Next item up for bid (debating 2nd team)

[Jheusse]

My first team of RAF toons are about to hit 60, they've been running around EPL blasting things at 59. Araj got me once as a lot of stuff respawned right as I pulled him. Right around 3 days /played. My RAF links will expire something like Dec 12, so I'm horribly inefficient, but having small children I don't get to play all that much.

My 4 shammies are on the RAF accounts, my main account is separate. My main has a T5 raiding feral, a 60 pally, and a 64 mage on it. So once I refocus on the shammies after RAF is over and LK is in, I can use the druid or the pally to run the shammies up.

As with many people, now I have to decide what team to run up next. I'm purely looking for fun value, speed leveling, and ability to solo instances later. I virtually don't pvp at all.

My goal I guess is to have a couple teams to 60 before RAF runs out, and a few assorted single toons to 60 by RAF that I can level up and potentially raid with.

Do I make 4 druids and run them around leveling as balance with my feral tanking later on? Stealthing instances could be giggle worthy later.

Locks? Mages? Priests? Pallies? (snort seems interesting though I dont enjoy melee as much) Hunter rogue or warrior I'm more likely to look to have one of each for consistency.

I am more likely to build fairly homogenous teams at this time and tinker with mixing teams up later. I'm not very good at building great macro and keybind layouts. My shammies were and are on a very simple and crude system, I always promised myself once the 90 days was up I'd sit down and spend the time to make them sharp. My buddy who referred my first shammy ran a pally with me, so he tanked and I blew stuff up.

I did virtually all questing, the only instances we ran was ZF and some friends pulled us through UBRS, and even the cloth turnins was painstakingly slow to organize and achieve. 75 stacks of each was expensive.

It is kinda fun for all my little undergeared 59 shammies to have the name Jenkins, though they died a lot in that room.

Maybe I'll just boost a ton of instances with my 70 feral or 60 pally with the new team.

Trying to figure out a system that quickly and seamlessly goes from my 4 solo, to my main leading those 4, to my 4 grouped with my buddy has been agony, let alone being rapidly configured for new teams.

Thoughts?

[Tsunami]

i have been doing some reading on shaman and the effects of new talents once wotlk goes live and it appears that the shaman at level 80 have not scaled up as much as a lvl 80 mage or warlock. it seems that a lvl80 balance druid will be able to out dps an elemental shaman by 1000 dps or 27% higher dps. now most of these number are for a single elemental shaman in a 25 man raid. but one constant theme i have been reading is the shamans don't have any scaleable talents based on intel or spirit like other caster classes and that the elemental tree has less talents available to choose from.

so i guess what i am unsuccessfully trying to say is if you are considering making the very popular all shaman team, take a look at the all balance druid team because they may be the team to beat in the future.

http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t27016-elemental_shaman_-_wotlk_talents_discussion/p47/


http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065289166&sid=1

[Jheusse]

No I already have 4 shammies, I may grant a 5th one on one of the accounts and transfer it, but I doubt it. Since I'm more PvE than PvP I think 4 shaman and a pally or feral will be more effective in instances.

I'm very seriously considering the 4 balance druids approach, they can run with my existing feral, they have the versatility to change roles with their specs a lot, they can stealth and they can heal.

Another option is 4 locks, running by themselves or later teamed and boosted with my pally or feral. Since they have the pets and the taps and drains they have a lot of self sufficiency and the wipe protection.

Has anyone done the 4-5 pallies trick? stacked consecrates might be a blast, will have to read up on that.

Not as interested in a mage or hunter team, the versatility isn't really there, huge dps but no healing, I think they'd be less effective than my other options. Will make a single hunter I'm sure.

[Tsunami]

I was really suggestion the balance druid approach, maybe you missed that. but from what i have been able to read from othersites is affliction warlock has gotten the highest increase in dps of all the classes at lvl 80. followed closely by fire mages. but these classes have survivability issues in heroic instances.

so that leaves you elemental shaman and balance druids. the elemental shaman are doing good now at 70 but they don't scale up as well as the other caster classes do. the balance druids have received some nice buffs and getting close to being a real pvp class. (excluding the fear bomb issue, but the developers don't plan on multiboxers or all one class arena teams.) with stealth, moonkin 370% armor bonus, 3 instant attacks, entanging root now working indoors and the new glyph system makes balance druids a real player in the future. not sure how much the top talent starfall will be used in pve or pvp.

sadly the elemental shaman has not gotten much new talents beside the cool thunderstrike. lava blast got a nice buff recently with flame strike not being consumed. but there are some issues with haste bonus' actually reducing your dps. but with the huge burst damage from thunderstrike and a 100% crit from lava blast (i've seen numbers that lava blast in t7 gear crits for around 7k) that maybe enough to keep them on top of the multiboxing team list. hex still seems to be undecided as a real cc ability. the last i read it has been nuked to death. now able to be dispelled by a trinket.

[singpraise]

I would suggest that you relook at hunters... Take a peek at V's video of hunters blowing through Deadmines. 4 tanks = awesome PVE instance flexibility. And teh DPS is outstanding - mobs melt in front of you...

I also four box and have leveled four (4!!) teams of four each to 60 in the last 70 days. 3 of those were hunters & 1 shammy. (Horde & ally on a carebear server and then another set on Ally on my cousin's server) I find I can blow through any instance at all - and with the new 3.0.2 gorilladin - you can do mad pullz & dps with abandon. Be sure to spec full BM...

I also have very simple macros - autoshot, arcane & a sting. Multishot & a trap for emergencies. And then the buttons that V used to mark mobs & have all 4 pets tank diff mobs. With the new pet talents - you get bonus healing on pets & unless it is an Orange elite (2 levels above me) - nothing hurts my team. Pulled 3& 4 groups by accident in SM Cath at level 39 (many mobs were yellow & some green) and no corpse runs.

It may be just me - but I can run instances much easier with my hunters than with the shammies. The pets give me a margin of error - I run 4 accounts on one pretty decent laptop - but do get lag spikes & stutters a lot - the pets keep me alive through hiccups. With the shammies - I was always racing against the destruction of the stoneclaw totems and I usually leveled up a couple extra levels before trying a given instance. My play style - your MMV.

Just decided I was burnt out on leveling new teams & am blasting through HFP on my ally hunter team that is on my "main" server - primarily because I have the cash for fast mounts & can ignore leveling profs & just blow & go.... Haven't done all the easy gear quests (some of my stuff is level 20 - lol - dang RAF levels you way too fast) & still was able to clear trash mobs in Ramps ok. Again as only a 4 box & just using mend pet for healz...

Enjoy MB. It has ruined my mains - have 4 level 70's that are growing mold & haven't seen more than an hour play time in the last 70 days... MB is just too much of a rush.