[Eadward]

This thread is no longer actively maintained as I've left AoC. I'd recommend this be unstickied when/if another thread overtakes it in completeness, or the information in it grows so out of date as to generate confusion (unlikely given how few changes BS get in the patches).

As everyone has probably figured out by now, the in-game tooltip descriptions for feats and spells are terrible and often confusing if not downright misleading. Many feats are nigh impossible to fathom without putting some points in them and doing some in game tests. This post is an attempt to collect some of the information the community is gathering that's been popping up in various other threads and organize it in one place as a resource of people trying to figure out how the class works.

My goal is to collect a couple main types of information: First, a clear description of what everything actually does. Secondly, some information on how things scale with levels and feat point investments. Thirdly, information on the relative strength of combos/abilities (e.g. how does Ursine Brawl damage compare to Crush Armor damage). I'm not including the generic information available in the feat trees and similar sources, there's plenty of sites with that information. This is primarily an attempt to gather information from buff tooltips and in-game testing to supplement those sources where they are unclear or innacurate.

Obviously I'm leveling along with everyone else, and progressing down the feat tree as fast as I can, so I won't have time to respec to test paths I haven't taken for a long time, so any contributions from people who've taken other paths in the feat tree are extremely welcome, and I'll update the post as we get more info. Eventually I might add ratings/analysis/theory, but for right now I'd just like to get a good pool of data together and organized so we know what we're dealing with. I've been moving down the Wrath tree, so folks who've invested heavily in Spirits would be especially appreciated.

Basic info sources:
Feat Planners:
http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx?id=3 Conan Armory is one of Curse's forays into AoC. Fairly nice looking feat builder with the option to publish your builds. They seem to have gotten some official FunCom support as well, though I don't know what effect that's having.
http://feats.goonheim.com/bearshaman One of the earliest English language feat builders, also with save and publish capabilities for builds. Though you can't seem to view other folks' builds without logging in.
I've removed the Hybes.org feat planner as I've found myself able to build invalid feat builds with it (e.g. builds that aren't possible in-game)

Combo and Spell descriptions (automatically grabbed from game files, while it doesn't have every rank of every ability, it does have a rank and description for every ability) - http://www.hybes.org/?s=abilities&cl...Shaman&lang=en

Feat/Combo/Spell list, with level learnt - http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=13464

Feats

Wrath Tree

Nature's Wrath,5 ranks, Tier 1
Melee hits have a (fairly high) chance to apply a buff to you which will proc an extra secondary heal on your next Blood Flow. The buff stacks 10 times, but in a non-traditional way. You don't get more applications of the buff, however the modifier to your healing listed on the tooltip will stack higher as you hit. The secondary heal is a burst heal that shows up as Nature's Wrath in your combat log, and max stacks it will heal for just slightly more than the initial heal component of Blood Flow, effectively doubling the front-loaded heal from Blood Flow. The Nature's Wrath heal effects everyone effected by the Blood Flow that procs it.

Ursine Onslaught,5 ranks, Tier 2
Increases the damage from Ursine Brawl combo hits, maxing out at 40% increased damage at rank 5.

Animalistic Fury,5 ranks, Tier 2
Adds damage to melee hits. Scales with ranks and level.

Aspect: Untamed Regeneration,5 ranks, Tier 3
Stance-like click on, click off buff with no maintenance cost, and a 5s cooldown to activate/deactivate. Adds to natural (i.e. in and out of combat) health, mana, and stamina regen. 10% increased damage taken when activated.

Crushed Bones, 5 ranks, Tier 3
Increases damage from Internal Bleed combo hits, but not the Internal Bleed dot.

Aspect: Skulk, 5 ranks, Tier 3
Stance-like click on, click off buff with no maintenance cost, and a 5s cooldown to activate/deactivate. -5/-7/-12% threat and lowers your health while active (-113/../-198 at 48, it is not based on your max health, but may be based on your level).

Improved Grizzled Hide,3 ranks, Tier 4
Adds 1/2/3% to all invulnerabilities, and adds 10/20/30% to the Grizzled Hide defense bonus.

Poisoned Hide, 3 ranks, Tier 4, Pre-Req: Improved Grizzled Hide
Enemies hitting you have a (low-to-moderate, estimates at 25%) chance of getting applying a small poison damage debuff for 5 seconds (Debuff deals 22/tick at 37, ~40/tick at 45) and applies a large dump for PvE mobs.

Crushed Organs, 3 ranks, Tier 4
Increases damage dealt by the Internal Bleeding DoT effect by 10/20/30%.

Spell: Battle Roar, 1 rank, Tier 5
Applies a 3% damage buff to you and group, and increases you and your groups health pool maximum by a moderate amount (scales with level). Applies a small heal for the same amount as the boost to your health maximum (so a full health character will be at full health after the buff is applied). 30s duration, 60s cooldown.

Spell: Ursine Roar, 3 ranks, Tier 5, Pre-Req: Battle Roar
10 second Debuff on all enemies in a 180 degree 7m long arc in front of the caster, 40s cooldown. Reduces Physical and Magical damage by 5%/rank.

Rupture, 1 rank, Tier 5
Increases damage from Crush Armor by 10%, and decreases the cooldown by 1.5s.

Ursine Rush, 3 ranks, Tier 6
On activation ability. Charges a target (4-5 step range), performs one weapon swing, and applies a small DoT debuff. Additional ranks increase DoT damage.

Spell: Stone Hide, 3 ranks, Tier 6, Pre-Req: Poisoned Hide
Increases immunity by 10/15/25% for the duration. 15s duration and CD TBD.

Spell: Claws of the Reaper, 5 ranks, Tier 6
TBD

Shards of Earth, 5 ranks, Tier 7
TBD

Combo: Bloodthirst, 5 ranks, Tier 7
TBD

Weight of the World, 2 ranks, Tier 7
On activation ability. The next three attacks cause +20%/40% damage and inflicts a -25% movement speed snare, 2 minute cooldown.

Spirits of the Earth, 5 ranks, Tier 8, Pre-Req: Shards of Earth
TBD

Rampage, 3 ranks, Tier 8
Chance on hit to gain 5 stacks of the Rampage buff which give a bonus to melee damage and health regeneration which scale with ranks, stacks, and level. Rampage wears off one stack at a time, once every three seconds, for a total of 15s for all five stacks. Rampage procs frequently, but will not proc if you are currently effected by Rampage (giving it an effective 4 ppm maximum).

Spirits of the Debased, 5 ranks, Tier 8, Pre-Req: Combo: Bloodthirst
TBD

Nature's Revenge, 1 rank, Tier 9, Pre-Req: Spirits of the Earth
TBD

Combo: Bewilder, 1 rank, Tier 9, Pre-Req: Spirits of the Debased
4 attack combo, middle attack finish. Roughly the same damage as Ursine Brawl, debuffs affected targets with +90% miss rate for 6 seconds.

[Eadward]

Spirits Tree

Blood Warrior, 5 ranks, Tier 1
On casting Blood Flow you get a 15s buff that increases your melee damage slightly. Stacks 5 times. Blood Flow will refresh the buff duration, so you can pre-stack it before fights and then maintain it. Additional ranks increase magnitude of the damage buff.

Empowered Renewal, 5 ranks, Tier 2
Increases the damage dealt by the melee hit that triggers renewal. Increases damage by 10% per rank.

Improved Spirit of the Bear, 5 ranks, Tier 2
Increases bonus health from Spirit of the Bear by (initial reports put the increase at 10% per rank, other people have tested it and found the increase much larger, e.g. >100%, further testing requested). Also adds a small amount of natural health regen.

Deft Renewal, 3 ranks, Tier 3, Pre-Req: Empowered Renewal
The Renewal HoT applies a secondary Deft Renewal buff which increases evasion by 2/3/5%. Effects all players effected by Renewal.

Spell: Rune of Slaughter, 5 rank, Tier 3
While active, melee hits have a chance to affect the target with a 10s Rune of Slaughter debuff, stackable up to 5 times. Each application lowers physical immunities to a maximum of 5%. Higher ranks increase the proc rate on melee swings. 20s buff, 60s cooldown.

Aspect: Blood Fever, 5 ranks, Tier 3
Aspects are stance-like click on, click off buffs with no maintenance cost, but a 5s cooldown to activate/deactivate. Applies a damage bonus 10/12/../../20% damage bonus and a 12%/15%/... healing penalty. (Increases damage from physical and spell damage, e.g. Rabies damage).

Spell: Grace of Nature, 1 rank, Tier 4
100% root immunity for your party for 6 seconds. 40 Second cooldown. Removes already active root debuffs.

Blood Champion, 5 ranks, Tier 4
On activation ability. The next Blood Flow applies a 10s damage buff (20% at rank 5, presumably 4/8/12/16/20% progression). 30s cooldown.

Combo: Ether Theft, 1 rank, Tier 4
Low damage combo which drains a moderate amount of mana from each target hit which is still alive at the end of the combo. Mana drain scales with your level (~45 for low to mid 30s levels, ~130 for level 60). Drained mana is given to all members of your group.

Spell: Spirit Totem: Venom, 3 ranks, Tier 4
Gives a moderate amount of poison invulnerability (2.9% at 51). Applies a weak stacking poison DoT that can stack up to 3 times.

Spell: Rune of Aggression, 1 rank, Tier 5
Applies a melee damage increase buff to everyone in your group which scales with level. 10s duration, 30s cd. (+10.7 damage level 30).

Improved Ether Theft, 2 ranks, Tier 5, Pre-Req: Combo: Ether Theft
+50% damage and mana drain to Ether Theft combo.

Spell: Rune of Grounding, 1 rank, Tier 5
Spells cast on you while Rune of Grounding is up have a 95% to have no effect. In practice this means you'll see the mob/player's cast bar complete, and nothing will happen, no animation, no damage, no nothing. So it's easy not to see it work if you're in the middle of a hectic fight, but it does. Good for getting a break from caster damage to heal up/finish someone off (the root side effect means catching up won't be much of an option ). 15s duration, and 75% movement speed reduction, 2m cd.

Spell: Manifestation: Rabies, 1 rank, Tier 5
Pulses a short range aoe low to moderate damage effect around the caster for 30s. 40s cd. Damage scales with rank and level.

Wild Energy, 3 ranks, Tier 6
TBD

Untamed Energy, 3 ranks, Tier 6, Pre-Req: Wild Energy
TBD

Spell: Manifestation: Regrowth, 3 ranks, Tier 6
5m AoE HoT effect centered on the shaman that lasts for 30s. Heals for about half the strength of Blood Flow per tick. The damage effect will knock people out of stealth if they are hit with it. 60s cooldown.

Improved Manifestation: Rabies, 3 ranks, Tier 6, Pre-Req: Spell: Manifestation: Rabies
Increases the damage from Manifestation: Rabies by 15/30/50% per tick.

Balance of Nature, 5 ranks, Tier 7
Moderate chance on Blood Flow cast (30-40%) to proc a party-wide short term stamina regen buff (96 stam/tick at level 60).

Spell: Claws of Life, 5 ranks, Tier 7
TBD

Blood Healing, 5 ranks, Tier 8
TBD

Spirit Walker, 3 ranks, Tier 8
TBD

Improved Adrenaline Surge, 5 ranks, Tier 8
TBD

Spell: Iron Hide, 1 rank, Tier 9
TBD

Spell: Booming Roar, 1 rank, Tier 9
TBD

[Eadward]

Reserved for Combos.

[Mafiasco]

Let me help you a bit. I was 37 as of yesterday, but today is my GF's bday, so no gaming for me =P. Hope this help.

anyway, heres what I know about these spells:

Improved Grizzled Hide,3 ranks, Tier 4
Adds 10/20/30% more natural defense (+defense), and adds 1/2/3% to all resistances.

Poisoned Hide, 3 ranks, Tier 4, Pre-Req: Improved Grizzled Hide
Enemies hitting you have a low-to-moderate chance of getting a poison debuff on them that deals 22 damage per second for 5 seconds (at level 37). Do not know if it can stack, but this skill is actually pretty bad since the proc chance seems to be around 25%.

Crushed Organs, 3 ranks, Tier 4
Increases bleed damage from the Internal Bleeding effect by either 10/20/30% or 15/30/45%. I will double check this later.

Spell: Battle Roar, 1 rank, Tier 5
0.5second cast AOE stun, lasts about 1.5 seconds or 2 seconds. It is basically Warstomp from WoW in almost all aspects.

Rupture, 1 rank, Tier 5
Tooltip says that it increases the damage of the Crush Armor combo by 10%, and decreases the cooldown by 10%. For one point, and considering Crush Armor is our highest burst damage, this is well worth it.

[Eadward]

Thanks Mafiosco, updated those feats. One thing though, I think you may have confused Battle Roar with Ursine Crush, the non-feat spell you get at 20. The feat tree tooltip for Battle Roar describes it as a damage and health buff.

[xOspreyx]

Grace of Nature seems to be bugged. I tested it out while fighting spiders and it does not break roots.

[-Lowlife]

Just wanted to input on the general tree. I thought reducing the "recast" time of Fierce Recovery sounded great so I respecced for this and to my surprise, "recast time" =/= Cooldown. Instead it turns the 1.5 sec cast to insta cast. While this is nice, I dont think its worth all the points I had to invest to get it. If it had reduced the 30 sec cooldown I wouldnt mind, but 1.5 secs is nothing. And those points are better spent elsewhere imo.

[jbc123]

Deft Renewal is actually 5% at 3 points.

[IRRIDIA]

The improved Grizzled Hide info seems to be incorrect.

At 25 it only adds +10 defense regardless of it it has 1, 2, or 3 points invested (same as Grizzled Hide spell with no points). So Improved Grizzled Hide has not effect on increaseing the defense rating.

It does add 1%, 2%, and 3% but it adds them to our invulnerability ratings, not our resistance ratings, which are different.

[Eadward]

Updated. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

@Broken
While I don't mind adding a section for the Priest Feat Tree, I don't intend to put points there, so I'd have to rely heavily on other folks giving input.