5 Man PVP - Healer Worth It?

[Meshuggenah]

Have you considered using a Shaman as a healer, then?

If you're really OK with no TT's, then I'd suggest a full priest group. That's what I'd be rolling I wasn't concerned about fear. 4Priests+Mage or simply 5Priests. Some people might say a Warlock over a Mage as the 5th, but I personally think Mage sync's much better.

Priests at least have FearWard. And an impressive amount of DoT's, instant party heals, single burst and a ranged AoE.

[Meshuggenah]

Aoe fear classes look for groups of characters. A multiboxer falls in to that category so it may feel like you are being targetted. However if you weren't around I can bet they are rushing in to other groups of the enemy and aoe fearing.

I think you're underestimating how much people dislike Multiboxers. Especially after you've killed them a few times. I frequently have individual characters stalk me in BG's just to disrupt my group. Fearing, sapping one of my shamans when I'm trying to move between points or defend something. Frequently they won't even attack. They're just either annoyed because they died, or dislike multiboxing and want to do everything they can to irritate you.

Occasionally, which is worse, it's an organized group and they will assign one of these classes specifically to follow you around and prevent you from contributing.. which, without a reliable way to break fear (even single fear), isn't hard. Doesn't happen much in zerg's like AV/WG, but in BG10's all it takes is a single Rogue/Lock to keep a multiboxer occupied and turn it into a 9v5 BG. Granted, TT has no effect on Rogues, but you can't really compare trinket or WoTF to TremorTotem in those situations.

[jddc78]

Have you considered using a Shaman as a healer, then?

I LOVE resto shamans as healers in my PvE groups, but they would not be very good for this group. The issue comes back to mobility. I don't want to stop with this group ... ever if I can get away with it. My mobility is my biggest asset. Any time I stop I'll be increasing the odds that I can get feared, stunned, sapped, AoEed, etc. All are considerably easier to pull off on a stationary target or targets. This is why I chose locks are my primary DPS - they do not need to face the target to do considerable dmg. I can start running and never stop - as long as I can keep my group from getting CCed of course . Your suggestion of all priests could be a cool group to run as well. I could see that also being a very mobile group.

The only 2 healers I really considered for this group are the druid or the priest because I need them to keep moving with the group while they heal. While not all of their healing abilities are possible while moving, they can load a target up with HoTs and the priest can do the same as well as shield. That selection was probably a tossup.

[heyaz]

It's definitely nice to carry a healer along, I mostly leveled my priest just for that. I've found the paladin to be kinda worthless - can't cast and run, no good aoe heals. I would run a druid (for wild growth and hots) or a priest (circle of healing, holy nova, prayer of mending, etc.) and just set up some decent healing macros. They obviously won't function as well as a real person playing the healer, but it definitely makes a difference.

I'd definitely do the healer with all warlocks though, since you can't really heal yourself.

[shaeman]

I think you're underestimating how much people dislike Multiboxers. Especially after you've killed them a few times. I frequently have individual characters stalk me in BG's just to disrupt my group. Fearing, sapping one of my shamans when I'm trying to move between points or defend something. Frequently they won't even attack. They're just either annoyed because they died, or dislike multiboxing and want to do everything they can to irritate you.

Occasionally, which is worse, it's an organized group and they will assign one of these classes specifically to follow you around and prevent you from contributing.. which, without a reliable way to break fear (even single fear), isn't hard. Doesn't happen much in zerg's like AV/WG, but in BG10's all it takes is a single Rogue/Lock to keep a multiboxer occupied and turn it into a 9v5 BG. Granted, TT has no effect on Rogues, but you can't really compare trinket or WoTF to TremorTotem in those situations.

I know exactly how much folks like to focus on boxers - as i've already stated I levelled 95% from 66 - 80 in battlegrounds.
You seem to contradict yourself - in an earlier post you state that you get "stalked" by these AOE fear classes, but they soon give up when they realise your tremor totem makes you immune. Yet in this post you are saying that you can get locked down by a single rogue or a warlock. Something isn't adding up here.

To the original poster - i planned on 4 warlocks and a priest. Holy nova heals and damages. cast on the move and with a discipline priest can shield.

[Multibocks]

I dont like having a healer in my groups. Yes it sucks when your group gets split up, but by far your healer will be the first target to go down. I had a 4 Dk 1 druid group and the druid was dead 90% of the time. Whats the point of a healer to res someone when that someone is the healer. I advocate all of one class for that reason alone.

[jddc78]

I dont like having a healer in my groups. Yes it sucks when your group gets split up, but by far your healer will be the first target to go down. I had a 4 Dk 1 druid group and the druid was dead 90% of the time. Whats the point of a healer to res someone when that someone is the healer. I advocate all of one class for that reason alone.

Do you think this would still be a huge issue for a mobile ranged team? Would soulstones help out? I imagine early on I'm going to see a lot of dead toons till I can get my gear up to snuff either way. But by the middle/higher gear levels, if my healer is dead over half the time - then you're right. I'd be better off going with all the same toons.

[shaeman]

My gut feeling would be that with an incredibly mobile group such as the warlocks a healer running with them might fare better. I imagine DK's would want to be involved in a fight more, leading to more vulnerability for the healer.

Constant running into range, dotting everything up and running away again. Aoe fears and deathcoils to get rid of pursuers. I like the idea of a discipline priest as the healer though. Glyphed holy nova would heal your guys and damage anyone in range and it can apply a shield of some sort. The priest can pain suppress themselves too.
(and isnt there reflective shielding throwing damage back).

Also if you have one of the afflocks specced into curse of exhaustion you could make it harder for a lot of classes to catch up to you.

Then again the disc priest could also be turned into a shadow priest if the healing isn't working out.

[EaTCarbS]

I do BGs with 4 ele shaman and 1 resto druid, and its op =)

[Ualaa]

If you're going warlocks, I'd probably go with druids for the healing partners.
Either 3 locks and 2 druids or the reverse.

Druids give you Lifebloom and Rejuvenation as instant casts.
Regrowth as a fast casting HoT.
They can spec'd a fair ways into Balance for fun that way.
Insect Swarm and Moonfire as two dots for offense.
They add root, battlerez, normal rez, mark/thorns etc.

Three locks gets you a lot more offense.
Affliction - Corruption, Agony, Haunt, Unstable Affliction, Immolate.
Destruction - Corruption, Agony, Immolate, Conflagrate, Chaos Bolt, AoE stun.
Demon - Corruption, Agony, Immolate, Felguard, Immolation Aura etc.
Plus 2x Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Lifebloom.

Alternatively say 1x Disc, 1x Resto (Dru), 3x Warlocks.
Priest has SW: Pain and Devouring Plague, to match the Moonfire and Insect Swarm.
You get PW: Shield and Renew as instants instead of Rejuvenation and Lifebloom as instants.
Mass Dispel, Fear Ward, Shadow Protection, Fort/Spirit to go with Mark/Thorns.

Two locks probably gets you Affliction x2 or Affliction + Destruction.
Even two destruction would get you...
3x Moonfire, 3x Insect Swarm, 2x Corruption, 2x Agony... which is still 10 instant cast dots on 2 casts.
With UA from one of the locks, no one will want to decurse them off.



Starbuck Jones in another thread had a click sequence posted where his druids were automatically casting some hots on everyone and extra hots on the tank, as part of their dps click spam macro's.