5x Balance Druid - Best class for world pvp?

[Evilseed]

We all know about the cookie cutter MB class, the shamans. A few of us have experimented around. I've seen people use hunters in BGs (I have 5) with *amazing* success. I've seen people use 5x shadow priests and be healed endlessly. I've even see 5x rogues surprisingly do interestingly well in arenas. Then of course there is the tried and tested 4/5 shaman setup. But what about world PVP? With WOTLK, world PVP is making a comeback. We have everybody and their mothers leveling DKs, so Hellfire (read: Zethgor!!) is going to be RIPE for world pvp. In addition WOTLK has some pure PVP classified zones.

What is the best multiboxing world PVP setup? IMO: 5 balance druids.

- STEALTH!!! We can starfire out of stealth for guarenteed 100% kill every time. No class I have ever seen can survive 5x starfires. Plus due to stealth lag, a person is often hit before they even see us.
- We all know that Boomkins got an incredible amount of love with the 3.0 patch. We do AMAZING dps and also are now the kings of AOE.
- 5x Typhoons at once can instantly gibb 10-20 people who are caught in the path. Take that chain lightning!
- 5x Typhoons staggered out can keep a group away from you while you do other things.
- The healing over time power is literally a sight to be seen. You can easily make yourself literally immune to damage at the flick of a button, targetting massive HOT power any or all guys in need.
- We can rez like normal now. This is fantastic for saving you the grief of running 1 guy back from the GYs.
- 15 trees. Trees do amazing DPS now. My trees constantly each crit for 1k each. 1 tree can solo a rogue. 15 trees can cause mass havok and can take on 3-5 guys themselves.
- STARFALL * 5 = amazing
- Battlerez can often prevent wipes by BR a guy before you die.


What are your thoughts on the best world PVP class?

[ahtremblay]

I think the death grip the death knights gets is going to ruin a lot of multibox builds.

[getoutofmyway]

Not if those 5 starfires hit him first :P

[Evilseed]

I think the death grip the death knights gets is going to ruin a lot of multibox builds.

Well, as it stands now, follow mode will pretty much follow the distance you can be death gripped at. Also, I have some ways to combat that, such as autorunning my guys forward for a predetermined 5 seconds of time, etc.

But even if he DGs my main, I instantly switch my main to another druid, through up a BILLION hots making him literally unkillable. By then the DK is dead :)

Moonfires spam is amazing. However, I personally love to insect swarm * 5 spam. That dot does AMAZING dmg :)

[butta]

Warrior casts charge. Warrior casts intimidating shout. Druids trinket. Priest casts psychic scream. Druids lose .. This is obviously simplified, but you get the picture. For ganking the druids would be pretty fun but on pvp realms you get known real quick. Besides being outnumbered on my realm, most of the people I've killed once randomly at large in the world rarely square up to see if there are followers with me or stick around going "wtf, theres 4 with the same name..." NO they just iceblock/shield/reflect or w/e and run away. For arena I think 5 boomkin would be weak seeing as most teams will set up behind poles so even if you get the first kill off, after that you'll be chain CC'd FTL. 4 Boomkin + 1 resto shaman might be strong since you'd be poly immune, high armor, and fear immune.

Now, if you could make a QUICK and effective system of macros for cycloning multiple enemies with minimal numbers of keystrokes you'd be on to something. Simultaneously cycloning 4 targets while you nuke the straggler would be OP as hell. To be honest, 4 boomkin sounds like alot of fun and I might give it a whirl depending on how my shaman DPS fairs at 80. It looks like lava burst should be good, but alot of beta testers are still QQing about scaling issues (being 50% behind Warlocks and mages, 30% behind boomkins in raid dps) so we'll see. Do you have a boomkin team? I'd be interested to see how you do ;)

[Evilseed]

Do you have a boomkin team? I'd be interested to see how you do ;)

Yup I have a 5x boomkin team and we are doing wonderful right now. While fear is annoying, it doesn't raise much of a problem. In fact, I don't even have my PVP trinket equipped. The reason is party because our HOT heal power is absolutely insane. Rarely do I ever lose even 1 guy during a fear, and by the time the fear is gone, whatever feared me is dead. That is assuming I didn't kill them first. Honestly, fear isn't much of a problem.

I do like the shaman having the ability to totem and whatnot, however, 5x druids in stealth is so much fun that I am going to forgo the shamans.

So right now they are doing amazing. Extremely hard to kill. Extremely high DPS. Extremely high multi-target DPS. Great stuff.

PS: Every 5x shaman team I have run into in AV I have absolutely obliterated thanks to typhoon in large part.

[Kicksome]

I'm not saying this won't work or won't be fun but...

Having no fear protection besides a 2min CD trinket SUCKS. I PVP all the time, I can't tell you how many times fear has ruined my day. And that's just in the rare chance that I forget to lay down a tremmor totem really quickly. They get one fear off and you have all your group spread to hell getting attacked by monsters and other players - out of follow range. Some getting ganked by a rogue or other players. Impossible to locate all your guys quickly.

Having a bunch of people grouped up is like having a hunter mark on you that says "fear me". It happens ALL THE TIME because it's VERY effective.

[Valorin]

Well, when talking about WORLD pvp, I must say that the stealth thing is the best part of this equation. If get caught with my pants down and wiped by some small group, I WILL get my revenge. They can't see me coming and run away laughing HAHAHA 1-0 ULOOZ! I'll wait, watch, and Moonfirex5 their priest or pally before they know what happened. Now, against one opponent, it's a no-brainer. If you can't beat 1 guy with 5, drop your accounts. But group against group, I think the druids do OK. I think my main problem is probably that I just suck at pvp. But just an example, I got seriously wiped with two different groups just a few nights ago. First was a Lock, Pally, Mage. They were perfectly designed to wreck me up. You can imagine exactly how the fight went, no wowwutskillz tactics involved. The other, surprisingly, was a geared warrior and ungeared pally. The pally would bubble, the warrior would charge and do that whirlwindy thing and cut all my guys apart literally in seconds. Tranquility couldn't keep up with the dps. It was insane. I finally managed to kill them once, but it was luck. I also suspect I was really adding to their dps because of spell reflect. But the warrior wasn't using fear, he *wanted* my guys close together.

Another experience some time ago was really aggravating. My followers were pretty ungeared but I had two more ungeared 70's helping me. So there were 7 of us total. A rogue and mage were completely camping all of us. It was insane. The mage would iceblock and within seconds be completely healed. I could NOT figure out how he was doing that. The rogue could cut up one of my guys *fast* and the mage would AOE/freeze if I wasn't dealing with him. This was before my dps soared at patch - now my trees would eat the rogue, but still - I was dumbfounded as to what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I really like my druids and I intend to keep using them until completely nerfed. I don't BG much and I don't arena, so all my pvp experience is World. But let me say... Halaa and Spirit Towers are mine. Epic Flight Formx5 Woosh! FTW

[blast3r]

My shamans hit 70 this morning and I was thinking about getting on my level 61 hunters but forgot how much fun my druids were. They are 62. maybe I will go through the incredibly painful setup of Focusless/leaderless setup with them this weekend and put them back to work! Stealth and then the ability to go into travel form (during combat) is just sweet. Stalking is just plain fun with these guys.

Something really fun to do is find a player who is about your same level or higher and /sit /afk and unstealth one of your druids. Wait for the guy to attack. hehe...this would be the 'shit his pants' scenario when he gets hit by 5 druids at once. This is SO MUCH FUN!

[Multibocks]

Do you have a boomkin team? I'd be interested to see how you do ;)

Yup I have a 5x boomkin team and we are doing wonderful right now. While fear is annoying, it doesn't raise much of a problem. In fact, I don't even have my PVP trinket equipped. The reason is party because our HOT heal power is absolutely insane. Rarely do I ever lose even 1 guy during a fear, and by the time the fear is gone, whatever feared me is dead. That is assuming I didn't kill them first. Honestly, fear isn't much of a problem.

I do like the shaman having the ability to totem and whatnot, however, 5x druids in stealth is so much fun that I am going to forgo the shamans.

So right now they are doing amazing. Extremely hard to kill. Extremely high DPS. Extremely high multi-target DPS. Great stuff.

PS: Every 5x shaman team I have run into in AV I have absolutely obliterated thanks to typhoon in large part.

I assume you don't arena with these guys? Also I have a 5 druid team, are they all boomkins or is one resto? Do you even bother shifting into moonkin form? So many questions...

[Redbeard]

I am stubbornly trying to build a melee team as my first 5 boxing team but my 2nd team I want to work on will be 5x balance druids... and depending on how instances go, might turn one of them resto for wild growth (well see). But yeah.. 5 x stealth, 5 x epic flight form, moonfire spam, etc etc, all seems like a lot of fun. I have nothing against 5x shaman I just prefer to try off the beaten path (and i <3 druids).

[Anemo]

How do you handle healing with having to break form and all? Seems like a major pain in the ass to have to leave moonkin form while getting beat on to load up the HoT's.

[Multibocks]

that's why I think he doesnt even go into moonkin form, just stay caster and let the opposition figure out what spec you are. Also I would like to point out that starfire is bullshit in that you have NO IDEA what direction the enemy is from you. I had a single 70 druid take out my whole team, because I couldnt find where he was hiding. The terrain wasn't blocking his LOS either. I felt so stupid after... too bad the druid left before I could gank him back.

[phineas01]

I'm currently running four balance druids and heals are really quite easy. I have two sets of macros, one set will have all four cast rejuvenation or regrowth (two different macros) on what ever the main (I use FLT) is targeting and I have my nostromo set so the three slaves can hot/healing touch my main. If I'm in moonkin form they will automatically drop out to cast the heals and its just a simple button click to go right back and dps again. If it's just one character getting beat on it's a matter of a couple seconds to have four rejuvenations on him and be back in moonkin burning down mobs. It really is very effective when you get four rejuv and four regrowths going on someone, like someone else said they become immune to damage.

[Multibocks]

the only problem I see with that is you are wasting GCD and mana on shifting all the time. In world pvp it would mean you wont last long. I'm thinking staying caster form and moving around a lot is better (using travel form.) I could be wrong though!

[Valorin]

As for shifting forms, the moonkin aura doesn't stack. So I just have the lead as moonkin and 4 followers in caster form. So I get x4 heals and never have to shift.

[sthar]

How do you summon the trees?
Do you use something like this?
/script SetBinding("KEY", "TURNORACTION")
/script SaveBindings(1)
/cast Force of Nature
Dont know if that works.

[Kromtor]

a trick like that used to work a long long time ago before they nerfed macros, you cant change bindings while in combat. this is why my guys used to always spin around while healing me =)

[Multibocks]

As for shifting forms, the moonkin aura doesn't stack. So I just have the lead as moonkin and 4 followers in caster form. So I get x4 heals and never have to shift.

Ah, but improved moonkin form increases spell damage. Not that its necessary tho.

[Chabs]

How would this setup effectively use the Force of Nature? I cant imagine switching betweem 5 characters to drop all of the trees.... Is that how you guys are doing it?

[sthar]

well I made it work, but very rude atm.
Sure there is a more eff way.
Macro (bound to F)
/script SetBinding("SHIFT-F","CAMERAORSELECTORMOVE")
/script SaveBindings(1)
/cast Force of Nature


Then have keycloen send both f and shift f, or just press f - then shift f for summon.
works with other aoe also.

[merujo]

Like said above, it sucks to be feared and not being able to do a thing!
This is why shamans are, and always will be, despite the low dps or low WTV, the best combo for any kind of PvP.

[magwo]

Tremors, groundings, elementals, thunderstorm, stun totems, astral shift etc. The list goes on.
Druids have a long way to go to compete in any kind of pvp IMO. The most serious problems being no fear protection, no spell protection, low armor. No "oh shit!" buttons a'la Thunderstorm + Heroism + Fire Elementals.


Shamans can still be SO insane in pressured pvp situations. My team is consistently wiping 10+ people at Northrend quest hubs with no problem..

[pengwynman]

i've been leveling my 5 boomkin through northrend and it has been a BLAST! i've had a ton of awesome world pvp encounters, the best is when the allies bring a group to match mine and actually test my abilities :D

also, for deploying trees i just click on each window quickly (takes under 2 seconds to deploy 15 trees). obviously this isn't the most efficient way of doing things... i tried using keyclone's built-in mouse click passer thing, but it was slow and buggy at times. i want to give innerspace a try and see if it's faster/more accurate/less buggy for passing mouse clicks- any feedback in that area would be great, other recommendations would be appreciated as well.

[olipcs]

other recommendations would be appreciated as well. I use HotKeyNet for mouseclicks, and it works quite good.
For more informations see: [HotKeyNet] Guide: HowTo use HotKeyNet for boxing ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=150977#post150977')