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I'm trying to do all my research up front, and wanted to draw on the collective experience from these boards.
If one were to 5 box a holy trinity (Tank, Healer, DPS x 3) primarily for PvE what would be the recommended role to play as your main?
Essentially through which roles "eyes" have you found things easiest to manage?
I'm leaning towards he Healer, but am also considering the Tank.
Regards.
Yeah, gotta play the tank as brain/main.
The tank because you want precise control over it. The tank has to be the one to run in and do pulls. The healer can be facing any direction or whatever as long as it's in range. Just hit your healing buttons and the healer is doing what it needs. The tank is the only character whose precise movements and spell timings really matter a lot on every pull.
It's just theory at this point, which is why I'm asking :-)
but my thought was, healer at the back, so I have a good view. from his screen I can also quickly target to , I would have
Bar 1 - Healing abilities: Shield, Renew, Flash heal, etc
Bar 2 - Warrior abilities: taunt, MS, cleave, etc...
Bar 3 - links Range DPS: Fireball, Fireblast, Arcane Explosion, etc..
the biggest challened I think would be moving the Warrior, but I could bind the up down left right keys to move him, so I would be watching him move from my healers point of view. this would only really be necessary during a pull if I lost agro with the Warrior.
by playing the healer as main I would be able to quickly target and heal, while the Warrior/dps never lose their targets.
Again, all in theory. my other thought is just a 5 man all Shadow Priest Vampiric bloodbath, but I don't think I could ever do a Heroic without a real tank.
Tank for sure.
Think of it this way -- healing is EASY as long as you have a good tank. DPSing is EASY as long as you have a good tank.
Rarely is there massive group damage in a 5-man. Every now and then, but not often. On my healer I just have a spam button to heal the tank, and specific buttons to heal each DPS/healer. If the tank is doing their job, I shouldn't have to heal anyone else. I don't even have to face a certain direction as a healer -- but if my tank turns its back (i.e. can't block) to that boss, she could get crushed.
When mistakes happen, a clutch taunt can save the day. I know people always say "clutch heal", but those clutch heals are really only delaying the inevitable (death). If the tank doesn't rush over in time to pick the add back up after said clutch heal, you're likely still going to die -- or worse, that "clutch heal" puts aggro on your healer.
When I'm pugging a 5-man, the absolute #1 thing I look for is a competent tank. The tank's TPS sets the pace for the DPSers, the tank's mitigation sets the pace for the healer, the tank's situational awareness mitigates mistakes. I would rather take a retarded healer and an uber tank than a uber healer and a retarded tank -- in the latter case, it doesn't matter if the healer is uber if the tank can't hold aggro off of the uberhealer's heals.
In raids, tanks get their ego complex because they make or break the raid. A bad tank will ensure slow progression. I've had an experience with a tank *cough cough* that had such bad situational awareness that it was the HEALER's job to tell him where to walk to pick up his adds. The healer's vent conversations go something like this: "Left side! Left side! Your OTHER left side! Ok, get out of the middle. GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE. You better dodge or do something. This is going to hurt. STOP DPS HE DOESN'T HAVE THREAT YET."
This is why I lead with my tank.
Strangely enough, one of my dps'ers is my "main." Since that toon is always the one who I'd level others with, or run solo with (way back when) I got used to controlling her.
In instances I stop the party and move the tank up separately to the pull position, and proceed to hit my "main action button."
On the pally tank it uses trinkets, and does a /castsequence for consecration, holy shield, judgement, and seal of righteousness.
On the dpsers it uses trinkets and /castsequence whatever main attacks (for hunter, elemental shaman and arcane mage).
On the resto druid it uses trinkets and /castsequence reset=13 rejuvenation,lifebloom,,,lifebloom,,,lifebloom,,,l ifebloom,,,lifebloom (I might have a few more commas in there, I tend to spam the button a lot, those prevent some errors about spell not ready or such.)
When I hit a different button to change to a new mob it does Seal of Wisdom on the tank, sends pet in, and does main attacks for the others.
I've debated changing the main to the tank, but that's caused problems in the past for me when I'm not instancing.
Tank should always be your main because he/she is the one that has to run and grab aggro if someone pulls off you, got to have that control to pull it back and stop your dps. If your tank sucks or is under geared you will wipe and fail. Do some googleing for warrior tank gear or pali tank gear and you'll find some great sites and tips.
Also many bosses require you to face the boss another direction or move the boss around to prevent from wiping party. You can't do this without making the tank your main. If you do not want to play a tank, just grab one from the pug system and run instants as DPS team.
I'm running (1) Pali and (3) Shamans leveling right now and it's all about the tank. :)
Considering yer tanks a warrior I would say yer main "eyes" gonna be that warrior.
main reason being that once yeh get more then 4+ targets it gets more difficult keeping aggro, gotta tab/sunder thru em all every once in awhile to keep aggro off the healer.
Besides that its easy to macro heal/dps, the hard parts keeping aggro on the warrior.
Thanks for the great feedback. After reading over your comments and then actually getting in there and trying the 5box set up, I agree I was mistaken in my initial assessment. playing the Tank as the main is definitely easier.
For whats its worth, Do you guys have any input a 5 man Druid team for PvE/PvP, vs 5shaman, or simply a Warrior/Priest/3 range DPS set up?
I know the multi classes will be harder to set up and controle, so I'm leaning towards 5 of the same.
I like the idea of 5 Druids since you can stealth, Tank, Heal, Range DPS, and I feel like the Multi shaman is over done.
however, not being able to wipe recover is a downside. Any thoughts on the pros and cons?
"Overdone" = Overpowered. :) It's popular for a reason my friend!
Yes, it is overpowered. but I feel like I'm always late to jump on the bandwagon and as soon as I do, things get hit with the big pink nurf bat...
Does it look like blizzard is making any sweeping changes to Shaman abilities in WotLK? I have not seen anything, but until now I haven't been looking.
Yes. I believe Heroism/Bloodlust will have a debuff so you cannot chain them. And totems will not stack. I haven't been keeping up with the daily changes, and I no longer play a shaman so I haven't paid super close attention to those changes. I'm certain someone else will have more detail!