5 Shaman Teams - PVE Progress

[Gallo]

I brought this up in another thread, but I wanted to consolidate this information (not many have responded). I want to get together all the 5 Shaman groups, since there are a lot of them (and a few up-and-coming) and tell us what your PVE progress in Outlands is. If you have any advice for 5 shaman PVE, lay it in this thread. If we get the responses, I'll update my post as a summary.

So far, the macro set up that I think is awesome for 5 shamans, is this:
Each shaman has 5 macros slots. 2 of the slots will cast healing wave on differing party members, and the other 3 cast lightning bolt on the focustarget. Arrange the macros so that each shaman will be healed by 2 other shaman. When taking major damage on one guy, hit the appropriate button and your guys will heal the one getting smacked and continue DPSing.

I'll give you mine:
- Ramparts (CLEARED @ 62)
- Blood Furnace (CLEARED @ 63)
- Slave Pens (CLEARED @ 64)

[bodefeld]

Ok here's my list. Sorry I don't exactly remember at what levels I did them. I'll post the most important strategic tips instead.

- Ramparts (split the dragon/dwarf fight, use grounding totems)
- Blood Furnace (before the last boss, continue to drop grounding totems to keep the last guy alive and busy until the debuff wears off)
- Slave Pens (earth elementals useful from this instance level on, focus the totems of the first boss, especially the healing totem)
- Mana Tombs (Max damage zerg)
- Sethekk Halls (last boss aggroes searing totems after AE, use them)
- Mechanar (second boss's adds also aggro fire elementals which are immune to their damage)
- Botanica (Max damage zerg, do not bother running out of LOS to prevent healing @ the second boss)
- Shattered Halls (Spread out and positioning is important for Bladefist, ignore second boss's aggro game and stay closely packed)
- Magister's Terrace (pretty tough overall, deal damage as fast as you can, focus on melees first, re-post grounding totems, use elementals for all bosses)
- Shadow Lab (Tremor totems for the first boss and minibosses, be quick on the second boss, ignore Murmur's debuff)
- Steamvault (nature resistance for first boss, the second boss can be zerged with fire elementals and CL, earth elementals for the last boss, ignore his enrage)

My healing setup is not all that sophisticated, Gallo. All characters will /stopcasting and start healing when I hit the respecitve button.
Type 1: lesser healing wave on focus
Type 2: chain heal, with toon1 targetting toon2, toon2 targetting toon3, and so on.
Type 3: lesser healing wave on focustarget

Since it's only lesser healing wave, the time loss for dealing damage is acceptable and the overall healing is sufficient for me.
Moreover, for tough fights where mana is not an issue, I set up five healing totems right after spelldamage was buffed by wrath of air and trinkets. The +heal scales into the totems for their entire lifetime, even after the trinket effects have worn off. Bug or not, I take advantage of that. So I get a passive healing of ~78 per tick times five.

[Gallo]

Great list, thanks for replying. Its good to know that pretty much any regular instance is doable. I wonder if it will be the same for WOTLK :)

[bodefeld]

Great list, thanks for replying. Its good to know that pretty much any regular instance is doable. I wonder if it will be the same for WOTLK :)I bet my rig on that. We're incoming @166% of the "designed" damage output , we have some 10k armor and many, many synergistic totems. I read a blue post a long time ago, stating something like "there are viable strategies off the beaten (holy trinity) path." We know, and they know. That always kept me confident.

A complete list of instances and strategies addressing the "5 shamans in PvE" issue is a nice thing to work on. However, I see the wiki more suitable for that in the long run. I'd like to see a subsection with doable heroics, too. Do you think we should give it a shot?

[Poolboy]

I am running a new 5x Spacegoat Shaman team. I am sorta burnt out on my original 5-Man pve focused team, it's really disorganized and requires far too much brain power at this point. Plus, the pvp side of things with said team is a dreaded nightmare. PvP is the main focus of this team in the end. I am fascinated with the recent topics on just how awesome a good pvp shaman team can clog up a BG with solid defense, caps etc. I need a piece of that =)

So, I rolled 5 shaman the other night and have been happily insta-gibbing quests along the way. Currently about to hit 20 tonight, get totem and head out to see the rest of the world.

All I can say so far is..... whoa. You people weren't kidding about the sheer (OVER)power of this setup. It's almost like cheating. At these low levels, 5x E-Shock flattens everything near my level. Instant Cast, dead, loot, cooldown between critters, repeat. Shock grinding can be a mana hog I've noticed, as has been stated by you Shaman gurus as well... but with good waters, and pretty much all cloth/caster gear from quest reward options I can't complain so far. I don't think I've used totems more than twice because the nukes finish everything so damn fast.

I know your thread here is focused on Outlands PvE Progress, but I hope to keep contributing here for the next couple weeks until I get there. In your experiences, was Azeroth content basically a joke with 5x Shaman? I'm not sure how much Instancing I'll attempt with this team (not gonna boost them at all), as so far I've had such awesome fun & success with a copy of the brian kopp guide, and I installed QuestHelper for the 1st time. Holy shit... why have I never used this addon before? It is absolutely GODLY! It honestly feels like cheating it's so powerful.

One question though ~
Being that I think I'll just 99% power-quest my way to 70 (60 for sure)... is it advised that I take most of the caster rewards along the way? Being Elementalx5, and seemingly able to squash most non-elite quest mobs easily I'm figuring I oughtta kit em out like Mages, no? Will work out nicely that way I think, since I'd probably fill in some gear gaps with Tailored gear from one of my higher levels. Would love to hear how others handled less than awesome non-caster gear on their elemental teams as they level thru old world.

As for being back on PvE Progress, I suppose this weekend I'll try to drag them through Deadmines at 20 for the quests/loot, and then try out Lakeshire/early Duskwood/Stockades even.

As a side note - I am a BIG fan of Boom's blog Twenty Totems, and I usually cant wait for his updates etc. He just looks like every minute spent ingame with his team is worth all of the hard work it took to get there. He must have a blast playing. I had considered rolling my team on AD just to be able to learn/shoot the shit with him but I figured it was better to end my unhealthy stalker man-crush right there. That, and I am a pussy when it comes to re-rolling. If I can't have full Runecloth Bags and at least 50g on each toon to start with I get a little crabby. Looting wolf runts for tattered vests and shit is soooo 2004. :thumbup:

[Gallo]

I was hoping to compile this list to in fact START a wiki page on it, since this group setup is fairly common in the community. I agree with you on the 166% damage... a lot of people are so surprised in my guild that I can solo instances without a tank. The only things that REMOTELY give me problems are the bosses, and those occasional pulls with 6+ elites (there was a pull in SP that had 7 of those elite crabs... was a bit tough).

I'll actually start a Wiki page sometime today, and add to it if people add to this post.

[Gallo]

Poolboy, definitely go 100% elemental, and get the caster based rewards (even cloth) until you hit Outlands. Outlands quest rewards actually have decent MAIL caster gear.

I boosted my team with a 70 mage to lvl 45 before attempting ZF by myself. ZF was fun to solo... and it wasn't all that hard. Just make sure that you have shield + 1h equipped in instances. Oh, and you haven't seen overpowered until you hit lvl 50 and get Totem of Wrath x 5.

[aetherg]

Nop, that's Shadow Labyrinth