Shadowlands Alpha Theorycrafting

[Diwa]

Shadowlands

Tank
It seems that Pally will be unanimous due to being a Tank/Support and more fun. Prot Pally will have 3 heals. Covenant ability is meh.

Brewmaster is tempting due to full defense, absorb, touch of death and Covenant ability

More info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZyKOz3JJM


DPS
3 Hunters will still most likely be the choice for mechanics and arrow shower is back


Healer doing DPS
Still Shaman?

[MiRai]

Six pages deep in a thread that's about Mythic+ in BFA isn't really the place to start a conversation about theorycrafting team comps based off of information (or lack thereof) from the Shadowlands alpha, so I moved your post.


More info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZyKOz3JJM
Furthermore, is there a TL;DW for those who don't want to sit through a 40-minute video?

EDIT: Oh no... I just realized that's Metrohaha, an MVP on the official WoW forum.

[daviddoran]

I'm going to be trying:



5x Druids (1 Guardian 4 Balance, all with resto affinity)
Prot Paladin Resto Shaman 3x BM Hunters
Prot Paladin 4x Elemental Shaman (maybe one resto?)
5x Paladins (1 Prot 1 Holy 3 Ret, maybe 4 ret?)
Holy Paladin and 4x Blood DKs (are these going to be nerfed in Shadowlands? DKs are only in the 80s atm)
Mistweaver Monk and 4x DHs (unsure on this, no experience with monks or DH, but might be interesting)


I will probably level up 5 shaman, 5 druids, 5 hunters, 5 paladins, 5 DKs and 5 DHs, mainly via questing, and split em around to different dungeon teams at 60, but we will see how the questing goes, and how boxing friendly they are, vs how boxing friendly the dungeons are.

The real question is, do I bother getting more hivemind clusters on any of these teams? I only have it on the Druids so far, and it took me like 12 hours, and I did not enjoy the process.

Looking at this list and I am probably not going to get everything leveled up, for the first couple patches anyway. I'd guess that the lower in the list the less likely they will make it to 60, let alone run dungeons.

[Lyonheart]

I'm going to be trying:



5x Druids (1 Guardian 4 Balance, all with resto affinity)
Prot Paladin Resto Shaman 3x BM Hunters
Prot Paladin 4x Elemental Shaman (maybe one resto?)
5x Paladins (1 Prot 1 Holy 3 Ret, maybe 4 ret?)
Holy Paladin and 4x Blood DKs (are these going to be nerfed in Shadowlands? DKs are only in the 80s atm)
Mistweaver Monk and 4x DHs (unsure on this, no experience with monks or DH, but might be interesting)


I will probably level up 5 shaman, 5 druids, 5 hunters, 5 paladins, 5 DKs and 5 DHs, mainly via questing, and split em around to different dungeon teams at 60, but we will see how the questing goes, and how boxing friendly they are, vs how boxing friendly the dungeons are.

The real question is, do I bother getting more hivemind clusters on any of these teams? I only have it on the Druids so far, and it took me like 12 hours, and I did not enjoy the process

I could have made this exact post, as I have the same exact teams..only difference is my 4 of my shaman are only 100. I plan to level them to 120 before the expac ( maybe during the pre-patch ) I also I have one rogue and one monk that i boosted to 120 to open my lockboxes. I plan to level them the same as you..all one class.

I have a team of warlocks at 100 as well.. not sure if i will level them..if there is a exp bonus thing during the pre-patch for expac.. i might level the locks and anything else im missing..ie priests..warriors and 4 more monks and rogues. We still have no idea what will be best comps..we can only awesome at this point.

I have only done the hivemind with my druids as well.. i kind of regret doing them first, the druids are the one team that gets the least out of it. I find when im questing or doing WQs I use insta-flight form more.. it comes in handy for PvP though. So, i plan to do the hivemind on all my teams at some point.

Now if we could get someone who is currently boxing in Alpha to start posting updates!

[z0k]

With the balance changes coming I think a boomkin trinity or 4x boomy is going to feel awkward. The current system lends itself well to boxing, but with old school eclipse coming back I just don’t see how it will be manageable, but I will admit it’s really too early to really tell. I’m planning on raiding moonkin/resto and I’ve historically not liked raiding and multi boxing the same classes.

I’m really hoping to play DKs/Paladins still. I’m really hopeful for 2H frost making a strong come back. Hunter trinity will remain strong. Might look to incorporate a 5x Paladin team. I’d really like to see a caster trinity do well or even be remotely viable.

[Andreauk]

With the balance changes coming I think a boomkin trinity or 4x boomy is going to feel awkward. The current system lends itself well to boxing, but with old school eclipse coming back I just don’t see how it will be manageable, but I will admit it’s really too early to really tell. I’m planning on raiding moonkin/resto and I’ve historically not liked raiding and multi boxing the same classes.

I have a bear and x4 Boomkins and really wanted to main the team in Shadowlands. Here is some Balance footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7EdKFYaUM

They look weak :(

[z0k]

I have a bear and x4 Boomkins and really wanted to main the team in Shadowlands. Here is some Balance footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7EdKFYaUM

They look weak :(

it’s really not about how strong or weak they are it’s really that eclipse is hard to manage and will have a high skill floor making it not ideal to box

[Purpleflavor]

it’s really not about how strong or weak they are it’s really that eclipse is hard to manage and will have a high skill floor making it not ideal to box

Eclipse is easy to box right now, the stacks make it safe to macro, did something change about eclipse in SL?

[z0k]

Eclipse is easy to box right now, the stacks make it safe to macro, did something change about eclipse in SL?


Yes, they've changed Eclipse virtually every expansion. Empowerments are gone, Eclipse is a slider again. There are a few things that may make or break this from a boxing perspective.

1.) Each Eclipse has a 30 second ICD
2.) You must enter each Eclipse back and forth
3.) It's not as RNG as before (it used to be based upon your character's having a crit)

[Purpleflavor]

Yes, they've changed Eclipse virtually every expansion. Empowerments are gone, Eclipse is a slider again. There are a few things that may make or break this from a boxing perspective.

1.) Each Eclipse has a 30 second ICD
2.) You must enter each Eclipse back and forth
3.) It's not as RNG as before (it used to be based upon your character's having a crit)

ug, sad news. not worth the performance loss. Empowerment stacks were perfect. Why would they go back to something the entire boomkin community hated?

[Purpleflavor]

looked into it more and eclipse looks manageable so that's good to see.

[Ellay]

I clipped a video during my stream on my thoughts for Druids in Shadowlands... I didn't want to type it all out because I want it to stay the course and go as is, needless to say I'm hyped.
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[Wubsie]

Ye I saw the video and through it the changes they made to the eclipse mechanic. This iteration seems absolutely fine to control and if you were to be running just 5x boomkins, there is fairly little in terms of RNG and it's basically fully under your control. In a mixed team there's a little bit of min maxing to be done with getting starsurges to be used effectively, but you should get close enough by macroing, or having them on a separate bind.

I pretty much shelved my boomies since the ol' WoTLK eclipse they had before wasn't really appealing to me, but this is pretty nice. I might have to reconsider them as a team.

[daviddoran]

I'm excited about boomies. I had shelved mine some time during pandaria, because of Eclipse. I've done up to a +2 mythic so far, and they are a very versatile team. They seem to be one of the boxing go to teams for shadowlands.

[Lyonheart]

I clipped a video during my stream on my thoughts for Druids in Shadowlands... I didn't want to type it all out because I want it to stay the course and go as is, needless to say I'm hyped.

Good points! Can't wait! I love my druids!

[Lyonheart]

Got a beta invite and activated one of my old bnets to see if i can get a beta on that one (I should have done that few weeks ago ).. should there be a new thread or change the title to beta


Is anyone multiboxing beta atm?

[Feint90]

Unless I am missing something, the boomkin changes look manageable. The only hard part is maintaining your rotation order when you have to move, not jumping ahead and managing your rotation when using Celestial Alignment as this will probably be different then your normal rotation due to double dipping your eclipse.

Otherwise it looks to be rather static:
cast 3x wrath/starfire followed by 10 seconds of the opposite based on your cast speed, weaving in starsurges in between every cast and then you reverse with the other variation.

Cast speed won't change very often so you shouldn't lose a lot of dps when it does for the minor periods like bloodlust. The moving part can hopefully be solved with the changes to starfall.

In the current iteration there are windows of lower dps because starsurge did not go off because of AP and you ran out of stacks while potentially having stacks of the other one.

Ofcourse this is all theory. Hope we get a boxer in the beta who can test how this works with multiple druids and or mixed teams.

[mrdsp]

I've got 3x teams - will only be taking one into SL, not sure yet. I don't really play much PvE so will be 100% dependent on how things look in pre-patch for me.

Choice is;

2x Pally 2x Monk 6x DK

10x DH

10x Druid

In reserve got 10x Warlocks and 10x Hunters but they're sitting at 110 so would be extra work.

Any stronger looking classes for wPvP coming out the early stuff?