[Advice] My new 5 pack, thoughts?

[Poolboy]

Hey peeps - new comp is inc this week, should be suh-weeeet for running 5 WoW's easily.

Here's my thoughts on the 5 Pack I will start single leveling to 10 until my brother and I can slap together my new rig.

Priest
Mage
Warlock
Warlock
Warlock

I was originally leaning towards 4 locks (cuz I like em a lot, and am familiar with playing them) and the priest, but I am thinking the extra bit of ka-boom with the Mage will be nice, plus it's always awesome to have free Water and Buffs from him too.

I'm pretty set on 5x ranged casters. I just don't see myself being able to do the Pally + support thing.

Does anyone suggest dropping a single lock for perhaps a casting Druid? More buffs, bit more healing, etc? My main concern would be the extra class questing, etc. Could be hell to manage.

Anyways ~

DPS - Seems to be plenty in that 5, no?

CC - I don't really care for CC, lol. I have a very strong and clear 'steamroller' type of attitude/playstyle. If in doubt though, the Mage could CC, then there's Banish & Shackle I suppose. Will obviously require a bit of macro fiddling.

Heals - Likely will play Priest as leader, and likely go heavy Holy/Disc? My main is a Priest, but Shadow since the game's launch... I do fine in that role single playing, but I should probably look at this Priest to be the purest form of instance grinding Healer, no?

Tankage - 2 Voidies and an Imp would make a fine steamroll group of tanks for this 5 pack I would think, as I instance grind my way to 70? Felguards at 50?

EXP - yeah, I hope to be able to live in level-appropriate dungeons all the way to 70. Questing to get dungeon chains would be a good idea too. Thoughts?

Talents - here's where I'm looking for some help! Espeically with the 3x Locks and the Mage! I'm going to take a close look at issues/redundancies in stacking 3x Locks right now, and post 3 builds, one for each. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would assume I should go Afflicition heavy? Whenever I have solo leveled a lock its obviously nice to be able to go Demo, but I dont have the solo concern here anymore. Destruction has always been explained to me to be extremely gear-dependant to get the most out of.
As for the Mage... again, it's always suggested to go heavy Frost when soloing a newbie Mage up, but should I look to him to be nothing more than a big bang kaboom cannon in my 5 pack? Do I go Fire? Any suggestions?

That's all for now, hoping to get some good feedback, and I'll be sure to sculpt a few talent builds and post em here for criticism.

Cheers
PB.

[Jaws5]

I understand the draw to a mage for your team . I still reccomend you go with 4 locks and 1 priest. I would make the priest shadow. your Dps out put over time is just amazing. I lvling this grp all undead to 70. run 3 voids and 1 imp. most boss fights last 50secs. able to do all intances at lvl. Heroics can not be done with voids. having 16 dots on each mob with shadow weaving is a thing of beaty

since i finished 4 locks and 1 shadow priest to 70, started 3 mages , 1 prot war, and holy priest. they tank fine but having 5 dps vs 3 is very noticalbe.

anyways do what you think is best, since 20-60 is much faster now you cold always do both.

[Skuggomann]

Y do ppl never use these simple words: PvE and PvP :P i mean it helps alot to know if you want max boss dmg or realtime BG carnidge.

for PvE id go someting liek this:

1x Saman
3x Mage
1x Lock

or

1x Shaman
1x Mage
3x Lock

(or 1x druid 4x shammys/mages)


and speccs:

Shaman: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=hE0uVzMqAotZVbxd0h
Mage: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=of0V0oZxgMzfcIoeRt0h
Lock: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbhhZEEbtrht0uA
have 1 lock with no imp hpgem and 1 with 1/2 and the third with 2/2 so you can have 3 of them.

(i put talents in the stunn crap on all of them for 1 reason, wen doign instances its nice as hell but if your pure PvE then putit in someting else and have shadowfury on your mane caracter.)




Spells bound to same key:

1. Searing pain, scorch, chain lightning
2. Soul fire, pyrioblast
3. Shadowburn, fireblast, Shok
4. Shadow, fire and lightining -Bolt
5. Create a mcaro for the locks with all the dots and have 1 CoE and 1 CoS
6. Mounts for all

If id chose 3 locs id play them as mane to make things easyer, not so menny spells to use on shaman/mage





I chose this settup for 3 resosn:

10% mro firedmg from CoE
15% mroe firedmg form Scorch
3%crit/hit and +101 dpelldmg totems
40 intelect

=maad nice

[Poolboy]

Heroics..... dang.

Ok, so complete rethinking is in order I can see?

I guess I can handle leading with a prot Paladin + 4x support. I suppose now the question is, 4x Shadow Priest or a mix? Was looking for something a little different than that Pally/4 SPriest combo I have seen suggested... but if it means losing independance at high levels, mainly Heroics, then whatever. I can deal, I mean it's not like it's still not as cool as %$!@ =)

Paladin
Priest
Priest
Priest
Priest

or Paladin + a different mix?

I need help, lol :shock:

[Poolboy]

Skuggomann... you're completely right, I should have specified PVE or PVP, duh.

for the record it would probably be a mix of about 80% PVE and 20% PVP when I feel the urge. Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks!

[Skuggomann]

WEll for heroics and maby soem other PvE id go:

1x Druid, boomkin in raids tank in grp
1x shaman, TOTEMS :) and healing

one of these:
3x lock
3x mage
1x lock 2x mange
1x mage 2x lock <-- my favorite :)

[sikerdebaard]

[..]
Paladin
Priest
Priest
Priest
Priest
[..]

A group like this would give you some flexibility.

If you decide to go PvE, you can simply get some prot gear on your tankadin and spec one of the priests holy. CC might be a problem tough.

For PvP, get some holy gear on the healadin, and spec the priests shadow or holy nuke.

[ngilbert]

If you keep the mage in the group id go arcane, it would be easier. Ice is nice for the control but it takes alot of hands on with targeting rings (blizzard and pet) to get the most out of it. Also, you are already going to have plenty of pet commands to issue, why add another..

Fire is nice as well, at least down to pyroblast.

Arcane: you get the AOE that doesn't need anything other than a button smash (no targeting ring to deal with).. Arcane missiles aren't the most effecient spells, but since its channeled it will rotate the mage towards the target.

Another reason to keep the mage around is the ports.

[Jaws5]

Skuggomann,

I would recomend for your lock talents to not have all with 2 points into improved health stone. since you have 3 locks


lock a 2 points
lock b 1 point
lock c 0 points

this will give you 3 health stones each one at 2048 , 2200 ish and 2400 ish. really nice for pvp pve. since stone are different values you can carry all three.

:D

[Skuggomann]

Skuggomann,

I would recomend for your lock talents to not have all with 2 points into improved health stone. since you have 3 locks


lock a 2 points
lock b 1 point
lock c 0 points

this will give you 3 health stones each one at 2048 , 2200 ish and 2400 ish. really nice for pvp pve. since stone are different values you can carry all three.

:D

i mentioned that somwere in my post but didtn wana bother makign 3 trees


just cause i type liek a mongolite dosnt mean i am one ;)

[marvein]

Re skuggoman, I would have to say not go with boomkin as a tank. They are great in the mid levels (post boomkin and pre 60) and average afterwards but the issue is as mitigiation becomes a problem, gearing your boomkin to act like a tank will make for a crappy boomkin because there isnt gear that has high def, sta and def rating as well as int and spell dmg/crit etc so you would have to choose. Now if you plan to go feral later to tank the bigger stuff thats fine but dont expect mister boomkin to be working as a tank much further than hellfire...

If you want a tank then roll a paladin, easily the best choice for multiboxing tanks hands down. Follow this up with locks/spriests (1 priest 3 locks would do fine)

[Skuggomann]

Well teh idea was to specc boomkin in RAIDS wre you dont have to tank and specc feral for 5 man grps :)

[marvein]

Well teh idea was to specc boomkin in RAIDS wre you dont have to tank and specc feral for 5 man grps :)

I didnt see any part where he mentioned wanting to RAID but in that case yes, if you are creating a group to be a 5man dps team in a larger raid a boomkin aura with the rest of your casters would be beautiful and I would likey throw in a shaman to the mix for more buffs (totem of wrath, mana spring, tremor, etc)

[Poolboy]

Sorry, no - no raiding here. Just self contained independant 5 man dungeon group is my goal.

After a lot more reading it seems as though it's going to be Protection Paladin and 4x Shadow Priests. Maaaaaaybe 3x Priest with a single Mage for dps/supplies/ports/buffs/bit of extra AoE.

EDIT:

AoE Tanking Paladin Build? (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html?0000000000000000000005005133500001520 215510520530000200000000000)
Thoughts?

[perseph]

Build is fine, go ahead :)

[Hippieman]

VW are sufficiant tanks. My two VWs have tanked every boss up 'till ZF (which is on farm at lvl 45). 'nuff said

[Suvega]

I know this sounds crazy... I mean
CRAZY

But if you want to run instances to 70, perhaps, JUST PERHAPS...

YOU SHOULD GET A TANKING CLASS.

Yes its been done with out a tanking class (umm 4 earth elementals + 'creative' kiting). But really, just get a tank.

Outland instances will kick any non-tank's ass. Its just not possible without some REALY creativity, or 20min cd's to do a pull.

[Slats]

I run a Prot Pally and 4x Shadow Priests.

Vyndree runs a Prot Paladin and 4x Shamans and they work just as well.

I really really fucking miss having a mage, but I would not add one into my team, just have one sitting around to make water.

The three main eams most people use:

Holy OR Shadow Priest / 4x Warlocks

Paladin, 4x Shadow Priest

Paladin, 4x Shaman

These 3 are probably the more popular teams for PvE/PvP hybrid. There are the strictly PvE teams but I'm not as familar with them.

Your benefits with Warlocks are massive aoe damage (SoC), amazing in battlegrounds / world PvP / AV. Not very good in arena - would probably take some serious mastering to do well. Can tank all non heroics at least up to 60.

Difference between priests and shamans is:

Priests heal better.
Priests use a lot of mana, and have no easy way to get it back.
Priests have no AoE capability.
Priests have AoE fear.

Shamans have better burst damage.
Shamans dont heal on the move like priests.
Shamans have quite decent bursty AoE.
Shamans have no CC.
Shamans regen mana quite well, even better in 2.4
Shamans have self-rez (wipe recovery.)

Thats my opinion anyway.

-Slats

[marvein]

VW are sufficiant tanks. My two VWs have tanked every boss up 'till ZF (which is on farm at lvl 45). 'nuff said

just an FYI, VW will /fail as a tank in outland instances due to the heavy gear jump from post 60 stuff. So expect to relly heavily on felgaurds and heavy burst dps to get through there.

[Vyndree]

I'm still on the fence about re-specing one of my shammies resto (which will kill my PvP game)

*cough cough* respec *cough cough*

Oh, and in relation to this thread, the benefit of having a pally tank with shamans during the leveling phase is that agi/str/windfury totem help "fill the gear gaps" you find with leveling/undergeared prot paladins. Because prot pallies need to spend itemization on +spelldamage (which often wastes itemization points on int as well, damn them), they are more "squishy" than a warrior tank. Agi adds more dodge, Str more block, WF more threat (reck+WF is madness).

Of course, a warrior would mitigate even more with this buffs, and in fact, warriors work perfectly well in combination with shammies. :)

[SilentScream]

Im thinking im going to do
paly tank,3locks,holy priest

then level an extra lock to sub in for pvp steamrolls :) ...time consuming but i cant make up my mind pve/pvp

Wtb imo: decent pve and pvp combo?

or maybe just stick with pve combo and make holypaly and shadow priest for pvp



also should i sub in an extra shadow priest for a lock to play mana battery for grp
paly tank, 2locks , SP, Holy priest

[Boylston]

As has been said before, if you want to do PvE instance grinding (esp. Heroics), you need a real tanking class.

The good news is, for PvP, if you pick 4 ranged DPS/healer capable classes, you can easily run a decent BG/Arena team. There's no reason why a 4xShaman team can't bring along their Prot Pally or Warrior/Druid tank when it's time to hit the PvP scene, especially in BGs. In some ways, you might like being able to Stun that pesky rogue who jumps your team and then lightning bolt his/her arse. Arena-wise, you probably want a partner who is a dedicated healer, but there's nothing that says you can't do 7 games a week with your 4xShammies and swap in your tank for some arena points for the last 3 games.

But I'd definitely plan on grabbing a tank for PvE.

[Sanctume]

Ret Pally have great burst in PvP. Think of them as Warriors that needs to "rage dump" their mana.

A Prot Paladin's weakness is "gearing up," but once you have the 485 defense and 10k health unbuffed, you can tank most 5-man instances in Outland. Getting those gear is doable without stepping foot in a raid or heroic.

Warriors have an easier time to get "uncrushable" for level 73 bosses (raids). As for AoE tanking, a warrior takes more button mashing and mouse moves to generate threat on 3 mobs. Anything more than 3, cc would be difficult without cc.

However, when it comes to Heroics, both Paladin and Warriors are even par. My decently geared prot paladin can handle tanking 2 hard hitting heroic mobs, add a 3rd and I would need serious healing. A similar geared warrior can handle about the same number of heroic mobs. CC would be important for Heroics.

There are exceptions, and unique circumstance. A Paladin + pure healer + 3 mages can clear Heroic Shattered Halls AoE style and clear it all in 30 minutes--but that's from 5 different players. I think it's doable as a 5-box but each toon must be equipped well to survive tanking 5+ heroic mobs, heal through it, and output dps before mana runs out.

[elo]

I really like the prot pally + 4x shadow priest idea. I'm currently running 4x shaman instead and am quite happy so far (level 55) but 4x VE/VT, auto facing thanks to mind flay, and 4x renews (out of form) really excite me. I don't have the experience to back it up but I've got to think that with 4x renew + PoM + 4x VE would mean you almost never had to cast a direct heal. I think even a Shadow priests renew will do 400/tick at 70 (so 1600 in this scenario) + w/e VE returns and bounce that PoM around by casting Shadow Word: Pain. Yeah to keep renew and PoM going you have to stay out of shadow form but if you had to drop and direct heal you'd be out of form anyway. Maybe on pulls you set renews and PoM then shift to nuke the first mob asap but now Blizz made the switch out automatic so that part is easy.

Gonna have to try this at some point.