healer for 4 melee team

[Knytestorme]

Well have pretty much decided that I'm going to go with a 4 dk team to initially get back into boxing just for the starting at level 55 thing and now considering healing options for them.

I notice most people roll with paladins and a priest now and then but for a pure PvE team mightn't a shaman be a better option? Main selling points I'm considering are:

1. Ahnk - it's a minor bonus due to cooldown but with no other healers in the group having the ability to self-res after a wipe and cut down on recovery time seems like a big win.

2. Chain heal - This seems the easiest and cheapest group heal that would work most effectively with an all melee team. Efflorescence, circle of healing and light of dawn are likely all as effective but seems CH is just the simplest and always up group heal.

3. Totems - tremor still seems to be useful during some fights, but not sure how effective given IWT spamming will likely do the same thing.

[Khatovar]

I'm still a fan of my shammy healer, because it makes me happier than the other healing classes. Not too squishy, decent mobility, good collection of buffs through totems and generally low maintenance.

Ankh is always useful, but don't DKs get a battle rez now? Running 4 DKs, that should trump Ankh. Still useful, of course, but wipe prevention is always better than recovery.

Last I played, I didn't even use chain heal. It was nerfed to shit, and I found far better use out of Healing Rains or throwing a few healing surges or riptides about if needed.

As far as tremor, I don't think I really used it that often in Cata dungeons. But the new Spirit Link totem could be really nice.

[Knytestorme]

Good points there, thanks.

I do agree, I def prefer healing with my shammy in instances to any of the others (though druid is kinda fun) so that is a plus.

I had totally forgotten about the dk battle-res since I haven't played one seriously in ages but is def worth taking into consideration, and I can't believe I totally forgot about healing rain. Think it might have been because I dismissed it due to needing ground targetting but guess with ISBoxer that's not really a hindrance.

I guess since my current account has all my 80-85's on it atm the DK's will be on diff accounts so I can just run a few instances once I hit 70's with each of the healers and find which one I prefer the most, but think I'll start with shammy and move from there if I feel the need to.

[Ualaa]

If your primary focus is PvE, you probably don't want a 4x DK + Healer team as your main team.

Start with your first account.
Send an RAF invite (from account management) to your own email.

Use that link to create the account, upgrade it with a battlechest (Classic + BC).
Then use the new account to send an invite.

Daisy chain them together.
That gets you Recruit a Friend.
Level up 6-8 combos of toons to 60th during RAF.
Don't forget the granting extra levels from each referred account to each referring account.

Probably go for:
- Clerics (Healer)
- Druids (Tank, Healer)
- Paladin (Tank, Healer)
- Shaman (Healer)
- Any others that are interesting.
- DK's not so much during RAF, but still worth having.

The DK team is great for PvP.
For a PvE focus, a Paladin/Druid (Druid's have all their tanking tools by 81st, but are missing some at lower levels) is a superior tank in that you can tank efficiently on a lot less effort.
Grab a full healer, if you want full decursing.
Or go with 3+ DPS that can heal in their DPS spec/form.
Tank + Healer + 3 DPS will clear instances in a third of the time as 4x Blood DK's, which is what the PvP DK's are doing instances as; Tank + 4x DPS (who can heal) will clear it even faster.

[Knytestorme]

Yeah Ualaa, was thinking about it again and rmembered I had transferred all my chars off the old accounts so I have no 55+ on them to start with the DK's anyway.

Since I already have the other 4 accounts sorted RAF isn't an option so think I'll just go with quickly leveling up 4 druids to roll with the 5th or my pal to go with tank + heal + 3 balance/cat and then move on from there as I find other things I want to try or once that team is geared for a tier

[Littleburst]

Paladin lacks the abilty to dash out heals on the group. So that's definitely not a great option imo. So the choice is between Shammy and Priest. Personally, I'd pick a priest any day. It has much more option to help out on "oh shit" moments. Priest also require a lot more management then a shaman to get the most out of it though.

[Ashley]

I like paladin because I drive with it and if he gets focus fired, pop bubble! And the fact every heal a Paladin does, heals himself too!

[Khatovar]

He's talking about PvE. If your healer is getting focus fired in PvE, you've got bigger problems than the wrong healer type.

[Knytestorme]

He's talking about PvE. If your healer is getting focus fired in PvE, you've got bigger problems than the wrong healer type.

gotta admit, this made me lol

[Ashley]

He's talking about PvE. If your healer is getting focus fired in PvE, you've got bigger problems than the wrong healer type.

Well, if you accidentally pull a pack of adds then chances are Pala will take aggro due to heals... bubble etc..

[Mokoi]

yeah don't use 4 DK for PvE...

[smalltanker]

The shaman for PVE is a good option. Heal stream + a blood DK in group = 2 continual free heals to the group. Chain heal + healing rain = a total of 4 continual heals that cover the part. For pure through put a shaman can cover it easiest. Lets not forget earth shield as well. Sure their buffs are duplicated by the DKs but the extra armor is a nice one and the shaman brings the ability to do some decent damage with a searing totem + flameshock + firenova + fire elemental for AOE mobs... if anything makes it past the DKs copious AOE potential damage. Finally, they regen mana like mad and have a shield... whats not to love.

[CheeseCake]

Since ive rolled healer 4xDKs twice now (on a PVE and PVP server) i can tell you that a pali for doing PVE is awful.

When i rolled a priest and 4x blood DKs on my PVE server, cata instances were just a breeze to get through at level, only wiped twice in them.
Of the 4 teams ive ran through cata whilst leveling to 85 ive never had it easier than a priest and blood dks.

So when i started on grim batol i rolled a pali and 4 blood dks.
So far cata instances have been rather difficult. Poor AOE healing is not good for cata dungeons,
Im level 84 now and so far have only cleared black rock and stonecore, wiping twice in each one : /
At this level on my priest team i had all instances cleared.

[Knytestorme]

heh yeah, I am not a huge fan of healing solo on my pally as it is. Decent throughput but a lot less "oh shit" buttons and really don't think it would work well for 4 melee. For tank + 4 ranged pally would be great though

[d0z3rr]

Well have pretty much decided that I'm going to go with a 4 dk team to initially get back into boxing just for the starting at level 55 thing and now considering healing options for them.

I notice most people roll with paladins and a priest now and then but for a pure PvE team mightn't a shaman be a better option? Main selling points I'm considering are:

1. Ahnk - it's a minor bonus due to cooldown but with no other healers in the group having the ability to self-res after a wipe and cut down on recovery time seems like a big win.

2. Chain heal - This seems the easiest and cheapest group heal that would work most effectively with an all melee team. Efflorescence, circle of healing and light of dawn are likely all as effective but seems CH is just the simplest and always up group heal.

3. Totems - tremor still seems to be useful during some fights, but not sure how effective given IWT spamming will likely do the same thing.

I used a shaman. The totems greatly increased my melee team's DPS. Really love the shaman healer. Plus heroism is sweeeeet.