Rank healer options for Healer+4 Warlock team for PVE & PVP

[nodoze]

I read through many of the discussions in the various threads in this 'WoW Classic' sub-forum on 5 man team compositions and the points around Healer + 4 Warlock seem pretty compelling to me for both PVE & PVP.

I am curious how people would rank the Healer options from best to worst for the 4 Warlock team and what folk see as the main pros/cons of each healer option with 4 Warlocks.

Ideally I want to understand which healer options are best for PVE & PVP but if some are great for PVP but not as much for PVE (or vice-versa) that would be fine to denote that also (could be separate rankings for PVE verses PVP if need be).

Personally I will likely main a healer and if I had to pick PVE or PVP as a priority for multi-boxing likely I would prioritize my group for PVE dungeon farming alone and otherwise take my healer to PVP events with other players and guild PVE dungeons/raids.

[Apatheist]

Priest is the only real option. No other healer allows you to heal all 4 warlocks and their pets at the same time. This is huge when your pets are tanking and your warlocks are channeling hellfire. Everything needs to be healed.

Also, being able to lifetap to full mana and then PoH to full HP means you only need to buy water for the priest.

[nodoze]

Thanks! Makes sense. Even Chain Heal isn't anywhere as high a quality of life as Prayer of Mending (PoM).

What are the best race choices on the Alliance side and the Horde side and which is better?

How much will your ability to clear 5 man dungeons be affected if you were to swap out 1 Warlock for a decent Main Tank class (like Druid, Warrior, or Paladin)?

The reason I ask is because for my main character I would like to run a 0/30/21 Druid (taking both Heart of the Wild and Swift Mend).

I am also hoping my buddy will come play some and he typically plays Tanky characters like Warriors or Paladins and maybe when he is on I could let him lead through the dungeons and I could follow & just 4 box with a Priest+3 Warlocks.

If swapping a Warlock for a Main Tank is viable for 5 man clears worst case I could first speed run my Feral Druid to cap and then level a Priest+4 Warlock team when I am on by myself.

[Apatheist]

Orc for 25% chance to resist stun, undead for WOTF. Horde warlocks have better racials and as horde you don't have to deal with as many people being immune to your fear in PvP.

Having a real tank should make dungeons easier as long as the tank is decent. Though in vanilla dungeons have a 10 player limit there's no reason you couldn't play all 5 and bring your friend. Unless you're doing quests, I guess. You won't get credit for quests in a raid.

Druid, priest and 3 warlocks would make a solid dungeon group in itself if you want to play a druid.

I've already said this in another thread but a big issue with priest+4locks at the moment is there doesn't seem to be a /focus frame in-game. Without focus I'm not sure how we'll manage assigning separate targets for pets to tank. I'll be sticking to my warrior/paladin group until somebody figures out a way to fix this. Trying to pet tank dungeons without it would be a huge headache.

[nodoze]

Thanks again. Your posts in the various threads have been very enlightening.

Regarding the concerns of Priest+4 Locks with no Focus to manage pet targets and aggro, would the swap of a Lock for a Tanking character (like Druid) help?

Regarding a Warrior+Paladin group, if I recall correctly you had mentioned both 3 Warrior + 2 Pally and 4 Warrior + 1 Pally groups. Did you decide which composition you think you will start with?

I assume that means you will be rolling Alliance for Paladins and was curious what races you planned for your Warriors and Paladins and why (I assume Human for both but wanted to confirm)?

[Apatheist]

Thanks again. Your posts in the various threads have been very enlightening.

Regarding the concerns of Priest+4 Locks with no Focus to manage pet targets and aggro, would the swap of a Lock for a Tanking character (like Druid) help?

Regarding a Warrior+Paladin group, if I recall correctly you had mentioned both 3 Warrior + 2 Pally and 4 Warrior + 1 Pally groups. Did you decide which composition you think you will start with?

I assume that means you will be rolling Alliance for Paladins and was curious what races you planned for your Warriors and Paladins and why (I assume Human for both but wanted to confirm)?

Having a tank would make warlocks viable but I still wouldn't play warlocks without /focus, personally. I use it for off tanking with pets, CC with succubus, etc. Boxing warlocks without focus just seems like a headache to me but it depends on your playstyle. If you don't use focus as much it might not be such a big deal for you.

I'll be playing with two paladins. 3 Warriors is enough damage to kill any class in a few seconds, plenty of cleave in PvE and the extra survivability of the paladins being able to heal/bop each other and dispel CC is worth the DPS loss to me.

Gnome's escape artist is pretty mediocre since I'll have two freedoms and dispels in group. Dwarf's stoneform again, pretty mediocre with two dispels in group already. Human for sword/mace specialization is the only real option for Alliance. Might not seem like much but +5 weapon skill is a pretty big deal in PvE. Edgemaster's is a level 44 item that sells for hundreds of gold and is BiS until C'Thun just because of the +7 weapon skill.

Orc is actually the best warrior race by a fair margin. 25% Stun resist +5 axe skill and a damage cooldown is pretty broken -- but Horde don't get paladins.