Pally / Boomkin / 3 Sham : possible replacements ?

Hi all,

I am currently leveling my first team to 80. I have to admit, so far, so good. I have done a couple of instances in Outland on my way to 70 and I find the team (1 Prot pally / 1 boomkin / 1 resto sham / 2 ele sham) quite convincing.

I was wondering however whether there could be some interesting alternatives to it. In particular, I was wondering :

What alternatives to a resto chaman

I was thinking in particular of a priest. The stam buff would be nice, but I don't know if the healing mechanisms of a priest are more or less useful than those of a shaman for a MB group. Also, given the cloth armor, isn't a priest too fragile compared to the shammy's mail armor ?

What would be a good alternative to an ele chaman as a DPS

Once again, I know I would lose some useful totem buffs, and the DPS is quite good. I was wondering if I would get in exchange something nice from either a mage / hunter / warlock. My first thoughts would be :

• mage : nice things like water/food and portals (nice but I'd say I can do without, I prefer to maximize in combat capabilities). Good stuff is a real CC, and some strong DPS (arcane I heard would be best ?)
• Hunter : apart from DPS, could bring aura (if marksman) and somehow an offtank (don't know if it's really manageable)
• Warlock : soul is nice, DPS, and teleport as an extra ? (I have never really gotten too deep with lock mechanisms, do feel free to add your experience)

I just don't know if any of those listed skills compensate for the totem losses (plus some bonuses like healing / rez)

As for using a DK over a Pally, I have tried and I thought the pally brings more survivability to the team and I feel more comfortable with it.

One last precision : I have read carefully these forums over the last months. I know there is no manichean answer to these questions. and it's not a case of which class is better. I'd just like to read the thoughts of others who have certainly thoughts about the pros & cons of classes described above so I can understand on what basis they would chose one heal / DPS class over another.

Thanks fo reading it up to this point... and have a very nice day / evening depending on your time zone!

Cheers
Nyth

DK tanks are superior to paladin tanks in most situations, the only ones where pallies are better are upfront threat and ones where you have to cleanse magic effects. I have a 4/5 T7.5 pally tank (31k hp unbuffed) and I am leveling a DK tank in my offtime, they are really a lot better at 80. if you aren't close to 80 yet I highly recommend considering replacing the pally with a DK - I wish I had leveled a DK to 80 instead of my pally. Of course I've stopped playing pretty much so doesn't really matter :)

I cleared all the heroics weeks ago (except for oculus, hate that mount crap lol) with a pally tank, mage, 2 ele shamans, and a resto shaman. Most combos work great. Since patch 3.08 I'd say the absolute best combo is a DK tank and 4 ele shamans or a DK tank, mage (for food/portals/int) or priest (fort/healing), and 3 ele shamans. You can spec one ele as resto when you start out, but after gearing up a bit all can be ele without much of a hiccup. If you run a pally tank you are going to want a healer more than as a DK.

of course patch 3.1 is bringing a lot of changes to classes, and not all of them are defined yet. DKs are maybe getting nerfed a bit. Prot pallies seem to be getting nerfed slightly, but its unclear. We don't know whats going to happen with mana/heal totems, they are a huge reason why taking 3-4 ele shamans is so powerful - healing stream totem stacking is uber powerful. This is all for PVE btw, for PVP/arena I have no idea what is great.

Of course there aren't any new 5 mans in patch 3.1, only the new ulduar raid, so at this point not really sure it matters anymore. Any class combo can clear every single heroic right now, and its just going to get easier in 3.1 with higher levels of gear available.

I'm currently leveling a multiclass team designed around maximum buffs, using pally tank, priest healer, and shaman mage and boomkin for dps.
For playing a single character, arcane may be the better dps spec, but for boxing purposes i find that the spec that allows to do almost optimal dps simply spamming frostbolt is the easiest to manage.

This is just what i'm doing though.
But if you decide to bring a mage you will probably want to make it frostbolt spam spec, avoiding the need to monitor any procs.

If DPS is what you want, use a boomkin or mage. Healing I think you should stick with a shaman. If that doesnt float your boat, then use the priest. Druids are pretty darn good too.