Ranged DPS composition

I'm currently running a team with a Prot pally, a resto shaman, a arcane mage and 2 elemental shaman. The elemental shaman are lacking in DPS, besides I'd really like to have a more diverse group. So I'm thinking of taking 2 RAF accounts, and use them to boost 4 new characters.

The plan is to have 2 of my current accounts recruit 2 new accounts, that way I can use one of my other existing accounts to boost 4 RAF'ed accounts, then when I'm finished I move the characters from the RAF accounts to two of my other existing accounts.

At present I'm thinking of boosting 4 additional mages, just so I can have a team of 5 mages (I like to do old raids with some of my friends, and most of the time we don't need a tank and/or healer). But my question is, what ranged DPS classes would be good replacements for my two elemental shaman for PVE?

My survival hunter is amazing. Super easy to manage and great DPS. I highly recommend Hunter!

Shad priest + warlock would probably be my choice. I like the synergy of an all caster team.

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Originally Posted by Chivalrous

My survival hunter is amazing. Super easy to manage and great DPS. I highly recommend Hunter!

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I was thinking of a hunter. Easy to manage is definitely something I like :].

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Originally Posted by luxlunae

Shad priest + warlock would probably be my choice. I like the synergy of an all caster team.

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Are shadow priests manageable? I got the impression that shadow is kind of hard to optimize.

On my Hunter I set up a few macros in a two step with isboxer that hits several buttons at once.

starts with /castsequence reset=target Serpent Sting, null


then, it fires off black arrow, explosive shot, and another macro with blink strike, glaive toss, and dire beast. Then I do..

/castsequence reset=combat/2 Arcane shot, Arcane shot, null. (Cuz you don't want to dump all your focus, just make sure it isn't full.)

and I have cobra shot last, meaning if it can't do anything else it'll fire that to build focus. At the end and start I have kill shot, it should fire that if available. My hunter has 484 ilvl and does around 80k ST DPS in 5 mans with my group. It helps ALOT.

Elemental shamans are one of the best specs at the moment for dungeons. Incredible ascendance cooldown that is up for pretty much every boss, chain lightning that is incredibly powerful vs trash, and stormlash totem as a raid wide dps increase. On top of that the off healing with ancestral guidance is really good.

In raids ele shaman is currently one of (actually the) weakest spec when you take all available parses into account, but dungeons are almost tailor made for ele, even with bad gear).

Not sure what level you currently are, but at max level you really shouldn't have issues with your eles unless you are doing something wrong.

Currently level 86. In dungeons my Arcane mage does about 15k to 20k DPS, the elemental shaman cap out at about 10k to 12k dps (without popping CDs). I tried tuning the shaman DPS output, but I can't really get it any higher.

I'm running a paladin thats mainly holy, but sometimes tanks, shadow priest, and a Survival hunter. While my hunter is on a 1 button spam the priest is a tiny bit more complicated.. she has an 2 action bar swap macro for trash and another for bosses (still 1 button spam) with Shadow word: death on a single button with my hunters kill shot. I also have a diff button for aoe. Don't forget to pick up the glyph of Marked for death which auto applies hunter's mark now.

Hunter:

Code:

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/assist (your mains name here)
/castsequence reset=target Serpent Sting,null
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,0,A Murder of Crows
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Glaive Toss
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Dire Beast
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,Black Arrow
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,Explosive Shot
/castsequence reset=5 Arcane Shot,Cobra Shot
/cast [combat] Rapid Fire
/use [combat] 13
/use [combat] 14
/startattack

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Priest:

Taken from http://wowlazymacros.com/

What I am using now and sticking with. Talented into Mindbender, Halo and Divine Insight. Glyphs are Inner Fire, Renew and Dark Binding.

Hotbar 1 – usage = soloing and dungeons. Switch to this set when mob health in raids is below 20% health.

Code:

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/cast [noform] !Shadowform
/castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay
/castsequence Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Devouring Plague
/use [combat]14
/swapactionbar 1 2
/targetenemy [noharm]

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Hotbar 2 – same key as you put in hotbar 1.

Code:

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/cast [noform] !Shadowform
/castsequence reset=0.3 1,Mindbender
/castsequence reset=0.3 Shadow Word: Death
/use [combat]14
/swapactionbar 1 2
/targetenemy [noharm]

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Second set Hotbar 1 – usage = all raiding till any mob is at 20% health then switch to the above macro set. Because the main /castsequence is exactly the same switching does not lose your place in the rotation. Never use this soloing and it’s very situational if you use this in dungeons.

Code:

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/cast [noform] !Shadowform
/castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target Shadow Word: Pain,Vampiric Touch,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay,Mind Flay
/castsequence Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Mind Blast,Devouring Plague
/cast Mindbender
/use [combat]14
/swapactionbar 1 2
/targetenemy [noharm]

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Hotbar 2 – same key as you put the above.

Code:

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/cast [noform] !Shadowform
/castsequence reset=0.3 1,Halo
/castsequence reset=0.3 Mindbender
/use [combat]14
/swapactionbar 1 2
/targetenemy [noharm]

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Now i'm only using my team for scenarios and dailies, but will take them LFR individually.. item lvl is 451 and they both can do anything around 40k on scenario bosses.. they do need a lot of gear though.

I heal some scenarios, while other times like the Klaxxi style scenario hunter pet tanks boss while I pick up adds until the bomb thing is ready. I have been able to box all of the scenarios.

I have this for the priest on 1 button:

Code:

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/target (your main here)
/castsequence [target=targettarget] Power Word: Shield, renew, prayer of mending, renew, power word: shield

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With the priest glyph of dark binding it won't take you out of shadow form to pop the shield, and heals on.

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Originally Posted by Blubber

Currently level 86. In dungeons my Arcane mage does about 15k to 20k DPS, the elemental shaman cap out at about 10k to 12k dps (without popping CDs). I tried tuning the shaman DPS output, but I can't really get it any higher.

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At 87 you get ascendance ... 15 seconds of lava burst spam. One of the best spells in the game! Do me a favor and level to 87, then decide if you still like your shamans or not.

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Originally Posted by zenga

At 87 you get ascendance ... 15 seconds of lava burst spam. One of the best spells in the game! Do me a favor and level to 87, then decide if you still like your shamans or not.

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The plan was to get this team to 90, it's more of a long-term issue :].

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Originally Posted by Blubber

The plan was to get this team to 90, it's more of a long-term issue :].

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That doesn't make sense. You judge a specs dps at lvl 86 and draw conclusions, when you have not learned your hardest hitting spell/cooldown yet. Not to mention that the scaling value at lvl 86 is totally different than at lvl 90. It makes as much sense as if a warrior would complain at lvl 19 that he can't AOE tank and thus rerolls, while at lvl 20 he learns thunderclap. By all means level what you want and reroll as many times as you want, but don't draw conclusions based on bogus data, it helps nobody.

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Originally Posted by zenga

That doesn't make sense. You judge a specs dps at lvl 86 and draw conclusions, when you have not learned your hardest hitting spell/cooldown yet.

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I agree that the DPS is a bad way to look at it, especially at lower then max level. I probably should've phrased the OP differently. The point is, I would like to have a more diverse group (as noted in the OP), and am looking for advice on which classes to pick.

I'm not drawing conclusions on any bogus data, the data is real, it's just irrelevant, no reason to get so worked up about.

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Originally Posted by Blubber

I agree that the DPS is a bad way to look at it, especially at lower then max level. I probably should've phrased the OP differently. The point is, I would like to have a more diverse group (as noted in the OP), and am looking for advice on which classes to pick.

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That's the point I was trying to make: a diverse group is a genuine reason. Hell, even if you had a dumb reason it is still up to you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blubber

I'm not drawing conclusions on any bogus data, the data is real, it's just irrelevant, no reason to get so worked up about.

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Correct, irrelevant is a better way to describe it. Just wanted to make sure that you were not going to go through the trouble of re-levelling while 1 level later you 'd notice a massive improvement in their dps. Might come accross like that, but was far from worked up, just wanted to help you (since I happen to know a thing or 2 about ele shamans).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zenga

Correct, irrelevant is a better way to describe it. Just wanted to make sure that you were not going to go through the trouble of re-levelling while 1 level later you 'd notice a massive improvement in their dps. Might come accross like that, but was far from worked up, just wanted to help you (since I happen to know a thing or 2 about ele shamans).

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My wording was less then perfect, anyway, thanks for the advice :).