swapping in a shaman

Before I make my transfer I would like some opinions. I have a team made up of

prot warrior
disc priest
destruction warlock
balance druid
arcane mage

I want to replace one of the dps with a shaman. I have a level 66 shaman that I have been leveling through AV to catch her up to level 71. In your opinion who should be replaced by her? I am thinking the warlock. But I not really sure. I do like the off tank that the warlock provides. My second choice would be the mage. But his utility cannot be matched. I believe a shaman must go in for me to succefully pull off heroics. Perhaps I can make the druid a tank spec and drop the warrior.

Your thoughts?

Drommon

In a very similar situation, I swapped the healer out for a shaman. I wouldn't have had replenishment without my lock. Boomkin is very hard to do without. If it were my team I might pick the mage to drop.

P.S. My warlock does a TON more damage than anyone else in my group.

Bear or GTFO, although I'm very biased to bears.

I'd swap the Balance druid for a shaman if you're set on warrior tanking. If you're not set on warrior tanking and don't mind gearing a bear, Go bear + shaman and axe the warrior.

I guess the easiest thing to do is to swap the tank for the shaman and make the druid a bear. I can bring the warrior in later if I have issues. It seems like a painless change and I still get to keep all the cool druid buff(s). All the other casters will still be there. I just realized, this is an all caster team. We will see how it goes.

Drommon

Yea no sense having a warrior there who doesn't give anything to the caster group.

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Originally Posted by Gurblash

Yea no sense having a warrior there who doesn't give anything to the caster group.

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If the characters are equally geared, I'd go warrior in a heartbeat. They're just more fun to play.

My paladin is always significantly more geared than my warrior - so the warrior always gets a back seat.

After some thought I don't want to give up my warrior. Right now I am leaning on the mage to go. He does piss poor dps compared to the boomkin and lock. I only kept him on for the free food ,mobility and CC. I really need the shaman for the totems. I have used the CC a lot though... gosh what a tough choice! Cant get rid of the lock, need the priest, want the warrior, need CC, it all seems like the druid needs to go.

I wish the answer was plain and simple.

Maybe I will just level my new team. Pally and shammys... No.

aaarg!

Drommon :)

Why do you *need* the shaman? Bloodlust / heroism? Totem of Wrath?

You can't play without a Shaman.

True Story.

Nah, fuck the shaman. I am transferring the team as is. The shaman adds a great deal to the party. I started with this team and i will see them through to the end. It's gonna be a tough ride though.

But if things get too difficult...

Drommon

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Originally Posted by Drommon

Nah, fuck the shaman. I am transferring the team as is. The shaman adds a great deal to the party. I started with this team and i will see them through to the end. It's gonna be a tough ride though.

But if things get too difficult...

Drommon

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Rofl. I am leveling my mixed team now with no Shaman but I have a 5x Shaman team at 80 already which will give me options. I am just genuinely curious about the impact of a Shaman as I saw a lot of LFG spam, while leveling my Shaman team, asking for elemental Shaman for heroics basically for Bloodlust. I know elemental shaman are not top of the DPSers but with their totem utility and Bloodlust how much of a DPS boost is the Shaman to the group?

I would actually love to see some comparisons of damage reports on bosses of the team without a shaman and then with the shaman.

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Originally Posted by thinus

Rofl. I am leveling my mixed team now with no Shaman but I have a 5x Shaman team at 80 already which will give me options. I am just genuinely curious about the impact of a Shaman as I saw a lot of LFG spam, while leveling my Shaman team, asking for elemental Shaman for heroics basically for Bloodlust. I know elemental shaman are not top of the DPSers but with their totem utility and Bloodlust how much of a DPS boost is the Shaman to the group?

I would actually love to see some comparisons of damage reports on bosses of the team without a shaman and then with the shaman.

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Me too. In fact it is hard to draw conclusions without doing some serious number crunching on a spread sheet.

But yeah, I agree with you.

It is my belief that the pally+shammy combo with any mix of other 3 toons can dominate better than a mixed team without either a pally or a shaman (or both).

Drommon

My mage is my worst geared toon in my heroic team, in my sig, and she does the most dps most of the time... Not sure why yours isnt pwning as much... I make sure to pop Icy Veins, along with all my other cooldowns every time they are up, and that alone is a huge dps boost. I really should get to putting my toons in my avatar with the nifty new feature, but i have those weird accents on the letters so its not that easy.

I used to run 2 locks and a mage for dps, but swapped out a lock for a shaman, and the totems and heroism add so much dps to my mage and lock, I dont know how id do without em. I'd get rid of the boomkin myself. Much easier to manage shaman dps than boomkin eclipse procs.

I have one group without a shaman and it's so nice not having to drop totems every time you move. I think having one is important for 10+ man raiding when a buff benefits a lot more but not for 5 mans.