Mixteam not my thing, going back to shamans

[David]

During moving homes these days I`ve been non raffing 5 new chars, warrior tank, priest healer and a warlock, mage and hunter as dps. They are allmost lvl22 now and it doesn`t seem like it`s the setup I`m looking for. So I`m looking to get back into my paladin + 4 shamans.
So I`m wondering if anyone still runs around with this setup and how it works in cata? The shamans are 80 and pala is 84(allmost 85). The paladin din`t do much quests, only underwater vadg has been done a bit so questing is possible. Just wondering how the PVE part works for this team these days.
They have the CC but I heard that resto shamas are balls:(

Thanks in advance.:D

[dancook]

Resto shaman have riptide, earth shield and you have 3/4 healing stream totems, depending if you drop a mana spring totem.

If you cast riptide and earthshield at the beginning of each pull, you don't have to do much healing beyond that so the resto can contribute to dps with lightning bolt whilst regaining mana if you spec for it.

Oh and PTR 4.10 says healing buff to resto shaman :)

[Mercurio]

Personally, I've always loved mixed teams. I've played a number of class combos through heroics and intro raid content and it is all very fun. In fact, I've played that exact combo, except with a pally instead of a warrior tank.

That's the only thing I'd suggest - ditching the warrior for a pally. I've played a warrior through all the WotLK content as a tank (even through ICC boxing), but it just doesn't seem as easy/useful as a pally.

Mixed teams give so many more buffs these days, you are missing out on 10-20% damage and flexibility when you only play 1 or 2 classes imho.

[Alge]

I played pally tank, holy/disc cleric, destro lock, arcane mage, elem shaman from 15-60 only doing instances using my instant LFD queue. I had previously played pally tank and 4 enhancement shamans, only switching to 1 resto/3 elem in the 80s.

The mixed team started out really slow. At the beginning I couldn't do enough damage with a full power pool to kill some bosses (Oggleflint in Ragefire comes to mind). However, it just keeps getting better and better. After the early struggles, I did most of the 1-67 (team is currently at 67) content earlier and easier on the mixed team. I wouldn't have attempted it without using Mercurio's two-step macro idea and it takes some work to refine those as you level but is definitely satisfying when you have it all set up. I'm not sure I could go back to a less diverse team now.

Other than that, I'd second the advice to use a pally tank. While it might be easy mode if you are playing 1 character, there is plenty to do playing 5.

Alge

[kate]

It's reasonably viable, but I'm finding throwing a priest into the mix (specced Shadow) instead of one of the elemental Shaman is really nice. The shield, spell haste, healing via vampiric embrace and spell haste are all nice things.

[katsurahama]

I also vote for mixed teams. They give so much flexibility and their buffs work together. Like Alge, I tried doing instances with mixed teams. I personally found it a pain in the ass because they have so few abilities at lower levels. For questing all you need is 1-2 dps spells and 1-2 heal spells so their lack of abilities is not important.

With your existing comp all you'd need to get to 60 through questing is:
Charge/heroic strike
Smite
Shadow bolt or immolate
Fireball
Arcane & autoshot

Since you don't have RAF and you're finding the leveling not to your liking, why not use the paladin to power level them in instances. You can switch out the warrior at 55/56 for a DK if you want. A priest can handle the lack of a shield.

[katsurahama]

Plus with the comp you made you're going to have summons and portals. I say keep what you've got. The Cata revamp of the old areas made them so much less of a bore to level through if you dont want to powerlevel.

[katsurahama]

It's reasonably viable, but I'm finding throwing a priest into the mix (specced Shadow) instead of one of the elemental Shaman is really nice. The shield, spell haste, healing via vampiric embrace and spell haste are all nice things.

Isnt shadow priest healing getting nerfed for the umpteenth time if 4.10 gets implemented as it currently stands on the PTR?

[kate]

Isnt shadow priest healing getting nerfed for the umpteenth time if 4.10 gets implemented as it currently stands on the PTR?

Possibly, though I don't really care that much about the shadow healing - it's just an added benefit and hardly that important. It keeps you topped off, but the totems do that as well and generally better.

[Negativ1337]

Perfect group:
Paladin tank (buffs/oh shit button)
Boomkin (+5% spell crit/buffs)
Elemental Shaman (Totems/party buffs when you crit)
Mage (buffs/food & water)
Holy Priest (good at aoe healing/buffs)

So then you have 3 ranged classes with spellpower that amplifies the DPS of eachother, good buffs (+hp/+stats) 2x cc. Aoe tank and a aoe healer.

Plus you can use every drop (cloth priest, leather druid, chain shaman, plate warrior

[dancook]

Perfect group:
Paladin tank (buffs/oh shit button)
Boomkin (+5% spell crit/buffs)
Elemental Shaman (Totems/party buffs when you crit)
Mage (buffs/food & water)
Holy Priest (good at aoe healing/buffs)

So then you have 3 ranged classes with spellpower that amplifies the DPS of eachother, good buffs (+hp/+stats) 2x cc. Aoe tank and a aoe healer.

Plus you can use every drop (cloth priest, leather druid, chain shaman, plate warrior

My DK's are only at lvl 78 and you're already suggesting i make another team..... !!;) damnit

[Ualaa]

Play what is fun for you.

If the DK's are working, go with them.
If they cannot do something you want to do, then make an adjustment.

There isn't really a single perfect configuration.
Any given team will have strengths and weaknesses.
Possibly be exceptional at one aspect and passable at another, or even crappy at the other aspect.

Often you can do a minor tweak, or substitute one toon.

The final thing that matters for any team, is if you're having fun with them.

[dancook]

Play what is fun for you.

If the DK's are working, go with them.

DK's are fun, but there is so little time to try out all these combinations :) and I've never had the joy of RAF :(

[wakasm]

I find even stupider things controlling my group decisions - mainly the race.

I don't like mixing and matching races for some reason. I either like to have all 5 the same or all 5 completely different.

I ended up with

Pally
Mage
lock
lock
Priest

Purely because there is no blood elf shammy or druid. I would love to mix in a shaman or druid for the ability to use all drops, but it just bugs me to see 4 similar races then one other that doesn't match. Plus for my first team, I wanted the same starting zone, etc.

Same goes for my Shaman team. I picked a warrior for tauren.

Druid team was easy as well.

Perhaps when/if I get them ALL to 85 I'll mix and match...

I also do dumb things too like pick names so they match. Like picking 5 characters from a favorite book, or show, which was also probably dumb because later I am sure to mix/match if I get stuck and will be odd when I have 4 characters in a theme and then a 5th from another. Oh well. I guess I could always pay for name changes or race changes later on =/

[David]

Well I transfered my shamans over to my paladins new server and I`m back on the road. Cleared Trone of the tides and blackrock easily. My shamans are 81 by now and my paladin is 85 which helps :-) Sadly I cannot enter vortex or stonecore because my shamans lack gearlevel.

Thing is, my shamans are ALLWAYS at full mana, from what I can remember esspecially healers were going oom fast when I played 1 char.

[Sam DeathWalker]

For 5 box I would go:

Pal (or DK)
Shaman (or Priest)
3 mages

You get good pvp that way as well as aoe pve.


Shaman healing is first class but dps is lacking imho; plus mage ability to cast while on the move is really strong for pvp.