Hey guys, quick question ^_^

[Prybar]

Hey im new, just started Dual Boxing w/ octopus(just 2 mages to start off).. Ive been wondering. Why are shamans the most popular dual boxers, especially in groups of 5? Why not mages or warlocks? Or priests? I mean you could macro priests to heal specific targets so that everyone gets healed.. so why shamans?

Please if I could get a detailed answer instead of
CUZ TH@Y R PWWWNZNZZZZSOR~!!!!oNE!
That would be nice. :D

[Vyndree]

In Burning Crusade, groups of 4 elemental shaman were proven to excel at arena PvP (with a 2nd person healing as the 5th character). 4-5 shaman were also proven to excel as 5 straight-dps-with-earthbind-and-frostshock-kiting heroics or with a tank as a more standard healer/dps/tank group. They also were able to function well as part of a raid (I think Nixi even had a group of shaman, and Suvega and I were a mix of shaman/mages)

Basically, as a hybrid class with automatic defensive abilities that protect multiboxer weaknesses (grounding/tremor) and mechanics that encouraged stacking (totem combinations), they were able to achieve success in all aspects of the game.

That's why they're popular. :)



For my (dated) analysis at the start of the "flavor of the month", see Origins of the Shammy+Pally Fad/Phase/Craze/Insanity(?) ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3060')
(jeez, that was a YEAR ago!)

[Prybar]

Are there any cons whatsoever to the shaman 5 man DB unit? Because as you just said, they have great DPS, great heals(Chain Heal im assuming), and anti-root/ground.

[Ève <Wolfpack>]

Just my 2cents

1.Chain lightning looks great bouncing through a crowd and does a great job of pissing off the other faction :whistling:

2. shamans wear mail so more survivability

3. Have the ability to heal and rez

4.Awesome buffs from totems both for a x5 group or pvp raid

5. Have a knock back ability to get out of trouble (Thunderstorm x5 on round robin)

6. Elemental Mastery and Blood Fury x5 focus fire = NUKE

and finally,
CUZ TH@Y R PWWWNZNZZZZSOR~!!!!oNE!

Sorry had to do it. :thumbsup: Serously hope that sheds some light.
Just my 2 cents,

Eve

[Ève <Wolfpack>]

Are there any cons whatsoever to the shaman 5 man DB unit? Because as you just said, they have great DPS, great heals(Chain Heal im assuming), and anti-root/ground.Yea, no legitimate tank. If something gets to you. You are suddenly reminded (especially in instances) that your howitzer is armored with cardboard.:P

Eve

[Owltoid]

Are there any cons whatsoever to the shaman 5 man DB unit? Because as you just said, they have great DPS, great heals(Chain Heal im assuming), and anti-root/ground.

A 5 man shaman team would be fun in PvP, but if you're going to do PvE content then you may want to have a tank.

[Bigfish]

A lot of people rolled Shaman teams to melt face in Arena. It kind of stuck.

Not that everyone runs all shaman teams. Several of us do mixed groups, and people have run lock/priest focused teams.

[Vyndree]

Are there any cons whatsoever to the shaman 5 man DB unit? Because as you just said, they have great DPS, great heals(Chain Heal im assuming), and anti-root/ground.

The cons depend on what you want to do with it.

If you're looking from a raid perspective, shaman DPS is balanced around a full set of raid buffs. So if you don't have a moonkin/warlock for the nature debuffs, they will likely to less damage than a fully raid buffed shaman is "balanced" for.

If you're looking at a 5-man, their CC is rather unique and short-term (hex). They would also suffer facing any bosses that utilize high movement & interrupts (most dps spells have cast times) or cast time debuffs (curse of tongues-like).


Weaknesses for stacking a single class is that the "counter" for that class is exacerbated when all 4-5 characters are weak to it. It's all a delicate balance since multiboxing multiple classes/roles is often harder to micromanage than a single class/role.


That being said, all classes have benefits and drawbacks, and the changes to class stacking in wrath ("bring the player, not the class") have changed things since wrath. It's all personal perspective -- personally, I like hybrids BECAUSE, with a simple respec, you can try out a totally different group comp (5 dps, 4 dps and a tank, 3 dps a healer and a tank, or something crazy like 5 healers?) without having to re-level from scratch. It can help scratch the alt-aholic itch.

[Ève <Wolfpack>]

A lot of people rolled Shaman teams to melt face in Arena. It kind of stuck.

Not that everyone runs all shaman teams. Several of us do mixed groups, and people have run lock/priest focused teams./agreed just started weaving 2 DK tanks into the team. I am using 2 so 1 shaman doesn't lose out on gear drops. I can swap them out and keep progress.

[Prybar]

Thanks for all the info guys :thumbup: . Good to see that the people here know what they are doin.

[Catamer]

a shaman has 4 types of totems they can put down: earth, wind, fire and water.
there are several of each type so having 4 shaman to put down 4 different types of an earth totem can really stack the party buffs.
in BC the shaman could stack the totem of wrath ( which doesn't stack anymore ) which back then gave +3% hit and +3% crit rating ( x5 is 15% crit and 15% hit rating, you litterally couldn't miss and crit almost all the time or at least 40-45% of the time with talents and gear)
sometimes you want them all to put down the same kind of totem such as a healing stream totem x4 or x5 can be huge.
at level 80 my healing stream totems roughtly give about 200 health per tick so x4 is 800 per tick, x5 is 1000 per tick.
at level 80 my mana stream totems roughtly give about 30-35 mana per tick so x4 is 120+ per tick, x5 is 150+ per tick.
shaman can heal.
gounding totems can stop incomming spell.
tremor totems chan stop fear or fear bombs.
shaman can self-rez and res-others, you rarely have all 4 or all 5 shaman on the self-rez cooldown unless your having big trouble.
If you combine the team with a pally, he can rez as well.

are they the highest DPS, usually not
are they the highest Healers, usually not

but grouped together they are a pretty deadly combination.