Just put together a new melee group, couple questions

[Ualaa]

While you don't have to be behind, to use a Mutilate.

If you can arrange to be behind, you'll land a lot more hits where the mob does not dodge, parry or block.
And you'll eat no ripostes.
Most mobs also have nastier abilities in the frontal cone, which is why tanks turn them from the raid.
Being behind means you don't take these types of attacks either.

With Mutilate, if you cannot get behind, you can still land your blows fine.
But if you can get behind the mob, it is an immense advantage.
That goes for all melee classes, using daggers, maces, claws or polearms.

[Multibocks]

While you don't have to be behind, to use a Mutilate.

If you can arrange to be behind, you'll land a lot more hits where the mob does not dodge, parry or block.
And you'll eat no ripostes.
Most mobs also have nastier abilities in the frontal cone, which is why tanks turn them from the raid.
Being behind means you don't take these types of attacks either.

With Mutilate, if you cannot get behind, you can still land your blows fine.
But if you can get behind the mob, it is an immense advantage.
That goes for all melee classes, using daggers, maces, claws or polearms.

Haha Ualaa I just had to point this one out. You must be an old Everquest player as ripostes don't exist in WoW, which I'm sure you know.

[Frausty]

Haha Ualaa I just had to point this one out. You must be an old Everquest player as ripostes don't exist in WoW, which I'm sure you know.

Parry's in WOW are all effectively riposte's - when you parry an attack it reduces your swing timer on your MH weapon by 40%, leading to a faster attack back. Thus, if you have 5 guys meleeing a target and that target is capable of parrying you will be eating extra dmg from his faster attacks after parries, effectively a riposte, thus the reason expertise is such a useful tank stat.

Also, rogues have an 11 point combat skill called riposte that becomes available only after parrying an attack -

I played eq too btw, and while I love wow, nothing will ever replace my joy in casting ice comet for the first time... ah that was epic.

As far as the fellow who was trying fury dps without berserker stance and whirlwind --

Whirlwind for a fury warrior hits 4 targets for mh and oh weapon dmg (8 hits) every 8 seconds, so its a pretty incredibly huge deal

As far as buffing the melee group goes though, I think arms buffs that increase physical dmg for you will be better in the long run as a fury warriors rampage doesn't stack with the feral druids superior leader of the pack effect.

Grand Marshal Frausty
80 Gnome Berserker