Orc Mage
Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 2:05 pm
My friend is playing an orc mage as well and emailed me this thread. Happy birthday Hall -
The Orc Mage, by Ren Keenblade
The next destination game for the PvP crowd is Lineage 2. After numerous stints in the various Asian betas, one class that did not get much play time in Sinister was the Orc Mage. In the ‘Tai’ beta I ran this class through it’s paces to see what we were missing. It was a worthwhile undertaking.
Shaman in Bronze armor.
The strengths of this class are very impressive:
Highest HPs of any mage due to Constitution and five levels of Boost HP.
Highest Physical Defense of any mage due to high levels of Heavy Armor Mastery.
Highest base Magic Defense of all classes due to high Mentality.
Strongest Life-tap with highest efficiency (80%).
Strongest damage-over-time due to very fast damage rate.
Most diverse Crowd Control with sleep, fear, confusion, and AoE versions of root and sleep.
Only mage class to get weapon styles that can “over hit”.
Massive healing output with the group heal-over-time Chant of Life.
Of course there are some drawbacks to keep in mind:
One of the slowest classes in the game with no access to Wind Walk.
The damage-over-time can not be cast on white players.
No single-target or quick heals. Chant of Life is painfully slow to cast.
If you initially play the Orc Mage as a pure caster, you probably will not be very impressed. But when played as a Tank-Mage in Heavy Armor with an eagerness to engage in melee, the class truly shines. The Orc Mage is a powerful solo class able to hunt with little downtime against low or even con mobs due to the combination of Heavy armor, a Stun attack, and the powerful Life Drain. And tougher prey can be hunted using the damage-over-time and finishing with melee. Damage output is large enough to make the Shaman (the promotion path after Mage) the second fastest leveling profession after the Ranger on the Korean servers.
But it is also a powerful grouping class welcomed for group buffs and crowd control. The buffs are fast casting and work on the entire group making them very easy to cast compared to most other mages. As the buff duration in this game is relatively short, that is an important consideration. The heal-over-time chant, although slow to cast, does in fact heal large amounts of health to the entire group. Used wisely this is an excellent addition to the more typical heals from a Cleric or Elder. Finally the Orc Mage, especially the Overlord, fills a unique role in sieges and large-scale clan PvP with AoE buffs and debuffs.
Race:
The Orc is a class of extremes. The Orc Mage has the highest Mentality, Magic Points, and Magic Defense of all races. Among casters it has the highest Strength, Constitution, Hit Points, but the lowest Magic Attack and Magic Attack Speed. Fortunately the spell selection and play style complement these racial traits.
Skill Descriptions:
Mage:
Level 1: Soulcry is not commonly used past the earliest levels due to the intense mana drain, although it is possible to toggle the power on/off between attacks to reduce the mana regeneration penalty. Toughness helps to make the Orc Mage the most durable of all casters.
Level 7: Icy Flame and Life Drain are the two key powers available at 7th level. Icy Flame is a very powerful and very fast damage-over-time that does massive damage in comparison to its Mana cost. Dreaming Spirit is a sleep spell that when used in conjunction with Icy Flame will almost kill a mob with no aggressive reaction. Life Drain is an efficient lifetap that give 80% of inflicted damage back to the caster. It also does good damage, and as one of our guildmates exclaimed when drained, “It’s no joke!”.
Level 14: Chant of Battle and Fear are both useful for group hunting. Also available are upgrades for Icy Flame and Life Drain. The poison Damage-over-time is not nearly as fast as Icy Flame and I have found little use for it, even though it will stack with Icy Flame. Heavy Armor Mastery is available early, but in all likelihood you will not have the adena to purchase the equipment right away. But the advantage of early mastery is that there will be higher mastery levels in the endgame. The other Tank-Mage, the Prophet, gets Heavy Armor at 40th level and maxes at 15 mastery, while the Orc Mage classes get a total of 25 mastery. This means more Physical Defense for the Orc.
Shaman:
Level 20: After promotion to Shaman, there are some very nice skills available. Stun Attack is usable only with blunts, so now is the time to switch to a blunt if you have not already. The stun lands about half the time against even con mobs, and fairly regularly against greens. It also does more damage than a normal attack. Chant of Life if the only heal that the Shaman gets. It is a slow-casting group heal-over-time. In addition to an upgraded Life Drain, the upgraded Damage-over-time Frost Flame gets increased range with the Chronicle1 patch. The range is equivalent to the archery weapon powers.
Level 25: The offensive nature of spells continue with a mana damage-over-time called Aura Sink, and an AoE root and AoE fire damage.
Level 30: Power of Paagrio is a clan-wide buff with a very large radius, useful for sieges. Seal of Chaos is an AoE attack debuff, and Seal of Poison upgrades to intensity 4.
Level 35: Along with upgrades of many spells, new ones include Blessing of Paagrio which is a clan defense buff, and Seal of Slow which is an AoE snare.
When comparing the two branches after Shaman, Warcryer and Overlord, the Overlord is more of a robe caster AoE debuffer/buffer who is invaluable in a siege. While the Warcryer is a group-buffing damage dealer. The important thing to realize about the Warcryer’s new damage-over-time (Freezing Flame) and lifetap (Steal Essence) is that with the Chronicle1 patch the ranges are increased to 900. This give the Warcryer serious range in additional to all the other weapons in the arsenal such as melee stuns and AoE debuffing.
A high level Overlord casts Seal of Binding followed by Seal of Flame. Ouch!
Equipment:
Although the Shaman is designed around blunts, there are no special attacks or weapon skills for the Orc Mage until promotion at 20. After two aborted starts with a melee Mage which fizzled before hitting 7th level due to obnoxious downtime, my current preference is to go with archery. There is less downtime in early levels while collecting SP to purchase those first spells available at 7th level as you can kite and not take significant damage. Orc Island is rich in flying mobs which are easy to kite but also take 10% bonus damage from archery.
Then I strongly recommend a switch to blunt at 20th level for stun attack. The only real choice is between a two-handed staff for better Magic Attack as it impacts the chance to land a damage-over-time, or shield and mace which is a better choice for a melee soloer. I went mace and shield and had much success.
Shaman hunting Lirien (with bow) and Undead (with mace).
As for armor, in the earliest levels I recommend keeping the newbie robes for increased mana regen, and putting funds toward better and better bows. The Hunters bow or Forest Bow will take you to 20 quite nicely. Once switching to blunts, its also time to get a suit of Bronze Heavy Armor.
The general trend is to stick with Heavy unless you go the route of Overlord. During sieges you will need the Mana for the AoE buffs and debuffs. Even then you might have a second set of Heavy Armor for leveling. Light is not a common choice due to the mage not getting evasion bonuses for light armor mastery. Only fighters get this, so instead go with one of the extremes; robes or heavy.
PvP:
In the early levels on Orc Island, an Archer Mage reigns supreme in a world of melees. Rarely will you see another Orc using a bow. Even when fighting another Shaman who is also armed with the damage-over-time and the lifetap, your bow damage will most likely make the difference if the fight starts at range.
The key to the Orc Mage is landing the damage-over-time. If that is done the enemy is in real trouble as they are quickly reduced to nearly no health, easily finished off with melee or archery. The trouble of course is that you can only land damage-over-times and sleep on purple or red targets so the Orc Mage does not make a good PK character. Open up with a bow and wait for reaction. Once the opponent goes purple, use a damage-over-time and finish off with Soulshot archery attacks. But if the damage-over-time is resisted then the lifetap is very effective in healing yourself while keeping pressure on your opponent. The trouble is the steep casting cost and it will deplete your mana relatively quickly. Alternate between lifetap and Soulshot archery attacks.
Speed will always be a problem so carry quickstep potions. If it becomes a kiting contest against non-archers, you will win if the damage-over-time lands or if you can offset incoming damage with a lifetap.
Shaman taking down a Dark Elf Mage.
Hunting Progression with Archery:
If your preference is for melee and lifetap in the early levels, simply follow the quests and they will lead you into the appropriate level hunting grounds. But if you go archery, you will level more efficiently by steering toward flying mobs that are vulnerable to arrows.
The first thing to do is to toss your Apprentice Wand and instead grab a Training Glove that commonly litter the ground of the starting town. The Training Glove is a much better weapon for the Orc Mage who is most certainly not a caster until 7th level.
The first quest, Orc Tutorial, is very easy and provides both a local map and 50 SP toward your first spell. The next priority is getting 883 adena as quickly as possible for a weapon upgrade. Long Live the Lord of Flame is a Level 2 quest that is a quick way to get 450 adena, getting you halfway toward that Short Bow.
The Wolf and Goblin hunting quests available at Level 4 and 5 are optional as once you have a bow you can get out of the crowded areas right around town and instead head towards Rakeclaw imps. If you are hunting with a partner I would definitely suggest moving to the Imps as soon as you get the Short bow.
At Level 6 there is a quest that adds extra loot for killing Rakeclaw Imps (lvl 6 passive), Rakeclaw Imp Hunters (lvl 7 passive), and Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains (lvl 10 aggressive), called Invaders of the Holy Land. Definitely get this quest as the Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains commingle with Darkwing Bats in areas that you will be hunting at least into the mid teens. When the Rakeclaw Imps turn green then focus on Rakeclaw Imp Hunters. When Hunters go green find a mixed Mushroom and Hunter spawn.
Instead of doing the Werewolf quest at 9th level, I instead choose to continue to hunt flying mobs due to the damage bonus. Orc Island is an oddity in that it has some of the best low level hunting area for caster and archers, but very few of those classes are there to take advantage. That means plenty of mobs for the Archery Mage.
As soon as possible move onto Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains, Darkwing Bats, and Evil Eyes. Only the Imps are aggressive. Evil eye drop the Feriotic Tunic, Rakeclaw Imp Cheiftains drop Quickstep potions and the Iron Glove, and Darkwing Bats drop Quickstep potions and the Dwarven Mace. At 11th level return to town to get the Dark Winged Spies quest and to upgrade to the 14k Bow if you can afford it.
The fastest leveling at this point is with another mage archer duoing near the Ring Road east of town. With archery you can pull bats before the primarily melee player population, and go for longer periods of time without resting. With a partner you can go non-stop except to Escape to town for the quest turn-in and to restock on arrows and Escape scrolls. Your kill rate is fast enough to annoy others trying to hunt the area. Do not be put off because with archer kiting and damage-over-time you can kite them around at your leisure. Try to avoid going red at this point though since you will not be able to do quest turn-ins. Darkwings will stay light blue right up to 19th level if you can stand the monotony. They die very quickly with a Hunter’s Bow and you can solo an entire camp, snatching the bats from competing players.
The only other quest definitely worth doing is the Level 12 Butcher’s sword or sword of butcher. For an Archer Mage it is only a cash source, but it is reasonable easy to combine it with the Darkwing quest. After collect 70 fangs, continue outward to kill the messenger, then use an Escape scroll to return to town and do the turn-in for both quests. As always, be sure to reinitiate the bat quest after the turn-in. Repeat a total of three times, then sell the sword and save toward the 60k Hunting Bow.
There is no shortage of good cash quests for Orcs. At Level 15 there is the Totem of the Hestui and Gatekeeper’s Offering. Kasha bears will provide better XP and SP than the bats, but cash is better with the bats due to the speed in which the quest can be completed. As for the Golems, they are immune to arrows so you will need to use your damage-over-time. Doing another round of Darkwing will net more than the value of the Gatekeeper quest, but it might be a worthwhile change of pace. Use terrain such as rocks or trees to your advantage to break Line-of-sight and cancel the Golem’s spells.
Another option is to continue with non-quest flying mobs for the bonus arrow damage. Evil Eye Patroller are a 14th level mob that will stay green until you hit 20 and leave to promote.
Due to the fantastic money quests combined with numerous archer-friendly mobs, I strongly suggest staying on Orc Island until the promotion quest starts at 19th level. Otherwise you must return and it costs 6,000 adena for the transport back to the island, and 3,000 to leave for the second time, a total of 9,000 in unnecessary spending.
If you do leave for the mainland early, Lirien and Lirien Ribe in the Elf lands are good hunting. They are slow and stop to cast Wind Shackle which has minimal impact. Use Icy Flame which will almost kill it then rush in and finish it off. They will almost never hit you, so you can wear robes for the mana regeneration bonus.
Once you are 19th level you can begin the promotion quest which starts on Orc Island and continues in Gludin. Note that Seer Umos is located in Gludin, and not Gludio. The poison spiders can be found near the Dark Elf Altar.
Summary:
There are two important changes in Prelude and Chronicle 1 that make the Shaman even better:
Spirit Shot (the caster equivalent of Soul Shot) will land damage-over-time more frequently.
Mob magic resistance is lowered, making damage-over-times land more.
These two changes ensure that the Shaman remains a potent offensive caster. It is a class that has appeal to those who enjoy a hybrid class with a multitude of options including crowd control and melee. Powerful spells are granted without the usually accompanying fragility of a cloth caster. Solo ability can not be questioned. And although welcome in a group, the Orc Mage is the lazy-man’s healer and buffer as powers are all group targeted.
The Orc Mage, by Ren Keenblade
The next destination game for the PvP crowd is Lineage 2. After numerous stints in the various Asian betas, one class that did not get much play time in Sinister was the Orc Mage. In the ‘Tai’ beta I ran this class through it’s paces to see what we were missing. It was a worthwhile undertaking.
Shaman in Bronze armor.
The strengths of this class are very impressive:
Highest HPs of any mage due to Constitution and five levels of Boost HP.
Highest Physical Defense of any mage due to high levels of Heavy Armor Mastery.
Highest base Magic Defense of all classes due to high Mentality.
Strongest Life-tap with highest efficiency (80%).
Strongest damage-over-time due to very fast damage rate.
Most diverse Crowd Control with sleep, fear, confusion, and AoE versions of root and sleep.
Only mage class to get weapon styles that can “over hit”.
Massive healing output with the group heal-over-time Chant of Life.
Of course there are some drawbacks to keep in mind:
One of the slowest classes in the game with no access to Wind Walk.
The damage-over-time can not be cast on white players.
No single-target or quick heals. Chant of Life is painfully slow to cast.
If you initially play the Orc Mage as a pure caster, you probably will not be very impressed. But when played as a Tank-Mage in Heavy Armor with an eagerness to engage in melee, the class truly shines. The Orc Mage is a powerful solo class able to hunt with little downtime against low or even con mobs due to the combination of Heavy armor, a Stun attack, and the powerful Life Drain. And tougher prey can be hunted using the damage-over-time and finishing with melee. Damage output is large enough to make the Shaman (the promotion path after Mage) the second fastest leveling profession after the Ranger on the Korean servers.
But it is also a powerful grouping class welcomed for group buffs and crowd control. The buffs are fast casting and work on the entire group making them very easy to cast compared to most other mages. As the buff duration in this game is relatively short, that is an important consideration. The heal-over-time chant, although slow to cast, does in fact heal large amounts of health to the entire group. Used wisely this is an excellent addition to the more typical heals from a Cleric or Elder. Finally the Orc Mage, especially the Overlord, fills a unique role in sieges and large-scale clan PvP with AoE buffs and debuffs.
Race:
The Orc is a class of extremes. The Orc Mage has the highest Mentality, Magic Points, and Magic Defense of all races. Among casters it has the highest Strength, Constitution, Hit Points, but the lowest Magic Attack and Magic Attack Speed. Fortunately the spell selection and play style complement these racial traits.
Skill Descriptions:
Mage:
Level 1: Soulcry is not commonly used past the earliest levels due to the intense mana drain, although it is possible to toggle the power on/off between attacks to reduce the mana regeneration penalty. Toughness helps to make the Orc Mage the most durable of all casters.
Level 7: Icy Flame and Life Drain are the two key powers available at 7th level. Icy Flame is a very powerful and very fast damage-over-time that does massive damage in comparison to its Mana cost. Dreaming Spirit is a sleep spell that when used in conjunction with Icy Flame will almost kill a mob with no aggressive reaction. Life Drain is an efficient lifetap that give 80% of inflicted damage back to the caster. It also does good damage, and as one of our guildmates exclaimed when drained, “It’s no joke!”.
Level 14: Chant of Battle and Fear are both useful for group hunting. Also available are upgrades for Icy Flame and Life Drain. The poison Damage-over-time is not nearly as fast as Icy Flame and I have found little use for it, even though it will stack with Icy Flame. Heavy Armor Mastery is available early, but in all likelihood you will not have the adena to purchase the equipment right away. But the advantage of early mastery is that there will be higher mastery levels in the endgame. The other Tank-Mage, the Prophet, gets Heavy Armor at 40th level and maxes at 15 mastery, while the Orc Mage classes get a total of 25 mastery. This means more Physical Defense for the Orc.
Shaman:
Level 20: After promotion to Shaman, there are some very nice skills available. Stun Attack is usable only with blunts, so now is the time to switch to a blunt if you have not already. The stun lands about half the time against even con mobs, and fairly regularly against greens. It also does more damage than a normal attack. Chant of Life if the only heal that the Shaman gets. It is a slow-casting group heal-over-time. In addition to an upgraded Life Drain, the upgraded Damage-over-time Frost Flame gets increased range with the Chronicle1 patch. The range is equivalent to the archery weapon powers.
Level 25: The offensive nature of spells continue with a mana damage-over-time called Aura Sink, and an AoE root and AoE fire damage.
Level 30: Power of Paagrio is a clan-wide buff with a very large radius, useful for sieges. Seal of Chaos is an AoE attack debuff, and Seal of Poison upgrades to intensity 4.
Level 35: Along with upgrades of many spells, new ones include Blessing of Paagrio which is a clan defense buff, and Seal of Slow which is an AoE snare.
When comparing the two branches after Shaman, Warcryer and Overlord, the Overlord is more of a robe caster AoE debuffer/buffer who is invaluable in a siege. While the Warcryer is a group-buffing damage dealer. The important thing to realize about the Warcryer’s new damage-over-time (Freezing Flame) and lifetap (Steal Essence) is that with the Chronicle1 patch the ranges are increased to 900. This give the Warcryer serious range in additional to all the other weapons in the arsenal such as melee stuns and AoE debuffing.
A high level Overlord casts Seal of Binding followed by Seal of Flame. Ouch!
Equipment:
Although the Shaman is designed around blunts, there are no special attacks or weapon skills for the Orc Mage until promotion at 20. After two aborted starts with a melee Mage which fizzled before hitting 7th level due to obnoxious downtime, my current preference is to go with archery. There is less downtime in early levels while collecting SP to purchase those first spells available at 7th level as you can kite and not take significant damage. Orc Island is rich in flying mobs which are easy to kite but also take 10% bonus damage from archery.
Then I strongly recommend a switch to blunt at 20th level for stun attack. The only real choice is between a two-handed staff for better Magic Attack as it impacts the chance to land a damage-over-time, or shield and mace which is a better choice for a melee soloer. I went mace and shield and had much success.
Shaman hunting Lirien (with bow) and Undead (with mace).
As for armor, in the earliest levels I recommend keeping the newbie robes for increased mana regen, and putting funds toward better and better bows. The Hunters bow or Forest Bow will take you to 20 quite nicely. Once switching to blunts, its also time to get a suit of Bronze Heavy Armor.
The general trend is to stick with Heavy unless you go the route of Overlord. During sieges you will need the Mana for the AoE buffs and debuffs. Even then you might have a second set of Heavy Armor for leveling. Light is not a common choice due to the mage not getting evasion bonuses for light armor mastery. Only fighters get this, so instead go with one of the extremes; robes or heavy.
PvP:
In the early levels on Orc Island, an Archer Mage reigns supreme in a world of melees. Rarely will you see another Orc using a bow. Even when fighting another Shaman who is also armed with the damage-over-time and the lifetap, your bow damage will most likely make the difference if the fight starts at range.
The key to the Orc Mage is landing the damage-over-time. If that is done the enemy is in real trouble as they are quickly reduced to nearly no health, easily finished off with melee or archery. The trouble of course is that you can only land damage-over-times and sleep on purple or red targets so the Orc Mage does not make a good PK character. Open up with a bow and wait for reaction. Once the opponent goes purple, use a damage-over-time and finish off with Soulshot archery attacks. But if the damage-over-time is resisted then the lifetap is very effective in healing yourself while keeping pressure on your opponent. The trouble is the steep casting cost and it will deplete your mana relatively quickly. Alternate between lifetap and Soulshot archery attacks.
Speed will always be a problem so carry quickstep potions. If it becomes a kiting contest against non-archers, you will win if the damage-over-time lands or if you can offset incoming damage with a lifetap.
Shaman taking down a Dark Elf Mage.
Hunting Progression with Archery:
If your preference is for melee and lifetap in the early levels, simply follow the quests and they will lead you into the appropriate level hunting grounds. But if you go archery, you will level more efficiently by steering toward flying mobs that are vulnerable to arrows.
The first thing to do is to toss your Apprentice Wand and instead grab a Training Glove that commonly litter the ground of the starting town. The Training Glove is a much better weapon for the Orc Mage who is most certainly not a caster until 7th level.
The first quest, Orc Tutorial, is very easy and provides both a local map and 50 SP toward your first spell. The next priority is getting 883 adena as quickly as possible for a weapon upgrade. Long Live the Lord of Flame is a Level 2 quest that is a quick way to get 450 adena, getting you halfway toward that Short Bow.
The Wolf and Goblin hunting quests available at Level 4 and 5 are optional as once you have a bow you can get out of the crowded areas right around town and instead head towards Rakeclaw imps. If you are hunting with a partner I would definitely suggest moving to the Imps as soon as you get the Short bow.
At Level 6 there is a quest that adds extra loot for killing Rakeclaw Imps (lvl 6 passive), Rakeclaw Imp Hunters (lvl 7 passive), and Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains (lvl 10 aggressive), called Invaders of the Holy Land. Definitely get this quest as the Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains commingle with Darkwing Bats in areas that you will be hunting at least into the mid teens. When the Rakeclaw Imps turn green then focus on Rakeclaw Imp Hunters. When Hunters go green find a mixed Mushroom and Hunter spawn.
Instead of doing the Werewolf quest at 9th level, I instead choose to continue to hunt flying mobs due to the damage bonus. Orc Island is an oddity in that it has some of the best low level hunting area for caster and archers, but very few of those classes are there to take advantage. That means plenty of mobs for the Archery Mage.
As soon as possible move onto Rakeclaw Imp Chieftains, Darkwing Bats, and Evil Eyes. Only the Imps are aggressive. Evil eye drop the Feriotic Tunic, Rakeclaw Imp Cheiftains drop Quickstep potions and the Iron Glove, and Darkwing Bats drop Quickstep potions and the Dwarven Mace. At 11th level return to town to get the Dark Winged Spies quest and to upgrade to the 14k Bow if you can afford it.
The fastest leveling at this point is with another mage archer duoing near the Ring Road east of town. With archery you can pull bats before the primarily melee player population, and go for longer periods of time without resting. With a partner you can go non-stop except to Escape to town for the quest turn-in and to restock on arrows and Escape scrolls. Your kill rate is fast enough to annoy others trying to hunt the area. Do not be put off because with archer kiting and damage-over-time you can kite them around at your leisure. Try to avoid going red at this point though since you will not be able to do quest turn-ins. Darkwings will stay light blue right up to 19th level if you can stand the monotony. They die very quickly with a Hunter’s Bow and you can solo an entire camp, snatching the bats from competing players.
The only other quest definitely worth doing is the Level 12 Butcher’s sword or sword of butcher. For an Archer Mage it is only a cash source, but it is reasonable easy to combine it with the Darkwing quest. After collect 70 fangs, continue outward to kill the messenger, then use an Escape scroll to return to town and do the turn-in for both quests. As always, be sure to reinitiate the bat quest after the turn-in. Repeat a total of three times, then sell the sword and save toward the 60k Hunting Bow.
There is no shortage of good cash quests for Orcs. At Level 15 there is the Totem of the Hestui and Gatekeeper’s Offering. Kasha bears will provide better XP and SP than the bats, but cash is better with the bats due to the speed in which the quest can be completed. As for the Golems, they are immune to arrows so you will need to use your damage-over-time. Doing another round of Darkwing will net more than the value of the Gatekeeper quest, but it might be a worthwhile change of pace. Use terrain such as rocks or trees to your advantage to break Line-of-sight and cancel the Golem’s spells.
Another option is to continue with non-quest flying mobs for the bonus arrow damage. Evil Eye Patroller are a 14th level mob that will stay green until you hit 20 and leave to promote.
Due to the fantastic money quests combined with numerous archer-friendly mobs, I strongly suggest staying on Orc Island until the promotion quest starts at 19th level. Otherwise you must return and it costs 6,000 adena for the transport back to the island, and 3,000 to leave for the second time, a total of 9,000 in unnecessary spending.
If you do leave for the mainland early, Lirien and Lirien Ribe in the Elf lands are good hunting. They are slow and stop to cast Wind Shackle which has minimal impact. Use Icy Flame which will almost kill it then rush in and finish it off. They will almost never hit you, so you can wear robes for the mana regeneration bonus.
Once you are 19th level you can begin the promotion quest which starts on Orc Island and continues in Gludin. Note that Seer Umos is located in Gludin, and not Gludio. The poison spiders can be found near the Dark Elf Altar.
Summary:
There are two important changes in Prelude and Chronicle 1 that make the Shaman even better:
Spirit Shot (the caster equivalent of Soul Shot) will land damage-over-time more frequently.
Mob magic resistance is lowered, making damage-over-times land more.
These two changes ensure that the Shaman remains a potent offensive caster. It is a class that has appeal to those who enjoy a hybrid class with a multitude of options including crowd control and melee. Powerful spells are granted without the usually accompanying fragility of a cloth caster. Solo ability can not be questioned. And although welcome in a group, the Orc Mage is the lazy-man’s healer and buffer as powers are all group targeted.