Viable 5 man melee setups for PvP

[Gala]

Hi,
I'm a active TBC and Wotlk boxer, stopped playing on retail since Cata but I'm considering to come back when Classic goes live.

What do you think are going to be the best 4-5man melee setup to PvP on Classic?

When it comes to melee boxing I think the biggest issue that we gonna face are Blizzard spamming frost mages. Blizzard is stupidly overpowered in Classic. It's a aoe slow that reduces the movement speed by 65% and on each tick there is a 15% chance to freeze affected opponents for 5 sec. The only ways to overcome the Blizzard slow are free action potion, Blessing of Freedom or shapeshift spam as druide. I don't think that it will be possible to escape the blizzard by spamming magic dispel because the slow is reapplied on each tick, so every 1 second.
Since ferals have no fear protection I was thinking that a mix setup of like 2-3 enh shamis and 2-3 ret palys might work the best in pvp.
Ghost wolf, Frost shock, blessing of freedom, cleanse, repentence and stun hammer should make a ret/enh mix setup quite effective against kiter. In addition they would have tremor totem against fear and WF totem to enhance the ret palys.
What do you think?

[xandorz]

Paladin is alliance only and shaman is horde only, so you can't use both.

Blizzard slows by 75% for 5 seconds with permafrost I think, so really almost impossible to move with it, only need 1 mage that use rank 1 blizzard to immobalize the entire team.

Another note about classic is that priest fear and warrior fear are both not dispellable, so only way to get out of it is with trinket (5 min cd I think), WotF (undead) or with warrior berserker rage (30 sec cd berserker stance required) or Death Wish (3 min cd), or with BS trinket.

Warrior feels like the only really viable melee class since they have a good way to get out of fear and they have a gap closer.
Paladins feels like a required healer/support for warriors in pvp since they can use freedom and dispel. So 3 warriors and 2 paladins (for 2 dispels and to counter interrupts) feels like the only really viable melee team.

Shaman can't really counter slow or CC.
Rogue don't really have any gap closer (vanish and sprint, long cd and sprint won't help against 75% slow and frost nova), or fear counter.
Druid have feral charge but no way to handle fear or CC.

[Gala]

Paladin is alliance only and shaman is horde only, so you can't use both.

Lol, you are right. I completly forgot about that.
Too bad because I think that ret and enh would have the best synergy.

Another note about classic is that priest fear and warrior fear are both not dispellable, so only way to get out of it is with trinket (5 min cd I think), WotF (undead) or with warrior berserker rage (30 sec cd berserker stance required) or Death Wish (3 min cd), or with BS trinket.

And tremor totem?!

Warrior feels like the only really viable melee class since they have a good way to get out of fear and they have a gap closer.
Paladins feels like a required healer/support for warriors in pvp since they can use freedom and dispel. So 3 warriors and 2 paladins (for 2 dispels and to counter interrupts) feels like the only really viable melee team.

I think that mixing warrior with any sort of healer is tricky in pvp.
As warrior you want to charge and run after the opponents while as healer you want to stay still in the back and cast heals.
Means your team will always be split in two grps and it's likely that the warriors will be often out of heal and follow range with your healers.
I also don't like the fact that warriors have no off heal. They have barely anything to back their healer up when he gets focused by the opponents.

After all it seems to me that melee boxing won't be very viable in pvp on Classic.

Mixing ferals and enhance might be a thing. Shape shift against blizzard, tremor totem against fear (if it removes all kind of fear) and decent off heals.

[xandorz]

Forgot to mention the tremor totem in anti fear. It should work (I assume it does, it removes a fear effect not a magic effect so should work).

I also don't like cast time healing so you can't heal while moving and get far behind because of charge+enemy backing off.
Then it is also likely that the enemy goes around some object/wall so then it isn't just out of range but also out of LOS.
The healers could also get sapped or CCed in any other way and be unable to heal the warriors that just get further and further away.

Ghost wolf is not immune to slow below 100% speed (that was wotlk) and only works outdoors. I am not sure if it clears slows when shapeshifting and how much of a drain it is on the mana.
Feral shapeshifting should work, idk about mana cost. I think using it rarely (to break frost nova for example) might be good but using feral charge instead to get close to target.

Druids + shamans might work ok.

Hots does not stack in classic wow, only 1 of each type can be on the target. So only 1 rejuvenation (and 1 renew) can be on the target at the same time. So will have to use cast time heals.

[Gala]

Shapeshifting into ghost wolf doesn't break slow/roots.

When hots don't stack then I guess ferals aren't worth it either. I also don't like that they have such a fast attack speed in cat form. I prefer melee classes that hit slow but hard so there is a chance to one shot the opponent before he is healed.

After all I guess you are right that Warriors would be the best option for melee boxing since they have charge as gap closer.
Maybe 3 warriors, a disc priest and a resto shami. Magic dispell against frost mages, tremor totem against fear and WF totem to enhance the warriors.
The two healers would stay in the back and keep the warriors and each other alive. If the healers are getting focused the warriors could intervene back to them (not sure if intervene is available in classic).
That setup should at least work pretty good when it comes to dungeons and is maybe kinda viable in pvp.

[Hksix]

What I would consider is 2 warrior, 2 paladin, 1 survival hunter. Both warriors get blessing of freedom and the hunter can provide a 41 yard range concussive shot, which will allow your warriors to get into charge range. The hunter also can CC a healer with Wyvern sting (or scatter shot if you go marksman). Warlock, priest (for offensive dispels), or mage could be other good options

[Gala]

I don't think that adding a hunter would be worth it. Adding a range dps to that setup would make everything even more complicated than it already is. Also, the hunter and the 2 palys wouldn't have any fear protection whatsoever.
There is also the option to just multibox exclusively warriors and find a seperated healer for the back up. That would probably work best.

After all I think that just like in TBC and Wotlk, the classic 4 ele shami and healer setup will be the best comb in PvP. Holy paly seems mandatory for that setup because of imp concentration aura.
It's interesting that the shami sets have mixed stats of strength and sp. It might be a option to play a ele/enh hybrid build just like 31/20/00. Close by opponents could be killed with a two hander that is imbued with WF and hard to reach opponents with lightning spells.

[Kruschpakx4]

in larger pvp fights melee teams will quite suck unless you bring enough free action potions and some dedicated healers...I would rather look towards shockadins or ele shamans in that regard with some priest heal since they are the best group healers. And both combs can do serious melee dmg aswell if oom. And either of them can carry shields, where the ultimate goal would be having multiple https://classicdb.ch/?item=22198#created-by to counter blizzard/aoe spam, or shamans with 5/5 t1,5 set for 41 yard range on lightningbolt outranging blizzard ect. on max range.

[Gala]

I don't think that shockadin boxing gonna be viable in PvP. Holy shock has a 30 sec CD in classic and only 20 yards range.
Shamis have better mana management, more heal, better fear protection and abilitys with +36 yards range. They just seem overall stronger.

[nodoze]

I don't think that adding a hunter would be worth it. Adding a range dps to that setup would make everything even more complicated than it already is. Also, the hunter and the 2 palys wouldn't have any fear protection whatsoever.
There is also the option to just multibox exclusively warriors and find a seperated healer for the back up. That would probably work best.

After all I think that just like in TBC and Wotlk, the classic 4 ele shami and healer setup will be the best comb in PvP. Holy paly seems mandatory for that setup because of imp concentration aura.
It's interesting that the shami sets have mixed stats of strength and sp. It might be a option to play a ele/enh hybrid build just like 31/20/00. Close by opponents could be killed with a two hander that is imbued with WF and hard to reach opponents with lightning spells.

In Classic Concentration Aura from Pally isn't an option for a Shaman team as Pallys are Alliance only and Shamans Horde only.