Level 65 Shaman hunting question...Follow

I was just talking with an old friend of mine. He'd quit EQ for a while and started playing again maybe 3 months ago. He was level 55 and has made it to 65. He seems to be under the impression that Shaman really can't solo well and that for the most part he needs a group if he wants to get any experience.

I just wanted other people's thoughts on this because I was under the impression that he could do really well. He's got a pet(yes, not as good as a Mage, Necro or Beastlord, but fair), great buffs, great debuffs, best mana regen of any class, great DoTs, root and SoW, I'd think he could OWN!! I know Shaman aren't the top soloers, but I'd probably place them in the top 40% of the classes.

Any advice and even better recommendations on places to hunt would be great. (He's a Barbarian if that makes any difference)

Thanks in advance.

I can't speak to the higher levels form personal experance. But I have gone from 1 to 53, soloing 75% of the time. Shamans are great soloers. I see no reason that I can't get to 65, they same way I got to 53.

with the canni5 aa, shamans do have better mana regen than necros.

Canni turns hit points into mana. It has nothing to do with regen.

Shaman's have some good Regen buffs, that are used to off set (over time) the loss of hp's that are the result of using Canni.

Group xp is better than anything a shaman can get solo. If he can get a group, he should. But he can get some XP solo if no groups are available certainly, especially if he geared himself properly, with good AC/HP gear, rather than a bunch of wis/mana stuff.

Some easy spots:
- plane of justice basement
- natimbi yard trash
- droga
- inner acrylia
- ssra
- veksar

Some slightly harder spots where he might have to root/rot:
- HoHonor (pretty much anything)
- PoStorms desert (armadillos, desert trash, forest frogs)
- PoValor crystal golems, larvae
- CoDecay (rats, undead, whatever)

And to clear something up with facts rather than unsupported opinions, necros have better mana recovery than shamans using canni5. Seduction of Saryrn returns 50 mana per tick. Canni5 returns 1066 per 3 minutes, which is 35 mana per tick. The necro version also costs significantly less HP per mana recovered. Shaman may be able to catch up to the necro with very aggressive use of canni4 in addition to canni5. Otherwise, necros blow shamans away. One caveat is that KEI doesn't stack with the necro spell, so a shaman can catch up somewhat by buying a kei from a chanter for an extra 14/tick. Personally, I attribute that to the chanter rather than the shaman though.