Shaman, 3x Mage and Druid

[amjr]

Hi!

My paladin team is cranking levels but I thought I could start new group although paladins are still under lvl50. I thought that I'll let each group gather rested experience and to have different playstyle so that things don't get boring.

I have some alt ready. Druid, lvl63 and Shaman lvl60. And I would have to level 3 mages. But leveling aside - I would like to get opinions about the group. Druid would be tanking, mages as DPS and Shaman as resto.

I'd like to keep DPS classes as mages because of easy macros.

[Ualaa]

It will definitely be a decent group.

The druid is not quite as strong as the pally on AoE pulls.
But swipe is 360 degrees now, so facing is less of an issue for threat (it's still an issue to dodge etc).
I'd probably glyph Maul, so it hits a second target.

Shaman will be a decent healer.
You've got Chain Heal for the Shammy + Mages (ranged).
And Healing Wave / Lesser Healing Wave / Riptide for the Druid.
Earth Shield is always strong, and Heroism/Bloodlust is a huge spell.

Tremor is some fear protection, and your tank can eventually Berserk to break fear and be immune to it.

The mages can spec however you want.
But as warcraft sits, I'd have them end up as Arcane.
As that is rather huge damage.

You have 3x Sheep on round-robin, if you want to crowd control anything.
But I'd probably just blast things.

[amjr]

I'm also thinking gear that drops. Sure enough there will be conflicts because of 3 cloth wearing classes but only thing completely useless is plate.

With my 5x paladin team there is always the question "who shall get this item". With different classes it would even out a little.

And caster team is also nice because I played a mage for a long time. Their sole existence to make things blow up has a special place in my heart :)

[genocyde]

I've switched back and forth between druid and pally tank with my 3 mages and disc priest and I have to say I prefer the druid tank. I find he's quite a bit stronger at AoE both DPS and threat. He also pairs much better with the mages and priest because he can AoE tank on the run which is how I did most of my trash. Just spam swipe/arcane explosion/holy nova while running and never any problems. Paladins are terrible at AoE while running.

Druid just feels like an overall superior tank for threat and DPS. The only thing he lacks is a way to deal with casters like avengers shield. And the druid takes noticably more damage but mine is not geared near as well, I imagine the pally has better damage reduction even with similar gear however.

I eventually tried the druid to moonkin and now I'm leveling a shaman healer and DK tank for even more options. My preference at the moment though is still Druid tank.

[amjr]

Ohhh the pain without RAF....

Leveling slowly my mages but without RAF it's pain. I'm running then with lvl60 shaman and lvl63 druid at the moment. Having higher-level characters with them causes the XP gains to be minimal. I'm actually wondering if I should run mages only and do quests.

Another thing I'm wondering is the talent-trees. How about you guys? When did you spec into arcane? Or what spec are you running with?

I know arcane is probably the top-DPS spec but 3x frost does have fun-factor also. 3x frost and unlimited water-elementals - lot's of stuff and bolts flying around.

[Ualaa]

Try this.

3x mages, grouped together.
Two on follow, lead with the third.
Equip +stamina gear, that's all you care about.

1x Shammy (two would better), also on follow behind the lead mage.

Run around, gathering as many non-aggro mobs (ideally 3 levels above the mages, for maximum experience) as possible.
Use arcane explosion.
Once they're tagged, have the shammy drop a magma totem and a stoneclaw totem.
The second shammy, if you had one, would do the same, except stoneclaw would be round-robin and not both at once.

Rinse and repeat.

As long as the mages are in a group (minimum 2 toons)...
And tag the mobs first.
And only pets do damage outside of their group (totems and damage shields are pets).
They get full experience.

It is a way to AoE boost toons.

[amjr]

Hmm... I need to try that.

It's shame that you cannot transfer BoA items between accounts inside one battle.net account. My single-toon could purchase at least shoulders for my team. I could get over via character-transfers but I'm not wasting that much money.

I think I'll try AoE boosting. Any other tips on boosting?