DPS wise they are well past pet builds (war/clr/mnk at least).Still no where close to pet builds in utility, ease of use, and shear DPS.
DRU definitely wasn't in a good spot a few months ago and Shamans needed a couple tweaks. But SHM strong in nothing? SHM/SK/ROG has been probably the defacto "perfectly balanced" combo since THJ started. It has never been in a bad spot and has been some variation of top 5 combos since the start.
They also get a fuckload of defensive cooldown AAs.SHM stat buffs are not even worth casting if it wasnt for the tiny HP buff on this server. All stats are capped. Now if their buffs also buffed H-stats, then they would be something, but they dont. Slow and malo do its thing on SOME bosses, of course most are immune. Malo lands on everything and it does help with landing the dots and such. But still slow/malo serve their purpose on trash/adds and especially in POP where they love to throw tons of trash/adds at you during progression, the slow and AOE slow did its thing. Never ever used canni, no need because at least for me, mana has never been a problem, even with the 2-2.5 mill hp boss fights in lucy.
Its all about that bear form for shammys. Which buffs your attack, buffs your str and dex (overcap) gives you a HoT and basically is on 80% of the time.
A little late joining this thread, just like most things in the game. (^_^) Would drop my account every time a deployment came up, (military) then come back to the game and another expansion was out. This server I can experience some of the zones I missed because you needed a group for them and all the groups were playing the new content.I lasted in an “uber guild” in EQ for a couple / few months.circa somewhere between 2001-2003.
Even being early 20s I couldn’t keep up (nor care to) with the nerds who played nonstop and expected you to also.
Expectation to raid X amount of nights in the middle of the week until like 3-4 AM eastern time sometimes. Meanwhile I had a full time job and social life. Waking up at 6:30-7 AM with 2-3 hours of sleep then they wanted you to play it all again the same night. Realistically I probably did this maybe 10-15 times total and said fuck this.
Also it was just incredibly boring to raid the same slog over and over again. The zones with a lot of trash, etc. just hours and hours to get to something. I can’t even stomach farming on this server and it’s super casual.