The Post 3.02 Ideal Team Build, has it changed?

[offive]

Just wondering (since my server did the uber fail thing yesterday) how many boxers are happy about the shaman teams now that the patch has hit.

I still have one month left on my RAFs, which is enough time to push a new team build up to 60.

Any other DPS team builds like Hunters, Warlocks, Mages, or even Boomkin on the radar to replace the popular Shaman teams?

So chime in with your first impressions.

[Crucial]

Absolutely loving the shaman x 5 (elemental) team, even more than before. Lot's of complaints about the burst dmg output it seems, but with thunderstorm x 5 and an earthbind combo, you can wind up and blast them out of the park while they crawl back to you. I tried Kara (now that the HP is nerfed) and cleared all the trash up to opera without any problems.

[puppychow]

What were the reasons why 5 shamans were so powerful?

- ability to heal
- ranged DPS (easier than melee)
- self-rez when things go bad
- either stacking ToW (+12-15% crit/hit) or natures swiftness (insta cast next spell)
- chain bloodlust
- 15 min hearthstone (great when leveling)
- good DPS

Patch 3.0.2 has removed chain bloodlust (or reduced it to 5 mins between each one), and replaced stacking ToW with a single +spell dmg totem (and air now grants haste instead of spell dmg). The other benefits really haven't changed, although other classes do imo do more DPS than shamans at 80 - hunters, rogues, boomkins specifically, not sure about others.

imo 4-5 shamans still make a great time for 70-80, which is going to be harder than TBC was since we won't be outgearing instances anymore (TBC PVP gear is iLevel 136-156, 20-40 levels above heroics). I think many people will want a tank, as a lot of mobs in WOTLK are going to take longer to kill and be hard to kite/etc like TBC, esp in heroics. Its an open question on what the best team makeup is, taking into consideration synergies (moonkins/warlocks giving shamans DPS buffs, etc) and of course you have to consider melee Deathknights as well.

[Jaws5]

If you go by what last 2 days have resulted in go 4 healers and 1 ret paladin. Shoot make them all dins ret arua stacks. should be able to AOE the hell out of it all :)

just make a team of each before RAF ends

[Multibocks]

ret aura stacks? lol damn.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I mean really. Shaman

A class that heals, does good solid range dps, has rez, AND NOW has an aoe knockback AND if yur tarun you get the stomp thing also. And isnt a cloth class ... AND AND

the healing targets the lowest hit point person in range LOL AND AND CL will hit more then one target.

LOL.

And me Ill have 24 - 34 knockbacks and stomps and a Prot Pal for aoe agro. .... ....

Somehow I think all the theorycrafting I did before I started is paying off.

[Hor]

For pure PVE, I think the Pali, Druid, Shaman group is going to have an edge. Still catching my Druid up with the rest so I don't have much in the way of numbers to back it up, but I think it's the theorycraft winner. Still, Pali + Shamans is definitely strong, it's just not 100% optimal. As has been said previously, self rez, heals AND damage, etc. I went Orcs on my Shamans, just because what nuker doesn't want a built in, scaling ToEP ability? I do really want to play around with a DK alongside my Shamans now though, Thunderstorm + Death Grip could be interesting fun.

[Drakkun]

I plan to go with a new team comprised of 1 DK + 3 moonkins + 1 ele shaman. This is purely for PVE. In heroics, I can dual spec a druid to resto and still have an incredible team.

[krum]

For pure PVE, I think the Pali, Druid, Shaman group is going to have an edge. Still catching my Druid up with the rest so I don't have much in the way of numbers to back it up, but I think it's the theorycraft winner. Still, Pali + Shamans is definitely strong, it's just not 100% optimal. As has been said previously, self rez, heals AND damage, etc. I went Orcs on my Shamans, just because what nuker doesn't want a built in, scaling ToEP ability? I do really want to play around with a DK alongside my Shamans now though, Thunderstorm + Death Grip could be interesting fun.I'm very curious as to what role your Druid plays?

[Hor]

Initially, I had a decision when I saw the Shaman changes, to add a Lock or a Druid. And thanks to RAF I had one of each sitting around at 61 collecting dust. So, all I had to do was make a decision. I've played, literally played a lock of every race in the game. So he was already a strong contender, since I'm well versed in how to play one. However, the Druid brings a lot to the table; he's Balance, and with the changes to the totems, he removes some redundancy. But most importantly are his buffs/debuffs and CC. CC of course being something a group like this sorely needs. But also with the coefficient change to lightning bolt damage, and blizzard's new stance of "We've rebalanced Ele damage around the idea that you'll have a Druid, DK, or Warlock handy." The key here is Earth and Moon, 100% chance to increase spell damage taken. This by itself would be enough to consider adding a Druid, but then there's the possibility of the Warlock too ... who can add a pet for damage and a nice Curse to buff your Shaman damage. Also the lock can Soulstone and Healthstone the group. However, there's another thing to consider here. Lots of upkeep with a lock, need to keep up with soul shards, etc. But with the Druid, you can just nuke away, and heal ... and you get Mark of the Wild. PLUS, you get to pop out and do some heals if you need to ... and then back to the debuffs, since ToW has been nerfed, Shaman teams have lost a LOT of hit. Improved Faerie Fire adds a +3 to hit with spells for the entire group. And I believe you get more Haste from the Druid than you do with Totems, so all in all the Druid offers a lot of synergy with the group. I've just got to catch up, but that won't be long with me power levelling him thru quests.

Here's the Druid's current talents.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xG0uicsAdI00oxZf

[Noids99]

I have always run with a mage in my 5 man group. Started with Pally, 3 shammies and a mage for PvE. I have druids and shammies levelling to give me the option of 5 shammies or 4 and 1 druid, but looking at the mage builds I am reconsidering.

1. Both fire and frost have the ability to add 10% spell crit to a target.

2. Fire has an insane AoE nuke sequence with DB, insta Flameshock, Blastwave knockback, second insta flameshock. Both of these knockback/daze and disorient effects are on lower cooldowns than Thunderstorm and if used correctly can continue dps on any melee that get in your face indefinitely. On top of this, pyro is now actually functional for more than an opener and with mediocre gear testing last night was critting for 4k for me.

3. Frost and Arcane have close to the best CC in the game IMO with poly and either slow or deep freeze.

4. Frost mages are one of the hardest classes to FF with iceblock/barrier and cold snap. Add 4 potential healers behind the AoE power of a mage and you have a potent combination for long range nuking and crazy burst dmg/aoe.

[Griznah]

Depends on PvE or PvP.
I love my setup for PvE atleast. The shadow priest might not be the best, since it's not easy to make a good rotation for.

[Schwarz]

I have been wondering about this myself. My current plan is to take 5 shaman into northrend and see what they can do. I am tempted to add a lock to the group so they can all benefit from the curse that would be placed on the boss. Shaman are pretty much trash clearing machines right now. Grounding totems makes ranged easy and thunderstorm makes melee easy. I think only time will tell on what is the best group.

Right now it looks like shaman at level 80 might not be in the same ballpark dps wise as some of the other casters. I am sure that if this is the case then we should see a buff to elemental shaman at some point. So the way I figure it is you struggle leaning new content but will probably eventually get it down. Then if you get a buff everything becomes that much easier

[TheBigBB]

Only PVE raiding and high-end arena really pushes you to the limit, so I think some people will still be successful with 1-class groups in some areas. It's not necessary to have the best DPS on the planet even in a heroic. However, the best team for PVE I am sure is a mixed team, which is why I went that route when I learned about the stacking changes. You can amass so many buffs so easily with a mixed team, and with tanks doing more damage, your mixed team would be way superior. I couldn't be happier with this team in PVE already as compared to my shaman team. However, I wouldn't even dream of stepping foot into an arena or any serious PVP situation with a tank, 3 DPS and a healer. I have no idea what the dominant PVP setup will become. Even as it stands, most successful PVP MBers were not using a team of 5, but rather they had a healer played by someone else. The only thing I'm certain of is that the dominant PVP groups will still use the shaman as the gold standard.

[Coltimar]

My 1 Pally x4 Shaman was sucking majorly at first. DPS was low, healing sucked, many of the abilities like EM weren't working when I mashed the macro. That all changed today when I decided to spend the talent points on my other two shaman, lol. DOH! I couldn't figure out the crits for 900 I was getting with LB on my back two guys! id10t error.

[Aethon]

I just think I'm lucky to have started my druid/shamans before the talk of the nerfing/changes.

Best bit of random forethought I ever had.

[Multibocks]

Im thinking of doing priest or druid healer and 4 warlocks for pvp only. The thought of dot and forget each target has me pretty intrigued..

[Noids99]

mmm... druid healer is looking mighty good. The insta group heal looks awesome indeed.

[Multibocks]

wha? what group insta heal? I missed the boat on this one.

[offive]

The locks and priest combo is very nice for PvP. I litteraly hit 60 last night with a batch of 3 locks and a priest last night (one last batch of RAFs to go). With all the exploration acheivement players out there I was able to have some fun. I was impressed with the performance of that team in world pvp, and can't wait to get them to 70. Yes I got the "Make love, not Warcraft achievement" on two... guess I need to make a /hug macro button.

I will be building a batch of hunters and droods with boosting and grant a level in the month I have left. I figure I might as have a few of all classes, then I can work whatever angles work out to be best in the future.

On a side note, my orignial team's warrior tank is much better now with all the changes, shockwave crit! I need to load Omen to check on the windshock rotation threat reduction for shammys. I also need to load Recount to see how the DPS classes are performing in general.

[Hor]

A guy was so bad on the SSO island, I actually managed to type /hug with each instance of wow individually.

[Raskaz]

I ran heroic Bot, Mech and Ramparts today with my Pally, 3x Elemental Shaman and Resto Shaman which has been my first test after the patch has gone life.

Things were a bit rough, since I rearranged my UI and most of my macros (Blizz should have told me that serverside means dev/null ;) )

I really wasn't that impressed and I think that Thunderstorm is a bit weak when it comes to PvE. The Resto tree didn't convince me either and I might switch that one with my priest (I just miss Fortitude and those insane AOE heals).

Pally tanking on the other hand has never been so much fun. Gone are the days of Consecration, Holy Shield and watching a film until the CD come back up.

The gameplay tanking wise is far more dynamic and the sounds are great as well ( I love Hammer of Righteous) - a pally on steroids.

I have to see how things turn out when Wotlk hits the servers but I might go for a mixed group by then (Totem of Wrath stacking gone really hurts).

[oxxo]

I'm switching my team to mixed due to the LB nerf and the changes to buffs.

I only intend to use them for PvE :)

[Toned]

I'm sticking with 5 shams for pvp... I have 8 accounts now, so I'll lvl 5 shamans together.
Then my pve group will be pal,boonkin,shadow priest, resto sham, ele sham. (Then 8box for 10man content unless it is ubr hard, then it will be me doing pal + 4 shamans when I 5 box in 10mans).

[Toned]

I ran heroic Bot, Mech and Ramparts today with my Pally, 3x Elemental Shaman and Resto Shaman which has been my first test after the patch has gone life.

Things were a bit rough, since I rearranged my UI and most of my macros (Blizz should have told me that serverside means dev/null ;) )

I really wasn't that impressed and I think that Thunderstorm is a bit weak when it comes to PvE. The Resto tree didn't convince me either and I might switch that one with my priest (I just miss Fortitude and those insane AOE heals).

Pally tanking on the other hand has never been so much fun. Gone are the days of Consecration, Holy Shield and watching a film until the CD come back up.

The gameplay tanking wise is far more dynamic and the sounds are great as well ( I love Hammer of Righteous) - a pally on steroids.

I have to see how things turn out when Wotlk hits the servers but I might go for a mixed group by then (Totem of Wrath stacking gone really hurts).Uh ---- I think resto shamans are insane. I practically solo healed kara last night when I ran 1 resto sham and 4 ele shams. I brought a pug druid along who was in like all greens for shits n giggles.