4 shamans vs. 5 warlocks

[grey_fox]

Hi,

I' m thinking about starting a new multibox-setup from scratch, but I'd like to hear a opinion or two first on which of these two setups have more benefits. I' m looking for a PvE oriented setup, but it would also be nice if it could handle some decent PvP.


#1 setup: 4 shamans
Much versatility, but unable to tank as far as I know. So I was thinking about making a group of 4 and invite a tank each time I need one since I don' t wanna play more than one class.

#2 setup: 5 warlocks
DPS and Dots are tempting, also has the voidwalker which can tank, but the healing capabilities are weak.


So what do you guys think? Right now I' m more into the warlock setup, but I never really played the class and know how well or bad they do in a group of five.

Cheers!

[Ualaa]

I would strongly look at click castsequences.

If you go with 4x Shaman + 1x Paladin, both classes can mash a single button, with the tank running through a "96969" rotation and the shammies casting their best spells in a priority sequence. This composition can run all heroic/challenging PvE content, and can run PvP fine.

Drive with the tank, shammies on auto follow. You'll have Divine Plea, as a manual click on the Paladin. And some assorted binds, to handle totems on the Shammies. Self Buffs and group buffs can be handles on the same number of keybinds as playing an all shaman team.

If you really don't want two class types, 5x Shaman will "solo" much more PvE content then 5x Warlocks. But 4x Shaman, with a "pug" tank, should be able to do most content. As far as PvP goes, 5x Shaman will be better then 4x.




The 5x Warlocks will do a lot of PvE content, but they won't go nearly as far in heroics as a team with a dedicated tank.

They have a lot of self healing ability. And with Health Funnel, can really heal their pet by a large amount.

However, their limiting factor is how fragile pets are, compared to a dedicated tanking class. That and relative threat levels. If you put out half decent dps on any of the warlocks, none of the pets will continue to hold threat.

Warlocks would be an amazing team for PvP, especially battlegrounds. Probably not so much in arena, unless you ran with a healer as well.

I'd strongly look at 4x Warlocks + 1x Disc Priest... Go with repeater region, click based, healing.

But not sure that you want to go with two classes here again.




If you want to run only one type of character, take a look at Druids.

You can spec them all the same way (Feral Cats or Moonkins), as far as leveling, questing, dailies and battlegrounds go.

With one spec'd and geared as a Bear and another spec'd and geared as a Tree (dual-specs possibly on these two), you'll be able to do all PvE content. Check out the assorted "Moo's videos" in the movie section.

I'd probably run 5x Balance, as that is what I'm doing on my druids now.
One is dual spec'd resto, and this is the only one with improved MotW.
One is dual spec'd feral, and this is the one with improved Faerie Fire in Balance.
The other three are a more generic balance spec.

They're a blast in battlegrounds, but lack a bit of controlled burst for arena beyond getting points each week.

[grey_fox]

Good points Uulaa,

however, I' m a bit cautious about bringing meele classes into my setup, plus I' m not the druid player type. :/ On the other hand it's probably hard to do the tougher heroics with just a plain shaman or warlock team...

What kind of tank would go best with 4x Shaman? I was thinking about adding a Pala since I know this class the best of all in the game and their tanking capability should be good enough.

However I think a tank would be a problem in PvP, and even with another specc he' d stand out from the other group members and become an easy target.

So I' m kinda in a twist here whetever or not to add a tank to the group.

[Ualaa]

For a 4x Shaman group, the best tank is probably a Death Knight.
Because of the 13% spell damage increase.

But I would go with a Prot Paladin anyway, since they're so much easier to macro and play.
At lower levels of gear, the pally tanks much better.

For PvP, you can either stay as Prot spec, and be the "leader" of the team.
As most of your opposition will target the front toon.
And Prot will be the hardest to kill, by a long shot.
Or you could dual spec, to Holy or a hybrid, and heal the team.
You'd want to be ranged as much as possible, so Ret isn't the best idea for pvp.

If you're willing to go with click, to cover your dps..
I'd go Paladin tank, 3x Elemental Shaman (DPS/Heals) and 1x Destruction Warlock.
But that's 3 classes, as opposed to the single class you asked for initially.

[grey_fox]

Hm, I'll give that some tought until I' m going to buy new game keys and gametime cards tomorrow morning.

The warlock setup still looks tempting, but overall I think I' d have an easier time with the shamans because of the heals and heavy armor.

Side question: I downloaded the Blizzard Authenticator for my cell phone and have my two existing accounts on one battle.net account (I' m also planning to add my new WoW-acounts to the same battle.net account). When I log in, will I have to enter the same single security code for every client or does every client require a new code?

[Ualaa]

On the same B.Net, you'll need to enter a unique code per wow account.
Codes are generated every 30 seconds, so log in will take approximately 2.5 mins.

If you put them onto different B.Net accounts, then the one authenticator can get them all in at once.
But, in the event you are keylogged, unless you always log in with all five at once, there will be a small window where there is a valid code.



I'm running 1x Paladin and 4x Shaman, all elemental, as my primary team.
No complaints, they're strong for pretty much all content I've done.

Also have a mixed team.
Dual Spec (Feral Tank and Balance), Disc Healer, Frost Mage, Elem. Shaman and Destruction Warlock.

Also have the 5x Druid team.

And a 4x Warlock + 1x Priest team, which is unplayed, but created/guilded.



They're all fun compositions.
It really depends on what your goals are.
The Pally/Shammies (with or without a lock), will go a lot further in PvE.
5x Shammies or 5x Warlocks or 4x Warlocks + 1x Priest, will all be fun in battlegrounds.
4x Shammies or 4x Warlocks, with 1x someone else healing, can do arena.

[grey_fox]

Thanks for you answers.

I went with 5 shammies, with PvP in mind.

Dungeons are a bit tricky, but so far managing aggro with improved stoneclaw totems on a round-robin key worked good.

My actual specc on all 5 toons is:
http://www.wow-europe.com/de/info/basics/talents/shaman/talents.html?tal=253300150321335132230135100505003 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000#no ne

If there could be any improvement in your opinion plz let me know. ;)

[Multibocks]

You are going to want a real tank when you hit lich king heroics. That or you are going to have to rotate one shaman in and out when you PuG a tank. Good luck with that! =)

[grey_fox]

What about this guy then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBxe1BMLfE

[Multibocks]

He VASTLY overgears the instances. That isnt a shaman in blues you see wrecking the place. You will need either, badass pve gear or some good pvp gear (more stamina) to survive.

[grey_fox]

I' m aware of his gear, after all I only wanted proof whetever or not it is possible to do heroics without a "real" tank in the team. ;)

[Ualaa]

With a 5x Shaman team, I would recommend Wintergrasp at least twice a week, once on server reset (hard reset of quests) and once four days later (soft reset of quests).

Combine this with 10 arena games a week, purely for the points.

And a ton of battlegrounds, for the honor based gear.

I'm not sure the point where you can do heroics, with 5x Shaman.
Pets get your resilience now, which will be a huge help.
You will have 5x Earth Elementals available.
Fire Elementals have a glyph for much shorter re-use, not sure on the Earth Elementals.

Still, the majority of heroics were based on being a relatively undergeared 80th.
And you can get much better gear now, with enough time gearing up.
And then run (outgear) many of the heroics, which gets you badge gear too.
I don't see a non-tank team doing the newer heroics, but there are many which will be possible.

[Shodokan]

He VASTLY overgears the instances. That isnt a shaman in blues you see wrecking the place. You will need either, badass pve gear or some good pvp gear (more stamina) to survive.

In that video the shaman are not even in full t7... mostly heroism badge gear. He does not VASTLY outgear the instances. He is overgeared, but it's nothing like being in full t9. For example you can plainly see that the shaman are using badge shields and either the mace from heroic nexus or the titansteel one. Compare those to what you can get now? Heroic HoR gets you something as good as ALGALON drops (offhand), and battered hilts are better than the legendary mace from ulduar...

Playing 5 shaman takes a lot of skill for heroics as far as healing goes in my opinion...but it can be done. It's much easier with a paladin tank with as much mitigation possibilities as they have for such (shield block reducing damage taken etc) and from what i've heard/seen you can basically heal them with your healing stream totems. Bluepost on MMO confirms paladin/warrior tanks are better than DK's overall as far as damage taken in heroics goes.

5x shaman would be a lot easier now with the reduced cooldown on elementals and the glyph for fire...compared to when this video was done if you were to semi-gear them through doing heroics with 2-3 of them at once you could easily get them up to par to do what was done in the video with ease, but like i said... the healing may be a bit difficult without practice.

[Multibocks]

In that video the shaman are not even in full t7... mostly heroism badge gear. He does not VASTLY outgear the instances. He is overgeared, but it's nothing like being in full t9. For example you can plainly see that the shaman are using badge shields and either the mace from heroic nexus or the titansteel one. Compare those to what you can get now? Heroic HoR gets you something as good as ALGALON drops (offhand), and battered hilts are better than the legendary mace from ulduar...

Playing 5 shaman takes a lot of skill for heroics as far as healing goes in my opinion...but it can be done. It's much easier with a paladin tank with as much mitigation possibilities as they have for such (shield block reducing damage taken etc) and from what i've heard/seen you can basically heal them with your healing stream totems. Bluepost on MMO confirms paladin/warrior tanks are better than DK's overall as far as damage taken in heroics goes.

5x shaman would be a lot easier now with the reduced cooldown on elementals and the glyph for fire...compared to when this video was done if you were to semi-gear them through doing heroics with 2-3 of them at once you could easily get them up to par to do what was done in the video with ease, but like i said... the healing may be a bit difficult without practice.

My point was you are not going to roll into UK and solo it with blues. Sorry that my embleshment went over like a turd in the punch bowl.

[Ualaa]

I don't see a 5x Shammy group, running the complete chain for the Battered Hilts, if those are upgrades.
No one outgears the newer heroics, to that level yet.

But the older stuff, was balanced against being a fresh 80th, in mixed quest green/blues.
And you can far outgear that level content, fairly easily, given a bit of pvp gear or some raids for your toons.

[Crel]

Just my 2 cents
The "older" heroics, when in badge gear as of now are cake. My pally can do entire heroics without getting healed at all and he isn't even that well geared. Its the newer Hor Pos Fos that WILL give you trouble if pve content is on mind. Anything is possibe though! (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?p=256968#post256968)

As for the locks this is a question I'm tossing around as well as confronted with a choice of 5 locks or 4 with a priest. Think I read somewhere that the priest is just a weak spot to be hammered in pvp. Does anyone have a solid viewpoint of 5locks? Been using shams for awhile now, itching to fear a few people myself for once ;)