flash bang, I have Grenado main skill maxed and 1 point in flash bang 1 in passive a few in grenado passive for lightning not many tho. One point in each flash bang may not seem like much but it procs my elemental seekers on devotion so I dont mind spamming a few flash bangs.
Grenado is my boss/hero killer, as much as I love using stun jacks you just need a DPS spike for some of them other tuff monsters even a medium geared could hit over 50k critical with grenado at a mid/high level range.
Get rid of wind devil maybe make your own build thats what I did and it worked out really well.
Don’t listen to that guy. I have two different Shaman-based classes that don’t use PS and can wreck Ultimate.
As for your build, you’ll need another skill to supplement Stun Jacks. I use Canister Bomb/Flash Bang on my Sorceress for my main clear and Quick Jacks for DPS vs bosses/heroes.
You’ll need a different skill simply for the fact that you’ll be running out of energy faster than you can kill enemies which is a huge problem. Secondly, the build you linked is working off an early-access build. I’m sure you can find a better one elsewhere as a lot of changes have been made since he posted that. Lastly, since you’re still new to the game, don’t try to make your first character work through Ultimate. Your first few characters are probably going to fail but that’s part of learning any new game. You could always follow a current guide to the letter, but where’s the fun in that?
But for OP i would suggest leveling Flashbang & attaching Elemental Storm from Rhowan’s Crown. I walked through Veteran with my Elementalist only spamming Flashbang (16/12) and watching the Elemental Storm Procs devour everything:D
Even with moderate gear Flashbang is great for defense (confusion) and offense (DA reduction), also Flashbang has no CD so you can spam 'til it procs.
No, I meant that levelling in normal and elite goes fastest if you pick up a 2-hander (Homestead shop’s hammer is usually good enough until 50-60) and use Falcon+Kraken. I would suggest this even if you levelled a Warlock (attach Falcon to Troll rage from Mistborn talisman). In the case of Shaman, levelling is a joke since Primal strike is insane at early levels.
You came off sounding like an ass and people reacted accordingly. You still sound like an ass so don’t be surprised when people don’t give you a group hug for your supposed “whoops, forgot nobody can read my mind!”.
Also, you don’t need Primal Strike to breeze through Veteran. Just the fact you claim it’s faster to rework your entire build just for Veteran and Elite is a joke.
And how am I the bad guy? Threads like these wouldn’t exist if people who make “guides” actually did their research. “Yea, use Stun jacks with only one level in Quick jacks and stack 4 Ectoplasms and use Canister bombs anyway because you still don’t have mana …” It’s impractical nonsense and newer players become frustrated thinking they are doing something wrong.
Anything that doesn’t include a 2-hander with an attack modifier, Falcon and Kraken is not a good levelling setup. With Shaman, there is no contest since Primal strike is insane on it’s own. Doesn’t mean you can’t finish Normal, because any character can. It’s going to be slow and frustrating, probably requiring grinding to avoid being killed every 5 min after Fort Ikon.
How is this being directed at me when I only tried to give the OP honest advice? RE: He needed a fix for his energy woes and I directed him accordingly. It would appear from the OP’s comments that my advice was helpful so I don’t understand the problem.
Also while we’re on the topic of the guide everyone realizes that this was from 8 months ago when the game was still in early access (and featured only one difficulty level) right?
What I took away from the tips given was I ditched Wind Devil for now, grab a passive or two to increase survivability and the like, found a decent caster off-hand and squeezed in some useful components. The character is now around level 30 with the crafted axes and some other finds and works just fine, so I do appreciate those tips.
I certainly do and did, I just came up with “Hrm…I wonder if Stun Jacks is viable?” Did some googling, came across your old post as well as a few videos from other sources with variants that were also outdated, but this was something I just wanted to explore and have fun with.
When it comes to gaming there are basically 3 camps of players.
The power player, they want end game they want it NAO! and they will take the shortest path to get there, in too many cases that can include “cheating” but in most cases it involves taking the current flavor of the month, top “hive think”, effective build to get there, then start gearing and fleshing it out. Sadly they burn through the game very fast and immediately get bored and scream “We need more stuff! This game is weak! etc.”
There are the casual players who enjoy exploring. It can be exploring content or exploring how builds can work or be manipulated to work in unique ways. They often game with all the gusto of a power player, but they avoid going down into the Elitist Jerk cesspool.
Everyone else and all the minor deviations between the previous two play styles, and also includes the EXTREMELY casual player who just goes blindly about, stumbling their way along simply for the “fun”.
Appreciate the comments. Btw my last post was in no way shape or form directed toward you or your enjoyment of the game. Generalcash seemed to jump on me for no reason and made the suggestion that I haven’t done any research even though the guide in question was from 8 months or so ago (which was during early access). At that time, this build could shred anything in the game in a matter of seconds, but we see how things get outdated as quickly as new content gets added to the game. Perhaps I’ll update this guide when I get some time.
Pretty strange I understood it correctly even though I was reading only one line of his post used in the quote.
Sounds like you can’t comprehend any post picturing GD in a non-positive light.
There are no “builds” before the end of Elite difficulty.
I don’t see it as a negative, it’s simply because it is so easy to respec in this game. The alternative would be much worse.
Wasn’t referring to you, simply wasn’t clear enough.
There is a sprouting of horrible and obviously ineffective “guides” in the last week or two which come hand-in-hand with authors defending their horrible advice by blaming the people who find the builds ineffective. Same sentiments in this thread: could’t be that Jacks are horrible at early levels, the players imply didn’t use enough Ectoplasms or spam enough Canister bombs…
I understood it as well and he was still being an ass. He claimed people who don’t use Primal Strike in normal and elite will struggle which simply isn’t the case and it’s horribly misleading.
Also, you claim that there aren’t any builds before the end of Elite which is also a joke.