Mixed Group VS 4 Shammies and a DK

[Phanes]

Right now I have an 80 DK, Mage, Mage, Priest on 4 different accounts. I am currently boosting a shammy and a druid on a new account and one of my mage accounts. My 80s have 450 chanting, tailoring, lw, smith, and jewlery so making stuff is not an issue.

Basically I want the buffs of the druid, shammy, mage, and preist as well as the ranged DPS of the mage, shammy, and druid as well as back up healing and rezzing. I have the synergy down that is not an issue. I was alry doing heroics with a mixed group before. I just had to dump the hunter because it was my brothers and it was just a matter of time before the ban stick him me. Thanks for the guys here on Dual Boxing for pointing that out you probably saved me alot of aggrivation.

After watching some of the vids with 4x Shammy and after experiencing how easy it is to RAF/Boost toons to 60 I am seriously considering just doing another pair of shammies and then /granting a guy to 59. Then pay to transfer them to different accounts.

I realize 4 shammies + DK does not = ez mode but damn 16 totems especially with the new combined totems plus the shorter cooldown on hearth all but takes away any advantage having a mage/priest/druid in the group. The only thing I can think is free water/food outside of that...

What are your thoughts?

[Rin]

It comes down to preferences, really. Often times, a mixed class composition is harder to play than the set of shamans + tank. The beauty of 4 shamans and a tank, or 3 shamans, a druid, and a tank, is that you're getting great dps without too many buttons. The other nice thing about the shaman composition is the insanely high amount of burst dps that you can deliver on a boss target. The shaman really help to trivialize an encounter with bursty damage that can easily make a corpse of even the toughest boss. With a mixed team, you'll be getting good damage, but at the expense of tougher macros.

I've leveled both types of teams (and am now rolling an Alliance group... just dinged 60 the other day with them, lol). I noticed that a mixed mode team can really have difficulties when it comes to end-game encounters and/or heroic dungeons. The majority of my problems stemmed from my reaction time on the healer, and the lack of burst dps to kill things. Without the shaman type burst dps, fights are going to take *much* longer...

Just my 2 cp :)

[Zal]

DK + 4 shamans

[Marious]

The plus you get out of a DK is that even in a tank position he can put out loads of damage compared to the other tanks which pale in comparison to the DK, I am of a mind to level one to try it out and see how I like it. I currently have my Pally (actually 2, first one I got to 70 then started another since the 70 was a healbot, the second one got to 80 a while ago now my original pally is 77) and I enjoy him very much as a tank, but DK would probably down crap fairly quick but cant complain too much my set up of 3 shaman, priest, pally take mobs and bosses down quick. Now second advantage of 4 shaman is that you can make them all elemental, well at least when you get the DK to the 30k health and max defense then you rarely have to heal him, you seen some of the videos they have out there, the dps of the shaman combined with the DK tank is crazy. Now with 3.1 coming along you get even more benefits from running shaman they will be buffing CL and will be on a much shorter CD so you will be able to use it more often.

But always remember go with what you have most fun with, if you just don't enjoy the shaman dont waste your time and go with the mix group.

[Taliesin]

My thoughts, coming from a mixed group pretty much identical to yours.

The mixed group will not see their DPS hit as high the shaman teams right now, unless Blizzard decides to make additional "tweaks" to them. Keep in mind the totem stacking is being mentioned more often in patches in the last year, so don't design your team around the idea that they'll always stack (just to be safe). Mixed groups are just more time-consuming to configure and maintain, but I argue that the difficultly is no different (same difficultly, just more classes to micromanage).

In regards to DK damage versus other tank damage: they are all pretty close to the same DPS at 80 with good gear. DKs easily outshine all other tanks prior to getting to 80, though. Also, DK tanks are currently still the most susceptible to additional "tweaks" right now, being so new to the game, so take their current perfomance with a grain of salt too. DKs are, however, the best when it comes to taking reduced magic damage (with certain builds) which gives them a unique advantage there.

Generally, I would suggest DK and shammys to most people. If you think you want to invest more time into the game and aren't concerned as much about min-maxing everything you do, then try mixed groups. I just prefer the diversity of the group and learning about as many classes as I can.

[Phanes]

I know this is kind of OT but what is the rotation of an 80 Shaman? Is it like Fire Shock, LB, LB till shock is off cool down then Fire Shock again?

The Totem farms I can figure out just by messing around with them to see what stacks and what does not.

I figure healing I would just do 4x chain heals when my DK needs a little love.

My DK right now unbuffed has 25k hp and 25k armor with 540 defense and he is not even in any 7.5 stuff yet just rep rewards/heroic drops.

I am really leaning towards the 4x shammy especially with how easy 1 to 60 is now. I can probably Boost RAFs to 60 in about 20 hours played now that I know the dungeons and the pulls. Plus I have a mammoth and a mage so getting the lowbies around is easy.

[Poetry]

I just prefer the diversity of the group and learning about as many classes as I can.

Same. I enjoy having one of everything and trying out various combinations and being able to bring different things to our raids. I also find it more fun to gear up different classes rather than going out and getting the same gear four times. For me a mixed group is just a lot of fun and I enjoy the challenges a mixed group brings.