What to do with my mistake

[JasonB87]

So after starting my 5 man mixed with a pally, mage, lock, shaman, priest and got them to 20 I decided I wanted to run a boomkin. My problem is should I ditch the warlock now and get a druid to 20 or level with the lock and replace at 60? Has anybody else dealt with this dilema (I'm sure there's tons) and what did you do?

[emesis]

If you're leveling under RAF, you probably want to bring at least 2 teams to 60 to get yourself enough alts for a lifetime. That'll give you a third team grantable to 60 and is only a couple days playing time under RAF. I'd keep the team together rather than loose time and the RAF bonus. If you really want to switch out ASAP, start a new 5-man team and get them to 20 before the switch. Getting to level 20 under RAF should take all of 2 hours.

If you're not leveling under RAF, stop. Level under RAF.

[JasonB87]

Yea I want these guys at 80 asap so I'm considering not even doing a second team and just switching in my 60 druid when time comes. My raiding schedule kinda limits my time I have for this.

Thanks for the advice and more is welcomed!

[Pact]

For a minute there i thought i was on a parenting forum when i read the topic :P

[JasonB87]

Haha I could see that happening. Makes for a good laugh. I ended up spending last night getting a druid up and kicked the warlock.

[Ghallo]

Not sure here, but what do you get from the Druid that you aren't getting from a lock? I mean, your pally will be your tank, right? Better to have an off-tank that is a pet than something you need to manage. I have to say I have loved my Warlock's Voidwalker in instances - especially with Fel Domination you can have a tank re-summoned in seconds - with no durability loss :)

Note: Warlocks are so nice later on, that I am leveling a new one to replace one of my mages.

[JasonB87]

Well I plan on having it boomkin so the crit bonus will help the casters plus motw and a b-res if needed.

[Ghallo]

Check out the spell power buffs a Demo lock can add when their crit happy pet is in battle. SS is a fair trade for B-Res - in certain situations one is better than the other. The choice has already been made, I know, but you are losing a lot:

Better CC. The Lock is the most versatile CC in the game - including a great off-tank

DoTs... a great source of DPS that keeps ticking throughout the fight.

Health Stones - free Healing Pots for the whole party. Yum

Pet DPS... I can't tell you how nice it is on long collection quest chains ... you simply DoT, sick pet, and ignore 1 mob while fighting others. Come back and the mob is either mostly dead or dead ... with little effort on your part.

[JasonB87]

Yea I get what your saying and when you really look at it, it just boils down to preference. My preference is to the druid, I like the idea of how a b-res can by dynamically altered during a fight also innervate is nice, motw seems like a better overall buff but once again personal preference. One of my really strong arguments for switch from lock to druid is, I'm not to sure how I feel about priest healing so I wanted to keep my options open to a shaman or druid.

[Halo]

I've resisted leveling up a lock (stil have over a month on RAF left, so no hurry yet). My hesitation has been with the hassle of shards. Playing the class solo, no big deal, I used necrosis on my lock to keep a set number of shards and made sure to drain soul before the mob died. It seemed like one more thing I'd have to micromanage in a 5 man group. Now, if you have some great tips on how to streamline things when it comes to shards, I might add a lock or two to the next group I level to 60, maybe lockx2, shadow priestx2 and frost mage.

[JasonB87]

Yea once you get the macros down getting and maintaining shards is way easier.

[Themon]

You dont actually need to land the killing blow to get a shard, so I dont see the problem in using a hotkey on all the accounts to drain life. All the locks would then gain the shard.

[daviddoran]

I have a 3 lock team, currently running with a shadow priest and a feral druid tank. It's awesome. I'm sure eventually I will need a dedicated healer, but having 3 felguard offtanks along with my bear druid, and the shadow priests regen buffs, I rarely have to heal, often just after a battle, just so i can keep the priest in shadowform.

I can also confirm that when I use 3x drain soul, I get 3 shards. Very handy for when im shard farming. Just dot dot dot and drain soul. Best part about my team is that outside of instances, i put my druid in cat form, so he actually does dps. My prot paladin is way overkill outside of instance elites. I have yet to get my lock team to 70, and have only done ramps, BF, SP, and UB thusfar. No, wait, I think I did part of a couple of the Auchindoun instances.

I'm gonna level up some druids next, get them to 60, maybe level up a team of hunters, just for kicks. But then, I'd seriously have to stop leveling alts. I already have too many teams :)

I say go with what you like. RAF gives you the ability to have a "do over" on at least 1 or 2 toons. If you chain RAF'd, you can insta lvl team 2 from 30.9 to 60.9, and just park em at 60 if you ever change your mind. Much easier to start a team at 60 than at 1. Plus you can throw in a DK to the 5th acct to even that part out :)

[JasonB87]

Yea the way I have my accounts set up I will end up with a free 60 hunter and lock. Which will end me up with 1 of every class above 60 plus a second shaman. I plan on doing strictly multi-class groups so I'm not worried too much about leveling a second team up. I will take this team to 80 then one by one boost my other 60's to 80. Teams now 44 hoping for 60 by this Sunday.