Shield spike enough damage to do AOE grinding with Resto Shaman?

[phetish]

Forgive me for asking a question that I could easily answer if I were in front of my gaming box, but I'm on the road right now and can't load up wow.

If I attach a shield spike to my 70 Shaman, can I use AOE to burn down the mobs and still get xp on my lowbie alts?

For example, going into Deadmines, I park my alts at the instance entrance and "train" a bunch of mobs back up to the entrance near my lowbies then alternately drop Magma/Fire Nova Totems until the mobs are dead. With a shield spike, I should be damaging all the mobs from the spike, would I get the XP on my lowbies even if I didn't actually do that much damage to the mobs?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Zub]

it seems that all the mobs that will die from the magma/fire elemental *only* without being hurt at all by you, will not grant xp. just like if a hunter's pet kills something by itself the hunter doesnt get xp.

In short, mobs need to hit your shield spike to give xp. which means that you'll need to successfully block at least one attack from each mob before it dies.
Your clones will get that xp, it will work, but probably not as much as you think

[FunkStar]

As said above, if you do not touch the mobs yourself u won't even be able to loot them, and also not get XP. I'm sure magma and fire nova totem have this effect. However, for shield spike, I'm not sure.

How much dmg you do yourself doesn't matter though, if you only hit them for say 1%, and ur fire nova takes the other 99%, u still get full xp and loot

[phetish]

Just an update...

Yes - it works :)

Iron Shield Spike, train mobs, let them beat on you for a bit to get the damage, Drop a Stoneclaw Totem (to keep the mobs from attacking the Fire totems), then alternate Fire Nova and Magma Totems - rinse and repeat as necessary.

[Zub]

Just an update...

Yes - it works :)

Iron Shield Spike, train mobs, let them beat on you for a bit to get the damage, Drop a Stoneclaw Totem (to keep the mobs from attacking the Fire totems), then alternate Fire Nova and Magma Totems - rinse and repeat as necessary.
is it quicker than taking only 2-3 mobs at the time tho. magma and nova are not the most mana friendly spells, wouldn't a couple LB / CL do ?

[phetish]

I've only tried this in Deadmines, so that's my only frame of reference - having said that....

In total instance time, It's somewhat faster than just LB/CL pull and kill - 30 minutes versus 45 minutes for me. The first few bosses (up to the Goblin forge)are VERY quick. After that, you get more elites, which take more than one Fire Nova totem to kill them. Basically, I've found that I can do one pull up to Rhakzor, one pull up to Shredder, LB/CL clear the Goblin Forge (due to the ranged mobs), one pull up to the canon, and then one pull up to Captain Greenskin. Kill VanCleef, then drop down to kill Cookie. Then do a single pull for the rest of the mobs on the ship.

No ghostwolf since we are "inside" so you can't use that to speed up the pulls. Mana-wise, I NEVER have to drink using totem AOE's - LB/CL pulls meant drinking several times through out the instance.

[Lokked]

This actually sounds like a fantastic idea for those who have no Warrior, Paladin or Mage to boost with:

Resto Shaman Specced with Earth Shield, Nature's Guardian, Improved Blocking, and Improved Stoneskin Totem (whatever the talent is called), and possibly Improved Stoneclaw Totem (talent that gives it more HP).

Park Alts, using the handy guide to boost with a mage as a reference (it outlines areas to pull, where to park alts, where to bring the mobs to before killing).

Pull, let mobs beat on you for about a minute. They shouldn't be able to kill you, as you will be using Stoneskin Totem, Wrath of Air, Earth Shield and have Nature's Guardian proccing when you reach <30%.

After a minute, they should all be tagged. Drop Stoneclaw and then Fire Nova. Then use Magma, dropping Magmas until they die.

This should work fine in the early instances, and as long as you can carry yourself to 35, you can finish 35 - 58 on Zolo! Which we all know can be done with no problems with a Resto Shaman.

Good Luck! I might try this out as well!

[NevadaGuy]

Lokked,

"Park Alts, using the handy guide to boost with a mage as a reference (it outlines areas to pull, where to park alts, where to bring the mobs to before killing).
"

I can't seem to find that info thru the search engine, would you have a link to it?

[phetish]

Lokked,

"Park Alts, using the handy guide to boost with a mage as a reference (it outlines areas to pull, where to park alts, where to bring the mobs to before killing).
"

I can't seem to find that info thru the search engine, would you have a link to it?http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3039&pageNo=1

This might be the one he was talking about - a few maps in it that show alts, paths, etc. The OP uses LEET SPEAK so it's a pain to read, and the organization is horrible, but if you cross your eyes and try hard enough, it almost makes sense. :)

Hell - the OP couldn't even spell "Boosting" correctly in the title of the post! might be why you couldn't find it by searching.

[Vyndree]

Keep in mind totems also suffer from the same "pet" mechanism -- if your pet is the only one to "hit" the mob, you will not gain experience or be able to loot the mob.

This is to prevent afk-grinding in which you set your pet on aggressive and earn free lewts/XP. Sadly, Shaman have no intrinsic aoe and aoe totems are likely to wipe out the whole lot without you ever "tapping" the mob first.

Just keep this in mind -- part of the reason why I did 1 pally + 4 shaman was so the consecrate could not only tap all of the mobs, but hold aggro off of the totems.

[phetish]

This is all a mute point, since the zolo trick has been nerfed as of today.

No more speedy leveling.I assume you mean "moot" - but it's not a moot point as it can be used in Deadmines, and Stockades at the very least. I'll test it in SM tonight too.

[Lorune]

Well a shaman will not block enough to tag much at all, might have more luck with rank1 lightning shield, but even then your limited to the amount you hit