Shammy or Hunter

[Bloodcloud]

Hi,

I run a diverse 5box team.

DK - Frost Tank (10/54/7)
Lock - Destro (3/13/55)
Mage - FFB (0/51/20)
Priest - Holy (14/57/0)
Hunter - survival (2/13/56)

I am currently on my first heroics. (Gun'Drak up to but not yet Drakkari Colossus)

I fear that my hunter (also the worst geared) is dragging my group down.
It also seem to me that I lack some essential buffs, like totems (Nature/fire Resistance, tremor, mana-spring ...)

I am thinking of levelling my 60 Shammy to replace my Hunter. but 60-80 is a long time again.

What do you suggest ?

[Multibocks]

Shammy, I hate hunters. So hard to get good dps out of good gear. Shamans also bring bloodlust which will increase everyones dps by 30% on bosses. Easy choice.

[accretion]

My current setup (soon to change) is Pally/Priest/Hunter x2/Shaman. As a true hunter-lover, it pains me to say this, but they are vastly inferior to any hybrid class when it comes to multiboxing. Well-geared, a hunter can put out very solid dps. But so can an Elemental Shaman, and they bring amazing utility to the party. What does a hunter bring? Well, not a lot. Traps? A fragile off-tank? Some minimal mana regen (SV)? An additional 3% dps (BM - but at the cost of less dps for the hunter)?

In fact, I'm in the process of leveling up two more Shamans to replace my hunters because they simply bring much more to the table.

Can you succeed with a hunter? Sure. Will it be harder? Definitely.

[Marathon]

drop the hunter and pick up the shammy

[Ughmahedhurtz]

If it were just a matter of pure DPS, I'd stick with hunter. But with shammy, you get similar DPS plus:


AFK group disease/poison cleanse
fire/frost/nature resist
wipe prevention
30% DPS boost every 10 minutes (or sooner if you wipe shortly afterward :P)
Fear reduction to 3-sec max

Much more than you get from a hunter. Especially if your group is mostly magic damage as hunters primarily benefit physical damage classes.

[Multibocks]

I havent seen anyone box a hunter to the dps you can box an elemental shaman so Im not sure where you are getting the dps is better on hunters. Shaman require no micromanagement (no proc watches) and all you need is a /click macro to get ridiculously good dps. Now Im sure someone out there can prove me wrong, and I'm ok with that. I'd really like to see someone who multiboxes a hunter with similar dps that Niley's shaman put out. I kind of doubt it can be done without detriment to the group as a whole (since you have to watch procs.)

edit: dont forget the +5crit to everyone in group and the totem of wrath.

[Bloodcloud]

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

nb: I wasn't doing that bad last night in (H)Gun'Drak and aspect of the wild helps some. 3 bosses down without a wipe. (Seems that my priest macros are finally paying off). Didn't have time for the Colossus though.

ToW and Bloodlust and elementals and other Totems.... very convincing arguments ...

(but levelling from 60 to 80 .....) *Sigh* I will have to do it then.
But then, another reason to do the Outland instances :)
(and level skinning on my shammy then....)

[shaeman]

I know it seems a pain - but you'll find it's not that bad once you get started.

60-68 wouldn't take that long. Boost the shammy through ramparts, blood furnace and the various coilfang instances.
At 68 take it to northrend, get to 70 and earn a big chunk of gear upgrades in no time.

I guess quest 70-71. Then hop into BG's for 71-80. Plus you'll be able to take the shammy through northrend instances on normal with the group.

If you get bored - swap on to your other team and work on them to remind yourself why you want to replace that hunter :)

[Bloodcloud]

If I had a geared hunter to play with, I'm sure I could tune the macros to a good / great level. But all mine are 72 and I'm not leveling them.

I've ground out far too many reputations to start over (again). lol

I posted mine here :

http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?p=228078#post228078