Can't figure out if I should replace warrior in this group

[d0z3rr]

At level 80 I currently have a mixed melee team:

warrior
paladin
rogue
druid
shaman healer

I am now leveling another mixed melee with raf:

warrior
warrior
rogue
druid
priest

I am wondering if I should swap out one of the warriors with a rogue? Anyone have any idea who puts out more dps at 85? Does it really matter?

Eventually I will 10box with these two teams. The second team is replacing my 5x 80 paladins which I grew to hate.

Feel free to throw in a third group composition, since I have until september to level groups to 80.

Thanks.

[remanz]

hmm 10 box melees. PVE stuff tends to be a little harder for melees. Are you managing the rogues ok ? Boxed rogue is definitely NOT outputting more dps than warrior,enhance shaman, or DK. Why not add the enhance shaman and unholy DK (for spell debuff) in the mix. Then you can cap on melee loot distribution too. Right now if mail agility drops, no one on your team can use.

If no DK, I would still add the enhance shaman. They are doing pretty decent DPS after the buff in 4.2.

boxing melee pve/dps is usually NOT for which class has the highest potential DPS. it is for which class has the easiest rotation (FCFS). Warrior/DK/Enhance shaman are mostly FCFS in their rotations. Rogue/Druid/Paladin are all having combo points to be managed. So they do lower damage vs warrior/dk/enhance shaman when it comes to boxing.

[Multibocks]

Rogue isn't the easiest to macro. I would stick with warrior, great dps (with gear) and easy as hell to 2 step. Bloodthirst and then some other ability, talk about easy.

[d0z3rr]

Hmmm, if rogues are hard to macro then I must have royally screwed up my 80 warrior and 80 druid macros. My rogue will do 6500 dps on a dummy vs the warrior and druid's 5000 at level 80...

[d0z3rr]

Ok, definitely going to add a DK. Still unsure if I want to keep the priest as a healer. All the priest brings to the melee group is a stamina buff, nothing else. Even if I didn't have a priest I can still get stamina from the warrior shout. A shaman healer brings increased attack speed. Can anyone think of why you would want a priest over a shaman? Keep in mind I have not played any class at 85, only 80.

Back to the DK. I could replace both warriors with DKs. But I've never played DKs past 64, and I've never tanked with one. What are the differences in the talent trees on DKs?

I was looking at a raid planner and I just noticed tha Blood DKs have a attack power increase and a nice debuff against melee mobs. Are Blood DKs pretty good?

[d0z3rr]

Swapped out the warriors for DKs, kept the priest. It has been going swimmingly. Here is a vid of me clearing Mana Tombs in a personal record time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2X3AsVPfMI
k2X3AsVPfMI

[remanz]

blood DK is alright. I felt warrior is the best tank now, with paladin coming in 3rd (no experience on druid tank). Somehow warrior just takes much less damage overall where my paladin's HP drops fast (could be just shock waves,). I guess that's how they balance tanking class/talent that doesn't have mega self heals.

what happens in between 60-84 is deceiving though. Once you go into cata instance, you will see the trash mobs drop much much slower. and your biggest heal can barely fill up 10% of your tank's HP bar. At 60ish , I can heal tank to full with just holy shock (from 15% to full). At 85, my holy paladin can't bring anyone back to full, all at half HP. This is where I felt priest would outperform shaman. Priest's shield/hot/aoe heal are just more efficent.

[Scelesti]

I've used all the tanks(at lower levels) and I've used my blood DK at level 85.

A lot changes from 84 to 85 in regards to how you tank. At lower levels I could get away with a lot more than I can now on my DK, and I have a lot less to really watch. Maybe I'm a little undergeared and have to work harder(most likely the case), but before I hit 85 it was 1000x easier. I've boxed all 4 tanks at lower levels and honestly they all play pretty much the same(paladin being a little different): do a couple of build up moves, then finally get to execute your AoE abilities.

I wish I could give some advice as far as tanking goes on which tank to use, but honestly, you should base your decision on preference really...just keep in mind things are going to get a lot harder once you hit 85.

[d0z3rr]

Well lucky for me I won't be doing any 80 end content. I'm only getting to 85 to make running lvl 70 instances and older raid content faster and easier. I was close to killing twin emps at 80, so dinging 85 will be an easy kill.

So far I am loving the blood dk as a tank, more than pally definitely. He's lvl 70, so far I think his self healing abilities are pretty meh, they really don't heal for that much.

[d0z3rr]

Okay just ran my first Northrend instance (UK) last night.

The frost dk dual-wielding is doing an incredible amount of damage compared to the rogue and druid. Everyone has half northrend/half BC gear so far. I'm wondering if the DK's DPS is going to plateu and the rogue/druid will catch up? Or are they just that beastly?

The blood DK tank is very spiky when taking damage. I much prefer the Warrior/Paladin, I guess because they have shields that is the difference. I will have to get used to that, but not gonna like it. But I guess the fact that the DK tank outputs an asston of damage balances it out...

[topgear]

I may be alone in this, but I like the unholy dk. With the morbidity talent and the aggro generation of Death and Decay, you (maybe) could set it up to have a decent aoe and be able to switch aggro between the 2 dks. I'm not in a position to try this for myself, so I hope someone can add to or kill this idea.

[Multibocks]

having dps tank at current gear levels is not a good idea. Maybe when 4.3 hits and we all have 384+ equipment you can run through heroics with just dps plate tanking for you.

[d0z3rr]

My group dinged 80 over the weekend. Took me 3 weeks to do 0-80, not bad I guess for casual playing, not to mention being out an entire week for travel.

I went through a love/hate relationship with my DK tank. I am back to loving it. After adjusting my playstyle I started to really enjoy tanking as a DK again.

The druid and rogue did finally catch up to the Frost DK's dmg output, they're all pretty much even right now. The DK being better on trash mobs due to the instant up front damage, in longer boss fights the rogue catches up and soars by the DK.

The Blood DK puts out so much freaking damage it's crazy, wonder what would happen if I respec'd the frost to blood...hmmmm.