Best WotlK Heroics class choices for 5 box

[altruismsociety]

Hey I've seen you guys before in BGs all the time, but never knew what it was. I want to do it now as well. I want to be able to solo content at 80 up to 5 man heroics. Thanks.

[altruismsociety]

Would 5 Pallies work now because of the Ret buffs? 3 Ret, 1 tank 1 holy or 2 Ret 2 Holy 1 Tank

[altruismsociety]

Um, did I say something wrong? Hehe

[altruismsociety]

I was thinking of being able to just pvp at 60 bracket as well, and thoughts for that also waht server and side (Alliance/Horde) has constant AV battles at 60.

[Fuzzyboy]

Search is your friend. And the wiki too. Since I'm still in the process of my morning ritual (coffee drinking pre-exam studying which starts in exactly 10 mins), I'll indulge you and rant a bit about group composition.

For heroics you want tank + healer + dps. The heroics in wotlk are easy enough to allow you not to have the perfect group composition, which means that you can go with any tank/healer/dps combination.

Tank choices: Paladin, druid, warrior, death knight. Parameters you should consider are a) micromanagability and b) buffs/debuffs. I like paladins, because they are easy to manage (allowing you more attention on the rest of your team) and because many classes benefit from their buffs. Also, paladins supply resistance auras which complement those of shamans/hunters. Druids have gotw which is nice also, warriors have a hp-buff and death knights have decent buffs depending on talent choice although one in particular deserves mention, which is ebon plague. Ebon plague is a spelldamage-taken debuff, which is very nice for caster-heavy teams. Balance druids can supply it too, but if you plan to go the shaman-route, you'll need 3 different classes instead of 2 (ie. pala/3shaman/druid instead of dk/4shaman), which is fine, but harder to control as a newcomer.

DPS: This is a matter of preference. I've so far played a 5-shaman team, a paladin/druid/3shaman team and I'm now levelling 3 hunters to play paladin/shaman/3hunters. The easiest heroic team to play is probably dk/4shaman, since you only have two different classes, and while shaman dps is low at the moment, it's still high enough to do heroics and will recieve a significant buff with 3.0.8. Anyway, if you're willing to eat the learning curve, any choice of ranged dps is fine. From a practical perspective, you might want to consider the classes that are more macro-friendly. Balance druid and hunters fit into this category, possibly mages too. Shaman require a 2-button setup (applying flame shock manually and then a /cast lava burst /cast chain lightning/lightning bolt macro), which imo gets old, but that's a matter of personal preference. In conclusion, pretty much any ranged-dps combination will do. Melee dps is doable too, but a LOT harder to manage, I wouldn't recommend this for a newcomer.

Healer choices: The choice of healer really depends on your dps-team. If you don't have a shaman in your dps team, you should have one as a healer, if nothing else then for the tremor totem. Without tremor, a lot of heroic instances will be harder. Also, shaman are decent buffers (although you have to plonk down the damn totems every friggin encounter). If you have a shaman in your dps team, the choice is free. I'd advice against paladin healers, since they lack severely in the AE department, but other than that druid/priest/shaman are all good and provide their own nice buffs.

In conclusion it's a matter of preference. The most common setups at the moment seem to be: DK + 4 shaman, paladin + druid + 3 shaman and paladin + 4 shaman. Personally I'm going with paladin + shaman + 3 hunters and I've seen some 5-class teams around too, such as warrior + priest + mage + warlock + random. For a newcomer, I'd recommend DK + 4 shaman, but go with whatever fits your taste, just keep in mind that some combination have steeper learning curves than others, but all I've mentioned here can farm heroics just fine.

[Fuzzyboy]

P.S.: http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Classes

[altruismsociety]

Are Shaman just not able to tank Heroics very well in WotlK? So no chance of a sucessful 5 shammy group? I ahve read and searched but people personal experiences are great as well. I'll be leveling all 5 from lvl 1, hehe.

[Ualaa]

Fire and Earth Elementals are still the level 70 versions, there is not a level 80 elemental. Basically, they're dead in heroics before the first heal lands on them. Basically you'd be stuck kiting, as an all shaman team without any tanks. Not sure if heroics are doable like that or not. I'd guess, they will eventually be doable, as your gear gets to a point where the instance is trivial, but the trinity of tank + heals + 3x dps will be far superior for heroics.

As far as taking the same toons to PvP, once dual specs are brought in, the druid might be the best tank as they can switch to their boomkin spec for pvp fun. Most tanking/melee types won't be a strong option in BG's, at least compared to running with 5x ranged dps casters.

[altruismsociety]

Wow I didn't know the eles were stuck at lvl 70, wow that's gimped. Hmmm.

[Fuzzyboy]

Wow I didn't know the eles were stuck at lvl 70, wow that's gimped. Hmmm.

It will be fixed sooner or later, which may or may not make 5-shaman teams more viable, but they won't be on par with tank/healer/dps teams. If farmning heroics is your goal, holy trinity is the way to do it.